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, who were then students at the University of Waterloo. [8][9] Lütke, originally a snowboarder, found that it was difficult to find good e-commerce software for snowboarding products, so he created his own.
Weinand and Lake quit their jobs soon after to work on the platform full-time. [10]
Shopify launched its platform in 2006. [11] In 2010 it raised $7 million Series A funding from Bessemer Ventures and FirstMark Capital.
[12][13] A 2012 Series B funding closed with $15 million from Felicis Ventures,[14] OMERS Ventures,[15] Index Ventures,[16] and Insight Venture Partners. [17][18] In February 2015 Shopify acquired Select Start Studios Inc., mobile design agency based in Toronto. [19][20]In June 2015 Shopify acquired Boltmade, a web design agency also based in Toronto.[21][22] In August 2015 Shopify launched an iOS app development kit called Timber.[23]
In September 2016 Shopify acquired Tictail, a Swedish e-commerce company.[24][25]
In October 2016 Shopify announced that it was opening up its platform to allow developers to create apps for merchants using its API.[26]
In December 2016 Shopify acquired Unite U LLC, a Nashville-based technology company focused on developing mobile commerce solutions for enterprise retailers. [27][28]
Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms on the planet. And it’s no wonder why. The company offers everything that businesses need to get online and start selling.
From payments and shipping to marketing and customer engagement tools, Shopify has it all.
But despite its popularity and success, Shopify stock has been on a bit of a roller coaster ride as of late. So what’s causing this volatility? Let’s take a closer look.
The first reason why is Shopify stock going down is that the company recently announced that it was opening up its platform to allow developers to create apps for merchants using its API. This news was met with some skepticism from investors who are worried that this could lead to more competition for Shopify.
The second reason why is Shopify stock going down has to do with the company’s recent acquisitions. In December 2016, Shopify acquired Unite U LLC, a Nashville-based technology company focused on developing mobile commerce solutions for enterprise retailers. This acquisition was seen as a positive by some analysts but it also brought up concerns about Shopify’s ability to integrate these new companies into its existing business model.
The third reason why is Shopify stock going down is because of the overall volatility in the stock market. While this doesn’t have anything specifically to do with Shopify, it is still worth mentioning as it is one of the factors that can impact the stock price.
