What Amazon Can Do To Defend Against Shopify
Let's take as a given Amazon will compete with Shopify. It won't look like their last attempt at stores. But what then?
How do they kneecap Shopify enough that they can't steal away Prime buyers if they continue to have momentum? (this is the prize - not sellers)
Jeff Bezos comes from the Bill Gates school of competition.
1 - Amazon's biggest problem with Stores last time was not really execution (although it was also), really it was about traffic - no one cares about another new store. One asset Amazon has now that it didn't have before - a $2B and growing advertising solution. This will be part of their solution out of the box.
What is Shopify's strategic Achilles heel? Traffic generation. It fits.
2 - Any solution will involve their vast and growing fulfillment network. I suspect Shopify's early fulfillment investments was somewhat of a wake-up call for Amazon - you are not dealing with your average platform. Project out 10 years and what else will they invest in?
3 - Look for Amazon to pick up one or more payment solutions to bolster its weaknesses here. Subscription, installments, etc. Amazon Pay is attractive but limited in that it’s not enough.
Shop Pay is a risk to Amazon. It's the future "Prime" brand of Shopify if they play it right.
