This Year’s Best Stocking Stuffer? An Entire Shopify E-Commerce Business

If you’ve got an aspiring entrepreneur on your holiday gift list, how about giving them a ready-made e-commerce shop so they can test out their dreams of business ownership?

This week, Ottawa-based Shopify launched its Gift a Business campaign. Gift-givers can purchase a pre-built online store powered by the company’s e-commerce software for $50 to $500. Shopify, founded in 2004, offers its customers the software to create online stores, processes purchases, and track shipping starting at $29 a month.

This year’s Gift a Business holiday campaign has about 10,000 stores for sale on Shopify’s Exchange Marketplace, selling products in categories like fashion, home, health and beauty, pets, and more, and are built by exisiting entrepreneurs for a first-time business owner looking to learn the ropes. While the Exchange Marketplace has been around since 2017, this is the first time Shopify has marketed to the holiday crowd.

A pre-made store allows first-time business owners to start selling products sooner, while their motivation is sky high, a Shopify spokesperson told Inc. From there, the new owner can build and grow the business however they please. And since the pandemic has consumers preferring online shopping and contactless delivery to in-person shopping, the current enviornment may be in these new store owners’ favor.

The store purchase includes a one-month Shopify store subscription credit, a business certificate, five e-books about entrepreneurship, and a printable holiday card. After the credit ends, users would have to renew and pay for a subscription themselves.