Shopify Inc. (SHOP): Business Model Canvas [Dec-2025 Updated]

You're trying to figure out what truly powers the commerce giant that is Shopify Inc. as we head into 2026, right? Honestly, looking at the numbers from late 2025-like their 5.54 million global stores driving $92.01 billion in Gross Merchandise Volume in Q3 alone, or that explosive 101% B2B GMV growth in Q2-it's clear the engine isn't just subscriptions anymore. We need to break down exactly how they make money, who they serve, and what keeps their ecosystem humming, from Shop Pay's high conversion to their massive developer network. Below, I've mapped out the definitive, data-driven Business Model Canvas for Shopify Inc., distilling two decades of analysis into this one essential snapshot.

Shopify Inc. (SHOP) - Canvas Business Model: Key Partnerships

You're building a commerce platform, and the strength of your ecosystem-your partners-is what makes or breaks the value proposition for merchants. Shopify Inc. has strategically pruned its operations, like selling Shopify Logistics, to double down on platform excellence, relying heavily on key external players to fill those gaps and drive innovation.

Flexport: Preferred Logistics Partner

Following the divestiture of Shopify Logistics, Flexport stepped in as the official logistics partner and the preferred provider for the Shop Promise feature, which gives customers transparent, fast delivery options. This relationship is cemented by Shopify holding a 13 percent equity stake in Flexport. This structure lets Shopify focus on its core platform while ensuring merchants still have access to a sophisticated global supply chain network.

App and Theme Developers

The third-party ecosystem is massive, providing the extensibility that keeps merchants on the platform. As of late 2025, the ecosystem is supported by 11,062 different vendors who have published 17,676 apps in the Shopify App Store. On average, a merchant uses about 6 of these applications to run their store. The cost of this ecosystem is also quantifiable; the average plan for a Shopify app costs approximately $66.54 per month.

Here's a look at the scale of the developer ecosystem:

Metric	Value (Late 2025)
Total Published Apps	17,676
Total Registered Vendors	11,062
Average Apps Installed per Merchant	6
Average Monthly App Subscription Cost	$66.54

Financial Institutions: Powering Capital and Payments

The financial services layer is a critical revenue driver, shifting Shopify Inc. further toward a merchant solutions focus. Shopify Payments is seeing deep penetration, processing $53 billion in Gross Payment Volume in a recent quarter, achieving a 58% penetration rate across eligible transactions. This is a significant increase from the $41.1 billion processed in Q2 2025.

Shopify Capital continues to deploy significant capital to merchants, originating approximately $2.8B in business loans and merchant cash advances in the first nine months of 2025. However, this growth comes with managed risk; transaction and loan losses for Shopify Capital reached $148 million, representing a 155% year-over-year increase.

Key financial partnership metrics include:

• Shopify Payments Quarterly GPV (Recent Quarter 2025): $53 billion
• Shopify Payments Penetration Rate: 58%
• Shopify Capital Originations (First Nine Months 2025): ~$2.8B
• Shopify Capital Loan Losses (Year-over-Year Increase): 155%

AI/Technology Partners: OpenAI and Perplexity

The push into 'agentic commerce' relies on deep integration with leading AI firms. Shopify teamed up with OpenAI to launch Instant Checkout inside ChatGPT in September 2025, allowing direct purchases without leaving the chat interface. This AI focus is already showing results; since January 2025, traffic from AI tools has increased sevenfold, and AI-attributed purchases have risen elevenfold. The Perplexity partnership leverages the structured Shopify Catalogue to power AI shopping agents for search and checkout functions.

Global Shipping Carriers

While Shopify Inc. exited direct logistics, integration with major global carriers remains essential for merchants. The platform enables direct label purchasing and rate calculation through specific apps for these partners, ensuring merchants can manage international fulfillment seamlessly. For example, merchants can link their existing accounts for carriers like Royal Mail and Australia Post directly within the Shopify admin.

Carrier integration statistics show merchant reliance in specific regions as of May 2025:

Carrier	Approximate % of Stores Using It (2025)	Key Integration Feature
Royal Mail	1.9% (approx. 48k stores)	Domestic label purchase directly in Shopify
Australia Post	1.5% (approx. 39k stores)	Direct label purchase via MyPost Business account link
DHL	Data not specified for store usage %	Duty payment options for international shipping from US/CA

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Shopify Inc. (SHOP) - Canvas Business Model: Key Activities

You're looking at the core engine driving Shopify Inc.'s performance as of late 2025. The Key Activities section of the Business Model Canvas is where the company spends its time and capital to deliver its value proposition. It's a mix of heavy engineering, financial services scaling, and ecosystem governance.

Platform and Infrastructure Development: Scaling the core e-commerce technology

Shopify Inc. has been focused on making the core platform faster and more flexible, especially for larger merchants. This involves continuous API modernization and performance tuning. The Winter 2025 "Boring" Edition and the Summer 2025 "Horizons" Edition rolled out over 150 new features each, targeting platform weaknesses. For instance, the Winter '25 release delivered 50% faster cart loading and 59% faster payment button loads. This infrastructure work is supported by developer ecosystem mandates, such as requiring all new public apps to transition to GraphQL Product APIs by February 1, 2025, while the REST Admin API was designated as legacy by April 2025. Also, the platform continues to expand its custom logic capabilities with Shopify Functions, replacing the old Script Editor.

The subscription side of the business, which funds some of this foundational work, remains important:

• Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) in Q3 2025 was $193 million.
• MRR growth year-over-year was 10.3%.
• Shopify Plus MRR grew 17% year-over-year in Q3 2025.
• Shopify Plus accounted for 35% of total MRR in the reported quarter.

Research and Development (R&D): Focusing on AI-driven commerce tools

Investment in R&D is clearly directed toward embedding artificial intelligence across the merchant journey. This is a major push to maintain a competitive edge against other platforms. In Q3 2025, Research & Development expenses were $375 million, representing a 13% increase year-over-year. As a percentage of revenues, R&D expenses decreased 220 bps year-over-year to 13.2% in that same quarter. The twelve months ending September 30, 2025, saw total R&D expenses reach $1.497 billion. The AI assistant, Sidekick, is a prime example of this focus; it was introduced globally and used by 750,000 shops in Q3 2025. Furthermore, recent October 2025 updates added voice mode and full-screen mode to Sidekick, mirroring capabilities in other major AI tools. Shopify Inc. is also actively integrating with external AI leaders, including partnerships with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Perplexity.

Merchant Solutions Expansion: Growing Shopify Payments and Shopify Capital

Merchant Solutions revenue is now the primary driver, accounting for 75.4% of total Shopify Inc. revenues in Q3 2025, reaching $2.15 billion. This growth is heavily reliant on the success of its integrated financial products. Shopify Payments penetration hit 65% of Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) in Q3 2025, with the payments business processing $53 billion in that quarter. Shop Pay GMV saw significant acceleration, increasing 67% year-over-year to $29 billion in Q3 2025. On the lending side, Shopify Capital originated approximately $1 billion in business loans and merchant cash advances (MCAs) in Q3 2025, matching the previous quarter's origination volume. The total originations for the first nine months of 2025 reached approximately $2.8 billion, putting them on pace to surpass the prior year's total of $3 billion. However, this expansion comes with a cost; Q3 2025 saw transaction and loan losses for Shopify Capital hit $148 million, a 155% increase year-over-year.

Here's a quick look at the Q3 2025 financial snapshot that these activities generated:

Metric	Value (Q3 2025)	Year-over-Year Change
Total Revenue	$2.84 billion	31.5% increase
Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV)	$92.01 billion	32% increase
Merchant Solutions Revenue	$2.15 billion	38.2% increase
Shopify Payments GMV Penetration	65%	Increase from 64% (Q1 2025)
Shopify Capital Originations (YTD)	~$2.8 billion	On pace to surpass $3 billion (2024 total)

Ecosystem Management: Cultivating the Partner Network and App Store

Managing the ecosystem means ensuring developers and partners have the right tools to build on the platform, which directly supports merchant success. The platform overhaul mentioned earlier is central to this. The focus on GraphQL APIs and deprecating the REST Admin API ensures a modern, high-performance environment for app builders. The App Store ecosystem is vital for extending functionality beyond the core offering. While specific App Store revenue or partner count isn't explicitly detailed for late 2025, the growth in merchant solutions revenue, which is often driven by partner integrations (like payments and markets), shows the ecosystem is being monetized effectively. The platform is designed to be a unified commerce operating system, supporting sales across online stores, POS, marketplaces, and B2B solutions.

Global Market Penetration: Driving international GMV growth, up 41% in Q3 2025

International expansion is a clear priority, showing strong velocity in key regions. International GMV grew 41% year-over-year in Q3 2025. Europe is leading this charge, with its GMV increasing 49% in the same period. This success is translating to revenue share, as European revenue now makes up 21% of Shopify Inc.'s total revenue, up from less than 18% two years prior. To support this, Shopify Inc. expanded its Merchant Solutions footprint: Shopify Payments for POS launched in 3 additional countries, and Shopify Tap to Pay rolled out in 7 more countries during Q3 2025. Shopify Capital also doubled its footprint since the start of the year, adding Ireland and Spain in Q3.

The global performance metrics are compelling:

• International GMV Growth (Q3 2025): 41%.
• Europe GMV Growth (Q3 2025): 49%.
• Revenue from Europe (Q3 2025): 21% of total revenue.
• Shopify Payments for POS Launches (Q3 2025): 3 countries.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Shopify Inc. (SHOP) - Canvas Business Model: Key Resources

You're looking at the core assets that make Shopify Inc. a dominant force in commerce technology right now. These aren't just abstract concepts; they are hard numbers and tangible platforms that drive the business.

Core E-commerce Platform: Scalable, multi-channel software infrastructure

The platform underpins massive transaction volume. For instance, during the third quarter of 2025, Shopify reported that Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) was up 32% year-over-year. The platform's operational efficiency is reflected in its profitability metrics, with the Q3 2025 free cash flow margin reaching 18%.

Intellectual Property: Proprietary technology like Shop Pay for high conversion

Proprietary checkout technology significantly impacts merchant success. Shopify's checkout is reported to be up to 1.72x higher converting than non-Shopify checkouts, largely due to features like Shop Pay. While the average conversion rate across all Shopify stores hovers around 1.4% as of 2025, the technology is a key differentiator.

Merchant Base: Over 5.54 million active stores globally

The sheer scale of the merchant community is a critical resource, creating network effects and data advantages. As of 2025, Shopify hosts over 5.54 million active stores worldwide. For context on the enterprise segment, over 52,757 Shopify Plus stores were active in 2025.

The composition of the merchant base shows significant scale:

• Total active stores (2025): 5.54 million
• Shopify Plus active stores (2025): 52,757
• U.S. store count (2025): 2.67 million
• Customers served (2025 estimate): Over 700 million

Financial Capital: Strong balance sheet supporting Shopify Capital lending

Shopify maintains a strong liquidity position to fund operations and its merchant financing arm. As of September 30, 2025, the company reported Cash and Cash Equivalents of $2,414 million USD, with Cash and Short-Term Investments totaling $6,349 million USD. This financial strength supports Shopify Capital, which originated approximately $1B in loans and merchant cash advances in Q3 2025 alone. The total originations for the first nine months of 2025 reached ~$2.8B.

Here's a snapshot of the balance sheet strength as of the end of Q3 2025 (in millions USD):

Metric	Period Ending Sep '25
Cash & Equivalents	2,414
Short-Term Investments	3,935
Cash & Short-Term Investments Total	6,349
Total Assets	15,039

Global Partner Network: Developers, agencies, and affiliates driving adoption

The ecosystem of external partners is vital for platform expansion and specialized merchant support. This network includes development agencies that achieve the highest partner tiers, such as Platinum Service Partner status. These specialized agencies focus on high-volume merchants, with some working with brands generating a combined annual sales volume between $250 to $350 million. The partner program rewards those who build apps and provide services, which is crucial as demand for experts in areas like headless commerce and B2B solutions grows.

Shopify Inc. (SHOP) - Canvas Business Model: Value Propositions

Shopify Inc. provides an all-in-one commerce platform that lets you start, scale, market, and run any retail business. As of late 2025, the platform supports over 5.1 million active online stores globally, with a total of over 5.54 million active stores worldwide. Shopify's reach extends to over 175 countries, serving a customer base that surpasses 875 million people who transacted with merchants in 2024.

The platform offers democratized enterprise tools, meaning small merchants get access to the same capabilities as global brands. For instance, Shopify Plus merchants, the enterprise tier, are growing revenue by an average of 126% year-over-year, which is a 690% increase compared to the industry standard. As of 2025, there are 52,757 active Shopify Plus stores.

The high conversion checkout experience is a core value driver, primarily through Shop Pay. In the third quarter of 2025, Shop Pay GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) increased 67% year-over-year to $29 billion, reinforcing its leadership and conversion lift. Shopify Payments' GMV penetration reached 65% in Q3 2025.

Shopify Inc. delivers unified commerce, seamlessly integrating online and offline sales channels. Offline GMV saw strong growth, increasing 29% year-over-year in Q2 2025, and accelerating to 31% year-over-year in Q3 2025.

The focus on rapid B2B expansion is yielding significant results. B2B GMV jumped by 101% in Q2 2025, and continued this momentum, growing 98% in Q3 2025.

Here are some key operational and financial metrics underpinning these value propositions from the latest reported quarters:

Metric	Reporting Period	Value
Total Revenue	Q3 2025	$2.84 billion
Total GMV	Q3 2025	$92.01 billion
B2B GMV Growth	Q2 2025	101%
Shop Pay GMV	Q3 2025	$29 billion
Offline GMV Growth	Q3 2025 YoY	31%
Free Cash Flow Margin	Q3 2025	18%

The platform's value is also seen in its ability to drive merchant success through integrated services:

• Shopify Payments processed 65% of total GMV in Q3 2025.
• Merchant Solutions Revenue was $2.15 billion in Q3 2025, up 38% year-over-year.
• Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) grew 10.3% year-over-year in Q3 2025, with the Plus category accounting for 35% of MRR.
• International GMV grew 41% year-over-year in Q3 2025.

Shopify Inc. (SHOP) - Canvas Business Model: Customer Relationships

Shopify Inc. (SHOP) structures its customer relationships to scale support and service intensity directly with the merchant's size and complexity. This tiered approach ensures that the vast majority of the base receives efficient, scalable support while the enterprise segment receives high-touch, dedicated service.

The overall merchant base provides the foundation for the self-service model. As of Q2 2025, Shopify powers approximately 4.8 million live stores globally, growing to over 5.5 million active stores by late 2025.

Automated Self-Service: Extensive knowledge base and community forums for basic plans

For the large segment of merchants on Basic and standard plans, the relationship is heavily reliant on scalable, digital resources. Research indicates that 88% of consumers expect brands to have self-service options on their website. Shopify supports this expectation through its extensive knowledge base and community forums, which are the first line of defense for troubleshooting and guidance.

Digital tools further automate initial interactions. For example, Shopify Inbox, a free messaging tool, saw 70% of its conversations in late 2023 involve customers making a purchasing decision. Furthermore, the platform's focus on improving merchant-to-customer digital tools is evident, with the average returning customer rate for Shopify stores sitting at 27%.

Dedicated Account Management: High-touch support for Shopify Plus merchants

The relationship shifts to high-touch, dedicated support for the enterprise segment, Shopify Plus. As of Q3 2025, this tier includes 66,002 domains, representing approximately 44,001 distinct merchants. These merchants are significant revenue drivers, with the average Shopify Plus merchant generating over $1.5 million in average annual revenue. This tier receives dedicated account management, which is necessary given the complexity of their operations and the high value of their Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV).

You can see the segmentation of the high-value customer base here:

Metric	Value (Late 2025)	Source Context
Total Active Stores	Over 5.5 million	General 2025 Estimate
Shopify Plus Domains	66,002	Q3 2025 Data
Shopify Plus Distinct Merchants	44,001	Q3 2025 Data
Average Shopify Plus Annual Revenue	Over $1.5 million	Benchmark for Plus Users

Partner-Led Implementation: Agencies and developers customize complex solutions

For complex implementations, migrations, and custom development, Shopify relies on its partner ecosystem. This network acts as an extended, specialized service arm for merchants needing solutions beyond the core platform. As of 2024, the Shopify Partner ecosystem comprised approximately 100,000 partners, including agencies and developers [cite: 3, search 2]. The App Store itself supports this by offering over 9,000 apps.

Proactive Product Updates: Constant platform innovation (e.g., Winter '25 Edition)

Shopify maintains relationships proactively by pushing significant, iterative improvements through its Editions cycle. The Shopify Winter '25 Edition rolled out on December 11, 2024, introducing over 150 updates. These updates directly impact the merchant experience and, by extension, their customer relationships. For instance, cart loading speeds were optimized by up to 50%, and accelerated checkout buttons loaded 58.8% faster. Furthermore, features like Checkout Blocks became universally available, which were previously exclusive to Plus merchants.

Community Building: Fostering a global network of entrepreneurs

Shopify actively fosters community to drive loyalty, which is critical as the average ecommerce retention rate hovers around 30%. Merchants who build active communities see significant benefits. Data suggests that community members spend 67% more per order than non-community customers. Moreover, Shopify stores with active communities report customer retention rates that are 4.2x higher than the average. This focus on peer-to-peer and brand-to-customer connection helps mitigate rising acquisition costs.

The platform itself is a massive network, supporting over 700 million buyers globally in 2025.

Shopify Inc. (SHOP) - Canvas Business Model: Channels

You're looking at how Shopify Inc. gets its platform and services into the hands of merchants, which is a multi-pronged effort spanning digital and physical touchpoints. This distribution strategy is key to capturing market share across all business sizes.

Online Platform: Shopify.com for direct subscription sign-ups

The core channel remains the direct-to-merchant website, Shopify.com. This is where the vast majority of new businesses start their journey. As of late 2025, the platform supports an estimated 5.54 million active stores globally. The United States represents a massive portion of this base, with approximately 2.67 million active stores operating there. This digital front door is responsible for driving the Subscription Solutions revenue stream. For context on the platform's overall scale, Shopify's revenue for the twelve months ending September 30, 2025, reached $10.696B, showing a 30.25% increase year-over-year. The platform is expected to serve over 875 million customers worldwide as of 2025. The sheer volume processed through this channel is staggering; during the 2025 Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend alone, merchants achieved a record $14.6 billion in gross sales, a 27% year-over-year increase, with 81+ million unique buyers participating. That weekend saw peak sales velocity hit $5.1 million per minute on Black Friday. It's a high-volume, self-serve entry point for most merchants.

App Store and Theme Store: Distribution for value-added services

This ecosystem is a critical secondary channel, distributing value-added software and design assets directly to the merchant base. It's where merchants enhance their core offering. As of a recent check, the Shopify App Store hosts over 11,905 apps, though general 2025 estimates suggest the ecosystem is closer to 16,000+ apps. To give you an idea of dependency, approximately 87% of Shopify merchants use apps to optimize operations, installing an average of six apps per store. The financial activity here is significant; app developers have collectively earned over $1.5 billion since the App Store's inception. Shopify's take on this revenue is structured, with developers paying 20% in app revenue share by default, though a reduced plan offers 15%. Furthermore, developers can pay 0% revenue share on the first $1,000,000 USD in annual gross app revenue if they meet eligibility requirements. Top-tier apps demonstrate this potential; for instance, one major marketing platform reported $293.1 million in revenue in Q2 2025 alone.

Partner Referral Network: Agencies and developers refer new merchants

While specific financial figures for the Partner Referral Network's direct revenue contribution aren't always broken out separately from overall Merchant Solutions, the network acts as a massive, outsourced sales and implementation force. This channel is vital for onboarding larger, more complex businesses that require custom development or agency support to migrate and scale. The success of this channel is reflected in the growth of the enterprise segment.

Direct Sales Team: Targeting large enterprise clients for Shopify Plus

The direct sales team focuses on the high-touch acquisition of enterprise-level merchants for Shopify Plus. This segment is characterized by high Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) potential per client. As of late 2025, there are 66,002 live domains running Shopify Plus, representing approximately 44,001 distinct merchants. This segment showed strong momentum, with Shopify Plus stores increasing 26% year-over-year in 2025 Q3. For a look at the financial impact, in Q2 2024, Shopify Plus contributed $52 million to the Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR).

Point-of-Sale (POS) Hardware: Physical retail channel for offline sales

The Point-of-Sale hardware channel bridges the gap between online and physical commerce, allowing merchants to sell in person using the same backend infrastructure. This is crucial for omnichannel retailers. The hardware itself is sold directly, with card readers starting at $49.00 for the Shopify Tap & Chip Card Reader in the US. The performance of this channel is tied to the overall health of in-person sales; for Shopify POS merchants operating with over 20 locations, their Q2 GMV grew over 120% year-on-year, with more than 70% of that GMV flowing through Shopify Payments. Shopify also expanded this channel's reach by launching the all-in-one mobile selling device, POS Go, in markets like the UK and Ireland in 2025.

Channel Metrics Snapshot (Select 2025 Data)

Metric	Value	Context/Date
Total Active Stores (Global)	5.54 million	As of 2025
Shopify Plus Domains Active	66,002	As of late 2025
Shopify Plus YoY Growth	26%	2025 Q3
BFCM 2025 Gross Sales	$14.6 billion	BFCM 2025 Weekend
BFCM 2025 Peak Sales Velocity	$5.1 million per minute	Black Friday 2025
Total App Count (Latest Confirmed)	11,905	As of Nov 2024
Merchant App Usage	87%	Percentage of merchants using apps
Average Apps Installed per Merchant	6	Average
App Developer Lifetime Earnings	$1.5 billion+	Since inception
POS Merchants (>20 Locations) GMV Growth	120%+	Q2 Year-on-Year

• The core platform drives the majority of the $10.696B TTM revenue ending September 30, 2025.
• The Partner Network facilitates the onboarding of merchants who become Shopify Plus customers.
• POS hardware directly supports the offline sales component of the overall Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV).
• The App Store acts as a high-margin revenue stream via revenue share on third-party sales.
• Shopify Plus merchants represent a smaller count but a disproportionately high value of total GMV.

Shopify Inc. (SHOP) - Canvas Business Model: Customer Segments

You're looking to understand the breadth of the client base Shopify Inc. serves as of late 2025. It's not just one type of seller anymore; the platform has successfully stratified its offerings to capture value from the smallest creator to the largest global icon. This segmentation is key to their compounding growth story.

Solopreneurs and Small Businesses: The foundational merchant base.

This group forms the bedrock of the Shopify economy. They are the millions of entrepreneurs starting out, often running their entire operation solo or with minimal staff. While individual revenue numbers are small, their sheer volume drives the platform's scale. As of 2025, there are approximately 4.82 million active Shopify stores globally, representing a massive pool of potential upsells to higher-tier plans and Merchant Solutions. To be fair, the exact number of live stores reported in Q3 2025 was 2,835,850, showing a dynamic churn and creation rate. These merchants are heavily reliant on the core platform features and increasingly on integrated tools like Shop Pay, which hit 65% GMV penetration in Q3 2025.

Growth and Mid-Market Brands: Utilizing advanced features and higher-tier plans.

These are the merchants graduating from the basic tiers, actively seeking features that drive efficiency and scale. They are the primary target for revenue growth via Subscription Solutions, as they move to plans that unlock more advanced capabilities. The growth in revenue from Subscription Solutions in Q3 2025 was 14.6% year-over-year, indicating a steady migration of these mid-market players upgrading their plans. These segments are also the ones most likely to adopt advanced features like Shopify Audiences, which can reduce acquisition costs by up to 50%.

Enterprise-Level Brands (Shopify Plus): Global icons like Estée Lauder and Nestlé.

This segment is crucial because it validates the platform's enterprise readiness and drives significant Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) through high-volume transactions. As of late 2025, Shopify has approximately 66,002 domains running on Shopify Plus. These clients demand the highest levels of customization, security, and performance, often utilizing features like custom checkout and advanced automation via Shopify Flow. Global icons like Nestlé, Sephora, Starbucks, and Canada Goose use this tier to manage complex, high-traffic global commerce operations. Shopify Plus merchants are growing at an average of 126% year-over-year, significantly outpacing the industry standard by 690%, according to one early 2025 report.

Here's a quick look at the scale across the main merchant tiers:

Customer Segment	Metric Type	Reported Value (2025)
Solopreneurs/SMBs	Active Stores (General 2025 Estimate)	4.82 million
Solopreneurs/SMBs	Live Stores (Q3 2025)	2,835,850
Growth/Mid-Market	Subscription Solutions Revenue Growth (YoY Q3 2025)	14.6%
Enterprise (Shopify Plus)	Active Stores (Late 2025)	66,002
Enterprise (Shopify Plus)	YoY Growth Rate (Reported)	126%

Business-to-Business (B2B) Merchants: New focus area with triple-digit GMV growth.

This is a deliberate expansion area, moving beyond the traditional Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) focus. The results here are explosive, showing that wholesale and B2B buyers are rapidly adopting the platform for its unified D2C/B2B dashboard capabilities. In Q1 2025, B2B GMV jumped 109% year-over-year, and in Q2 2025, it expanded another 101% year-over-year. Even in the most recent reported quarter, Q3 2025, B2B GMV growth was 98%. This segment is tapping into the global B2B e-commerce market, which is estimated to be a $32 trillion industry in 2025.

Global Merchants: Customers across over 175 countries.

Shopify's customer base is inherently global, supporting merchants in over 175 countries. This geographic diversification is a major strength, insulating the company from localized economic downturns. International GMV growth in Q3 2025 was 41% year-over-year, with Europe leading that charge, showing a 49% year-over-year increase in GMV for that region. The platform has over $100 million in GMV flowing through more than 65 countries, up from just 29 countries in 2019. This global reach is supported by localized features like multi-currency and market-specific pricing, which helped drive a 97% boost in cross-border transactions for small businesses using Shopify Markets.

• Merchants operate across 175+ countries.
• International GMV grew 41% YoY in Q3 2025.
• Europe's GMV grew 49% YoY in Q3 2025.
• Shopify facilitated over $1.1 trillion in cumulative GMV processing in 2024.
• Total customers served reached over 875 million in 2024.

Shopify Inc. (SHOP) - Canvas Business Model: Cost Structure

You're looking at the expenses that keep the global commerce engine of Shopify Inc. running, which is a mix of heavy investment in the future and the variable costs of processing transactions today.

Technology and Infrastructure: Significant cloud hosting and R&D spend.

Shopify Inc. pours substantial resources into its platform engineering, which includes cloud hosting and Research and Development (R&D) to maintain speed, reliability, and security for millions of merchants. This is the cost of building and running the essential internet infrastructure for commerce. While a specific Q4 2025 dollar figure for total R&D and cloud costs isn't explicitly broken out in the forward guidance, the focus on AI integration, like the Sidekick assistant which saw over 750,000 shops use it for the first time in Q3 2025, signals continued, heavy investment in this area.

Operating Expenses (OpEx): Expected 30% to 31% of Q4 2025 revenue.

For the fourth quarter of 2025, Shopify Inc. expects its GAAP operating expense as a percentage of revenues to fall within the tight range of 30% to 31%. This reflects disciplined execution against revenue growth projections. This metric is key because it shows how efficiently the company is managing its overhead, sales, and marketing efforts relative to the top line.

Sales and Marketing: Customer acquisition and brand building costs.

Costs here cover driving merchant adoption globally and building the brand presence that attracts both small businesses and enterprise clients, like Estée Lauder and UGG Australia who expanded relationships in 2025. These expenses are baked into the overall OpEx percentage guidance, representing the necessary spend to fuel the mid-to-high twenties percentage revenue growth expected for Q4 2025.

Stock-Based Compensation (SBC): Forecasted $130 million for Q4 2025.

Shopify Inc. has projected its Stock-Based Compensation expense for the fourth quarter of 2025 to be $130 million. This non-cash expense is a significant component of total compensation, used to align employee incentives with long-term shareholder value creation.

Payment Processing Costs: Fees paid to third-party payment networks.

These are the variable costs tied directly to Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) flowing through Shopify Payments and other gateways. The rates merchants pay directly influence the cost structure, as they are the fees paid to third-party payment networks like Visa or Mastercard. For instance, for a merchant on the Advanced plan using Shopify Payments in the US, the card processing fee is typically around 2.4% + $0.30 per transaction. If a merchant uses an external gateway on Shopify Plus, Shopify charges an additional fee on top of the processor's rate, often 0.15% per transaction.

Here's a look at the typical card processing fee structure for domestic US transactions when using Shopify Payments across different tiers, which represents a major variable cost component:

Shopify Plan	Typical Card Processing Fee (US)	Shopify Platform Fee (Non-Shopify Gateway)
Basic	2.9% + $0.30	2%
Shopify (Grow)	2.6% + $0.30	1%
Advanced	2.4% + $0.30	0.6%
Plus	Negotiated rates (often 2.1 - 2.4%)	0.15% - 0.20% additional fee

The penetration of Shopify Payments itself is a cost factor, as it helps Shopify capture more of the transaction value, though the underlying third-party network fees still apply. For example, Shopify Payments' GMV penetration hit 65% in Q3 2025.

Key cost drivers related to merchant solutions include:

• Card processing fees for domestic cards, commonly around 2.9% + $0.30 per charge for standard plans.
• Currency conversion fees for international sellers, which can be 1.5% for US-based stores.
• Additional fees for manually entered cards, often an extra 0.5% per successful charge.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Shopify Inc. (SHOP) - Canvas Business Model: Revenue Streams

You're looking at how Shopify Inc. actually brings in the money, which is really the core of its platform value. It's a dual-engine approach, splitting revenue clearly between the software access and the commerce enablement services.

Merchant Solutions Revenue: 75.5% of Q2 2025 revenue came from transaction fees, payments, and capital. For context, in Q2 2025, total revenue was $2.68 billion, meaning Merchant Solutions generated approximately $2.02 billion of that total. By Q3 2025, this segment showed strong momentum, growing 38% year-over-year.

Subscription Solutions Revenue: 24.5% of Q2 2025 revenue came from monthly fees. In Q2 2025, this segment brought in $656 million, representing a 17% year-over-year increase. By Q3 2025, Subscription Solutions revenue growth was 15% year-over-year.

Here's a quick look at how those two main revenue streams stacked up in Q2 2025:

Revenue Stream	Q2 2025 Revenue Amount	Approximate % of Total Q2 2025 Revenue
Merchant Solutions Revenue	$2.02 billion	75.5%
Subscription Solutions Revenue	$656 million	24.5%

Transaction Fees are directly tied to the volume merchants move across the platform. Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV), which is the total dollar value of orders processed, hit $92.01 billion in Q3 2025. This figure was up 32% compared to the prior year's Q3.

Shopify Payments is a major driver within Merchant Solutions, generating revenue through processing fees on Gross Payment Volume (GPV). In Q3 2025, GPV penetration reached 65% of total GMV. Shop Pay GMV specifically grew 67% year-over-year in Q3 2025, reaching $29 billion.

Shopify Capital provides financing, earning revenue through fixed fees on cash advances, as it does not charge traditional interest. In Q3 2025, Shopify Capital originated approximately $1 billion in business loans and merchant cash advances. The total for the first nine months of 2025 reached approximately $2.8 billion in originations. All-time, Shopify Capital has provided over $5.1 billion in funding to merchants.

You can see the scale of the platform's transaction activity:

• Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) in Q3 2025: $92.01 billion.
• Shopify Payments processing fee coverage (GPV penetration) in Q3 2025: 65%.
• Shop Pay GMV contribution in Q3 2025: $29 billion.
• Shopify Capital originations in Q3 2025: ~$1B.

The Subscription Solutions segment relies on recurring revenue, and its health is monitored via Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR). Q2 2025 MRR was up 9% year-over-year, with Plus plans representing 35% of that MRR for the quarter.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.