Shopify
Encyclopedia
Shopify is an e-commerce platform that allows individuals and businesses to create online stores. The platform currently hosts over 16,000 online retailers, including stores for Angry Birds
, Foo Fighters
, Tori Amos
, General Electric
, Tata Group
, Tesla Motors
, Amnesty International
, DODOcase, CrossFit
, LMFAO, Beastie Boys
, Epic Meal Time
, Pixar
, Lollapalooza
, Evernote
, GitHub
, Penny Arcade
, and Evisu Jeans.
. In 2004, Lütke and Lake attempted to open an e-commerce business for snowboarding
equipment, which they named Snowdevil. When it came time to add a shopping cart, Lütke, who is a programmer by trade, couldn't find a suitable product. He states "to make a long story short, after trying a series of existing online store software packages I got so disgusted with the quality of the whole lot, that I wanted to do something about it just to spite them."
Lütke began designing a custom store coded in what was then an obscure open source
platform called Ruby on Rails
. After two months, he had a working online store and Snowdevil was launched. The site found success and by 2006, the pair decided to share their code to help others sell items online. He created a template for online stores, with clients providing the pictures and products, and launched Shopify in June 2006
. Lütke summarized this by saying "what used to take months in 2004, can now be done in about 20 minutes."
As of December 2010, Shopify has 30 full-time and 10 part-time employees. The company claims to have been profitable since 2008 without any significant investments from outsiders.
In 2010, Shopify began a series of acquisitions. On January 9, 2010, Shopify acquired MNDCreative to expand the capabilities of Shopify on mobile devices. On May 30, 2010 Shopify announced a partnership with Webgistix Corp, which allowed Shopify to automate order fulfillment processes through cloud computing
.
, author of #1 New York Times best-seller The 4-Hour Workweek
. The contest offered a $100,000 grand prize to the new business launched on Shopify’s online platform that posted the highest grossing sales in a six-month period. Lütke and Ferriss developed the idea for the contest after the two met at RailConf 2009. After meeting Lütke, Ferriss also became an Advisor to Shopify in 2009.
The contest saw over 1,300 entrants, 66,503 total orders placed and over $3.5 million in revenue for the participating businesses. The winner of the contest was DODOcase, a San Francisco based maker of handmade iPad
carrying cases.
, author of #1 New York Times best-seller The 4-Hour Workweek
and The 4-Hour Body
, Gary Vaynerchuk
, author of The Thank You Economy, and popular marketing expert Seth Godin
. The contest is offering a total of $500,000 in prizes and giveaways. A grand prize of $100,000 is being rewarded to the new business launched on Shopify's online platform that posted two months with the highest grossing sales in an eight-month period. The grand prize also includes a VIP trip for two to New York to have lunch with Seth Godin
, and engage in a one-hour power session with Gary Vaynerchuk
. The grand prize also includes a VIP trip to California
to have dinner with Timothy Ferriss
and spend an afternoon at Google's headquarters, Googleplex
, to receive a personal Google AdWords consultation.
and CSS
code, create coupon and discount codes, and accept online payments online with Paypal
and major credit cards.
There are currently over 100 different free and paid apps that add further function to store owners. Companies like MailChimp, FreshBooks
, Olark, and QuickBooks
have developed apps that integrate with the Shopify platform.
On October 17, 2011 Shopify announced they will be giving away $1 million dollars to developers and designers who build plug-ins for the Shopify platform. The money comes from The Shopify Fund and the company is giving out $5,000 to $10,000 as an advance for developers.
App Store on May 13, 2010. The app allows Shopify store owners view and manage their stores from iOS mobile devices.
, who say the platform is “clean, simple, and easy-to-use.” The service has also been profiled in world publications including The Wall Street Journal
, The New York Times
, The Vancouver Sun
, The Financial Post, TechCrunch
, and Mashable
.
In 2010, Shopify was named Ottawa
’s Fastest Growing Company by the Ottawa Business Journal
. In 2007, it became a finalist for the CNET
Webware 100 Awards.
Angry Birds
Angry Birds is a puzzle video game developed by Finnish computer game developer Rovio Mobile. Inspired primarily by a sketch of stylized wingless birds, the game was first released for Apple's iOS in December 2009...
, Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters is an American alternative rock band originally formed in 1994 by Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl as a one-man project following the dissolution of his previous band. The band got its name from the UFOs and various aerial phenomena that were reported by Allied aircraft pilots in World War...
, Tori Amos
Tori Amos
Tori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...
, General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
, Tata Group
Tata Group
Tata Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Tata Group is one of the largest companies in India by market capitalization and revenue. It has interests in communications and information technology, engineering, materials, services, energy,...
, Tesla Motors
Tesla Motors
Tesla Motors, Inc. is a Silicon Valley-based company that designs, manufactures and sells electric cars and electric vehicle powertrain components. It was the only automaker building and selling a zero-emission sports car, the Tesla Roadster, in serial production...
, Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, DODOcase, CrossFit
CrossFit
CrossFit is a strength and conditioning brand that combines weightlifting, sprinting, gymnastics, powerlifting, kettlebell training, plyometrics, rowing, and medicine ball training...
, LMFAO, Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
, Epic Meal Time
Epic Meal Time
Epic Meal Time is a YouTube cooking show known for creating extremely high-calorie meals, generally out of meat products and including alcohol . It debuted in October 2010, and since then has started to release an episode every Tuesday. It is hosted by Harley Morenstein and a group of his friends...
, Pixar
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
, Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza is an annual music festival featuring popular alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock and hip hop bands, dance and comedy performances, and craft booths. It has also provided a platform for non-profit and political groups. The music festival hosts more than 160,000 people over a...
, Evernote
EverNote
Evernote is a suite of software and services designed for notetaking and archiving. A "note" can be a piece of formatted text, a full webpage or webpage excerpt, a photograph, a voice memo, or a handwritten "ink" note. Notes can also have file attachments...
, GitHub
Github
GitHub is a web-based hosting service for software development projects that use the Git revision control system. GitHub offers both commercial plans and free accounts for open source projects...
, Penny Arcade
Penny Arcade
Penny Arcade may refer to:* Penny arcade, a venue for coin-operated devices* Penny Arcade ** Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, a series of video games based on the webcomic...
, and Evisu Jeans.
History
Shopify was founded by Tobias Lütke and Scott LakeScott Lake
-Cities, towns, townships etc.:*Scott Lake, Florida, a census-designated place in Miami-Dade County, Florida-Lakes:*Scott Lake, a lake in Carver County, Minnesota*Scott Lake, a lake in Minnehaha County, South Dakota...
. In 2004, Lütke and Lake attempted to open an e-commerce business for snowboarding
Snowboarding
Snowboarding is a sport that involves descending a slope that is covered with snow on a snowboard attached to a rider's feet using a special boot set onto mounted binding. The development of snowboarding was inspired by skateboarding, sledding, surfing and skiing. It was developed in the U.S.A...
equipment, which they named Snowdevil. When it came time to add a shopping cart, Lütke, who is a programmer by trade, couldn't find a suitable product. He states "to make a long story short, after trying a series of existing online store software packages I got so disgusted with the quality of the whole lot, that I wanted to do something about it just to spite them."
Lütke began designing a custom store coded in what was then an obscure open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
platform called Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails, often shortened to Rails or RoR, is an open source web application framework for the Ruby programming language.-History:...
. After two months, he had a working online store and Snowdevil was launched. The site found success and by 2006, the pair decided to share their code to help others sell items online. He created a template for online stores, with clients providing the pictures and products, and launched Shopify in June 2006
June 2006
June 2006 was the sixth month of that year. It began on a Thursday and ended after 30 days on a FridayThe following events also occurred during the month:...
. Lütke summarized this by saying "what used to take months in 2004, can now be done in about 20 minutes."
Growth
After Shopify's launch, Lütke and Lake reached out to blogs and used word of mouth techniques to generate buzz.As of December 2010, Shopify has 30 full-time and 10 part-time employees. The company claims to have been profitable since 2008 without any significant investments from outsiders.
In 2010, Shopify began a series of acquisitions. On January 9, 2010, Shopify acquired MNDCreative to expand the capabilities of Shopify on mobile devices. On May 30, 2010 Shopify announced a partnership with Webgistix Corp, which allowed Shopify to automate order fulfillment processes through cloud computing
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
.
Series A Funding
On December 12, 2010 Shopify announced the acquisition of $7 million in Series A funding. The company will use the proceeds to invest in product development, international expansion, technology, and infrastructure and developer tools.Series B Funding
On October 17, 2011 Shopify announced the acquisition of $15 million in Series B funding. The company plans on using the investment to hire more staff, consider acquisitions, and attract app developers to create plug-ins for the Shopify App Store.Build-A-Business Contest 1
In early 2010, the company launched the Build-A-Business contest with Timothy FerrissTimothy Ferriss
Timothy Ferriss is an American author, entrepreneur, and public speaker. In 2007, he published The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, which was a New York Times and USA Today bestseller. In 2010, he followed up with The 4-Hour Body...
, author of #1 New York Times best-seller The 4-Hour Workweek
The 4-Hour Workweek
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich is a semi-autobiographical self-help book written by Timothy Ferriss, an American writer, educational activist, and entrepreneur....
. The contest offered a $100,000 grand prize to the new business launched on Shopify’s online platform that posted the highest grossing sales in a six-month period. Lütke and Ferriss developed the idea for the contest after the two met at RailConf 2009. After meeting Lütke, Ferriss also became an Advisor to Shopify in 2009.
The contest saw over 1,300 entrants, 66,503 total orders placed and over $3.5 million in revenue for the participating businesses. The winner of the contest was DODOcase, a San Francisco based maker of handmade iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
carrying cases.
Build-A-Business Contest 2
On April 26, 2011, the company launched its second Build-A-Business contest with Timothy FerrissTimothy Ferriss
Timothy Ferriss is an American author, entrepreneur, and public speaker. In 2007, he published The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, which was a New York Times and USA Today bestseller. In 2010, he followed up with The 4-Hour Body...
, author of #1 New York Times best-seller The 4-Hour Workweek
The 4-Hour Workweek
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich is a semi-autobiographical self-help book written by Timothy Ferriss, an American writer, educational activist, and entrepreneur....
and The 4-Hour Body
The 4-Hour Body
The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman is the second book by bestselling American writer Tim Ferriss.-Background:...
, Gary Vaynerchuk
Gary Vaynerchuk
Gary Vaynerchuk is a video blogger, co-owner and director of operations of a wine retail store, and an author and public speaker on the subjects of social media, brand building and e-commerce. Vaynerchuk immigrated to the U.S...
, author of The Thank You Economy, and popular marketing expert Seth Godin
Seth Godin
Seth Godin is an American entrepreneur, author and public speaker. Godin popularized the topic of permission marketing.-Background:...
. The contest is offering a total of $500,000 in prizes and giveaways. A grand prize of $100,000 is being rewarded to the new business launched on Shopify's online platform that posted two months with the highest grossing sales in an eight-month period. The grand prize also includes a VIP trip for two to New York to have lunch with Seth Godin
Seth Godin
Seth Godin is an American entrepreneur, author and public speaker. Godin popularized the topic of permission marketing.-Background:...
, and engage in a one-hour power session with Gary Vaynerchuk
Gary Vaynerchuk
Gary Vaynerchuk is a video blogger, co-owner and director of operations of a wine retail store, and an author and public speaker on the subjects of social media, brand building and e-commerce. Vaynerchuk immigrated to the U.S...
. The grand prize also includes a VIP trip to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
to have dinner with Timothy Ferriss
Timothy Ferriss
Timothy Ferriss is an American author, entrepreneur, and public speaker. In 2007, he published The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, which was a New York Times and USA Today bestseller. In 2010, he followed up with The 4-Hour Body...
and spend an afternoon at Google's headquarters, Googleplex
Googleplex
The Googleplex is the corporate headquarters complex of Google, Inc., located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, Santa Clara County, California, United States, near San Jose. "Googleplex" is a portmanteau of Google and complex, and a reference to googolplex, the name given to the large...
, to receive a personal Google AdWords consultation.
Operations
Shopify has four levels of monthly payment plans: Basic, Professional, Business, and Unlimited. Depending on each plan, the company charges fees ranging from 0-2% on each transaction. All of Shopify's plans include unlimited bandwidth and free setup. The company also offers a free 30 day trial.Features
The Shopify platform includes a content management system that allows users to manage inventory, edit HTMLHTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
and CSS
CSS
-Computing:*Cascading Style Sheets, a language used to describe the style of document presentations in web development*Central Structure Store in the PHIGS 3D API*Closed source software, software that is not distributed with source code...
code, create coupon and discount codes, and accept online payments online with Paypal
PayPal
PayPal is an American-based global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders....
and major credit cards.
Shopify App Store
On June 2, 2009 Shopify launched their API platform and App Store. The API allows developers to create custom applications for Shopify online stores and then sell them on the Shopify App Store.There are currently over 100 different free and paid apps that add further function to store owners. Companies like MailChimp, FreshBooks
Freshbooks
FreshBooks is an online invoicing software as a service for freelancers, small businesses, agencies, and professionals.It is produced by the software company 2ndSite Inc. which is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...
, Olark, and QuickBooks
QuickBooks
QuickBooks is a line of business accounting software developed and marketed by Intuit.-History:Intuit was founded in 1983 by Scott Cook and Tom Proulx in Mountain View, California, USA...
have developed apps that integrate with the Shopify platform.
On October 17, 2011 Shopify announced they will be giving away $1 million dollars to developers and designers who build plug-ins for the Shopify platform. The money comes from The Shopify Fund and the company is giving out $5,000 to $10,000 as an advance for developers.
Shopify Theme Store
The Shopify Theme Store was unveiled on April 20, 2010. The store allows developers sell theme templates designed for stores using the Shopify platform. Shopify released a free mobile app on the AppleApple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...
App Store on May 13, 2010. The app allows Shopify store owners view and manage their stores from iOS mobile devices.
Support
Shopify implemented a Guru program that connects e-commerce specialists with new Shopify customers in order to consult them on how to run a successful online store and improve their business.Reception
Since its launch Shopify has been well-received by popular tech websites such as CNETCNET
CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...
, who say the platform is “clean, simple, and easy-to-use.” The service has also been profiled in world publications including The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver Sun is a daily newspaper first published in the Canadian province of British Columbia on February 12, 1912. The paper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. It is published six days a week, Monday to Saturday...
, The Financial Post, TechCrunch
TechCrunch
TechCrunch is a web publication that offers technology news and analysis, as well as profiling of startup companies, products, and websites. It was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, and was first published on June 11, 2005....
, and Mashable
Mashable
Mashable is an American news website and Internet news blog founded by Pete Cashmore. The website's primary focus is social media news, but also covers news and developments in mobile, entertainment, online video, business, web development, technology, memes and gadgets...
.
In 2010, Shopify was named Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
’s Fastest Growing Company by the Ottawa Business Journal
Ottawa Business Journal
The Ottawa Business Journal is a regional business publication serving Canada's National Capital Region. Founded in 1995, it is owned by Great River Mediaand published on a biweekly basis with a circulation of 20,000 copies. Over its first decade, the Ottawa Business Journal has been recognized as...
. In 2007, it became a finalist for the CNET
CNET
CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...
Webware 100 Awards.