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But Shopify has no central search platform that I know of. The sites aren't connected to each other.

by sosuke 7y ago

swsieber 7y ago
That makes it all the more impressive.
bhouston 7y ago
I feel that is likely coming at some point - but who knows... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20411992 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20411992 Also with the recent postal changes in the US I think that will hurt AliExpress, Banggood and help Shopify and Amazon.
- Bombthecat 7y ago
  Aren't most drop ship sites on shopify? I feel like every few articles and blog is "be a drop shipper" with those three simple services..
  - bduerst 7y ago
    Drop shippers are on all e-commerce platforms, from the shopify 1-pagers to merchants on ebay and Amazon. It's saturated the entire market at this point.
- subpixel 7y ago
  They already did this, it didn't work, and it would be foolish to try again and join Amazon's race to the retail bottom. And there would almost certainly be no money in it until, you know, they beat Amazon at their own game. Pretty sure Shopify's head is screwed-on straighter than that.
pmart123 7y ago
I don’t think that’s their intention. By being the anti-amazon, it’s about having each store be it’s own brand, supplying the backend plumbing infrastructure instead.
Angostura 7y ago
Indeed. I suspect Wordpress is bigger
Mengkudulangsat 7y ago
A central search platform for Shopify stores... you mean Google?
- sosuke 7y ago
  Hah! I laugh but getting found in Google is incredibly difficult compared to say selling the same produce on Etsy.
HackR 7y ago
Why should they be connected to each other? Tesla.com is powered by Shopify. They sell all of their vehicles through their site since they don't deal with dealerships. Likewise Kylie Cosmetics is powered by Shopify. That's a billion dollar brand that's not going to be OK with being placed in a dusty corner of Amazon. They have enough brand value to drive their own audience through their own channels (Instagram, Snap, Twitter, etc).
- kevindong 7y ago
  > Tesla.com is powered by Shopify. They sell all of their vehicles through their site since they don't deal with dealerships. While this may have been true in the past, it is no longer the case. Neither the main Tesla store/website [0] nor the merchandise store (for t-shirts, assorted knick-knacks, some chargers; basically everything except the cars) [1] use Shopify. You can validate by going to those websites and Ctrl-F through all of the sources of the webpage for "shopify". The main Tesla website uses Salesforce (Ctrl-F through the sources for "salesforce"). [0]: https://www.tesla.com https://www.tesla.com (definitely Salesforce) [1]: https://shop.tesla.com https://shop.tesla.com (it appears that Tesla rolled their own implementation of a store)
  - HackR 7y ago
    Fair and thank you for that updated information (I knew they were using it as recent as 2017 but didn't know they had changed it), but it still goes to show the types of companies being built on the Shopify platform versus the drop-shipping flea market bins of Amazon. If you're building a real brand, you're building a relationship with your customers that you own. You're going to do it on your own terms because you can drive your own audience.

But Shopify has no central search platform that I know of. The sites aren't connected to each other.

by sosuke 7y ago

But Shopify has no central search platform that I know of. The sites aren't connected to each other.

swsieber 7y ago

That makes it all the more impressive.

bhouston 7y ago

I feel that is likely coming at some point - but who knows... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20411992 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20411992 Also with the recent postal changes in the US I think that will hurt AliExpress, Banggood and help Shopify and Amazon.

Bombthecat 7y ago
Aren't most drop ship sites on shopify? I feel like every few articles and blog is "be a drop shipper" with those three simple services..
- bduerst 7y ago
  Drop shippers are on all e-commerce platforms, from the shopify 1-pagers to merchants on ebay and Amazon. It's saturated the entire market at this point.
subpixel 7y ago
They already did this, it didn't work, and it would be foolish to try again and join Amazon's race to the retail bottom. And there would almost certainly be no money in it until, you know, they beat Amazon at their own game. Pretty sure Shopify's head is screwed-on straighter than that.

pmart123 7y ago

I don’t think that’s their intention. By being the anti-amazon, it’s about having each store be it’s own brand, supplying the backend plumbing infrastructure instead.

Angostura 7y ago

Indeed. I suspect Wordpress is bigger

Mengkudulangsat 7y ago

A central search platform for Shopify stores... you mean Google?

sosuke 7y ago
Hah! I laugh but getting found in Google is incredibly difficult compared to say selling the same produce on Etsy.

HackR 7y ago

Why should they be connected to each other? Tesla.com is powered by Shopify. They sell all of their vehicles through their site since they don't deal with dealerships. Likewise Kylie Cosmetics is powered by Shopify. That's a billion dollar brand that's not going to be OK with being placed in a dusty corner of Amazon. They have enough brand value to drive their own audience through their own channels (Instagram, Snap, Twitter, etc).

kevindong 7y ago
> Tesla.com is powered by Shopify. They sell all of their vehicles through their site since they don't deal with dealerships. While this may have been true in the past, it is no longer the case. Neither the main Tesla store/website [0] nor the merchandise store (for t-shirts, assorted knick-knacks, some chargers; basically everything except the cars) [1] use Shopify. You can validate by going to those websites and Ctrl-F through all of the sources of the webpage for "shopify". The main Tesla website uses Salesforce (Ctrl-F through the sources for "salesforce"). [0]: https://www.tesla.com https://www.tesla.com (definitely Salesforce) [1]: https://shop.tesla.com https://shop.tesla.com (it appears that Tesla rolled their own implementation of a store)
- HackR 7y ago
  Fair and thank you for that updated information (I knew they were using it as recent as 2017 but didn't know they had changed it), but it still goes to show the types of companies being built on the Shopify platform versus the drop-shipping flea market bins of Amazon. If you're building a real brand, you're building a relationship with your customers that you own. You're going to do it on your own terms because you can drive your own audience.