The responsibilities of our largest commerce influencers during a crisis

eCommerce
Written By Rick Watson

What is the responsibility of the major online platforms during a time of crisis? Amazon has started to gate sanitizer and mask listings much more aggressively in the last couple of days. There is a lot to criticize Amazon for but it's not easy to make these calls.

I wanted to pose a question. Do companies like Shopify have similar responsibilities? It's not an easy question to answer. You might say no, Shopify is not a marketplace.

But you are also not just an empty vessel either. There are terms of use, and these are not normal times. If you had to write up guidelines for Shopify, BigCommerce, and Salesforce -- some of the biggest cloud platforms, what would you say?

Rick Watson

Rick Watson founded RMW Commerce Consulting after spending 20+ years as a technology entrepreneur and operator exclusively in the eCommerce industry with companies like ChannelAdvisor, BarnesandNoble.com, Merchantry, and Pitney Bowes.

Watson’s work today is centered on supporting investors and management teams incubating and growing direct-to-consumer businesses. Most recently, in partnership with WHP Global, Rick was a critical resource in architecting the WHP+ platform, a new turnkey direct to consumer digital e-commerce platform that powers AnneKlein.com and JosephAbboud.com.

Watson also hosts a weekly podcast, Watson Weekly, where he shares an unbiased, unfiltered expert take on the retail sector’s biggest players.

In the past year alone, Rick has spoken at many in-person and virtual events as well as podcasts on topics ranging from retail/ecom to supply chain/logistics and even digital grocery including CommerceNext IRL, ASCM Connect, and Retail Innovation Conference.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/
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