Canadian e-commerce platform Shopify Inc stated that it has plans to take advantage of “unknown opportunities” in 2021 in order to put innovation and expansion into new markets to full gear. However, it warned that its growth rate will slow down as per its year-end earnings report.
Gross merchandise value—the measure of product sales flowing through Shopify’s platform—was $41.1 billion in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, up 99.5% from $20.6 billion. Increasing demand for online shopping during the global pandemic boosted these sales. Full-year GMV went up to 96.0% to $119.6 billion from $61.0 billion the prior year.
Although the revenue will notice an increase in its figure but not as fast as in 2020 when it increased 85.6% to $2.9 billion from $1.6 billion the prior year, the company said Wednesday. It didn’t give specific guidance on earnings for the current year. Once consumers are vaccinated, they may return to physical stores and rely less on e-commerce, Ottawa-based Shopify said.
Shopify is also investing in funds in product marketing and in-country sales teams in some countries, such as Austria, France, and Belgium, where it already has a good establishment, president Harley Finkelstein said on a conference call. But Shopify intends to take a “meticulous and very strategic approach” to international expansion. “Some other countries that we have on our radar, we don’t think it’s the right time to go really deep. That will happen in the future,” he further added.
Shopify stands on Number 5 as an e-commerce platform that supports and provides services to 37 Top 1000 retailers, Amazon, Reflaunt, Fabric being few among them.
- Amazon has recently acquired Selz, an Australian start-up e-commerce platform that helps small businesses create their own websites much the way Shopify does.
Related: In the competition to Shopify, Amazon acquires online platform Selz
- Resale technology company Reflaunt raised $2.7 million in pre-Series A funding this week, led by the investment arm of luxury fashion distributor MadaLuxe Group. Reflaunt allows brands to resell their own pre-owned products through marketplaces once customers are ready to part with those goods, using Reflaunt to manage both taking in those products for quality checks and listing them on marketplaces.
- E-commerce platform provider Fabric raised $43 million on Feb. 9, led by Norwest Venture Partners. It consists of a “headless” system, which separates back-end systems like product databases from front-end systems that customers interact with, allows customers to plug Fabric’s 32 applications in where needed, and do it quicker than older products.
- E-commerce technology provider Pipe17 raised $8 million to fund team expansion and marketing efforts. Pipe17 provides automation software that connects various elements of an e-commerce operation, including e-commerce platforms, fulfillment software, financial systems and other software services to ensure all elements are working with the same information. GLP Partners led the round.
