Shopify after Covid - from D2C (Direct 2 Customer) to C2C (Connect 2 Customers)

Note: I do not support Shopify platform any more. I am looking for alternatives. Their service quality has degraded in recent years since they shuffled their executives. Their API is too complex and unreliable for us to commit to the platform.

Highlights:

• 0:00~ From Direct 2 Customer to Connect 2 Customers, C2C (see a Wired article titled Shopify Soul Searching
• 4:32 Amazon market place v.s. other platforms and Shopify's response. Amazon does not allow sellers to build their own customer base and loyalty, lacking direct relationships with customers.
• 7:06 Stories about Post Pandemic World - 80% of growth in point of sale GMV, Shopify online stores used to empower physical stores. Almost 400% growth seen in social embedded store yet on year last quarter.
• 7:36 Shopify as the world's Retail Operating System

Note: Gross merchandise value (GMV)

Experience as a developer (sort of)

I have not gotten much to talk about yet since I recently started using their Shopify API.

Their documentation is not terribly bad but I often find information in their documentation outdated, which frustrates me a lot.

I use their Storefront API and Admin API through GraphQL. My experience with their API improved as soon as I started getting used to basics of how their API works. I had to google a lot for Stackover flow posts till I feel this much confident.

The real pain came when I started trying to make a Shopify App. You need a combination of various skills from React to their React component based on their design system aka Polaris.

Some information in the web are often outdated and useless because of library updates.

There is Shopify App Node tempalte that can be used as a starting point for making an embedded Shopify App. The template recently had a drastic change that might confuse and disturb novices like me. They decided to stop using Next.js because of performance issue. They now use Vite instead. You will find loads of issues in their Github repo related to both platforms quite confusing.

I see this as an entry barrier and I do not see the defects necessarily a bad thing. Shopify is nevertheless still one of the most prominent online commerce solution platforms that can empower commerce businesses to strive in this difficult time after covid. As their CEO says, what makes Shopify different from its rival, Amazon, is that Shopify helps users to build their brand identity and relationship with their own customers.

So I thought that sticking around the Shopify ecosystem as a developer is not that bad and investment into the platform will pay off in the mid ~ long term. No, I am done with Shopify. No wonder their stock has plummeted.