Shopify is a Canada-based multinational e-commerce platform that allows small business owners to set up their online stores and sell locally produced products across the internet. In a recent merchant data report based on 2021, Shopify revealed that its merchant partners from India sold their products to over 70 million buyers across the globe.
An average Indian merchant on Shopify sold his products in 10 international markets. The United States, the United Kingdom and Australia are among top countries where Indian merchants sold their products.
The boom of online shopping during the pandemic has meant more Indian merchants are now selling to more countries and international consumers than ever before.
Bharati Balakrishnan, director and country head, Shopify India
Entering New Markets
Heaping praise on its merchant partners from India, Shopify admitted that they are “accelerating growth by tapping into new international markets to offset challenging macroeconomic pressures”.
“The boom of online shopping during the pandemic has meant more Indian merchants are now selling to more countries and international consumers than ever before,” Shopify India director and country head Bharati Balakrishnan said as quoted by inc42.com.
“However, with competition on the rise, expanding to new markets without a localised consumer experience means merchants leave untapped potential on the table,” Bharati added.
In the Asia-Pacific region, the Canadian e-commerce giant has witnessed a growth of 67.9 percent, claimed Shopify’s research conducted in April 2021. Shopify provides merchants with essential tools and technology to sell products online. Merchants from over 175 countries are part of Shopify ecosystem.
Shopify in Australia
With strong hold over e-commerce markets based in the US, Canada and the United Kingdom, Shopify is now ramping up its presence in Australia and India. In August, the platform launched Shopify Capital in Australia to lend funding to Australian merchants selling on its retail platform. Now small business owners in Australia can access up to $2.5 million AUD, after analysing sales data and assessing risk.
Shopify Capital offers range from $200 to $1 million to support the growth needs of each individual business owner, like Riaz from Hearthy Foods, who used funding to update his branding and packaging pic.twitter.com/Ix6gotB2Kp
— Shopify (@Shopify) February 19, 2020
“Today, almost 40% of Australian merchants on Shopify sell internationally through features like Shopify Markets, and access to working capital through Shopify Capital now gives merchants greater scope to build their brand both here and internationally,” Shopify had stated.
Shopify in India
To capture Indian market, Shopify partnered with India’s preferred payments app Paytm, joined hands with Interakt to boost sales ahead of festive season and announced Commerce Day 2022 SEA & India, to be held on September 15, 2022, Thursday, from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm (SGT). Merchants can learn new ways of customer engagement in this event.
India’s Payment Option
Shopify’s partnership with Paytm aims to help merchants collect payments seamlessly with Paytm Payment Gateway. Launched in June 2021, Paytm Payment Gateway is now integrated to the Shopify Payments platform. With the rapid boom of e-commerce in India, merchants are adopting digital payments to increase their businesses.
Talking about the collaboration, Nakul Jain, CEO, Paytm Payment Services Limited said, “Our partnership with Shopify will bring benefits of seamless activation and superfast payments, to thousands of merchants on their platform. As pioneers of digital payments in the country, we remain committed to empowering our merchant partners with innovative omnichannel payment solutions”.
India’s Festive Shopping Season
Like the West is gearing up for Black Friday Cyber Monday, India is approaching its own festive season, including Dussehra and Diwali. Shopify and Interakt will provide customers with easy shopping experience on WhatsApp this festive season. With just a single click, carts on WhatsApp chat can be turned into orders on Shopify.
The Shopify-WhatsApp integration powered by Interakt aims to make the order placing and payment process an effortless job on WhatsApp itself. The automated checkout workflow also enhances the customer’s experience.
“Our research shows more than three quarters (76 per cent) of Indian consumers plan to shop online in the lead up to Diwali, and Interakt’s seamless Shopify-WhatsApp integration gives merchants the ability to connect with customers throughout their online journey. It’s a simple and effective plug-in for your online store to boost acquisition, conversion, support, and loyalty through conversational commerce with customers over the festive shopping season,” Siddhant Rana, Market Development Lead India & South Asia, Shopify, had said.
