AI will help small businesses compete with retail giants, says Shopify president

Commerce platform Shopify has transacted more than $1 trillion (€921.4 billion) in gross merchandise volume (GMV) since its founding in 2006.

What started as a company to support small businesses has grown into a retail giant, with brands like MattelGlossier and, more recently, Ami Paris joining the platform.

High fashion brands that had traditionally declared “we will never sell online” are now also exploring e-commerce. Does this mean the end of high street shopping?

In this episode of The Big Question, Hannah Brown sits down with Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify, to discuss the future of retail and how AI could level the playing field for SMEs.

How is the retail industry changing?

Before joining the company in 2009, Harley was an early adopter of the company and created a t-shirt business while in law school.

“I remember hitting the release button to publish it and immediately starting selling to a global audience around the world and that changed my life,” Harley recalls.

“It showed me that the future of retail is global by default, that it doesn’t really matter how much capital you have, it matters how much passion, how good your brand is, how good your product is.”

When asked about the big difference between the North American and European markets right now, he noted that Europeans are voting with their wallets to buy the brands they love. “There’s really more intentionality, instead of buying ten products indiscriminately, they choose the three products that are really meaningful to them, from brands that they really love and that speak to consumers.”

In the first quarter of this year, Shopify has seen 60 billion dollars (55 billion euros) pass through its stores, a year-on-year increase of 23%.

As shopping trends develop, Shopify moves too.

“If you want to be a relevant modern brand in the future, you must be able to sell on all surfaces where consumers spend their time.”

Many high-end brands whose traditional focus has been on creating an in-person shopping experience, such as Donna Karen, The Row and Isabel Marant, have begun to explore how that experience can be translated online. While other online brands, like Glossier, have built a huge following online and then looked to create an in-person experience.

Shopify has now partnered with GoogleMeta, Instagram, Tik Tok and Snap to facilitate commerce directly through those platforms now as well.

“Social media is this incredibly democratizing marketing tactic where, instead of traditional marketing or traditional advertising, where the company with the most money always won, now the company with the most creativity wins,” Harley adds.

Being everywhere at once sounds like a pretty big task for a small business startup, but Harley suggests starting with one, discovering your consumer, and then reverse engineering the rest of your retail experiences.

“It’s not necessarily about one against the other. There is retail everywhere.”

What is the secret to a successful eCommerce business?

While Harley didn’t necessarily have the answer to the key ingredient to success, he did emphasize that failure is totally normal and, in fact, it is often the path to success.

“A lot of people talk about stories like Gymshark (now a billion-dollar brand), for example, what you may not know is that Gymshark wasn’t Ben’s first company.

“He tried a few things before landing on Gymshark, which turned out to be a great business and I think Ben is now the youngest billionaire in the UK.”

One key tip Harley shared was resilience – keep expenses as low as possible so that if you have a bad week, it’s not the end of your business.

How can AI help e-commerce?

While it may seem impossible for small businesses to compete with well-established big brands, Harley is confident in AI could level the playing field.

Wearing Generative AIShopify’s own feature is called Shopify Magic, SMBs that may have only a handful of employees can generate text for product descriptions or produce product images at a level far beyond their normal limitations.

The great questionis a Euronews Business series in which we sit down with industry leaders and experts to discuss some of the biggest issues on the current agenda.

Watch the video above to see the full conversation with Shopify.

Journalist •Hannah Brown

Video editor • Joanna Adhem