Shopify: the story of Shopify’s creation and success

If Shopify’s history had a slogan, it would definitely be this phrase: “If you can’t find it, make it.”

That’s exactly what a group of friends from Ottawa did in 2004 when they realized that neither Yahoo Stores, Microsoft Commerce, nor other popular website builders at the time met their needs.

Initially, 21-year-old programmer Toby Luetke and his partners wanted to launch a business selling snowboard equipment. In fact, in the process of developing the online store, they came up with the idea to create their own CMS with extensive functionality and flexible user settings. Off-the-shelf solutions offered by the market at that time did not even allow you to install a pre-designed page design.

To be fair, the group of friends did launch a sports equipment store: Snowdevil didn’t last long and seems to have fulfilled its purpose – it became a test model for the future of website development and e-commerce business.

Shopify development in numbers

Today, Shopify serves more than 1,000,000 active online stores in 175 countries, making it one of the largest e-commerce platforms in the world. However, such success did not come to the company overnight:

2006. The official release of the first version. Shopify was presented as an intuitive website builder that anyone could use to create their own website without having to understand the code. Users were able to edit ready-made design templates, conduct business analytics, and connect payments via PayPal.

2007. Despite all the functionality and accessibility, the platform did not gain a massive user base. To be more precise, there were users, but they mostly tried to bypass the system to avoid paying a commission on each transaction. Rumor has it that Shopify’s profit at that time did not exceed $8 thousand per month, which, you see, is critically low even for a small company.

Then the creator of Shopify and his team made a fateful decision to create tariff plans and introduce a monthly subscription. Moreover, the more expensive the tariff, the less commission the user pays.

2008. Attracting the first major investment fund (Bessemer Venture Partners) became a significant moment in the company’s history and helped it strengthen its market position. After changing the financial policy and injecting investments, Shopify’s revenue increased more than 7 times and already amounted to about 60 thousand dollars a month.

2009-2010. The platform launches the Shopify App Store, a store of online applications and integration services. This extends the functionality of the platform to “space” heights. In the Shopify App Store, you can find solutions for any task: from ready-made marketing scenarios to potential profit calculators. Currently, more than 6 thousand different utilities are available in the store.

2013. A large-scale update. Users receive more than 60 new features and additional settings, which once again changes the perception of the platform’s capabilities. Moreover, most of the functionality is related to specific customer requests. It can be said that Shopify’s success is largely determined by their desire to meet the unique needs of every online entrepreneur.

2015. The first listing on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges. Following the IPO, Shopify is named one of the most successful technology companies of the year.

2016 – present. Stable success. Shopify actively supports small businesses and entrepreneurs by providing tools and resources for their growth and development. This includes training materials, marketing tools, financial services, and more.

The company is constantly introducing new features and innovations to improve its platform and meet the changing needs of the market.

It actively supports various social and environmental projects, including climate change initiatives.

Conclusions and analysis of success factors

What is the secret of Shopify’s success? Founder Toby Lütke answers that: “The needs of users will never outgrow the platform’s capabilities, as it will grow and develop in proportion to the spirit of the times.”

The platform actively uses the capabilities of artificial intelligence. For example, the introduction of machine learning algorithms to analyze customer behavior has made it possible to make recommendations as personalized as possible, which has affected conversion and average check.

Other success factors include

• creation of its own business community and ecosystem;
• focus on supporting small businesses;
• participation in social projects:
• beneficial partnership programs for entrepreneurs and payment providers.

Given all of the above, it is not surprising that over the years Shopify has become one of the world’s leading providers of e-commerce services and solutions.