The retail ecosystem is complex and SaaS solutions are often "big and comprehensive", but they are made up of many "small pieces". Therefore, commercial SaaS is more like a "collector", which needs to establish an open ecology of "all the rivers and rivers" and build a closed-loop capability with the power of ecological partners. At the same time, quantitative change can lead to qualitative change, and business SaaS companies are expected to leverage the power of the ecology to quickly become platform companies.
In Shopify's development path, the establishment of APIs and app shops to achieve the transformation from a tool to a platform is a very important point. The business ecosystem is gradually improving as the number of service providers increases, forming a virtuous cycle that is becoming a major competitive barrier for Shopify.
This qualitative change was also strongly reflected in the birth of Multipoint Dmall OS, from the previous single-point tool to an integrated platform system is an important node in the transformation of Multipoint into a SaaS service provider. Its entry from e-commerce, to the payment system opening, smart shopping, and then to the Dmall OS-based retail joint cloud service, is also the logic from single-point service to ecological service.
In the retail industry, the same logic can be learned from the fact that information technology software can help commercial SaaS to create an "application shop". Doddle Dmall can build an enterprise service ecology based on its system and cloud services, continuously add to the platform, aggregate functions based on supply chain, shop management, consumer side, payment, and other aspects, strengthen cooperation with third parties, and improve the service system. As such, it has formed a strategic partnership with Tencent, involving WeChat payment, small programs, cloud computing, digital AI, etc. Doddle Dmall can leverage WeChat small programs to better empower merchants.
In addition, the importance of channels also determines digital effectiveness, which is an important capability of business SaaS. In an era of gradually rising traffic costs, retailers are concerned about how to efficiently acquire customers, so multi-platform, full-chain digitalization is a key capability for service providers, especially in the coming era of private domain traffic.
Of course, while commercial SaaS is a "masterpiece", it must also be easy to use and accessible, the best state is to make marketing and customer management as simple as building blocks so that customers without technical accumulation can quickly get started and quickly see results. It is for this reason that Shopify has quickly taken off in two years.
【Source text: by report】
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