One of the cruel realities of the pandemic was the changes to consumer behavior that kept many shoppers out of stores. That left many businesses scrambling to pivot quickly to e-commerce, without the requisite knowledge or resources. That's where Shopify (SHOP -3.69%) comes in.
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Danny Vena: There's a really good question here from Brett. Brett asked: ''Shopify seems to be a favorite company for many Fools. But in spite of continued research, I'm struggling to understand the details of how their business works. Any recommendations about how I can better understand the business?'' For me, it comes down to if I am a mom-and-pop shop, and I as an individual don't have a lot of technical know-how. I don't know how to set up a website. I don't know how to integrate my inventory into that website. I don't know how to handle processing payments without a cash register. Shopify has all the tools that a merchant needs to set up and to run an online account. So if you want to get your goods and services and you want to put them online, Shopify is there to handle the majority of the details so that you as a business owner can just sell your widgets. You don't have to worry about all the technical stuff. You don't have to worry about the websites and hiring an IT department. You just do what you do. You sell your widgets and Shopify handles all the technical details. That's a little bit of an oversimplification, and I know Emily is really up on what it is that Shopify does, so maybe she could add something there.
Jason Hall: Go ahead, Emily.
Emily Flippen: I have nothing to add. I think you did a great job.
Jason Hall: I do. I have one little thing that's extra context I think is really, really helpful. You have three choices here. You can go with one of these little bolt-on e-commerce website companies and that's basically all they do, or you can go with Amazon (AMZN -3.26%) who's eventually going to compete against you, or you can go with Shopify that's going to let you run your business while they handle so much of this other stuff and make running your own business even easier because of so many of the things that they provide. It's so incredibly powerful what they do and it's definitely more than just moving widgets. It's just such a powerful, powerful business. I think that really describes it well. You can sign up with your biggest competitor, sign up with people that just can't really do the other stuff, or you could have the one that helps you do everything else better. That's why I love Shopify.
