Madeline Stone

Shopify has hired at least two dozen people from Salesforce as it escalates its push into enterprise e-commerce over the last several years.Most recently, those hires have included Kal Stephen, who joined Shopify as the head of enterprise for the lifestyle vertical in January after more than six years as a sales leader for Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Holly Dresden joined Shopify as head of enterprise merchant success in December after six years with Salesforce Commerce Cloud.Shopify’s head of ent…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jamie Iannone, the CEO of eBay. The following has been edited for length and clarity.Teams are most productive when they have shared goals, operate with a sense of urgency, and are working toward measurable outcomes. For us, this means being customer-obsessed and making sure the entire organization is focused on delivering for our global community of sellers and buyers.At eBay, we are reinventing the future of e-commerce for enthusiasts. This…

Temu has opened its marketplace to sellers with US-based warehouses, marking a shift to its strategy that has focused on shipping orders from China.Temu, which is owned by Chinese retail giant Pinduoduo Holdings, has so far operated using a “managed marketplace” model that includes having manufacturers consolidate their inventory into warehouses in China and then ship to consumers across borders from there. Temu manages product listings, pricing, and shipping logistics. The result has been longe…

Klaviyo, the marketing tech company that went public on the New York Stock Exchange last September, has an internal motto that’s meant to motivate its employees and make them less afraid of failure: “We’re 1% done.“CEO Andrew Bialecki compared the idea to the progress bar that might appear on your screen when you’re downloading a software update. If the progress bar shows that the download is only 1% done, you don’t worry too much about closing your laptop and trying again later since you weren’…

Jack Ma, Alibaba and Ant Group founder, has been making moves during the last year after a lengthy hiatus. Ma, who disappeared from public view in 2020 and resurfaced in Thailand in January 2023, most recently made news when The New York Times reported in January of this year that he had been buying up Alibaba shares again.Ma faced a crackdown from Chinese regulators in 2020 that resulted in an antitrust investigation, a suspended IPO, and Ma losing $12 billion of his fortune in just a few month…

Temu is expected to open its marketplace to sellers in the US and Europe in the coming weeks, and US-based Amazon sellers are telling Business Insider they’re eager to launch their businesses on the platform.Temu, which is owned by Chinese retail giant Pinduoduo Holdings, has so far operated using a “managed marketplace” model that includes having manufacturers consolidate their inventory into warehouses in China and then ship to consumers across borders from there. Temu manages product listings…

Things have gotten tougher for apps in the Shopify ecosystem.The ranks of Shopify’s App Store have swelled to more than 10,000 apps — up from about 7,000 in 2021 — and competition has grown among developers building software for e-commerce merchants.Startups building for Shopify merchants are having to justify the costs of their offerings as they compete with each other in an ecosystem some are saying has become oversaturated.A main proposition of the Shopify App Store is that merchants can find…

The judge overseeing a case brought by more than 60 former clients of Wealth Assistants has denied their lawyers’ request for a preliminary injunction against the company.Lawyers representing Wealth Assistants’ former clients sought to freeze assets belonging to CEO Ryan Carroll, his mentor and business partner Max K. Day, Day’s nephew Max O. Day, and their companies.Wealth Assistants was an “Amazon automation” company that promised to help its clients find success on Amazon by managing the back…

Shopify’s decision to raise prices on its Plus subscription plans has got people talking about the effects it could have on developers and startups building in its ecosystem.The Canadian e-commerce company told merchants last week it would be raising prices on its Plus plans by 25% from $2,000 to $2,500 a month for merchants on a one-year term. If merchants sign up for a three-year term, they will be charged $2,300 monthly. Merchants can keep their current rates if they opt into a three-year con…

Shopify told merchants on Thursday that prices would be going up for its more expensive Plus plan, according to screenshots viewed by Business Insider.The change comes one year after Shopify raised prices for its base subscription plan. That change has positively impacted Shopify’s bottom line. Wall Street analysts have since been looking for the company to raise prices for Plus, which is geared toward larger merchants.Prices for Plus are increasing from $2,000 to $2,500 a month for merchants on…

Shopify revealed the newest version of its fulfillment offerings as part of its semiannual product event, Shopify Editions, on January 31.The new app has a familiar name: Shopify Fulfillment Network. It’s the same name Shopify previously used for the network of physical warehouses it planned to operate itself before selling off its entire logistics business and laying off workers in 2023. Shopify had also previously called that business unit Shopify Logistics.But despite the familiar name, the n…

Brothers Liam, 23, and Travis Gerada, 20, were Shopify merchants before they decided to get into the more technical side of e-commerce.Together, they ran a streetwear store without the high prices shoppers typically see in the resale market, especially with sneakers.As the business grew, its tech stack became increasingly complicated. The brothers felt they had outgrown what was being offered on Shopify and other e-commerce platforms. They found that running a modern e-commerce business requires…

TikTok is making it harder to get free shipping on its e-commerce platform, Shop.It increased the minimum amount of spending most users must shell out to qualify for free shipping from $20 as of October to $25 as of January 22 for repeat buyers, per company documentation viewed by Business Insider. The threshold for free shipping will remain at $5 for first-time buyers.The increase won’t apply to all purchasers, as TikTok sets different shipping thresholds for some users as it tests consumer app…

Temu was among the fastest-growing large websites in the US last year, according to a new analysis by Similarweb.The shopping destination from Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo Holdings saw web and mobile traffic increase by more than 700% year over year, reaching an average of 92.2 million monthly visits.When considering only websites with more than 10 million monthly visits, Temu came in second only to OpenAI, which saw its traffic grow by 2,690% in 2023 as AI exploded into the mainstream.“Th…

Shopify has been doubling down on software to make it easier for its engineers to build software.During its investor day in early December, leaders at the Canadian e-commerce company gave a detailed look into some of the internal operating systems it has recently built for its workforce. The systems largely emphasize efficiency, which has been a top priority for Shopify in the wake of its mass layoffs in 2022 and 2023.CEO Tobi Lütke said during the investor day presentation that the goal was to…

Mike Wimmer had already been considering selling on Amazon when he started seeing ads on TikTok for a company called Wealth Assistants.He wanted an Amazon store because it could offer a second income stream while he worked his full-time engineering job and his wife stayed home with their two young children, he told Business Insider.Amazon’s vast marketplace is home to millions of products sold by third-party sellers. Those sellers can generate sales by uploading items into a digital store, then…

The future of retail is in AI — at least, e-commerce companies are betting on it.Large companies such as eBay and Amazon, as well as newer startups, are building AI tools to change how people shop online. Social-media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram are also incorporating AI to get more people to use their shop features. What’s more, AI could help e-commerce companies cut operating expenses.It’s not just the companies using AI — the sellers using these sites are also using AI. Sellers on…

2023 was a difficult year for startups, and e-commerce was no exception.Venture funding has been more difficult to come by in general. E-commerce returned to normal growth rates following the explosion of the pandemic’s early days. And, there has been lots of uncertainty around consumer confidence amid inflation and mass layoffs.But, some VCs are still looking to invest in e-commerce, particularly in companies that build the tech to make it easier to sell online.Insider tapped the top VC firms i…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Mikey Kim, an entrepreneur in Nevada. The following has been edited for length and clarity.My brand, Hemlock Park, was born in Los Angeles during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns. I’d been laid off from my full-time job as the CMO of a rug startup that hadn’t yet launched. It seemed like a good time to try launching a new business I could run from home.I had made some natural bath-and-body products for myself before, so I thought I’d give candle-m…

Shopify recently announced that its consumer-facing Shop app is now available on the web. Like on the app, shoppers using the new site can search for and purchase products from across Shopify’s merchant base.At first glance, the new site draws a comparison to online marketplaces like Amazon. When a shopper types in a search query, it displays similar products from different merchants next to each other.Shopify executives have long said the company does not want to build a marketplace where shopp…