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Shopify Powers Small Business, The Economy And More On CHOM 97.7 FM

Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am on air at CHOM 97.7 FM radio out of Montreal (home base). It’s not a long segment – about 10 minutes every week – about everything that is happening in the world of technology, digital media and culture. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly on i Heart Radio, if you’re interested in hearing more of me blathering on about what’s happening in the digital world. I’m really excited about these weekly hits, because this is the radio station that I grew up listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry DiMonte morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.

This week we discussed:

Smart speakers continue to grow and people continue to use voice assistant technology. So, if you had to guess, what is the most popular location for smart speakers? Kitchen? Living room? Home office? Car? Guess again… (source: Voicebot.ai – Yes. The Bedroom is Now the Most Popular Location for Smart Speakers. Here’s Why and What it Means).
Shopify is growing like crazy. The Ottawa-based company (their COO, Harley Finkelstein, is a Montrealer and a close friend) is on a massive winning streak. Want to see what a thriving business looks like during a pandemic? Their stock surged over 65% in April alone. Over 190% since last year. They have a valuation of over $100 billion, and just recently became the second largest company is Canada by market capitalization. The only company that is bigger is RBC (yes, they have a bigger market cap than the other big four banks in Canada). And, they are very close to being number one. Shopify is double the market cap value of eBay. There are over one million merchants who use their ecommerce platform and marketplace to sell, and this results is over $160 billion of commerce every year. They are doing as much commerce every day during this pandemic as they do on a Black Friday. And, all of this is happening in a world where ecommerce is still less than 15% of all commerce. What happens from here? Should we be worried that Shopify is the next Nortel or BlackBerry? I don’t believe so. Last Sunday, I had Harley as a guest (for the first time ever) on my podcast, and the conversation was compelling. (source: Six Pixels of Separation #720 – Harley Finkelstein On Shopify And The Future of Commerce).
App of the Week: Shop – Shopify’s new mobile app – a massive marketplace for entrepreneurs to sell together.

You can also listen in via I Heart Radio.

https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/813288493

Mitch Joel · CTRL ALT Delete – CHOM 97.7 FM – May 4th, 2020

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.