• by P.J. Bednarski , May 8, 2018

Shopify, the cloud-based platform that gives retailers a way for its customers to use ecommerce technology and stay out of shopping centers, seems to taking a page from Apple stores: It will open a brick-and-mortar store where retailers can come for information and product demonstrations. 

“More of our merchants opened retail stores last year than ever before,” a spokeswoman told Marketing Daily in an email conversation. “We want more online-first merchants to open retail stores, and more retail stores to run online — because, ultimately, that’s going to lead to more merchant success.”

The outlet will open this year, and Shopify, headquartered in Ottawa, Canada wouldn’t be more specific about its location except to say it will be in the United States.  

“We know that entrepreneurship can be lonely, isolating and hard so we wanted to create a hub where people can gather to find support, inspiration and community,” she adds.

Shopify improvements are an interesting snapshot showing the various —and rapidly changing — technologies consumers use to browse, shop and pay for goods, and how merchants can keep track of it.

Shopify platforms are used by 600,000 businesses in around 75 countries, and, among other items, Shopify also said today that it is launching a beta program that offers German, Japanese, French, Spanish, Brazilian, Portuguese and Italian language and local payment and cashless payment methods. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) competitors include Magento and Bigcommerce. Amazon Webstore, which had competed with the 12-year-old Shopify, exited the field in 2015. 

The physical store is probably the most surprising announcement to come out of its third annual Unite conference for the international ecommerce development community that began Tuesday in Toronto. 

It also unveiled its Tap & Chip Reader that will accept all major contactless payments, including Apple Pay and Google Pay. 

“With the evolving retail landscape, we’re dedicated to unlocking the tools multi-channel retailers need to succeed in-stores, says Shopify’s Satish Kanwar, vice president and general manager of its Channels division. With Tap & Chip, he says  retailers and customers will be able to focus on conversations, not credit cards.”

Shopify planned to use the conference to give details of its new Shopify Kit, a “virtual employee” and Shopify Ping, a new app the company says will help users streamline business conversations and marketing opportunities. One of its new products is called Locations, which allows  retailers to manage inventory across multiple locations.