A big deal, sure … but not Kanye big
A Shopify VP puts things in perspective
How big will online sales of cannabis be on its first day of legal availability? They’ll be big, according to Shopify, but not as big as a new Yeezy sneaker reveal.
Shopify, the Ottawa company that will be powering online sales platforms for four provinces and several private cannabis dealers, isn’t underplaying the situation. They’re being completely serious.
Here’s a little perspective: The firm powers the sales of more than 600,000 online stores that have sold more than $72 billion worth of products. Stores that Shopify supports include those that sell goods from Kardashians as well as Kanye West, who has masterminded the Yeezy line of Adidas sneakers, which regularly sell out seconds after a new model has been released to the public.
While there’s no doubt the eyes of the world will be on Canada today, Shopify vice -president Loren Padelford expects the number of people actually shopping will be quite a bit smaller than the hordes attracted by an offering from anyone within the Kardashian clan.
“Cannabis is exciting, but it’s not a Kylie Jenner lip kit drop, or a Kanye Yeezy drop,” said Padelford. “We get to see some of the biggest flash sellers in the world throwing sales on a regular basis.
“If you look at the celebrities, we’re talking about hundreds of millions of social media followers who are watching everything that they do. Well, there are only 38 million people in Canada. Kylie herself has 10 times that in social followers. If you run the math, you get to the reality that it will be big. But, it won’t be that big.”
Padelford said it’s the fact that Shopify has regularly helped its customers manage so many bigname stores and process high volume products that likely drew government’s across the country to trust the Ottawa-based firm to handle the online stores for cannabis products.
Shopify offers an online platform that allows customers to quickly setup stores on the internet, without the need for those customers to understand coding or internet technologies. The firm provides templates, allowing its customers to simply drop images into the website of their choosing, set pricing and select a shipping partner to handle packages. In Ontario, Canada Post will be taking care of all cannabis deliveries.
The company also works with Google, which runs the servers that host its customers’ stores. Meaning, when a crush of web traffic hits a store run by Shopify, it’s Google that feels the pressure and adjusts the technology in the background to keep those stores online.
Given the high profile launch, Padelford said, Shopify teams are working with government bureaucrats at locations across the country. But it will be government-appointed employees who decide what to sell and how to sell it. Google is on standby to help, should traffic concerns become a problem.
“We didn’t build a cannabis platform. We built a retail platform. Cannabis dealers have become retailers. They are using a lot of the same technologies our other customers use,” Padelford said.
“The entire company is built around making retail experiences great for our customers.”