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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 t

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 7y 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 7y 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.

lmm 7y 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 7y 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.