More recent hires include Kal Stephen, who joined Shopify in January as head of enterprise for lifestyle after more than six years as sales leader for Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Holly Dresden joined Shopify in December as head of enterprise merchant success after six years at Salesforce Commerce Cloud.
Shopify's head of enterprise revenue and head of enterprise consumer products are also Salesforce veterans. The Canadian e-commerce platform has hired more than 10 account executives and several engineering leaders from Salesforce since 2021.
Shopify has also hired a few account executives with experience at Adobe and SAP, but at a smaller rate.
Shopify's mainstay has long been small businesses, but over the past 18 months it has made a concerted effort to introduce more software solutions and acquire larger sellers. We've enhanced Shopify Plus, our top subscription with more features, and launched Hydrogen, a more custom framework for retailers with more complex needs.
During an appearance at NRF's Big Show, one of the largest conferences for large retailers in 2023, Shopify announced Commerce Components, a service that allows retailers to integrate parts of Shopify's software into their existing technology stack. introduced. Mattel was the product's first retail partner, and Everlane has since adopted Shop Pay as a standalone component.
A Shopify spokesperson said the company is “transforming enterprise commerce.”
“We give the world's largest and most complex enterprises the fastest way to build across a composable or headless full stack,” they said. “The speed, performance, and optionality of our products, combined with the innovation and scale that millions of businesses trust, have made Shopify the leading commerce solution for businesses around the world.”
Shopify and Salesforce face off
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. Evan Agostini
As it moves into the enterprise space, Shopify hasn't always been wary of focusing on Salesforce as a competitor. The company recently launched a webpage comparing its platform to Salesforce Commerce Cloud and encouraging merchants to “join the massive migration” of brands migrating from Salesforce to Shopify. This page cites research from an anonymous “Big 3 consulting firm” that says Shopify checkout conversions are 36% faster than Salesforce.
They also say that Shopify's total cost of ownership is on average 35% better than Salesforce. Total cost of ownership (TCO) is a term often used in enterprise software marketing materials to describe the overall cost of purchasing and using technology.
Michael Affronti, senior vice president and general manager of Salesforce Commerce Cloud, said in an interview that Shopify's claims about TCO are like comparing “apples to oranges.” Most of Salesforce's customers are multinational companies with hundreds of sites, he said.
“When we talk to large enterprise customers, they are typically less concerned about TCO and more concerned about how quickly they can recoup their TCO in terms of site speed improvements, conversions, etc. ” Affronti said.
Comparing Salesforce's and Shopify's products Salesforce's own page states that after implementing Salesforce, its customers have seen a 27% increase in return on investment and a 30% increase in employee productivity. .
According to a company spokesperson, Salesforce has been unable to provide support to Shopify merchants who want to make the switch because Shopify's platform lacks advanced features, such as the ability to implement dynamic pricing based on state liquor laws. It is said that they have also received inquiries.
Affronti highlighted Salesforce's reliability, saying that during Cyber Week 2023, the period between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the entire platform had 100% uptime for the second year in a row.
“We've spent a lot of time on reliability, reliability and security, and we've considered that to be a pretty big cornerstone of the platform,” he said. “This is probably one of the biggest drivers for these big brands to stake their multinational commercial footprint on us.”
“It's not a muscle Shopify has had to exercise before.”
Rick Watson, CEO and founder of RMW Commerce Consulting, said it makes sense for Shopify to focus on taking market share from Salesforce. Both platforms are cloud-based and have app stores where sellers can find their third-party software. Both charge sellers a percentage of sales, but their exact pricing approaches differ.
Salesforce entered e-commerce in 2016 with its $2.8 billion acquisition of Demandware.
“The type of customers who choose Salesforce is also similar to the type of customers who choose Shopify,” Watson said. “Shopify believes its platform is sophisticated enough that, as Demandware initially did, it is open to others who believe its platform is suitable for their business.” It means you can do it.”
But winning against enterprise retailers requires a different approach, one that Salesforce has more years of experience with than Shopify.
When getting started with Shopify, small businesses typically sign up for the platform on their own or work with an agency to onboard them. However, contracts with enterprise retailers typically require more steps and time, and often require multiple executives to evaluate differences between vendors and all potential costs involved. Get involved. Using new software could also mean working with systems integrators like Accenture and EY, which help major retailers compare products from different vendors, to expedite adoption. there is.
This effort requires a larger team dedicated to enterprise businesses than Shopify has traditionally employed. They make their first sale to a large retailer and then continually follow up to ensure their needs are met.
“The thought process of a company buying new technology is much deeper than, say, an individual entrepreneur starting a sneaker store,” said Oppenheimer analyst Ken Wong. “This is not a muscle that Shopify has had to flex in the past.”
talk about companies
Poaching employees from Salesforce isn't the only way Shopify has tried to acquire enterprise customers. We also use leading retailer terminology, such as TCO, and have seen it highlighted in research reports such as Gartner's Magic Quadrant and IDC MarketScape.
“Three years ago they never participated in these competitive analyzes,” Wong said. “Now they are mentioned consistently.”
Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify. Shopify/AP Images
In January, Shopify announced a partnership with Mirakl to help retailers sell on a larger marketplace, and a partnership with Manhattan Associates to build omnichannel capabilities for enterprise brands.
Shopify had a big presence at the Shoptalk retail conference in March. Ads at the conference described Shopify as “the future of enterprise commerce” and “the only platform focused on commerce,” which some saw as a subtle attack on traditional providers like Salesforce and Adobe. .
Shopify is currently hiring a CTO for our Enterprise Consumer Goods team.
“As a trusted representative, you will play a key role in meeting the needs of large customers looking to migrate to Shopify,” the job posting says. “Your primary responsibilities will be to provide technical expertise, build trust, and guide customers through the migration process to ensure they clearly understand the benefits and downstream impacts of implementing Shopify.” .”
Shopify says more innovation is coming.
“Just as we have developed a robust ecosystem for entrepreneurs and small businesses, these partnerships further strengthen our strategic position as a key player in the enterprise sector across all aspects of commerce. “We're emphasizing that,” said Harley Finkelstein, president of Shopify, during Shopify's fourth-quarter earnings call in February.
“This is steadily paving the way for Shopify to reach more enterprises, and we plan to build on that momentum and expand our presence this year.”
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