1/ Earlier this yr I noticed everyone wanting @Shopify to build a marketplace. I get it, awareness for SMB brands is one of the biggest challenges.

But I thought to myself, Shopify is not a consumer company. A mktplace needs supply (which they have) and demand (which they don't)

2/ Consumers are not going to Shopify directly to search for products. Even if they consolidated all merchant product inventory into one mktplace, they would have a demand (aka consumer traffic) problem.

3/ Instead, I argued it would be wise for Shopify to partner with those that DO have the demand in order to fix the world of search and discovery and compete with Amazon once and for all, like partnering with Google, Facebook, and now Walmart: https://www.modernretail.co/platforms/how-the-walmart-shopify-alliance-helps-both-companies-win-against-amazon/

4/ The dichotomy of all this of course is suddenly there will be more cuts to the pie. It will require more advertising dollars to get top rankings. These partnerships r great but doesn'y replace the need to be great at marketing, owned media, and building up your own audience.

5/ Re: Shop app and their foray into consumer tech, yes it’s basic and far from being a great consumer app, but by doing this, they have reversed engineered the mktplace idea by leveraging an app already being used by consumers...

6/ Shopify is a B2B company at its core and time will tell whether they can build a truly great consumer experience with Shop (which, btw, few b2b companies pull off), but it’s a bold move and certainly better approach than launching a mktplace from scratch.