Shopify Launches Shop, Takes Top Rank from Walmart and Challenges Amazon

Shopify has just released a new app, kind of. Last week they released Shop, a shopping assistant that'll help streamline the checkout process and re-engage customers.

But this was no standard release.

How do you get 15 million people to see your app instantly and earn the #2 rank in your category in the US as soon as you launch your app?

That's where Arrive comes in. In 2017 Shopify released an app that tracks packages called Arrive. The app was free and worked with most major online stores, not just Shopify stores, so it offered a really convenient solution for online shoppers. Since the global lockdown started in March, it became even more popular.

But how's Arrive related? This is where Shopify got really clever. Instead of launching Shop as a new app, they replaced Arrive.

Shop arrives (pun intended) into the App Store with more than 70,000 daily downloads in the US. That's after its predecessor climbed from roughly 50,000 daily downloads pre-lockdown, topping out at more than 100,000 downloads per day in April.

Impressive downloads, considering all of those devices now have Shop instead of Arrive. Past downloads aside, this type of performance also gives Shop a very high rank in the Shopping category, beating more well-known names right out of the gate.

Although Shop isn't (yet) a direct shopping app, Shopify has the power to turn that on at any moment. When (not if) they do, Shop will not just have a diverse product selection but also the downloads and popularity to take on incumbent Amazon.

The global lockdown has forced most purchases to be placed online, and while that will change as cities re-open over the next few months, it's likely to have a long-lasting impact on shopping patterns.

We expect to see Shop evolving into a full-fledged shopping destination, and when it does, it could rival Amazon's empire.