Stripe Launches App Store: Savvy Move Ahead of Eventual IPO

Stripe Launches App Store: Savvy Move Ahead of Eventual IPO

Yesterday, payments juggernaut Stripe launched its App Marketplace. The company is valued at $95 billion and the marketplace will provide access to apps and scripts from third-party developers. Some examples include Docusign, Xero, Signifiyd and Mailchimp.

My headline on this is savvy. Consumers getting refunds quickly and staff having access to refunds, chargebacks, and other payments-related functions quickly, and in apps that are integrated with their daily workflow is a huge time-saver for businesses of any size.

Anyone who has worked in eCommerce operations knows that you need one foot in your eCommerce platform backoffice, and one foot in your payment processor's backoffice. All payments data, settlements, and other information simply do not flow through to these other platforms.

This could eliminate that second foot altogether, if apps and platforms take advantage of the flexibility offered by Stripe's App Store.

And at the same time, it could make it more difficult to choose an alternative payment processor. Another big win for Stripe.

A few other notes:

- Unlike the Shopify or Apple App Store, however, this marketplace does not provide payment rails for its app partners, which is ironic for a payments company.

- Literally my first reaction to this news is “What do you mean Stripe doesn’t already have an App Store?” Better late than never I guess?

- A bit of puzzling news on focus:

Bowen Pan, the Head of Product for Stripe Apps, tried to provide more guidance saying “apps on their marketplace can’t just be a quiz app, it has to have real business functionality.” Of course, that clarifies nothing. "Real business functionality" is about the most nebulous theme for an app store I’ve ever seen. Are they trying to compete with Google or Microsoft now?

Things that are payment-related I understand, like fundraising, financing, fraud, etc., and there are some apps like that already. Even beyond payments, customer service seems like an important category for integration because customer service teams are often the ones handling refund escalations which involves payment processors.

I expect in the short-term, the fact that Stripe itself is a big draw will get new apps in there, but I would like to see more focus around apps that are actually integrated with Stripe if this is going to be impactful long-term.