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Comment by madamelic | Hacker News Reader

This is beyond grasping at straws.

Shopify performs a service, Herbalife does not. Shopify recruits people, Herbalife sells inventory.

I don't see Shopify asking for upfront payments from their affiliates.

Not to mention the fact that a successful Shopify store relies on skill at SEO, social media and picking the right products. Herbalife relies on being early enough in the "reverse funnel" and having a lot of people downstream (not skill).

There is literally no similarities between Shopify and HerbaLife beyond a program recruiting people, which basically every large site has.

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The article explicitly lists many more similarities listed than that. 'Quit your job for Shopify', claims about how the platform makes people millionaires in days with people sitting in Ferraris. I like Shopify from what I've seen at tech events but that's some very sketchy marketing.

Shopify Digest is their newsletter.

Here are the topics I have received for a store recently (I'm sure it's targeted).

-Protect your reputation using social media

-Lifelong learnings for entrepreneurs

-Get the perfect photo

-6 Bulletproof ways to improve conversions

-How to track your marketing campaign

If I look at a few months of emails, there is only 1 that is "make millions type" and it's titled "How two entrepreneurs generated $91,470 in 3 months"[1] and it's an interview with the store owners. I don't see anything wrong with that.

https://www.shopify.com/blog/14917217-how-two-ecommerce-entr...

The sketchy marketing I see for Shopify (FBA, dropshipping) is from users who are selling a course they made.

There's one overlap where there might be a bit of tooth is in the possible revenue claims which seems like a big portion of what Herbalife actually got hit for it seems, though I'm not really familiar with the exact details of the FTC's findings in the Herbalife case.

Other than that though there's very little relation between the two Shopify really doesn't sound like a pyramid scheme even from this page.

If you're in the mood for a documentary 'Betting on Zero' is pretty good. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3762912/

Saw it. Just don't remember so much and didn't read in depth at the time so no idea what may have been glossed over or slanted in that documentary.

But nothing I saw seemed to claim you could become a millionaire by participating in the affiliate program.

And in reality, if you have a good product and decent marketing skills you could use Shopify to build an online store and easily become a millionaire. It's not a stretch, IF you have a good product and decent marketing skills.

What? They're basically the same thing. Herbalife sets you up with a way to be a solo salesman, just like Shopify. Both sell inventory.[0] (Note: Shopify acquired Oberlo in May)

>Not to mention the fact that a successful Shopify store relies on skill at SEO, social media and picking the right products. Herbalife relies on being early enough in the "reverse funnel" and having a lot of people downstream (not skill).

Silly! Don't you know that Herbalife relies on skill at salesmanship, networking and picking the right products.[1] Shopify on the other hand relies on you being early enough in the "reverse funnel" and having a lot of people downstream.

The crash-and-burn charts Citron links to are also pretty damning. This seems almost exactly like Herbalife from where I'm sitting.

[0] https://www.shopify.com/oberlo

[1] http://products.herbalife.com/product_catalog

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