Sales for Ottawa’s current tech darling Shopify Inc. soared by more than 93 per cent during the three months ended Sept. 30, the company reported Wednesday.
Third-quarter sales hit $52.8 million, up from $27.3 million during the same quarter one year ago. The company said it now has more than 200,000 shops online using its services.
“This has been a really busy quarter for us. We surpassed 200,000 merchants at some point during the quarter which is a wonderful milestone for us,” said Tobias Lutke, Shopify’s chief executive.
Lutke said the company’s recent addition of a “buy it now” button for Facebook and Twitter, and the integration of Amazon.com shopping accounts, for buying and selling items using Amazon’s shopping platform, have helped to fuel the increase in sales for the Ottawa firm.
“We are now supporting all three of the major social networks,” said Lutke. “For a decade, commerce has been focused on websites and now it’s moving past the website. Merchants need a single system to log into and see how their business is doing. That’s increasingly becoming Shopify.”
Despite the rise in revenues, the company reported a net loss during the quarter of $4.7 million, an increase over the $3.4 million in losses it reported during the same quarter last year.
Shopify said, its losses are due to continued spending in marketing and research and development initiatives, as the firm continues to chase after new market opportunities. On a conference call Wednesday morning, Shopify’s chief financial officer Russ Jones said the company believes it can be profitable as early as 2017.
The company finished the quarter with $191.5 million in cash and cash equivalents, compared with $59.7 million as of December 31, 2014.
Shopify offers customers the ability to quickly set up and manage online stores without needing any expertise in building or managing websites. The company helps users with everything from inventory management and bookkeeping to payment processing and even delivery services to help online shops move their product.
Traditionally, the last three months of the year are the busiest for Shopify as its merchants hit the peak Christmas shopping period. The company expects sales for the full year to come in between $194 million and $196 million, marking the end to its first full fiscal year as a publicly traded company.
