---
Title: "What Shopify’s Bold New Moves Mean for D2C Commerce"
Date: "2019-06-26T12:56:41+00:00"
---

Shopify’s stock soared to record heights after COO Harley Finkelstein officially declared the platform one of the **three key players in commerce, alongside Amazon and eBay.**

This came alongside an impressive salvo of product announcements, including deeper expansion into **offline retail,** advancements to **support global merchants and businesses,** and, most notably, a fulfillment network offering **two-day shipping** in the US. Combine this news with the $41.1 billion in total sales by merchants using the platform in 2018 alone, and it becomes clear that Shopify is readying itself to unseat Amazon.

More than anything, Shopify’s announcements signify a new era for brands. Everyone from one-woman-show entrepreneurs up to multi-million-dollar businesses will be empowered to curate exceptional buyer experiences, from product discovery all the way through to fulfillment.

“Shopify is democratizing access to an end-to-end commerce platform so every retailer or brand can execute ‘at or above’ Amazon-like efficiency without the need to build the infrastructure — similar to what AWS did for startups,” explained Yotpo CEO and Co-founder Tomer Tagrin.

**So: what exactly do these developments look like? As always, our Partner Team attended Shopify Unite to get the insights.**

## Winning the instant gratification game with two-day shipping

By the end of this year, American merchants on the platform will have access to a fulfillment network offering two-day shipping. For now, Shopify is starting off by offering early access to merchants who ship between 10 and 10,000 items per day.

**“We plan on spending over $1 billion to build and operate the Shopify Fulfillment Network over the next few years,”** said Chief Product Officer Craig Miller at the Unite conference. While Shopify will be running some warehouses directly, they ultimately plan to work with third-party companies to manage warehouses and delivery.

For emerging brands, being able to offer customers a first-class shipping experience from day one is a game-changer. No longer will these small companies have to play catch up with major brands, or lose shoppers to Amazon because of the convenience factor. Additionally, **merchants will be able to use custom-branded packaging, enhancing the unboxing experience.**

## Let’s take this offline

Shopify POS is already driving billions in sales out in the wild, giving [growing direct-to-consumer brands](https://www.d2crevolution.com/) the chance to build a seamless face-to-face connection with their customers.

At Unite, the product team announced that the upgraded POS will feature:

- Faster checkout, refunds, and exchanges
- Multiple location and global searches
- Improved design for retail staff, including smart grids
- Scalability with unlimited products, staff permissions, and quick access to apps
- A unified backoffice to sync customers, inventory, and orders across all locations

## Going global

Shopify is serious about international brand-building, taking actions to directly address the challenges faced by merchants handling sales across countries.

Businesses on Shopify Plus can now use a single account to access multiple stores and brands across geographies. They also will be able to manage global users across their organizations in a one place and to enable international workflows. The option to auto-build a new storefront in a single click using the unified admin will make it easier for merchants to expand global operations even faster.

In addition to the changes for Plus users, **all merchants on Shopify will have access to multicurrency,** empowering small businesses around the world. The new multi-language API also allows brands to localize the content on their site and translate everything from product pages to blog content to suit the local market.

## A brave new world of commerce

Shopfiy is posed to **[profoundly shake up the entire commerce industry](https://www.d2crevolution.com/)**. Their recent announcements are particularly significant for [direct-to-consumer brands](/direct-to-consumer-ecommerce-marketing/), for whom the ability to own and influence the entire buyer experience is a key differentiator.

Budding D2C merchants will now find themselves able to provide a shipping experience on par with Amazon, complete with branded packaging. Enhanced POS for a more seamless sales process, as well as features optimizing international commerce complete the picture. Many of the long-standing barriers to entry and pain points for these brands will be significantly reduced or eliminated altogether.

From on-site experience all the way through to fulfillment, Shopify is enabling [direct-to-consumer commerce](https://www.d2crevolution.com/) wherever it’s happening. We can’t wait to see the doors this will open for our[ thousands of shared customers.](https://www.d2crevolution.com/)