The world's best platform is investing in B2B.
It is no wonder that the Shopify platform has become the leading tool for helping entrepreneurs of various niches and sizes automate their businesses. The platform recently made a discreet acquisition to continue expanding the services and products that merchants can buy and sell through its platform, without the need for intermediaries. It acquired Handshake, a New York startup that offers a platform for businesses that sell wholesale products. The deal value was not disclosed, but sources close to the matter estimate it to be around US$100 million.
This is a major step for a segment that has been growing increasingly rapidly worldwide: a recent report found that B2B e-commerce sales in the United States alone surpassed US$1 trillion for the first time in 2018. Just as with consumer-focused sales (B2C), platforms like Handshake give merchants the ability to handle these sales directly, rather than outsourcing them to third-party marketplaces, where merchants must also pay a commission to the third party and comply with its rules.
Note: A few weeks ago, Mailchimp and Shopify stopped working together, and Shopify discovered just days later that Mailchimp had also quietly acquired an e-commerce startup to begin building more of its own purchasing tools for its customers.
This acquisition by Shopify highlights how it is also growing and expanding its business—albeit in a way that puts it in closer competition with companies like Alibaba and Amazon, which have established strong positions as B2B marketplaces.
Great things are certainly on the horizon, and the e-commerce market stands to benefit!
