Shopify Inc.

2006: Founding

Shopify was founded in 2006 by friends Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand and Scott Lake after launching Snowdevil, an online store for snowboarding equipment, in 2004. Dissatisfied with the existing e-commerce products on the market, Lütke, a computer programmer by trade, instead built 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. Shopify created an open-source template language called Liquid, which is written in Ruby and has been used since 2006.

In June 2009, Shopify launched an application programming interface (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.

2010s

In January 2010, Shopify started its Build-A-Business competition, in which participants create a business using its commerce platform. The winners of the competition received cash prizes and mentorship from entrepreneurs, such as Richard Branson, Eric Ries and others. In April of that year, Shopify launched a free mobile app on the Apple App Store. The app allows Shopify store owners to view and manage their stores from iOS mobile devices.

In December 2010, Shopify raised $7 million from a series A round from Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital, and Felicis Ventures at a $20 million pre-money valuation. At that time, the company had an annualized transaction value of $132 million. In October 2011, it raised $15 million in a Series B round.

In August 2013, Shopify launched Shopify Payments in partnership with Stripe. Shopify Payments allows merchants to accept payments without requiring a third-party payment gateway. The company also announced the launch of a point of sale system to enable in-person sales in addition to online. The company received $100 million in Series C funding in December 2013. Shopify earned $105 million in revenue in 2014, twice as much as it raised the previous year. In February 2014, Shopify released "Shopify Plus" for large e-commerce businesses seeking access to additional features and support.

Shopify went public via an initial public offering on May 21, 2015, raising more than $131 million. In September 2015, Amazon.com closed its Amazon Webstore service for merchants and selected Shopify as the preferred migration provider.

In April 2016, Shopify announced Shopify Capital, a cash advance product. Shopify Capital was initially piloted to merchants within the US and allowed merchants to receive an advance on future earnings processed through its payment gateway. Since its launch in 2016, Shopify Capital has provided more than $5.1 billion in funding to Shopify merchants, with a maximum advance of $2 million. On June 7, 2016, Shopify launched its Shopify Plus Partners Program, to help agencies connect with evolving businesses in ecommerce space. On October 3, 2016, Shopify acquired Boltmade. In November 2016, Shopify partnered with Paystack which allowed Nigerian online retailers to accept payments from customers around the world. On November 22, 2016, Shopify launched Frenzy, a mobile app that improves flash sales.

In January 2017, Shopify announced integration with Amazon that would allow merchants to sell on Amazon from their Shopify stores. In April 2017, Shopify introduced its Chip & Swipe Reader, a Bluetooth enabled debit and credit card reader for brick and mortar retail purchases. The company has since released additional technology for brick-and-mortar retailers, including a point-of-sale system with a Dock and Retail Stand similar to that offered by Square, and a tappable chip card reader.

Shopify announced a one-click accelerated checkout feature called Shopify Pay in April 2017 as an exclusive feature for merchants using Shopify Payments as their payment processor. Customers can save their shipping and payment information for future purchases from all participating Shopify stores. In November 2017, Shopify announced Arrive, a mobile application to help customers track packages from both Shopify merchants and other e-commerce websites.

In September 2018, Shopify announced plans to expand its office space in Toronto 's King West neighborhood in 2022 as part of "The Well" complex, jointly owned by Allied Properties REIT and RioCan REIT. In October 2018, Shopify opened its first flagship, a physical space for business owners in Los Angeles. The space offered educational classes, coworking space, a "genius bar" for companies that use Shopify software, and workshops. Online cannabis sales in Ontario, Canada, used Shopify's software when the drug was legalized in October 2018. Shopify's software is also used for in-person cannabis sales in Ontario since becoming legal in 2019.

In January 2019, Shopify announced the launch of Shopify Studios, a full-service television and film content and production house. On March 22, 2019, Shopify and email marketing platform Mailchimp ended an integration agreement over disputes involving customer privacy and data collection. In April 2019, Shopify announced an integration with Snapchat to allow Shopify merchants to buy and manage Snapchat Story ads directly on the Shopify platform. The company had previously secured similar integration partnerships with Facebook and Google. On August 14, 2019, Shopify launched Shopify Chat, a new native chat function that allows merchants to have real-time conversations with customers visiting Shopify stores online.

2020s

In January 2020, the company announced plans to hire in Vancouver, Canada. Additionally, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to lifting stock prices. On February 21, 2020, Shopify announced plans to join the Diem Association, known as the Libra Association at the time. Also that month, Shopify Pay was rebranded as Shop Pay. In April, Arrive was rebranded as Shop, combining both customer-facing features under a single brand. In May, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Shopify announced it would shift most of its global workforce to permanent remote work. It was reported that Shopify's valuation would likely rise on the back of options it had in the company Affirm that was expecting to go public shortly. In November 2020, Shopify announced a partnership with Alipay to support merchants with cross-border payments. Shopify also provided the opportunity for users to connect Alibaba and AliExpress to Shopify through an Alibaba Dropshipping app that could be purchased through the Shopify App Store. Multiple applications launched between 2021 and 2024 allowed customers to connect their Shopify store to their Alibaba account and then import and publish their products. The integration automatically syncs inventory and orders between both platforms so that Alibaba vendors can ship directly to dropshipping customers. As a result of Affirm's January 13, 2021 IPO, Shopify's 8% stake in Affirm was worth $2 billion. About half of Shopify's C-level executives left the company in early 2021. On June 29, 2021, Shopify removed the 20% revenue share for app developers that make less than US$1 million per year.

On January 18, 2022, Shopify announced a partnership with JD.com to let U.S. merchants expand their operations in China, listing their products on JD's cross-border e-commerce platform JD Worldwide. On March 22, 2022, Shopify introduced Linkpop, a product to create a branded, social marketplace through which merchants can advertise and market their products via links to be added on social media channels. The following month, Shopify, Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms, McKinsey & Company, and Stripe, Inc. announced a $925 million advance market commitment of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from companies that are developing CDR technology over the next 9 years.

In June 2022, Shopify partnered with Twitter. As a part of the deal, Twitter announced that it would launch a sales channel app for all of Shopify's U.S. merchants through its app store. Shopify also partnered with PayPal to offer Shopify Payments to merchants in France. On July 26, 2022, Lütke announced immediate layoffs totalling roughly 10 percent of its workforce. In a message to employees, the CEO and founder said the company's planning on growth rates continuing on the trajectory of the past two years "didn't pay off" and forced the company to downsize. In August 2022, Shopify announced it was making e-commerce marketing automation platform, Klaviyo, the recommended email solution partner for its Shopify Plus merchant platform, with a US$100 million strategic investment into the company.

In May 2023, Shopify laid off approximately 20% of its workforce and sold Shopify Logistics, its in-house logistics arm, to Flexport, which subsequently became the preferred logistics partner for the e-commerce platform.

On March 18, 2025, Shopify announced that it will transfer its U.S. listing from the NYSE to the Nasdaq Global Select Market. Shopify began trading as a Nasdaq-listed security on March 31, and became a component of the Nasdaq-100 index on May 19 at the stock market open.

On December 1, 2025, Shopify ended the trading day down 5.9% as some business owners were unable to log into their administrative portals and process retail sales on Shopify's point of sale.

In January 2026, Shopify and Google announced the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard enabling AI agents to discover products and complete transactions with merchants.

In May 2026, both Cathie Wood and Thrive Capital announced nine figure investments into Shopify.

Position on U.S.-Canada tariffs and Canadian retaliation

In 2025, Shopify founder and CEO Tobias Lütke criticized the federal Canadian government for its decision to impose retaliatory tariffs on the United States after President Donald Trump enacted 25% tariffs on Canadian goods. Lütke expressed disappointment with Trump's tariffs decision, but added, "Trump believes that Canada has not held its side of the bargain, and he set terms to prove that we still work together: get the borders under control and crack down on fentanyl dens." Shopify chief operating officer Kaz Nejatian similarly criticized Canadian policies, saying "Canada has turned a blind eye to being used as a training ground for foreign countries, gangs and terrorist groups."

In February 2026, Shopify reported Q4 2025 revenue of $3.67 billion, a 31% year-over-year increase, and full-year 2025 revenue of $11.56 billion, up 30% from 2024, driven by growth in B2B sales and expanded AI commerce tools. The company also announced a $2 billion share buyback program.