Shopify Launches Sello, Allowing Users to Sell From Their Phone

E-commerce has traditionally been a tough market to break into. The platforms can be expensive, the security issues a headache, the consumer engagement campaigns complex. The mobile app developers at Shopify have already worked around many of these issues with their cutting-edge user-focussed online store building suite, and now they’re taking the idea of simple store-building to its logical conclusion: social media-driven sales that require nothing more than a smartphone. And something to sell, of course.

The goal: fully “democratizing” the selling process, allowing users with little-to-zero technical know-how to find success with their products through the app ecosystem and social media playgrounds they’re already involved in. In the words of Sello product director Christopher Lobay, “We think the marketplaces of the future are these social networks and instant messaging and all that stuff. Every person has their own footprint, and we allow them to reach out to the community that matters most to them.”

While the app functions similar to other online store builders with a centralized platform for each buyer’s storefront, a big twist is that the app developers at Sello are focussing on the shareability of items. Unlike a mobile app like Etsy’s where the idea is that users will browse within their ecosystem to buy, Sello is designed for integration with other social hangouts like Facebook and Twitter from the get-go.

Mobile app developers in Chicago can stand to learn a thing or two from their northern neighbors at Canadian Shopify. Mobile-focussed e-commerce strategy may well be the wave of the future for enabling peer-to-peer small-time mobile sales. Shopify certainly has a good track record building out highly profitable sales tools for non-technical users, so if nothing else Sello is sure to bring an intriguing new option for newcomers to the e-commerce marketplace to test the waters.