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Comment by technotarek | Hacker News Reader

It's hard to see Shopify resolving the issues at hand. The costs associated with mom n pop e-commerce are ultimately too high (eg investments in SEO). The same could be said for similar platforms like SquareSpace or Wix that offer e-commerce.

I have a side project that monitors mom n pop sites -- take for example vintage clothing store sites in New York City. The landscape has become a ghost town, with hundreds of previous sites now abandoned. They've largely moved to platforms like Etsy or Instagram.

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I don't understand why Shopify doesn't create a search engine for Shopify products. Overnight they would become a powerhouse akin to Amazon and solve the #1 issue faced by sellers -- product discovery.

The #2 issue Shopify sellers face is fulfillment, but IIRC they are investing $1B+ in building out their own FCs across the US. (Which is peanuts, but a step in the right direction)

> I don't understand why Shopify doesn't create a search engine for Shopify products. Overnight they would become a powerhouse akin to Amazon and solve the #1 issue faced by sellers -- product discovery.

I don't see the appeal. I really, really like Shopify as a seller and would always recommend it to someone looking to sell online, regardless of volume. However as a customer I couldn't care less about a Shop's backend as long as I have a pleasant shopping and ordering experience. And Shopify alone doesn't guarantee that.

A general search engine and price comparison for online stores/products, regardless of platform, is more appealing, but I think we already have that, at least here in Germany with Idealo, Geizhals or Google Shopping.

Of course, when Shopify can provide fast, Prime-like shipping with their new fulfillment plans that's an actual appeal worth searching for.

It would be a search engine of _______? I'm not sure there is a clear answer there and it poses a huge challenge to marketability.

Care to share some details about your side project? It sounds really interesting.

Funnily enough, my wife has a niche within a niche within a niche website selling German vintage items to Japan. The unexplained drop in traffic was quite sharp around oct-nov 2017 if I recall. She’s promoting things on Instagram and has some loyal followers, but it’s still quite a struggle.

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