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Shopify sells the software and tools that let anyone set up and run an online store.
Shopify is a software company that gives people and businesses the tools to open an online store and sell things over the internet. A small candle maker, a clothing brand, or a giant consumer goods company can all use Shopify to build a website, list products, take payments, and ship orders, without having to write any code or hire a tech team. The company is based in Ottawa, Canada, and its shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange.
Here is the basic problem it solves. Setting up an online shop used to be a nightmare: you needed a web developer, a payment system, a shopping cart, and a way to track inventory, all patched together. Shopify bundles all of that into one subscription. Merchants pay a monthly fee for the store software, and then Shopify takes a small cut of each sale that runs through its payment system, Shopify Payments. That second piece matters a lot — the more its merchants sell, the more money Shopify makes, so its fate is tied to the success of the sellers on its platform. The company's reach goes well beyond the store itself. It offers tools for point-of-sale in physical shops, shipping and fulfillment services, and lending to merchants who need cash to grow. It also sells add-ons through its app store, where outside developers build features that plug into Shopify. This turns Shopify into something closer to an operating system for commerce. Its main rivals are the big marketplaces where people sell on someone else's website, like Amazon, plus do-it-yourself website builders like Wix and Squarespace.
Shopify's biggest strength is that it lets merchants own their own store and customer relationships rather than renting space inside a marketplace. That independence appeals to brands that don't want to hand their customers over to a giant platform. The flip side is that Shopify doesn't control demand the way a marketplace does, so it rises and falls with the merchants it serves. It also spent heavily to build out fulfillment and logistics, a costly bet it later scaled back. In recent years it has pushed hard into offline retail and enterprise customers, aiming to serve bigger brands and not just small shops.
Saved answer · last researched 27 Oct 2026