ChrisGrouchy

Thanks!

People in our YC batch thought that we made software for convicts. We just liked the word conviction and what it represents.

Before Amazon was named Amazon, one of the original ideas for its name was Relentless.com (btw, the domain relentless.com still redirects to amazon.com). We liked the word "conviction" and what it represents. Conviction.com wasn't available, but convictional.com was available. So we bought it.

It would be unlikely for Shopify to build integrations with other back office systems that compete directly with Shopify (e.g. BigCommerce), so there'd be a cap on the amount of integrated trade that could happen. A defensible trade network would need to be independent and connect to any system that buyers and sellers use. We'll just keep making it easier for businesses to trade irrespective of the systems they use and their preferred sales channels (e.g. dropship, wholesale, etc.).

EDI is a global phenomenon. There are different standards and it applies across industries. For example, X12 is the North American standard of EDI. It's used in B2B trade, banking, health care, insurance, etc.

Meesho is interesting. It's like an ecommerce store in a box.

We aren't a conventional marketplace ourselves and we integrate with the systems that both the sellers and buyers are using. On the network side, we make introductions to buyers and sellers in our network rather than listing products from sellers on a mass marketplace (like AliExpress). We basically vet each retailer to see which suppliers in our network would make sense for them then make introductions if there's a fit. We also tend to be focused on larger retailers and distributors rather than people who are just getting started in ecommerce.

Thanks for the feedback on the site. Will fix the hamburger menu too. Good catch.

I like your copy suggestion. It makes sense for people who might be new to dropship. The "digital destination" line came from larger retailers we talked to that wanted to expand their existing product catalog, so we aimed that at them. They tend to already do dropship today with larger suppliers, but they struggle with onboarding smaller ones. The thought of having a wider assortment of products is usually what initially piques their interest. That starts a conversation around new tools that they could use.