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Shopify insists that they won't build a marketplace, but the Shop app has recently become one. The app now allows discovering merchants, adding their items to a shopping cart, and checking out - all without leaving the app.

U.S. e-commerce penetration is currently at levels it would have reached even if the pandemic didn't happen. While Covid boosted e-commerce spending in 2020, that acceleration perhaps wasn't a step-change after all.

WFS, a fulfillment service Walmart launched less than two years ago, already fulfills 1/4 of Walmart marketplace sales. Walmart is on a path to making the marketplace invisible to shoppers.

The U.S. is Amazon's least competitive marketplace. Despite having the highest number of sellers, they each receive more traffic per seller than on the other marketplaces.

Two years ago, Nike stopped selling its clothes and sneakers directly to Amazon. The brand has since done exceptionally well scaling its digital sales. And yet, consumers continue to look for Nike on Amazon.

In the third quarter, Amazon reached sales levels it would have gotten to even without the pandemic boost. Amazon appears to have lost all the e-commerce spending acceleration.

Since opening the marketplace to international sellers in March, Walmart has added 5,000 sellers from China. They represent more than 10% of all new sellers.

Despite disruptions to global supply chains and Amazon's warehouse space restrictions, inventory levels at Amazon warehouses are high. As other retailers are fearing empty shelves, Amazon has turned its vast marketplace into an advantage.

The #1 most-searched term on Amazon is "squid game costume." Netflix's hit dystopian thriller "Squid Game" spawned a craze for Squid Game costumes less than two weeks after the show was released.

The overlap of sellers that sell on both Amazon and Shopify is growing. What used to be separate and distinct groups of entrepreneurs is converging.