In these challenging times, a lot of industries have faced plummeting profits – and an uncertain future. But one success story to come out of the ongoing pandemic is e-commerce. As more and more people have shifted to shopping online, businesses such as Shopify have been thrust into the spotlight. Established as a platform to enable anyone to easily set up their own e-commerce store, it’s been a welcome tool for those looking to adapt to this strange new world.

So where will they go next? On June 29, 2021, Shopify will host Shopify Unite, a virtual event to announce their strategies for the coming months and years. And ahead of this date, the company has leaked some key info about how they intend to carry out business in the future. Surprisingly, this includes a plan to transform the way in which they work with independent developers.

At the moment, a number of developers work to create new solutions available in the Shopify App Store – apparently, a merchant will use an average of six apps in the daily running of their business. And in turn, Shopify takes a cut. But now, they are proposing a 0% commission rate on developers’ first $1 million revenue, in a move that has been praised for creating a “developer-first” environment.

According to Shopify, this new approach is being introduced to enable developers to take more control of their businesses, encouraging them to scale up without worrying about paying a hefty commission. And it seems like something that’s worth encouraging. In 2020 a staggering $12.5 billion in revenue was generated by Shopify app partners, with a wide network of developers creating almost 6,000 apps to date.

Speaking to the tech news site betakit, Shopify’s Fatima Yusuf explained the thinking behind this bold decision. She said,

“Developers right now have more power than they’ve had in a long time to help shape the future of the industry by building technology to help brands quickly and effectively meet evolving consumer expectations.”

In other words, by encouraging developers to build new and better solutions, Shopify can help their community of sellers to grow – an achievement that seems vital to success as we move forwards into a new future.

Related: Commerce Plus