Shopify Finance combines financial management and e-commerce

American e-commerce platform Shopify has taken another step towards diversifying its services. The company recently unveiled Shopify Finance, which, as its name suggests, aims to offer financial services directly to businesses and merchants on the platform.

FACTS

• Shopify Finance is presented as a new financial services brick, directly integrated into the management spaces of online stores managed on the platform.
• The new block of services is aimed at merchants operating on Shopify, to help them manage not only their sales, but also their finances from now on.
• Shopify Finance advocates a unified management approach, offering a number of financial services:
  • Shopify Balance, a basic version of a free interest-bearing current account, into which revenues from sales made on the platform can be deposited in just 24 hours, and offering various transfer services, for example;
  • Shopify Credits, credit offers (credit cards or Shopify Capital);
  • Shopify Bill Pay, an easy bill payment service, via any payment method;
  • Shopify Tax, a tax management tool.
• Shopify Finance is accessible directly from the store dashboard, enabling merchants to access these new services from their daily management space (via which they already manage their customer requests, orders or stock).

CHALLENGES

• All-in-one service: for several years now, Shopify has sought to build a turnkey service platform for e-merchants. Payment and financial services are indeed among the services capable of making life easier for Shopify's main target group: merchants.
• Centralizing its offerings: With Shopify Finance, the e-commerce giant is seeking to centralize services in-house. Shopify Finance will enable Shopify to offer its financial services from a single, centralized space, along with its core online store management offerings.
• Supporting small merchants: Shopify is highlighting the fact that, according to a Shopify-Gallup Entrepreneurship study conducted last May, 40% of entrepreneurs cite financial risk as an obstacle to starting a business.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• This isn't the first time Shopify has entered the financial services market. In May 2023, the American e-commerce giant already offered a bill payment tool. Developed in partnership with Melio, this service was based on a module already called “Bill Pay”, to simplify the payment and management of B2B invoices.
• More recently, in August 2023, Shopify also got involved in the democratization of crypto-currencies by integrating a plugin of Solana Labs' decentralized payment protocol, Solana Pay, into its platform. The aim was to enable millions of businesses operating on Shopify to use it to accept USDC payments.