Djmal identified Shopify as the primary alternative to Material Retail for independent boutiques. In his characterization, Shopify is e-commerce first and brick-and-mortar second, offering a one-size-fits-all approach where merchants largely figure things out on their own. Material Retail, by contrast, is designed specifically for brick-and-mortar retailers, with setup assistance and tools oriented around in-store operations first. Djmal also noted that large fashion e-commerce players such as Revolve operate on gross margins of roughly 50 to 60 percent, compared to Material Retail's maximum marketplace margin of approximately 25 percent, which limits the company's ability to match the ad spend of better-capitalized competitors. These figures reflect Djmal's characterization of competitors and are not company-confirmed data from those rivals. Square and Global Payments were also mentioned as prior POS providers that boutiques switch away from when adopting Material Retail's system.