Please answer the discussion questions.

6 - 16: Compare and contrast the nature of the business market structure and demand relative to consumer market structure and demand for Shopify's services.

6 - 17: Discuss how a potential client for Shopify might go through the business buyer decision.

6 - 18: How does the concept of the buying center apply to Shopify?

Everyone, please LIKE whoever answers this question!

v "g TM | Vuong, T. Vua, Edgybees would need to visit customers at least twice per year, often for hours at a time. If Edgybees decides to go vom U V WI WON VOIT UIT T addi. tional sales representative? (AACSB: Communication Analytical Reasoning) Company Case Shopify: An E-commerce Giant That Doesn't sell to End Users What do Budweiser, Tesla, The New York Times, Bombas which means zero investment in hardware and software. It Socks, and Kylie Cosmetics have in common? Each company also means that business owners can manage things from sells direct-to-consumer (DTC) merchandise primarily online. But anywhere on any device with an internet connection. In short, more, each has an online store created, managed, and powered Shopify's mission is to make e-commerce easier and better for by Shopify--the biggest e-commerce company that most peo everyone. ple have never heard of. In the age of DTC companies, Shopify Although that mission seems a bit lofty, Shopify is well on its is behind-the-scenes business that takes care of everything for way. In 2015, the nearly 10-year-old company went public at anyone wanting to sell something online-a genuine end-to-end a value of $1.3 billion. The preceding year, Shopify's 140,000 commerce platform for everyone from the young entrepreneur stores had sold more than $3.7 billion worth of merchandise. who has never started a company to large, well-known corpora And Shopify has been lauded by experts and organizations the tions needing an online store. world over for its growth and impact, including being named as The concept is simple. For a monthly fee, Shopify helps indi one of the world's most innovative companies by Fast Company viduals or corporations sell their merchandise online. It supplies this year. How has Shopify come so far so fast yet remain rela- everything merchants need to go online, including customiz tively unknown to the average consumer? able store templates, inventory management systems, analyt- ics, payment processing, and shipping. Shopify also provides From Snowboards to Startups consultative services and a network of partners to handle It all started in the early 2000s in Ottawa, Quebec, when Tobi manufacturing, promotion, and order fulfillment. Shopify's plat Ltke and Scott Lake met and bonded over their love of technol- form not only sells merchandise directly from the merchant's ogy and snowboarding. The pair joined forces to open Snowdevil, online store or mobile app, it plugs into a growing number of an online store selling high-end snowboards. Building the site broader platforms, including online marketplaces like Amazon, proved to be an exercise in frustration. Working with popu- social media channels like Instagram Stories, and even brick lar software options of the day, such as Microsoft Commerce and-mortar locations. The system is completely cloud-based, and Yahoo! Stores, was difficult and expensive. So Ltke -- who 61 CHAPTER 6 Business Markets and Business Buyer Behavior 181 had dropped out of high school at the age of 17 to work as a programming apprentice at Siemens-decided to build his own described how Jerner would become the youngest-ever self e-commerce platform from scratch. He came up with something made billionaire at age 21 by leveraging her fame into a cosmet- much simpler, faster, and more visually pleasing than anything ics empire. More important, the article noted that Jonner's online from existing web design vendors. store, kyliecosmetics.com, was powered by Shopify. Less than Snowdevil.com's sales were meager at best. But Like and one year after joining Shopify, Kylie Cosmetics had gone from sell- Lake quickly realized that the most valuable entity they possessed ing its signature lip kits to seling a full line of more than 50 different was the platform beneath Snowdevil. So in 2006 they launched cosmetics products generating more than $300 million in annual Shopify as a platform for creating online stores. The going was sales. Paying tribute to the power of Jenner's fame as a factor in slow at first, but as they continued to improve the platform with the young brand's success, Forbes also pointed out that Shopify innovative tools, the client base grew steadily. Shopify also de was the e-commerce platform behind online stores for Drake veloped a corporate culture based on authenticity, free thinking, Justin Bieber, and Jenner's own half-sister Kim Kardashian West. and what the company calls the trust battery'-a perceptual More recently. Shopify has taken things to an entirely new gauge of an individual's potential based less on what they've level, releasing a range of new tools that let small and medium- already done and more on what they might do in the future. sized businesses better compete with e-commerce giants. These include Shopify Ping-a powerful customer service tool that lets merchants interact with customers over Facebook Messenger- The Anti-Amazon and Dynamic Checkout-a checkout system that eliminates Building the Shopify e-commerce platform required carefully roadblocks that lead customers to abandon their carts. Although defining what that platform is. But key to Shopity's strategy is small businesses and startups are still the backbone of Shopify, also to define what the platform is not. In short, Shopify is not the company now offers Shopify Plus-an e-commerce platform a marketplace. Although Shopity sets up and runs e-commerce and services for companies with revenues of $1 million or more operations for DTC companies, it operates in the shadows, si- each year. lently and invisibly. So when customers visit Loosa.com to buy a Today, just four years after the company went public, Shopify mattress, every interaction take place with Leesa, the company hosts more than 800,000 active client stores that have sold and brand. Customers browsing for temporary tattoos at Tattly. more than $100 billion worth of merchandise. During that same com know only that they are experiencing a selection of creative, period, its stock price has increased by 600 percent, giving high-quality temporary tattoos exclusive to Tattly. When DTC the company a value of more than $22 billion. For its efforts. brands sell on Amazon-whether fulfilled by Amazon or by the Shopify's cut of client store sales came to more than $1 billion third-party vendors-customers are buying from Amazon, and last year, making it the youngest software-as-a-service company the brands themselves gain little by way of brand equity. But ever to reach the billion dollar revenue mark. "The 21st century Visitors to the e-commerce stores powered by Shopify typically brand is the direct-to-consumer brand," says Shopify's chief have no idea that Shopify even exists, let alone that it's the com marketing officer. "We run the gamut of a retail operating sys- pany behind the engine that drives their interactions. The DTC tem," he says, indicating that the company intends to be a major brand itself stands out, not the platform force in powering DTC companies for a long time to come. Shopify thinks of itself as the anti-Amazon, not because Despite its momentum, Shopify faces plenty of challenges it is against the e-commerce giant but because it offers DTC ahead. For starters, Amazon recently launched its own Shopify companies a path to selling their goods that is so different in fighter, Amazon Storefronts. Biled as a new way for smal and medium-sized businesses to coll products directly through concept and outcome. Although Amazon takes care of ev- erything down to operations and fulfillment, vendors don't Amazon," Storefronts highlights small businesses and their col- so much build their own brands as they do Amazon's. As lections of unique products in a separate section. And although Amazon has grown, more sellers have complained openly Shopify has a clear lead in the end-to-end e-commerce platform business, some analysts speculate that its model would be easy that they have little control over their sales, customer rela- to replicate. In fact, many of the companies that Shopify partners tions, and the data generated from shopping. In many cases, controlling those assets has allowed Amazon to develop with to provide process pieces for its e-commerce platform- such as PayPal and MailChimp-already possess data that private-label brands that compete directly against its sellers! could allow them to expand the e-commerce services they brands. With Shopify, the merchant, not the marketplace provide to their own DTC clients. Forgoing short-term profits, owns access to the end user Shopify continues to invest heavily in Shopify Plus, International Being a non-marketplace e-commerce platform gives Shopify expansion, and innovations it believes will continue to make it a unique competitive advantage: Shopify is neutral. It interfaces the leading e-commerce platform provider.20 with and even plugs into numerous existing marketplaces but doesn't favor any. And short of monitoring to prevent illegal activity on the part of vendors, Shopify does not interfere in their busi Questions for Discussion: nesses. This neutrality has allowed Shopify to easily interface with 6-16 Compare and contrast the nature of the business mar- the likes of Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Amazon, and numer- ket structure and demand relative to consumer market ous other companies that feature their own marketplaces. Thus, structure and demand for Shopity's services. Shopify clients have access to any and all partner marketplaces. 6-17 Discuss how a potential client for Shopity might go through the business buyer decision. A Big Boost from Lipstick 6-18 Since going public, Shopity's growth has accelerated. The com- How does the concept of the buying center apply to pany got its biggest publicity ift in August 2018, when the cover Shopity? of Forbes featured Kylie Jenner in a black business suit with 6-19 How much of a threat does competition pose in the headline "America's Women Billionaires." The cover story Shopity's future? v "g TM | Vuong, T. Vua, Edgybees would need to visit customers at least twice per year, often for hours at a time. If Edgybees decides to go vom U V WI WON VOIT UIT T addi. tional sales representative? (AACSB: Communication Analytical Reasoning) Company Case Shopify: An E-commerce Giant That Doesn't sell to End Users What do Budweiser, Tesla, The New York Times, Bombas which means zero investment in hardware and software. It Socks, and Kylie Cosmetics have in common? Each company also means that business owners can manage things from sells direct-to-consumer (DTC) merchandise primarily online. But anywhere on any device with an internet connection. In short, more, each has an online store created, managed, and powered Shopify's mission is to make e-commerce easier and better for by Shopify--the biggest e-commerce company that most peo everyone. ple have never heard of. In the age of DTC companies, Shopify Although that mission seems a bit lofty, Shopify is well on its is behind-the-scenes business that takes care of everything for way. In 2015, the nearly 10-year-old company went public at anyone wanting to sell something online-a genuine end-to-end a value of $1.3 billion. The preceding year, Shopify's 140,000 commerce platform for everyone from the young entrepreneur stores had sold more than $3.7 billion worth of merchandise. who has never started a company to large, well-known corpora And Shopify has been lauded by experts and organizations the tions needing an online store. world over for its growth and impact, including being named as The concept is simple. For a monthly fee, Shopify helps indi one of the world's most innovative companies by Fast Company viduals or corporations sell their merchandise online. It supplies this year. How has Shopify come so far so fast yet remain rela- everything merchants need to go online, including customiz tively unknown to the average consumer? able store templates, inventory management systems, analyt- ics, payment processing, and shipping. Shopify also provides From Snowboards to Startups consultative services and a network of partners to handle It all started in the early 2000s in Ottawa, Quebec, when Tobi manufacturing, promotion, and order fulfillment. Shopify's plat Ltke and Scott Lake met and bonded over their love of technol- form not only sells merchandise directly from the merchant's ogy and snowboarding. The pair joined forces to open Snowdevil, online store or mobile app, it plugs into a growing number of an online store selling high-end snowboards. Building the site broader platforms, including online marketplaces like Amazon, proved to be an exercise in frustration. Working with popu- social media channels like Instagram Stories, and even brick lar software options of the day, such as Microsoft Commerce and-mortar locations. The system is completely cloud-based, and Yahoo! Stores, was difficult and expensive. So Ltke -- who 61 CHAPTER 6 Business Markets and Business Buyer Behavior 181 had dropped out of high school at the age of 17 to work as a programming apprentice at Siemens-decided to build his own described how Jerner would become the youngest-ever self e-commerce platform from scratch. He came up with something made billionaire at age 21 by leveraging her fame into a cosmet- much simpler, faster, and more visually pleasing than anything ics empire. More important, the article noted that Jonner's online from existing web design vendors. store, kyliecosmetics.com, was powered by Shopify. Less than Snowdevil.com's sales were meager at best. But Like and one year after joining Shopify, Kylie Cosmetics had gone from sell- Lake quickly realized that the most valuable entity they possessed ing its signature lip kits to seling a full line of more than 50 different was the platform beneath Snowdevil. So in 2006 they launched cosmetics products generating more than $300 million in annual Shopify as a platform for creating online stores. The going was sales. Paying tribute to the power of Jenner's fame as a factor in slow at first, but as they continued to improve the platform with the young brand's success, Forbes also pointed out that Shopify innovative tools, the client base grew steadily. Shopify also de was the e-commerce platform behind online stores for Drake veloped a corporate culture based on authenticity, free thinking, Justin Bieber, and Jenner's own half-sister Kim Kardashian West. and what the company calls the trust battery'-a perceptual More recently. Shopify has taken things to an entirely new gauge of an individual's potential based less on what they've level, releasing a range of new tools that let small and medium- already done and more on what they might do in the future. sized businesses better compete with e-commerce giants. These include Shopify Ping-a powerful customer service tool that lets merchants interact with customers over Facebook Messenger- The Anti-Amazon and Dynamic Checkout-a checkout system that eliminates Building the Shopify e-commerce platform required carefully roadblocks that lead customers to abandon their carts. Although defining what that platform is. But key to Shopity's strategy is small businesses and startups are still the backbone of Shopify, also to define what the platform is not. In short, Shopify is not the company now offers Shopify Plus-an e-commerce platform a marketplace. Although Shopity sets up and runs e-commerce and services for companies with revenues of $1 million or more operations for DTC companies, it operates in the shadows, si- each year. lently and invisibly. So when customers visit Loosa.com to buy a Today, just four years after the company went public, Shopify mattress, every interaction take place with Leesa, the company hosts more than 800,000 active client stores that have sold and brand. Customers browsing for temporary tattoos at Tattly. more than $100 billion worth of merchandise. During that same com know only that they are experiencing a selection of creative, period, its stock price has increased by 600 percent, giving high-quality temporary tattoos exclusive to Tattly. When DTC the company a value of more than $22 billion. For its efforts. brands sell on Amazon-whether fulfilled by Amazon or by the Shopify's cut of client store sales came to more than $1 billion third-party vendors-customers are buying from Amazon, and last year, making it the youngest software-as-a-service company the brands themselves gain little by way of brand equity. But ever to reach the billion dollar revenue mark. "The 21st century Visitors to the e-commerce stores powered by Shopify typically brand is the direct-to-consumer brand," says Shopify's chief have no idea that Shopify even exists, let alone that it's the com marketing officer. "We run the gamut of a retail operating sys- pany behind the engine that drives their interactions. The DTC tem," he says, indicating that the company intends to be a major brand itself stands out, not the platform force in powering DTC companies for a long time to come. Shopify thinks of itself as the anti-Amazon, not because Despite its momentum, Shopify faces plenty of challenges it is against the e-commerce giant but because it offers DTC ahead. For starters, Amazon recently launched its own Shopify companies a path to selling their goods that is so different in fighter, Amazon Storefronts. Biled as a new way for smal and medium-sized businesses to coll products directly through concept and outcome. Although Amazon takes care of ev- erything down to operations and fulfillment, vendors don't Amazon," Storefronts highlights small businesses and their col- so much build their own brands as they do Amazon's. As lections of unique products in a separate section. And although Amazon has grown, more sellers have complained openly Shopify has a clear lead in the end-to-end e-commerce platform business, some analysts speculate that its model would be easy that they have little control over their sales, customer rela- to replicate. In fact, many of the companies that Shopify partners tions, and the data generated from shopping. In many cases, controlling those assets has allowed Amazon to develop with to provide process pieces for its e-commerce platform- such as PayPal and MailChimp-already possess data that private-label brands that compete directly against its sellers! could allow them to expand the e-commerce services they brands. With Shopify, the merchant, not the marketplace provide to their own DTC clients. Forgoing short-term profits, owns access to the end user Shopify continues to invest heavily in Shopify Plus, International Being a non-marketplace e-commerce platform gives Shopify expansion, and innovations it believes will continue to make it a unique competitive advantage: Shopify is neutral. It interfaces the leading e-commerce platform provider.20 with and even plugs into numerous existing marketplaces but doesn't favor any. And short of monitoring to prevent illegal activity on the part of vendors, Shopify does not interfere in their busi Questions for Discussion: nesses. This neutrality has allowed Shopify to easily interface with 6-16 Compare and contrast the nature of the business mar- the likes of Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Amazon, and numer- ket structure and demand relative to consumer market ous other companies that feature their own marketplaces. Thus, structure and demand for Shopity's services. Shopify clients have access to any and all partner marketplaces. 6-17 Discuss how a potential client for Shopity might go through the business buyer decision. A Big Boost from Lipstick 6-18 Since going public, Shopity's growth has accelerated. The com- How does the concept of the buying center apply to pany got its biggest publicity ift in August 2018, when the cover Shopity? of Forbes featured Kylie Jenner in a black business suit with 6-19 How much of a threat does competition pose in the headline "America's Women Billionaires." The cover story Shopity's future