Shopify released earnings a month ago.

A few quick notes:

• I always love the earnings calls because you can hear from Tobi. Below are a few of my favorite bits.

• "In the beginning, eCommerce was janky as hell." Meaning it was hard to understand where things were, particularly post-purchase with the combination of carrier, e-mail, and other things you needed to do to follow up and ensure you got your parcel.

• One of the goals of Shop Pay is to ensure that no one has to enter an address with their thumbs.

• Reminded everyone that the company "deleted" its plans at the beginning of COVID.

• An analyst asked about supply chain execution in Q4 and how Shopify merchants are prepared. Harley gave a slightly misleading answer in my opinion which focused on "51% of Shopify Merchants use Shopify Shipping" which is just label creation. Shopify Fulfillment Network was discussed, but by conflating the two he hand-waved the benefits of Shopify's current supply chain penetration - which is essentially nil in the grand scheme of things. #shipageddonisreal

Ricardo Belmar picked up on something from the press release: “Shop Pay Installments. Selective roll out of a buy now pay later option to merchants. Given the rise of the 3rd party payment solutions out there (and PayPal just introduced their version)” - he asked for my take. I am a huge fan of installments and so it's not surprising to see Shopify move there. They announced earlier this year. I imagine all the installment providers are not thrilled, but Shopify tends to put these things out to a "single-winner" RFP for the default Shopify version (e.g. taxes) but you aren't forced to use them.

Andrew Chapello asked “Any thoughts on Shopify potentially acquiring a shipping firm? They seem to anecdotally talk a lot about vertical integration of the entire supply chain. Secondarily: would that pass muster with the "new" antitrust state of play?” I’m not seeing it. I wouldn't worry about antitrust - Shopify is still small potatoes.

Ethan Logan noted that he “was always surprised Amazon pay didn’t catch on more since it solved this same issue to an extent.” I am not surprised. Fox, meet henhouse!

If USPS, FedEx, or UPS have a major issue in Q4, Shopify merchants are not better prepared this year than last year. Full stop. Shopify Fulfillment Network is still essentially a beta.