[lunaru]

A huge part of Shopify's revenue comes from Shopify Plus. We're also fellow app developers[1], and we've noticed that if you offer value to their higher end businesses, you'll be running at churn rates that are much lower than what you'd think you'd get with the "average Shopify merchant".

Something like 70% of small businesses fail[2], so it's not surprising you'll see a large amount of churn if your audience is the broad set of all merchants, including those that are probably just kicking around the idea of spinning up a drop shipping business on the side. That doesn't mean there aren't great businesses in the Shopify ecosystem.

[1] - https://apps.shopify.com/reamaze [2] - https://www.fundera.com/blog/what-percentage-of-small-busine...

[Axsuul]

Also a Shopify app developer here[1]. My software targets established online sellers and my churn is considered low.

[1] https://www.trunkinventory.com

[dragonsh]

You are right the churn is very high because one thing shopify can't do is get traffic for those online stores. So non tech savvy goes to Shopify open a store, because it's easier than running $5 VM to manage many similar e-commerce platform. But then that person needs to work himself for traffic acquisition on his own site which is expensive and after a while stops it. Launching a store is easiest thing to do with plethora of other platforms besides Shopify. On Amazon the story is different, store owner focus on to bring real traffic where buyer has a intention to buy. So from day one store owners focus is on getting sales. On Shopify first problem is getting traffic then convert to sales then to manage sales and delivery, store owner does all these which can be done on plethora of other tools including closed source or open source, with similar ease of use.

Whether it's Amazon or eBay they are spending a lot on getting traffic to those vendors who sale through them. Shopify has been a loss making entity for last three years without significant money on traffic acquisition for it's vendors, they do spend to get more store owner traffic not on buyer traffic. [1]

So I am not sure if Shopify can even be compared with eBay or Amazon. Reason eBay is affected is due to Amazon nothing to do with Shopify which is just a tool to launch an online shop.

[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SHOP/financials?p=SHOP

[CameronNemo]

there is a lot to unpack here.

. you operate under the assumption that amazon is driving traffic fairly. in reality, there are at least 17 pieces of flair on each search page. remember that most scrubs do not use ublockorigin!

. "getting traffic" is also called networking. making connections with diverse groups. it is part of building a brand, reputation, and yes a client base. trying to avoid that step often makes your business trivially replaceable. for commodities that is actually fine, but many shop owners are not selling commodities.

. you are spot on about shopify having many alternatives. perhaps the competition will benefit shop owners as a whole. i can hope.

[mattmanser]

70% fail within 10 years, which is not much longer than Shopify has even existed.

The GP seems to be saying 80% of shopify businesses fail within a year.

Totally different statistics, the page you linked to says only 20% fail within their first year.

I wouldn't be surprised if setting up a shopify merchant page is a 'pre-business' action, before you're completely serious about the business.