I placed an order on 11/4 for an item with a merchant via Shopify. it’s currently 12/17 and my order never shipped. I have since reached out via email twice, receiving a response neither time. I’ve also opened a “merchant issue” report via the Shopify app; for which I have also received no response.
I’ve seen responses from the community that “Shopify is just a marketplace”; well that’s not exactly true. Shopify also acts as a payment processor for these merchants that appear on their marketplace.
Shopify needs to setup up their support involvement when situations such as merchants who fail to fulfill orders and/or become unresponsive. When I visit the merchants independent website I can see that their “support” link now no longer exists, clicking it results an erroneous webpage. So the merchant as killed their individual support, but seeing as I purchased via Shopify I wouldn’t have been able to see that.
There are some things that seem obvious that Shopify should implement seeing as the entity is more than just a marketplace but a payment processor:
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Regular merchant audits - basically a periodic review to ensure that merchants have the infrastructure they state on Shopify. In my case, the merchant lists a refund policy, however, to enact it the consumer must “email” the merchant at a stated support email address. As it turns out the email address isn’t valid now. A simple auto-generated email to verify that email and/or links exist can go a long way in ensuring that a merchant is still viable. Failing these tests could see a merchant temporarily suspended from Shopify until a response is received; which would prevent additional fraud.
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Facilitate refunds for specific situations - In circumstances where a product has no proof of shipping (i.e. tracking) and/or the merchant has become unresponsive. Shopify, being the processor in this case could step in and cancel the order, issue a return charge. Shopify might need to modify merchant agreements to enable a policy like this, however, it would be the responsible thing here.
When consumers shop via Shopify much of the merchant facing infrastructure is replaced with Shopify’s store-fronts; making consumers blind. If Shopify is going to host merchant products and go so far as to facilitate payments I don’t believe Shopify can also sit back and claim that they’re just a “store front”. Other e-commerce platforms whom act as mediators such as eBay & Amazon have customer support involvement to resolve issues such as these but Shopify does not. … Which begs the question, why do I bother using Shopify then? What does Shopify do for me? In my case iOS can automate and secure my checkout with online merchants. If I’m going to have next to no transaction support form Shopify I’m just as well to not use it? Is that what Shopify is basically telling us?