Brand Takedown: How Stripe, Shopify & Square Are Winning B2B with Storytelling

Jun 12

Stripe, Shopify, and Square prove that compelling storytelling isn’t just for B2C. Discover how these fintech giants use brand, mission, and community-driven narratives to win trust, grow users, and drive innovation in the connected ecosystem economy.

In the first of our Brand Takedowns at Storied. we’re looking at 3 of the biggest names in global fintech to see how the ecosystem economy is driving B2B businesses (that used to dismiss brand and mission building as irrelevant) are coming out of the shadows to talk boldly about what they’re doing. And why.

Read - or listen! - along below. And (please) tell us what you think and what other brands you’d like to hear from in the comments section.

In the fast-paced world of financial technology, Stripe, Shopify, and Square stand out not just for their innovative platforms but also for their distinct and effective brand and narrative strategies.

While often perceived through the lens of B2B services, these companies have successfully cultivated strong brand identities and awareness, offering valuable lessons for leaders of other fast-growing companies.

Shared visions: Empowering the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Despite targeting different segments, Stripe, Shopify, and Square share a fundamental narrative: empowering economic participation for entrepreneurs and small to medium-sized businesses (SMEs).

Stripe aims to “Increase the GDP of the internet,” focusing on developers.
Shopify strives to “Make commerce better for everyone,” centering merchants.
Square seeks to “Empower the independent worker,” targeting microbusinesses and sole traders.

This core mission is the foundation of their storytelling. And they excel at simplifying the inherent complexity of financial and payment technology, communicating clearly and without jargon. Stripe’s API documentation reads like tutorials, Square designs hardware for non-technical users, and Shopify offers a clear “Start, Run, Grow” framework.

KYA (Know Your Audience)
80% of Y Combinator startups use Stripe
Shopify has 87% global brand awareness among SMEs
Square is the #1 most trusted SMB POS brand

A critical shared strategy is community-driven growth, leveraging user success stories as powerful social proof. Shopify features merchants in “Made with Shopify”, Square shares “Square Stories”, and Stripe uses “Powered by Stripe” badges. This approach demonstrates the tangible impact of their platforms and builds trust within their respective communities.

Distinct Approaches Reflecting Target Audiences

While sharing core principles, their approaches diverge significantly, primarily dictated by their primary audience.

Stripe targets developers and tech startups. Its tone is technical yet aspirational, positioning itself as the “Infrastructure for the internet”. Its creative style is minimalist and code-centric. Stripe focuses on formal channels like press releases and thought leadership, though its blog is a highly-cited resource for fintech professionals.
Shopify focuses on small business owners. Its tone is inspirational, encouraging merchants to “Build your empire”, and it views itself as a “Commerce OS”. Shopify employs bold, merchant-centric visuals and invests heavily in content marketing, including blogs, videos, and podcasts.
Square caters to microbusinesses and sole traders. Its tone is pragmatic, focusing on immediate benefits like “Get paid faster”. Square highlights its “All-in-one tools” and uses warm, human-centric photography featuring real users like street vendors. Square utilises a mix of channels, including social media, advertising, and sponsored content.

These differences in tone, style, and channel strategy are not superficial; they are tailored precisely to resonate with the specific needs and aspirations of their distinct B2B customer bases.

Building Brand Awareness in a B2B Context

A key takeaway for innovation leaders is how these companies build significant brand awareness and equity despite operating in B2B sectors. Instead of broad consumer recognition, they focus on achieving deep trust, preference, and recognition within their specific target communities.

They achieve this by:

Centering the customer narrative: Storytelling focuses on how the customer succeeds.
Leveraging social proof and community: Peer success stories are powerful endorsements within professional networks.
Speaking the audience's language: Tailoring tone and technical detail to resonate with developers, merchants, or microbusinesses.
Demonstrating values: Aligning their mission with the entrepreneurial spirit of their users.
Targeting channels: Using platforms and content formats where their specific audience seeks information and community.

This focused approach yields measurable results in terms of brand equity within their markets. For example, 80% of Y Combinator startups use Stripe, Shopify has 87% global brand awareness among SMEs, and Square is the #1 most trusted SMB POS brand. This demonstrates that building a strong, trusted brand is crucial in B2B, just as it is in B2C, albeit with a narrower, more defined audience focus.

It’s also important to realise that in the connected-ecosystem economy there are no limits to the direction you can take your business. While each of these firms specifically target merchant (industry jargon for retailer) payments they’re also fully aware that serving one segment effectively doesn't stop them serving others or providing more services to their customers. In fact in the payments for retail space it’s a strategy deployed by all three of these companies - and others including Amazon (see table graphic, Payment Platform Wars, below).

Payment Platform Wars

Impact: So What?

The results speaker for themselves. Their brand and narrative efforts have done a lot more than tell a great story - they directly contribute to business growth, measurable outcomes and how their product evolves:

Stripe's developer focus has engaged over 50 million developers, contributing to over $1 trillion processed payment volume. Its marketing strategy helped decrease customer acquisition costs by 30%.
Shopify's product storytelling led to a 10% increase in merchant retention, and content marketing contributed to massive merchant base growth from 175,000 in 2016 to over 1.7 million in 2022.
Square's success is partly driven by peer recommendations, with 40% of new sellers attributing sign-ups to this source. Campaigns like "Coffee Shop" increased brand awareness, and "Stand with Small Business" repositioned the brand during challenging times.

The growth in metrics like revenue (Stripe's 40% YoY increase in 2022), merchant base (Shopify), and gross payment volume (Square's growth to over $100 billion in 2022) highlight the effectiveness of their targeted brand and communications strategies.

Key Takeaways

For innovation leaders navigating rapid growth, the strategies of Stripe, Shopify, and Square offer valuable lessons:

Define Your Core Narrative and Audience: Clearly articulate who you empower and tailor your story to resonate deeply with that specific audience. Your mission should be central to your brand.
Simplify Complexity: Make your product or service easily understandable and accessible, even if the underlying technology is complex.
Champion Your Users: Leverage customer success stories and build community. Peer influence and social proof are incredibly powerful in B2B environments.
Audience Dictates Tone and Channel: Understand where your audience is and how they prefer to be addressed. Your tone, voice, and communication channels must align with their expectations and needs.
Values Matter: Highlight your company's values and mission; they can build trust and loyalty within your target community.
Measure the Impact: Connect your communication and brand efforts to measurable business outcomes like user acquisition, retention, engagement, and revenue growth.

By focusing on authentic, audience-centric narratives and building trusted relationships within their specific markets, Stripe, Shopify, and Square demonstrate that strong brand building is not limited to consumer companies but is increasingly a critical driver of success and growth for Business to Business firms.

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Simon Hardie is an author and founder of findexable - the digital analytics and insight platform. He co-hosts the Born to Disrupt podcast with Mingzulu and Disrupts