Shopify: Bold Jump to Google Cloud Marketplace

Why did Shopify, 🏆 $100Bn company growing at 26% YoY, join the Google Cloud marketplace? This seems counterintuitive for a company that itself is a robust platform with 13K apps, including winners like $8Bn Klaviyo in its ecosystem.

🛠️ Back in 2009, Shopify made a bet on the ecosystem business model just 3Y in its journey. It built exceptional developer-friendly APIs and launched a highly successful agency-focused referral program. These steps help Shopify to rapidly gain traction, becoming one of the largest e-commerce platforms and a leading advocate of the ecosystem concept in tech.

💰 Shopify Partners at Scale, Paying $0.7Bn/year

The company boasts a market cap of $100 Bn+ and owns 10% of the US e-commerce market.

Shopify App Store features 13K+ apps, and in 2023, Shopify paid $729M to partners developing apps that benefit their merchants.

In 2023 Shopify's revenue grew by impressive 26% to $7Bn, and it's App Store figures climbed by 30% YoY.

🏦Leveraging Cloud Marketplace to Accelerate Growth

In January, Shopify deepened its partnership with Google Cloud, starting to offer its products on the GCP marketplace and emphasizing this move in its communications. But why?

It's a strategic play for capturing the enterprise market. Shopify's President, Harley Finkelstein, explained, “Just as we developed a robust ecosystem for entrepreneurs and SMBs, these partnerships further underscore our strategic positioning as a key player in the enterprise sector across all facets of commerce.”

Cloud marketplaces have become an essential part of the enterprise GTM playbook. Shopify highlights the high growth potential with the GCP marketplace: “enterprise customers are using Google Cloud Marketplace at outstanding rates. Third party transactions in 2022 were up 500% and spending more than $1 million increased sixfold.”

3️⃣ Reasons for Joining the GCP Marketplace

By joining the Google Cloud Marketplace, Shopify expands its support for the commercial needs of enterprise customers, “allowing them to easily buy, build, and integrate with the right technology to power unique commerce experiences.

Those businesses can now unlock key benefits including:

streamlined purchasing,

simplified billing,

and the ability to leverage Shopify spend towards existing Google Cloud purchase commitments.”

By partnering with Google Cloud and other partners, like system integrators “from Deloitte to EY to Accenture to Cognizant,” Shopify is fostering impressive growth in large accounts, even in uncertain economic conditions.

✔️ 25% of its Large Accounts are growing >40% YOY

✔️ 18% of its Mid Market Accounts growing >40% YOY

Just as Salesforce recently made waves listing its products on the AWS marketplace, Shopify's partnership with the GCP is poised to be a game-changer, setting a new standard for cloud marketplace adoption.

What are your thoughts?

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