Shopify

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Shopify
Shopify Logo
Developer(s) Shopify
Written in Ruby
Operating system Cross-platform
Type Commerce
License Software as a service
Website www.shopify.com
Shopify office in Toronto

Shopify is a Canadian e-commerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario that develops computer software for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems.[1]

Shopify was founded in 2004, and was initially based on earlier software written by its founders for their online snowboard store.[2][3] The company reports that it has 200,000 merchants using its platform,[4] with total gross merchandise volume exceeding $10 billion.[5][6][7]

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.[3][8][9]

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.[10][11] The Snowdevil founders launched the platform as Shopify in June 2006.[10]

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.[6] Several companies have developed apps that integrate with the Shopify platform.[12][13]

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.[14] In 2010, Shopify started its Build-A-Business competition, in which participants create a business using its commerce platform.[15][16] The winners of the competition receive cash prizes and mentorship from entrepreneurs, such as Richard Branson, Eric Ries and others.[16] Shopify was also named Ottawa’s Fastest Growing Company by the Ottawa Business Journal in 2010.[10] The company received $7 million from an initial Series A funding round in December 2010.[17][18] Its Series B funding round generated $15 million in October 2011.[19]

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.[20][21] In August 2013, Shopify acquired Jet Cooper, a 25-person design studio based in Toronto.[22]

In August 2013, Shopify announced the launch of Shopify Payments, which allowed merchants to accept credit cards without requiring a third party payment gateway.[23] 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.[24]

By 2014, the platform hosted approximately 120,000 online retailers,[11][14][25] and was listed as #3 in Deloitte’s Fast50 in Canada, as well as #7 in Deloitte’s Fast 500 of North America.[26] Shopify earned $105 million in revenue in 2014, twice as much as it raised the previous year.[27]

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.[28][29] 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.[30][31]

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;[32] Shopify's shares jumped more than 20% upon the news.

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.”[33] The service was profiled in publications including The Wall Street Journal,[34] The New York Times,[2] The Vancouver Sun,[35] The Financial Post, TechCrunch,[36] Mashable[11][37] and WebBuildersGuide.[38]

Shopify was featured on Fast Company's list of Most Innovative Companies of 2012.[39] In 2013, Shopify was featured on CNBC's Disrupter 50 list.[40] The company's CEO, Tobias Lütke, won The Globe and Mail's CEO of the Year in 2014.[41]

References

  1. Bradbury, Danny. Hands-off business a reality The Financial Post. April 21, 2008.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Kolodny, Lora. Shopify, a start-Up, Starts Its Own Business Competition “New York Times”. February 2, 2010.
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  8. Whittaker, Stephanie. The Web as a safety net The Montreal Gazette. May 4, 2009.
  9. Donnelly, Jim. Shopify picks up $7M in venture funding Ottawa Business Journal. December 13, 2010.
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 Donnelly, Jim. Fastest Growing Companies Ottawa Business Journal. May 3rd, 2010. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "ottawabusinessjournal" defined multiple times with different content
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 Duryee, Tricia. E-Commerce Assistant Shopify Raises $7 Million in First Round All Things Digital. December 13, 2010.
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  15. Kolodny, Lora. Maker of iPad Cases Wins Shopify Competition The New York Times. July 19, 2010.
  16. 16.0 16.1 Rip Empson for TechCrunch. 10 July 2012 Shopify Teams Up With Tim Ferriss, Eric Ries, FUBU Founder To Help You Build A $1M eCommerce Biz
  17. Lewis, Rob. Ottawa's Shopify raises $7 Million Series A Funding from Bessemer, FirstMark, and Felicis Techvibes. December 13, 2010.
  18. McLeod, Mark. Shopify Gets Fundified! StartupCFO. December 12, 2010.
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  23. Shopify debuts fully integrated credit card payment processing TechCrunch, 12 August 2013
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  25. Pileci, Vito. Shopify.com makes it easy for new online entrepreneurs The Montreal Gazette. September 20, 2010.
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  30. Tech IPO Scorecard: Shopify Skyrockets 51%, While Baozun Rises A Slimmer 4.6%
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  33. Needleman, Rafe. Shopify makes quick work of setting up shop “CNET”. May 26, 2006.
  34. Lora Kolodny for the Wall Street Journal. 12 Dec 2013. On Road to IPO, Shopify Raises $100M to ‘Bridge Clicks and Bricks’
  35. Pilieci, Vito. Business booming at Shopify.com “The Vancouver Sun”. September 18, 2010.
  36. Arrington, Michael. Shopify Was Worth the Wait “TechCrunch”. April 15, 2006.
  37. Casel, Brian.40+ Web Design and Development Resources for Beginners “Mashable”. July 23, 2010.
  38. Haught, Lesley. Shopify Review “WebBuidlersGuide”. May 7, 2014.
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External links