The Financial Post reports in its Friday edition that two of the e-commerce world's biggest rivals have brokered a surprise deal helping their merchants better take advantage of one another's offerings. A Canadian Press dispatch to the Post says that Shopify and Amazon announced late on Wednesday that it will soon begin helping Shopify merchants more easily integrate access to Amazon's sprawling fulfilment network within its Shopify stores. The companies said the deal centres on an app Amazon will release within Shopify's "ecosystem" over the next month, letting U.S. merchants that use Amazon's fulfilment network add "Buy with Prime" to their Shopify checkout process. Buy with Prime is an Amazon program that helps merchants offer speedy shipping on orders made through their own sites by leveraging the Seattle-based business's massive fulfilment network. When it was released last year, many speculated it was designed to counter the growth of Shopify, an Ottawa-based software company supporting the e-commerce operations of thousands of small businesses, nabbing high-profile clients like the Kardashians, Remy Cointreau, Crayola and Glossier and building its own fulfilment network. The news sent Shopify shares soaring.