Shopify today released the results for its first quarter of 2019, which ended on March 31, bringing in total revenue of $320.5 million USD, a 50 percent increase from the first quarter of 2018. (All monetary figures are expressed in US dollars.)
Since releasing its financial results Shopify’s stock price jumped more than 6 percent to $323.84 CAD, at the time of publication, up from yesterday’s close of $303.04.
“Shopify is meeting a need that is not only global and growing, but that is likely to continue growing for the foreseeable future.”
“We’re off to an incredible start this year, as more merchants around the globe choose Shopify to start, grow, and manage their businesses,” said Amy Shapero, Shopify’s CFO. “Entrepreneurs and enterprises alike recognize that Shopify’s merchant-driven mission helps them build their most successful business and thrive in an ever-changing retail landscape. That’s why we continue to invest in our platform, expanding our product and feature set, and the overall Shopify experience.”
Shopify reported monthly recurring revenue (MRR) for the quarter as $44.2 million, up 36 percent from its last Q1 of $32.5 million. Shopify Plus contributed $11.3 million, or 26 percent, of the company’s MRR, compared with 22 percent of MRR the same time last year.
The company pointed to some of its highlights of this quarter, including the unveiling of Shopify Studios, a television and film content development and production house. Shopify also launched a multi-currency feature for Shopify Plus merchants using Shopify Payments, allowing Plus merchants to sell in multiple currencies and get paid in their local currency.
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Shopify’s Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) for the first quarter was $11.9 billion, a growth of $3.9 billion, or 50 percent, over the first quarter of 2018. Shopify’s Gross Payments Volume accounted for 41 percent of GMV processed in the quarter, growing to $4.9 billion.
Gross profit dollars for the Ottawa-based company grew 46 percent, to $180.3 million, compared with the $123.8 million recorded for the first quarter of 2018. At the end of this first quarter, Shopify had $2.0 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities, a small increase from $1.97 billion in December.
The company added that purchases from merchants’ stores coming from mobile devices versus desktop continued to grow during the quarter, comprising 79 percent of traffic and 69 percent of orders during 2019’s first three months, versus 75 percent and 64 percent, respectively, for the same period last year.
Shopify’s operating loss for the first quarter of 2019 was $35.8 million, or 11 percent of revenue, versus 9 percent of revenue for the comparable period a year ago. Net loss for the first quarter of 2019 was $24.2 million, or $0.22 per share, compared with $15.9 million, or $0.16 per share, for the first quarter of 2018.
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Shopify also noted in is report the launch, last week, of its retail hardware collection to the US, which included its Tap & Chip Reader, a Dock for the reader, and retail Stand for iPads. The company originally announced the Tap & Chip Reader in early 2018 at its partner and developer conference in Toronto. It should be noted, however, that this new launch had no bearing on first quarter results, as the launch took place after the close of Q1.
Looking ahead, Shopify stated that it expects annual revenues for 2019 to be in the range of $1.48 billion to $1.5 billion. For Q2 of this year, Shopify projected revenues between $345 million to $350 million.
“The information age is rapidly changing how commerce is done and by whom,” said Tobi Lütke, CEO of Shopify. “By harnessing these changes to empower entrepreneurs, Shopify is meeting a need that is not only global and growing, but that is likely to continue growing for the foreseeable future.”
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.