Learn how to build your Amazon or Shopify business with a $25 online course
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Learn to build your own Amazon or Shopify business in three-courses
TL;DR: Learn to build your own Amazon or Shopify business in three online courses with the Amazon FBA and Shopify Drop-Shipping Business Model and Strategies Bundle on sale for just $24.97.
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Amazon FBA & Shopify Drop-Shipping: The Business Model and Strategies Bundle
$24.97 at The Mashable Shop $597.00 Save $572.03
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Starting your own business might sound complicated, but it's not all brick and mortars and figuring out where people buy those huge ribbon-cutting scissors. In fact, starting your own business can be as easy as opening up an Amazon or Shopify store and sending out a few packages.
The Amazon FBA and Shopify Drop-Shipping Business Model and Strategies Bundle breaks down the practicalities of building a business on either of these super popular platforms. There's only three courses, so it's not as big a lift as getting a whole business degree, and the whole bundle is even on sale for just $24.97 (reg. $597).
Why start drop-shipping?There's a ton of reasons to start a business, but the reason to start drop-shipping really comes down to two things: you can make money, and you might not have to change out of your pajamas.
Between the courses on Amazon FBA (which just stands for Fulfilled By Amazon), and Shopify Dropshipping, you have six hours of video lessons breaking down the how, what, and why of building a business on both of these platforms.
The key takeaway is that with Amazon, you have an established platform with a ton of traffic, but your little shop might get lost unless you follow the guides to stand out. Conversely, Shopify gives you more control, but then you're in charge of everything, including figuring out how to get traffic your way.
Great for aspiring business ownersFind out how you can start your own Amazon or Shopify business. Get the Amazon FBA and Shopify Drop-Shipping Business Model and Strategies Bundle for $24.97.
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Shopify: Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Shopify's (NYSE: SHOP) shares hit a record high of $169.06 on Nov. 19, 2021. The e-commerce platform impressed the bulls with its accelerating growth, which was driven primarily by businesses selling more products online during the pandemic. The buying frenzy in growth and meme stocks amplified those gains.
Trading at about $60 today, Shopify's stock has dropped a long way from those highs. The business has lost its luster over the past three years as it lapped its pandemic-driven acceleration and faced tougher inflationary headwinds. Rising interest rates also popped its bubbly valuations -- a painful drawdown for investors who bought the stock near the top. But is Shopify worth buying again now?
Image source: Getty Images.
The reasons to buy ShopifyThe bulls still love Shopify because its business model is disruptive. By providing self-service tools that enable anyone to open an online store, process payments, fulfill orders, and launch online marketing campaigns, Shopify makes it easy for merchants to break free from large online marketplaces like Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN).
There's still plenty of demand for its services. From 2013 to 2023, its revenue grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 64% -- from $50 million to $7.06 billion. The growth in gross merchandise volume (GMV), gross payment volume (GPV), and revenue cooled off in 2022 after the pandemic-related tailwinds dissipated, but all three metrics stabilized in 2023.
Metric
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
GMV growth
49%
96%
47%
12%
20%
GPV growth
55%
110%
59%
24%
29%
Revenue growth
47%
86%
57%
21%
26%
Data source: Shopify.
From 2023 to 2026, analysts expect Shopify's revenue to expand at a CAGR of 21%. That growth could be driven by the company's new Magic and Sidekick generative AI tools along with the expansion of its Shop Pay payments platform, its Shop Cash rewards program, and its point-of-sale hardware business for brick-and-mortar merchants. It's also locking in its merchants with more tools serving credit, expense management, and cross border e-commerce.
Shopify also integrated Amazon's "Buy with Prime" buttons into its stores last year. The partnership, which allows Prime members to make one-click purchases on Shopify and access free delivery options via Amazon's fulfillment network, should allay concerns that the e-commerce giant is trying to snuff out Shopify with those buttons for independent merchants.
In June 2023, Shopify divested its capital-intensive logistics division (which it previously expanded through its acquisitions of 6 River Systems in 2019 and Deliverr in 2022). The sale halted its plans of building a first-party logistics network, but it should reduce its costs by driving its merchants to fulfill their orders through its third-party logistics partners.
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Analysts expect that shift, as well as thousands of layoffs, to boost its net margin from 3% in 2023 to 17% in 2026. Its net profit is expected to grow at a CAGR of 137% on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis between 2023 and 2026.
The reasons to sell ShopifyShopify is still well-positioned to grow over the next few years as the e-commerce market expands and more merchants shift away from Amazon's third-party marketplace. It will also benefit from the secular growth of "social shopping" -- since a lot of its smaller merchants peddle their products on ByteDance's TikTok, Meta's Instagram, Pinterest, and other social media platforms.
However, the stock's valuations already reflect a lot of those growth expectations. At roughly $60, Shopify trades at 176 times this year's GAAP EPS estimate. With an enterprise value of $96 billion, it's still valued at 11 times this year's sales. By comparison, Amazon trades at 39 times forward earnings and 3 times this year's sales.
In other words, an unexpected earnings miss, fresh macro headwinds, and tougher competition from smaller competitors like Adobe Commerce and BigCommerce could still compress its valuations and crush the share price. That might be why Shopify's insiders haven't bought a single share over the past 12 months.
So is it the right time to buy, sell, or hold Shopify?Shopify still has a bright future, but its frothy valuations could cap its near-term gains. I think current shareholders should simply hold Shopify, but shouldn't aggressively buy more shares until its valuations cool down. That said, there aren't any compelling reasons to sell the stock either -- thanks to expectations for a warmer macro environment and lower interest rates, which should limit its downside potential throughout the rest of the year.
Should you invest $1,000 in Shopify right now?Before you buy stock in Shopify, consider this:
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John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Leo Sun has positions in Amazon and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Adobe, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Pinterest, and Shopify. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Shopify: Buy, Sell, or Hold? was originally published by The Motley Fool
Credit card users get mysterious shopify-charge.com charges
People worldwide report seeing mysterious $1 or $0 charges from Shopify-charge.com appearing on their credit card bills, even when they did not attempt to purchase anything.
The charges have no rhyme or reason to them and are seen on physical and virtual credit cards of all types, including those from Discover, Monzo, Capital One, and other Visa cards. Some people report that charges were also attempted against older deactivated cards.
According to reports, the charges started approximately ten days ago, on July 21st, with the number of impacted people increasing as time passed.
"Not sure if it was just me today but seems like I've got a shopify active card check today. Thankfully, no money was debited. Got in touch with support and they confirmed it was a scammer," warned a Monzo card member on Reddit.
"I just received an email from privacy.com notifying me of a decline. The declined payment was for $0.00 charge at SHOPIFY-CHARGE.COM I have not used this card outside of paying for my Wyze cam subscription," warned another person.
Since then, many people have reported these unusual charges on Reddit and the Shopify forums.
Of more concern is that two people claimed to have received similar charges soon after creating a new virtual card at their bank.
The attempted charges state they are from shopify-charge.com with a phone number of 866-938-2427. Some attempted charges include an address of 5715 Will Clayton Pkwy, Texas 77338, which appears to be a non-existent location.
However, Shopify-charge.com is a legitimate website operated by Shopify that, when visited in a browser, explains to a user that the charge came from a subscription fee or a purchase at a Shopify store. While some who received these charges claim they have never used their credit card at Shopify, many stores use the platform as their backend without a customer knowing.
If you have received any of these charges and have more information to share, please comment on this story, contact us via Signal at 646-961-3731, or email us at tips@bleepingcomputer.com.
As for the phone number, BleepingComputer's attempts to call it led to the debt collection firm Halsted Financial. BleepingComputer emailed the company to see if they were associated with the charges but has not received a reply yet.
One impacted person posted to Reddit saying they called the number, and Halsted said they do not know why their number is associated with these charges.
Shopify has recently suffered a third-party data breach at one of its vendors, leading many to think these charges may be related. However, the data exposed in that breach did not contain credit card or payment information.
If you have received any of these charges and have more information to share, please comment on this story, contact us via Signal at 646-961-3731, or email us tips@bleepingcomputer.com.
Update 8/2/24: Shopify says that the shopify-charge.com charges are unrelated to the company's recent vendor data breach.
"This card testing fraud is not related to a data incident at Shopify," Shopify told BleepingComputer.
