Gold in ‘Dem Thar Hill: How Shopify Is Failing Indie Stores
I went into a small shop in New York City yesterday and admired all their nice tableware. It offered mugs, cups, plates, drinking glasses, and vases—all items that are great for gift registries.
The store was empty. I thought it may be a good time ask the store manager if the store offered an online registry. He replied "yes." I was surprised because there was no signage in the store that said it offered a gift registry. I shared with him what Bridge is and explained that we give stores free in-store materials. I suggested that he make some for this store.
When I got back to my office, I looked up the store’s website. Their store’s website platform is Shopify, and their registry software is from Shopify. Their registry page was just a white page with three links:
Start a registry
Find a registry
Manage a registry
The registry market is very competitive. Zola is spending $140 million to make online registries the most dazzling experience with endless aisles of selection. If a bride saw the store’s site vs Zola or a Bridge Store’s registry, she is surely going to register with Zola or Bridge. I thought: this store’s site doesn’t stand a chance. It’s like this guy and his store are going to mine gold in the 1880s, they bought their shovels and tents from Shopify, and they’re going it alone. They are isolated from their suppliers, brands, reps, and other stores. Simply put: they are going to die. But first, they are going to be cold and hungry 'online' and they are going to suffer as they wonder why no one is buying online from their site.
I feel sad watching this store and manager venture out alone and Shopify enabling this. There’s simply little need for a small business to buy the metaphorical shovel, tents, horses, etc. when that will likely sink its finances and give it inferior equipment and results. But, this is in Shopify’s interest. Shopify makes money by selling more ‘shovels' and having businesses do it alone. When customers ’share shovels,’ a platform like Shopify loses money. Since Shopify is obligated to its venture capital investors to rake its customers for every penny, it has to sell those extra services and encourage stores like this to go it alone. Shopify might as well be running ads telling every person that “There's gold in ‘dem thar hills ~ Buy a shovel!" What they don’t warm you is that it’s suicide to dig alone.
When this store fails, I hope that the manager doesn’t blame himself. Yes, he’s partially to blame for trekking out alone, but so are other parties for not insisting he team-up. I believe that one has to collaborate and share to succeed online today. Bridge is about collaborating and sharing. Bridge keeps costs low by helping customers share ’shovels’ and fixed costs across hundreds of businesses. Bridge helps businesses share 60k products, 2.2k brands, and hundreds of pieces of news via our social network. Bridge adds new software features daily that benefit all members.
There is gold in those hills, as Zola and Bridge know. I just believe we have to mine it together.
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Signs that an online retailer will likely face trouble:
The business is 100% responsible for adding products and content to the site. It receives no support or services from third parties to maintain it.
The business is 100% responsible for the costs of the site. The business doesn’t benefit or share in features that are spread across many businesses.
The business doesn’t use software or technology to manage online inventory.