Shopify is a Canadian e-commerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. It is also the name of its proprietary e-commerce platform for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems. Shopify offers online retailers a suite of services “including payments, marketing, shipping and customer engagement tools to simplify the process of running an online store for small merchants.
Shopify was founded in 2004 by Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake after attempting to open Snowdevil, an online store for snowboarding equipment. Lütke used the open source e-commerce platform osCommerce to launch Snowdevil, but was frustrated by its lack of flexibility.
As a result, he decided to create his own platform which would be easier to use. Weinand and Lake recruited programmer Cory Wagner to help complete the project.
In 2006, Shopify launched its platform with the help of investor Fred Wilson after raising $250,000 in seed money from angel investors. Shopify has been profitable since 2009.
In 2010, Shopify acquired Select Start Studios Inc., a web design and development agency based in Waterloo, Ontario. The following year it launched an iPhone app called “Shopify POS” which allowed merchants to sell products using Apple’s mobile devices.
In 2012 Shopify acquired Jet Cooper, a Toronto-based design studio specializing in branding and design. The following year it launched an iPad app called “Shopify Register” which allowed merchants to accept payments using Apple’s tablet devices.
In 2015 Shopify partnered with Google to launch “Shop on Google”, a service that allows users to search for products on Google and purchase them directly from Shopify merchants.
In 2016 Shopify acquired Toronto-based startup Tictail, a platform that allows small businesses to create online stores.
As of March 2017, Shopify has more than 377,500 active users and is used by businesses in 150 countries.
Shopify is available in the following countries:
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Canada
- Denmark
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Gibraltar
- Greece