Last year, my wife started a D2C brand, and I was tasked with helping her choose the tech and platform. I ended up doing deep research on this subject and spoke to multiple brands—as part of what I do generally. It became a bit of a personal project too, since we wanted to build something that could scale without too much tech hassle.
And after a very quick research, it was obvious that while there were many choices on the table, including Dukan (the Indian e-commerce platform), WooCommerce, and Shopify, the no-brainer choice—almost everyone suggested—was to go for Shopify. And it’s been two years since then.
Every time I see a new brand coming in, I can definitely say 9 out of 10, or even more, are using Shopify. The platform has almost become the default for modern D2C brands.
In this blog, we’ll talk about how Shopify is creating the next wave of e-commerce.
Shopify is not just a tool—it’s the infrastructure for modern commerce.
Table of Contents
1. The Evolution of Shopify’s Big Role in Today’s E-Commerce
The global e-commerce story started about two decades ago, and in the beginning, a huge amount of effort was put into building the tech behind it—from setting up payment gateways to building logistics and trust systems.
That’s how platforms like Amazon, eBay, and Flipkart came into the picture and shaped how people shop online.
But today, we’ve moved from horizontal e-commerce to the age of vertical and deep e-commerce—especially D2C brands that are building niche, differentiated experiences. Shopify, in many ways, has evolved along with these changing market needs.
What I love about it is that it’s not just keeping up, but also quietly powering a revolution behind the scenes—with over $250 billion in e-commerce transactions running through it and capturing more than 10% of global e-commerce share.
While that 10% may seem small when compared to the giants, it’s not fueling the Amazons or the mega-platforms of the world.
Instead, it’s enabling small and medium-sized brands to build and own their presence on the internet. With more than 10 million active stores now on Shopify, it’s become the digital infrastructure behind the modern retail economy.
So here are some very interesting stats about Shopify.
Shopify didn’t just simplify e-commerce — it unlocked entrepreneurship for millions.
2. What Does a Modern Digital Commerce Platform Look Like?
At this point, it’s important to take a step back and ask — what does a full-stack digital commerce platform really consist of?
Recently, I came across this excellent IDC framework that breaks down the digital commerce SaaS functionality profile. It captures something I’ve observed repeatedly — that e-commerce is no longer just about putting up a product and collecting payments. It’s an intricate system made of many layers that work in sync.
From my own work with brands, I’ve seen how these layers matter deeply. The customer experience layer is where you differentiate — things like customer journey mapping, quoting, communities, loyalty programs, and marketing automation play a huge role in retention. Then comes the commerce layer, which is your core engine — shopping carts, merchandising, recommendations, catalog and order management.
Underneath all that is the payments layer, with the usual suspects — payment processing, fraud prevention, and now newer tools like magic checkouts. Then you have the ERP/back-office layer for managing financials, inventory, and the supply chain. And finally, it all rests on the infrastructure layer — cloud platforms, APIs, and performance tools.
On the side, there are equally critical functions — analytics, tax, subscriptions, compliance, and invoicing — which are often afterthoughts, but I’ve seen they become game-changers at scale.
Now, why is this important?
Because when you look at platforms like Shopify, you can see that it’s not just ticking one or two boxes — it’s steadily expanding across all these layers. Yes, there are areas to improve, especially for India, like mobile-first identity or simpler checkouts, but structurally, Shopify is thinking across this entire stack.
And as you build or scale your own D2C brand, this map is worth keeping in mind — because your platform is not just your storefront. It’s your engine, your warehouse, your CRM, your accountant, your marketer, and increasingly, your AI assistant — all rolled into one.
3. Why Brands Love Shopify: My Take on What Makes It Work!
Over the years, I’ve seen many e-commerce platforms evolve. But Shopify stands out. And not just because it’s easy to use—but because it’s constantly building for the future.
In fact, this IDC MarketScape chart shows top B2C digital commerce platforms for midmarket growth in 2024. VTEX, Shopify, commercetools, and BigCommerce are leading the pack with strong capabilities and strategies.
If you’ve ever tried setting up an online store, you know how hard it is to get all the parts working together—design, payments, inventory, marketing, analytics. What I love about Shopify is that it simplifies this whole puzzle into one engine. It’s no wonder people call it the “WordPress of e-commerce.”
At just one click, you get ready-made themes, powerful analytics, built-in POS (for offline), inventory tracking, integrations with marketplaces like Amazon, and more.
But, Shopify has an app marketplace with more than a million apps. This is what gives brands the power to truly customize.
From apps that boost search, to those that power up personalization, attribution, analytics, and even store growth—Shopify has it all.
At DAiOM, we were fortunate to build our own app called OmniStore Locator to support our omnichannel growth directly on Shopify.
Three major reasons I believe Shopify is building for the future!
I genuinely believe that Shopify today is not just powering small stores—it’s helping brands scale fast, stay in control, and build something truly custom, without needing an army of developers. That’s the kind of tool I want in my stack. Here’s a closer look at the 3 big reasons I believe Shopify is building for the future:
A. Analytics That Work
Most brands struggle with getting the right dashboards.
First it’s just sales, then it’s marketing funnels, then attribution—and somewhere along the way, the data sits in 10 different places.
With Shopify’s built-in analytics, you honestly don’t need a separate tool for most of your day-to-day work. The dashboards are detailed and intuitive—sales funnels, inventory movement, customer journey—they’re all there. If you need more, you can plug in connectors or analytics apps, but for many brands, the native tools are enough.
What really impressed me was the attribution framework Shopify offers—it helps you actually understand what’s working in your marketing.
Read more – Mastering Marketing Attribution: A Guide to Optimizing Your Campaigns
B. Omnichannel Done Perfectly
Shopify started out as an online-only store engine. But that’s no longer the case.
Today, it’s helping offline stores too—with Shopify POS, you can book in-store sales, sync them with your online data, and create a single view of the customer.
This has been a pain-point for years. Earlier, brands had to use two different tools—one for online and one for retail. But now Shopify gives you both in one place.
That’s a big win, especially for omnichannel brands like ours.
C. Shopify AI Features
Everyone’s talking about AI—but Shopify is actually shipping features.
They launched Magic Studio, which helps you generate product images with prompts, removing the need for expensive design apps. And it’s fully integrated with Google Studio too—so if you’re a small team, this alone can save you hours every week.
They’ve also added chatbots to help answer customer questions, and a new AI Studio is in the works. It promises to deliver AR ads and smart product visuals integrated directly with Google Merchant Center. That’s powerful—especially when you’re trying to stand out with better creatives.
From AR-powered ads to automated campaign visuals, they’re making personalization feel effortless.
4. What Shopify Still Needs to Improve for Indian Businesses?
While there’s a lot I genuinely admire about Shopify—from its strong design engine to its evolving analytics and AI features—there are a few areas where it still feels like Shopify was built for the Western world, not India. Let me explain it below:
4.1. Email-first customer identity doesn’t work for India.
Shopify’s entire structure is built around email as the customer ID, which makes sense if you’re in the US or Europe.
But in India, most shoppers are mobile-first. A lot of them don’t even actively use email.
So what do Indian brands do?
They try a workaround—map the email and phone number manually, or build a proxy layer on top of Shopify. It somehow works but also weakens Shopify’s ability to build a robust Customer Data Platform (CDP) for Indian use cases.
4.2. Checkout experience is still clunky.
Ask any D2C operator in India—the Shopify native checkout can be a conversion killer. The flow is long, involves multiple screens, and isn’t optimized for our speed-hungry mobile users.
That’s why brands often end up using plugins like Magic Checkout or GoKwik.
They simplify the process and boost conversions—but again, they add cost and complexity. If Shopify can solve this natively, it will be a huge win for Indian brands.
4.3. Adapting better to Indian languages.
While Shopify does offer multilingual support, it doesn’t always go deep into localization. For instance, can your store natively support Hindi or Tamil in a seamless way without breaking the layout?
It’s improving, but still a work-in-progress. For a country with such linguistic diversity, this needs to be a core feature—not an afterthought.
4.4. App-building was hard, but it’s getting better.
Earlier, if you wanted to convert your Shopify store into a mobile app, it was a long and tedious task.
Now, thanks to players like Appbrew and Appmaker, it’s much easier. You can build good-quality apps on top of your Shopify backend without too much tech effort.
Many Indian and global brands are already doing this—and it’s great to see.
Let me know which platform you’re on and what tools you’ve used to solve these issues. Always keen to learn from what others are doing in the ecosystem.
5. Top Indian Brands That Use Shopify
Many people assume Shopify is only for small brands or early-stage D2C startups.
Today, some of India’s top D2C brands run on Shopify — handling high traffic, complex operations, and thousands of daily orders.
These brands trust Shopify to deliver on speed, scale, and reliability without building custom tech from scratch.
These are high-growth brands with real business complexity. And they didn’t need massive engineering teams to scale. That’s the real power of Shopify — you can grow without outgrowing it.
Shopify is the engine powering the next generation of retail — from Instagram checkouts to pop-up stores.
6. Conclusion
Shopify started as a simple tool for people who didn’t know much about tech. Today, it’s one of the biggest e-commerce platforms in the world.
It grew by making online selling easier, helping D2C brands succeed, and supporting both online and offline sales. Because of this, Shopify has helped many businesses grow — and even changed how retail works.
If your brand wants to start or grow online, Shopify isn’t just a good option — it’s a smart choice. Its powerful tools, large app store, and focus on helping sellers make it the best platform for modern businesses.
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