Shop Pay and PayPal’s Future Battle

SaaS
Written By Rick Watson

A few Shopify notes:

1 - Shop Pay on Instagram is further proof that Shopify has painted a target on PayPal's back. PayPal is a formidable company, but there is little downside for Shopify to keep innovating here. PayPal was the original payment method on Facebook and Instagram. It's notable, the second one in the door is Shop Pay.

2 - Despite some senior exec shuffles in the last year, the world was still nonetheless shocked by Jeff Bezos decision to step aside as CEO (granted taking a largely similar role to his in the past year as Executive Chairman).

Another high-profile executive who has publicly mused if he was the best person for the job is Tobi Lutke.

What happened at the end of last year? Tobi kept the CEO title but added the Chief Product Officer title. Harley moved from COO to President, which is largely the role of an operational CEO. Could these moves be setting up a permanent shift to Tobi as CPO?

3. Finally. The press yesterday said Shop Pay on Instagram is already enabled if you have Instagram Checkout. Yet there are no instructions and I don't see it in "Checkout on Instagram" setup. even though PayPal has been there and continues to be Anyone see anything yet? 👀

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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