Type Public Industry Internet Initial release date June 2006 | Traded as NYSE: SHOP
TSX: SHOP Area served Worldwide | |
Founders Tobias Lütke
Daniel Weinand
Scott Lake Headquarters Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Stock price SHOP (NYSE) US$ 68.09 -0.96 (-1.39%)31 Mar, 4:02 PM GMT-4 - Disclaimer | ||
Shopify roadshow documentary
Shopify is a Canadian e-commerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, that develops computer software for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems.
Contents
Shopify was founded in 2004, and was initially based on earlier software written by its founders for their online snowboard store. The company reports that it has more than 377,500 merchants using its platform, with total gross merchandise volume exceeding $15 billion.
History
Shopify was founded in 2004 by Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake after attempting to open Snowdevil, an online store for snowboarding equipment. Unsatisfied with the existing e-commerce products on the market, Lütke, a computer programmer by trade, decided to build his own.
Lütke used the open source web application framework Ruby on Rails to build Snowdevil's online store, and launched it after two months of development. The Snowdevil founders launched the platform as Shopify in June 2006.
In June 2009, Shopify launched an API platform and App Store. The API allows developers to create applications for Shopify online stores and then sell them on the Shopify App Store. Several companies have developed apps that integrate with the Shopify platform.
In April 2010 Shopify launched a free mobile app on the Apple App Store in May 2010. The app lets Shopify store owners view and manage their stores from iOS mobile devices. In 2010, Shopify started its Build-A-Business competition, in which participants create a business using its commerce platform. The winners of the competition receive cash prizes and mentorship from entrepreneurs, such as Richard Branson, Eric Ries and others. Shopify was also named Ottawa’s Fastest Growing Company by the Ottawa Business Journal in 2010. The company received $7 million from an initial Series A funding round in December 2010. Its Series B funding round generated $15 million in October 2011.
In February 2012 Shopify acquired Select Start Studios Inc ("S3"), a mobile software developer, along with 20 of the company's mobile engineers and designers. In August 2013, Shopify acquired Jet Cooper, a 25-person design studio based in Toronto.
In August 2013, Shopify announced the launch of Shopify Payments, which allowed merchants to accept credit cards without requiring a third party payment gateway. The company also announced the launch of an iPad-centric POS system. It uses an iPad to accept payments from credit cards. The company received $100 million in Series C funding in December 2013.
By 2014, the platform hosted approximately 120,000 online retailers, and was listed as #3 in Deloitte’s Fast50 in Canada, as well as #7 in Deloitte’s Fast 500 of North America. Shopify earned $105 million in revenue in 2014, twice as much as it raised the previous year.
On April 14, 2015, Shopify filed for an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols "SHOP" and "SH" respectively. Shopify went public on May 21, 2015, and in its debut on the New York Stock Exchange, Shopify started trading at $28, more than 60% higher than its USD$17 offering price, with its IPO raising more than $131 million.
In September 2015, Amazon.com announced it would be closing its Amazon Webstore service for merchants, and had selected Shopify as the preferred migration provider; Shopify's shares jumped more than 20% upon the news.
On October 3, 2016, Shopify acquired Boltmade. In November 2016, Shopify partnered with Paystack which allowed Nigerian online retailers able to accept payments from customers around the world. On November 22, 2016, Shopify launched Frenzy which is a mobile app that greatly improves flash sales. On December 5, 2016, Shopify acquired Toronto-based mobile product development studio Tiny Hearts Ltd. The building has been turned into a Shopify research and development office.
Reception
Since its launch, Shopify has been well received by popular tech websites such as CNET, who say the platform is “clean, simple, and easy-to-use.” The service was profiled in publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Vancouver Sun, The Financial Post, TechCrunch, and Mashable.
Shopify was featured on Fast Company's list of Most Innovative Companies of 2012. In 2013, Shopify was featured on CNBC's Disrupter 50 list. The company's CEO, Tobias Lütke, won The Globe and Mail's CEO of the Year in 2014.
Criticism
Shopify has received criticism over allowing Breitbart News to host a shop on their platform. Shopify's CEO, Tobias Lütke, responded to the situation, saying "refusing to do business with the site would constitute a violation of free speech".