Shopify’s third-quarter revenue numbers didn’t satisfy all analysts this morning as the e-commerce company’s stock fell in pre-market trading.
The Ottawa-based e-commerce giant posted revenue growth of 32 percent year over year on Tuesday, in line with internal estimates, as it accelerated its embrace of agentic online shopping tools. But its revenue of $3.74 billion USD ($5.23 billion CAD) for the quarter missed analyst expectations, which ranged from $3.75 billion up to $3.77 billion.
Shopify’s online merchants brought in $119 billion USD in gross merchandise volume this quarter, a 29-percent increase from last year but slightly less than what analysts were expecting.
Shopify’s online merchants brought in $119 billion USD in gross merchandise volume this quarter, a 29-percent increase from last year but slightly less than what analysts were expecting, Barron’s reported. Shopify stock fell by 19 percent in pre-market trading.
Shopify fared better on profitability metrics. It posted earnings per share of $0.49 USD, exceeding analyst projections, and $462 million in net income in the three months before Sept. 30 (75 percent higher than last year), including a $122-million paper loss on its equity investments.
The company also reported a free cash flow margin of 22 percent this quarter, which CFO Jeff Hoffmeister attributed to “multiple growth drivers” and an “expanding addressable market.”
Canada’s largest tech company has embraced AI, both mandating its use internally and building features for agentic commerce, where chatbot and agent interfaces function as “storefronts” for customer purchases. Shopify’s stock closed at $220 CAD yesterday on the Toronto Stock Exchange, making its market cap just under $280 billion CAD.
The company leaned further into agentic payments in the last few months amid rising interest in consumer AI agents such as Meta’s Muse and Instinct, which can make purchases on behalf of users. Beyond allowing these agents to connect to Shop Pay, Shopify also connected Muse to its vendor side, so the AI agent could create or manage a Shopify store.
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Agentic updates were a highlight of Shopify’s Fall 2026 Editions, released last week. Other product updates included expanded AI capabilities for Sidekick, Shopify’s AI chatbot, and a number of other tools to make online store management easier through natural-language chat conversations. The company also officially bought the website domain shop.com, which now hosts a website version of its Shop app.
Shopify also saw a high-profile staff departure this month. BetaKit reported on Oct. 19 that CTO Mikhail Parakhin was stepping down after two years in the role and would stay on as an advisor; it’s currently unclear who will take on the executive position.
As Shopify heads into the holiday season—typically its busiest quarter—it expects revenue growth in the low thirties year over year.
Disclosure: BetaKit majority owner Good Future is the family office of two former Shopify leaders, Arati Sharma and Satish Kanwar.
Feature image courtesy Shopify.