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Shopify made a set of exciting product announcements this week. Some were interesting while there are others that I don't fully understand the need for.
Hydrogen is Shopify's answer to Headless commerce. What I do like is that this time it does not seem like a marketing brochure. They have thought about data pipelines, security, and infrastructure – the things that usually make you run like headless chickens.
'Functions' is what makes me believe that Shopify is truly embracing the need for composable commerce. 'Functions' allows merchants to take control of the backend logic – updating or replacing part of it to suit their businesses. Imagine being able to offer multiple different shipping options to customers, tying them t
Brands can now show some more metadata about themselves and sync inventory levels for a better buying experience. The checkout still happens at the brand's website. I am yet to see a brand calling out Twitter as a meaningful needle-mover for sales. How does the partnership with Shopify change that? It's not native shopping or centralized experience as you see on Instagram. This announcement seems to be one for PR.
Remember the acquisition of Handshake in 2019? Handshake enabled wholesale transactions for companies like Williams-Sanoma. I was surprised that Shopify hadn't launched a B2B- centric platform even after two years of that acquisition. B2B accounts for more than a trillion dollars of GMV and the segment plays well with the rest of the tech, finance and delivery infrastructure that Shopify has been investing in.
With SFN and the recent Deliverr acquisition it is expected and it's there. Shop Promise is a promise to deliver 'next day' or within 2 days across the nation – 'Port to Porch' within 2 days, as they call it.
With the 'top of the funnel' flywheel of small eCommerce merchants finding it hard to survive in this economic climate, it makes sense that Shopify invests in extending its enterprise capabilities through headless and B2B investments while making it easy for small brands to compete with Amazon on the delivery experience through its improved SFN+Deliverr experience.
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