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With Shopify you don't pay ~20% sales commission to Amazon per se, but you sure as heck will end up paying for that if not more to Facebook. Where by FB has no

With Shopify you don't pay ~20% sales commission to Amazon per se, but you sure as heck will end up paying for that if not more to Facebook. Where by FB has no direct incentive, yet. It could be a FB Marketplace PM team someone has already copied Shopify outright and is just waiting for the right time to roll that out to all FB user worldwide. With Amazon Marketplace the strategy has always been to convert customers off that platform into your own. Most top listings in most niches/categories are priced for break even inclusive of the multitudes of keyword PPC campaigns they're running with the hope that you leave a review and that you actually pay attention to the little postcard that comes inside the package asking you to register your email address. Both games suck tbh.

partiallypro 6y ago
I think Shopify should experiment with a centralized market place where stores can opt in. If you opt in, your store items are listed in a central location searchable in at single point, just like Amazon. Your item listing in the central market place merely directs you to YOUR branded store, allowing you to check out, and see your other products. That solves a huge problem of visibility that Amazon has mastered.
- theturtletalks 6y ago
  Shopify already has sales channels that users can tap into like Amazon and eBay. If they themselves build a marketplace, I'm sure those channels will opt out.
- mlthoughts2018 6y ago
  I’m not sure it would be easy. Large hosting platforms like GoDaddy, Wix or Squarespace could try this too, but it puts you inherently at odds with your own customers. If I pay you to host my site where I sell my products, but you index me into the central sales portal in a bad way, I’ll be pissed. Kind of like restaurants on Seamless. It comes off as deep rent seeking - instead of helping me succeed, which is the real mission of most of these types of companies, you’re creating an artificially scarce resource (visibility within your central sales index) where now I have to pay you an arbitrary tax just to compete. Immediately makes customers want to leave.
  - partiallypro 6y ago
    But I propose it as opt-in. If you don't want in, you aren't. It would also be entirely free, Shopify makes money on the transactions, so there are no ads but they have incentive to make you visible. I don't see how this is a negative in any way for anyone. Your store still exists in its own container, and the portal is just to drive sales to you by increasing your visibility. You could theoretically carry on your business as if this never existed within Shopify. It is basically just a giant search engine that only works across the Shopify network. If Shopify won't do it, I am near willing to bet this business model is eventually put together by someone. Wordpress.com kind of does it...but it's only with content and they don't make money on transactions. They key is that there are no ads, it's a pure search engine, the money is made from the new transaction/hosting. GoDaddy, Wix and Squarespace couldn't really afford to do it because they aren't e-commerce focused.
    - lmm 6y ago
      It's a very slippery slope. The portal is gonna cost money to create, and have a lot of brand value in itself. How could you ever trust that they were never gonna start charging for the portal? Or leaning on you to list in the portal.
    - mlthoughts2018 6y ago
      > It would also be entirely free This can’t be true, since no matter how you create the central sales channel, some sellers will get preferential treatment in terms of screen placement, appearance in search results, etc. Shopify could not pay the costs of operating and advertising that central channel unless the most successful businesses are placed more prominently and lead to higher conversions of some kind (sellers converting, leading to less churn or more subscribers, etc.). But every Shopify customer will want that - so who gets it? If you do nothing and “the rich get richer” and there’s no way for an outsider to break into the better display rankings of the sales channel, you’ll just alienate customers and see a huge drop in new subscribers. This is often a big problem for ecommerce companies that facilitate online sales portals like Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and even more niche things like Shutterstock. You either “democratically” allow customers to pay for placement in your central product index, or you force customers to pay via lost business and lost opportunity, which they’ll be embittered by. But there’s no such thing as a “free” way to centrally index across all hosted subscribers. > “GoDaddy, Wix and Squarespace couldn't really afford to do it because they aren't e-commerce focused.” I think you are very unfamiliar with the hosting industry. All three of those businesses make the strong majority of revenue from subscribers of ecommerce plans and all three have huge platform offerings and nationwide advertising campaigns targeted specifically at ecommerce customers. All three of them practically only exist (in terms of revenue) because they are a good hosting option for small businesses that sell online.
- Iknowecomm 6y ago
  The reason they don't do this is a legal one. As a platform, they are not liable for what their sellers sell (copyright/trademark/counterfeit), but as a marketplace they would have deeper liability. A central marketplace also gives brands the ability to search through all Shopify stores, basically giving them a search engine to find infringement. How do I know this? 10 years in ecommerce with a different ecomm platform.
  - sroussey 6y ago
    They tested this at one point. I thought about it before launching weebly’s eCommerce. Sellers number one concern is sales.
  - kchr 6y ago
    That's exactly what Amazon has succeeded with: Owning the marketplace, but without any of the liabilities you mention...
- alaskamiller 6y ago
  Nah, it'll just end up being 100 copies of Alibaba postings. 90% of Shopify is BS, just dropshippers copy pasting images and texts over.
Guest42 6y ago
Does amazon allow seller sites to have lower prices?
- _0ffh 6y ago
  Not afaik.
  - cashsterling 6y ago
    They do... Dr. Squatch soap is one such example
    - hippich 6y ago
      Per Amazon's policy - no, the seller can not have lower prices on their own website than on Amazon. In practice, for now, it is not enforced (at least in my experience). https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/same-price-on-website-as-on-amazon-requirements/318566/9 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/same-price-on-webs...
      - serf 6y ago
        most obvious alibaba or aliexpress goods on Amazon can be bought cheaper from one of the other places, and if it's a weird item (like a bicycle hub motor) it'll generally be from the same merchant group. usually the copy/paste pictures and description are a good giveaway.
- coryrc 6y ago
  Just sell a "variant"
  - zapttt 6y ago
    amazon is a hellhole because of this. makes their search totally broken. and the funny thing is, amazon itself screws brands that have the same price restriction that they push on their sellers. Thats the reason behind those "see price in cart" shenanigans (which amazon can do, but sellers cant)
homero 6y ago
Facebook and Instagram do have their own checkout and are testing it
- alaskamiller 6y ago
  It's linked to Catalog Manager, which is a third class citizen in the FB ecosystem that they're shoehorning into being a second class. It's similar to Facebook Messenger taking Facebook Page and trying to upgrade its citizenry within the ecosystem and proclaiming it to be chatbots. That in 3 yrs flamed out and no one speaks of it anymore. Marketplace team can do more if they can build a second class product from the get go.
thinkmassive 6y ago
Another advantage to eBay and independent shops is that shipping is typically much faster than Amazon since the pandemic has caused Amazon’s shipping times to explode.

partiallypro 6y ago

I think Shopify should experiment with a centralized market place where stores can opt in. If you opt in, your store items are listed in a central location searchable in at single point, just like Amazon. Your item listing in the central market place merely directs you to YOUR branded store, allowing you to check out, and see your other products. That solves a huge problem of visibility that Amazon has mastered.

theturtletalks 6y ago
Shopify already has sales channels that users can tap into like Amazon and eBay. If they themselves build a marketplace, I'm sure those channels will opt out.
mlthoughts2018 6y ago
I’m not sure it would be easy. Large hosting platforms like GoDaddy, Wix or Squarespace could try this too, but it puts you inherently at odds with your own customers. If I pay you to host my site where I sell my products, but you index me into the central sales portal in a bad way, I’ll be pissed. Kind of like restaurants on Seamless. It comes off as deep rent seeking - instead of helping me succeed, which is the real mission of most of these types of companies, you’re creating an artificially scarce resource (visibility within your central sales index) where now I have to pay you an arbitrary tax just to compete. Immediately makes customers want to leave.
- partiallypro 6y ago
  But I propose it as opt-in. If you don't want in, you aren't. It would also be entirely free, Shopify makes money on the transactions, so there are no ads but they have incentive to make you visible. I don't see how this is a negative in any way for anyone. Your store still exists in its own container, and the portal is just to drive sales to you by increasing your visibility. You could theoretically carry on your business as if this never existed within Shopify. It is basically just a giant search engine that only works across the Shopify network. If Shopify won't do it, I am near willing to bet this business model is eventually put together by someone. Wordpress.com kind of does it...but it's only with content and they don't make money on transactions. They key is that there are no ads, it's a pure search engine, the money is made from the new transaction/hosting. GoDaddy, Wix and Squarespace couldn't really afford to do it because they aren't e-commerce focused.
  - lmm 6y ago
    It's a very slippery slope. The portal is gonna cost money to create, and have a lot of brand value in itself. How could you ever trust that they were never gonna start charging for the portal? Or leaning on you to list in the portal.
  - mlthoughts2018 6y ago
    > It would also be entirely free This can’t be true, since no matter how you create the central sales channel, some sellers will get preferential treatment in terms of screen placement, appearance in search results, etc. Shopify could not pay the costs of operating and advertising that central channel unless the most successful businesses are placed more prominently and lead to higher conversions of some kind (sellers converting, leading to less churn or more subscribers, etc.). But every Shopify customer will want that - so who gets it? If you do nothing and “the rich get richer” and there’s no way for an outsider to break into the better display rankings of the sales channel, you’ll just alienate customers and see a huge drop in new subscribers. This is often a big problem for ecommerce companies that facilitate online sales portals like Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and even more niche things like Shutterstock. You either “democratically” allow customers to pay for placement in your central product index, or you force customers to pay via lost business and lost opportunity, which they’ll be embittered by. But there’s no such thing as a “free” way to centrally index across all hosted subscribers. > “GoDaddy, Wix and Squarespace couldn't really afford to do it because they aren't e-commerce focused.” I think you are very unfamiliar with the hosting industry. All three of those businesses make the strong majority of revenue from subscribers of ecommerce plans and all three have huge platform offerings and nationwide advertising campaigns targeted specifically at ecommerce customers. All three of them practically only exist (in terms of revenue) because they are a good hosting option for small businesses that sell online.
Iknowecomm 6y ago
The reason they don't do this is a legal one. As a platform, they are not liable for what their sellers sell (copyright/trademark/counterfeit), but as a marketplace they would have deeper liability. A central marketplace also gives brands the ability to search through all Shopify stores, basically giving them a search engine to find infringement. How do I know this? 10 years in ecommerce with a different ecomm platform.
- sroussey 6y ago
  They tested this at one point. I thought about it before launching weebly’s eCommerce. Sellers number one concern is sales.
- kchr 6y ago
  That's exactly what Amazon has succeeded with: Owning the marketplace, but without any of the liabilities you mention...
alaskamiller 6y ago
Nah, it'll just end up being 100 copies of Alibaba postings. 90% of Shopify is BS, just dropshippers copy pasting images and texts over.

Guest42 6y ago

Does amazon allow seller sites to have lower prices?

_0ffh 6y ago
Not afaik.
- cashsterling 6y ago
  They do... Dr. Squatch soap is one such example
  - hippich 6y ago
    Per Amazon's policy - no, the seller can not have lower prices on their own website than on Amazon. In practice, for now, it is not enforced (at least in my experience). https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/same-price-on-website-as-on-amazon-requirements/318566/9 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/same-price-on-webs...
    - serf 6y ago
      most obvious alibaba or aliexpress goods on Amazon can be bought cheaper from one of the other places, and if it's a weird item (like a bicycle hub motor) it'll generally be from the same merchant group. usually the copy/paste pictures and description are a good giveaway.
coryrc 6y ago
Just sell a "variant"
- zapttt 6y ago
  amazon is a hellhole because of this. makes their search totally broken. and the funny thing is, amazon itself screws brands that have the same price restriction that they push on their sellers. Thats the reason behind those "see price in cart" shenanigans (which amazon can do, but sellers cant)

homero 6y ago

Facebook and Instagram do have their own checkout and are testing it

alaskamiller 6y ago
It's linked to Catalog Manager, which is a third class citizen in the FB ecosystem that they're shoehorning into being a second class. It's similar to Facebook Messenger taking Facebook Page and trying to upgrade its citizenry within the ecosystem and proclaiming it to be chatbots. That in 3 yrs flamed out and no one speaks of it anymore. Marketplace team can do more if they can build a second class product from the get go.

thinkmassive 6y ago

Another advantage to eBay and independent shops is that shipping is typically much faster than Amazon since the pandemic has caused Amazon’s shipping times to explode.