As of late we’ve seen a trend of eCommerce providers moving to capture more B2B customers. Most recently, there was a material partnership announced between Faire, our #1 ranked B2B marketplace and SaaS eCommerce leader Shopify.
The partnership involves Shopify’s promotion of Faire’s B2B marketplace solution to Shopify’s retailer customers. Faire can help Shopify’s retailers procure materials for their stores through their B2B marketplace. In the other direction, Faire can help promote Shopify’s point-of-sale software for Faire’s retailers to use in their stores.
Interestingly, there’s no mention of Faire’s suppliers using Shopify’s B2B eCommerce platform…
B2B eCommerce: Vertical Specific > Horizontal?
Our takeaway is that the Faire + Shopify partnership is a win for all vertical-specific B2B eCommerce tools. Shopify is the epitome of a horizontal eCommerce technology company. So, the fact that they partnered with a vertical specific B2B marketplace like Faire is a big deal. Especially because the partnership doesn’t seem to involve Shopify’s B2B tech.
Shopify + Faire (Our #1 ranked B2B marketplace)
Over the last 18 months Shopify has been building out a suite of B2B tools for its merchant base. You’d think Shopify would want to promote these B2B tools to Faire’s network of over 100,000 brands. But, that wasn’t even mentioned in the partnership announcement.
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