Shopify is Waging War on the Supplement Industry

 

Shopify has quietly been waging war on the Supplement Industry for months, however recently things have really picked up. You may have noticed recently some of your favorite supplements disappearing from the online shops of your favorite supplement retailer in recent months.

This is because Shopify is now banning retailers who use the Shopify platform from selling certain supplements ranging from things like high stimulant preworkouts and fat burners to some very mundane products like B Vitamins, Calcium and Magnesium supplements, NAC, and natural muscle builders like Laxogenin. 

This is surprising as this is not something Shopify had done in the past. Sure many Shopify retailers including most nutraceutical retailers have had issues with Shopify Payments, but Shopify the platform itself, the website builder, has never been one to scrutinize retailers selling legal products, until now that is. 

Now some of the "banned products" are not that surprising, supplements containing DMHA a powerful stimulant, as well as some prohormones.  While these items are legal, there's a bit more grey area or it would at least be somewhat understandable why these might be banned. But the list extends well beyond "Hardcore" supplements including natural plant based muscle builders like Laxogenin, as well as very mundane ingredients or products like B Vitamins, Calcium, DHA and EPA from Fish Oil, Magnesium, and others. 

According to what we were told by several retailers, Shopify says they are basing their product and retailer bans on a watchlist or ingredient directory on the FDA website which can be found here. You'll notice ingredients like DMHA and other more exotic stimulants like Higenamine and Hordenine are listed along with very mundane ingredients like Vitamins and Minerals. CBD also appears on the list, so while some CBD retailers are still operating on the Shopify platform, they'd be wise to begin at least investigating the idea of moving to a friendlier platform or making a plan to make a move to another platform. 

Overnight Shopify has decided to prohibit supplement retailers from selling their products on the Shopify platform, despite many of these sellers having been on the platform for nearly a decade. These sellers have spent tens if not hundreds of thousands of Dollars with Shopify and have built their businesses around Shopify. In the past Shopify has even highlighted these businesses in their blogs and guides. So what does this mean for retailers? Well in addition to going weeks without being able to sell products, these sellers are now forced to migrate to other platforms like Big Commerce, Woo Commerce, and Magento on the fly, costing them tends of thousands of Dollars and likely hundreds of hours of work to make this switch. This in addition to harming relationships with customers and hurting their SEO, ie how well they show up in Google. 

So here's how it all began. Several months back users on Fitness and Supplement Forums as well as Reddit noticed that Blackstone Labs no longer had Metha-Quad on their website. Eventually someone mentioned they were told that Shopify had taken the product down from the Blackstone Labs website and told Blackstone not to relist it. 

Things were quiet for a couple months, and then Shopify really dropped the hammer, going after more retailers and widening the scope of the products they were taking down. While this list most likely isn't comprehensive some of the stores we've noticed which have been effected include Suppz.Com, Nutricartel.Com, ProteinHeadquarters.Com, SupplementWarehouse.Com, BlackstoneLabs.Com, HiTechPharma.Com, and NutraStop.Com among others. If you visit any of these retailers websites you'll likely notice many of the most popular supplements on the market are not up or available for sale on their sites.

So what does this mean for the future of supplement retailers operating on Shopify? While some retailers may choose to stay on Shopify with less items in their catalog, they'll forever be under the thumb of Shopify waiting for additional product takedowns, or potentially even for their entire store to be taken down. Other retailers may choose to migrate over to platforms like Big Commerce, WooCommerce or Magento, however for larger retailers with more complex business operations and larger catalogs this will cost tens of thousands of Dollars and hundred of man hours to complete. These businesses will also likely be harmed due to downtime, as well as losing some of their ranking in Google's Search Algorithm in the process of migrating to another eCommerce platform. 

While the Nutraceutical industry isn't the only one being singled out by Shopify, it's definitely one which has come under heavy fire in recent months. It's a shame as Shopify is far and above the best and most user friendly eCommerce platform on the market, and due to all the connections and integrations Shopify has formed with social media platforms and marketplaces like eBay, Amazon, Walmart and others it's become almost a necessity to use the platform. 

Seeing the recent actions by Shopify, and the effects it's had on these businesses, Shopify customers as well as new eCommerce Merchants seeking out an eCommerce Store building platform ought to be wary about using Shopify to build their website and manage their business. While Big Commerce hasn't made public statements regarding this, it appears Big Commerce, which is based in Austin, Texas, is taking more of a hands off approach and is welcoming Shopify Migrants to their platform saying they won't take similar actions to Shopify and won't get in the middle of dictating what retailers can sell, assuming what they're selling is legal.