Shopify reports US$72.8M loss in third quarter, 45 per cent boost in revenue

Shopify Inc. says its loss grew in the last quarter to US$72.8 million as it ramped up spending on capacity and service offerings, while revenue grew 45 per cent compared with a year ago.

The Ottawa-based e-commerce platform, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, says the loss amounted to 64 cents per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a loss of $23.2 million or 22 cents per share a year ago.

On an adjusted basis, Shopify says it lost $33.6 million or 29 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $5.8 million or a nickel per share in the same quarter last year.

Analysts had expected adjusted earnings of $13.17 million, or 11 cents per share according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

Shares of the company dropped as much as eight per cent in early trading, but were down by about one per cent as of about midday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

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Revenue totalled $390.6 million in what was the e-commerce company’s third quarter, up from $270.1 million a year ago, and ahead of analyst expectations of $384 million.

The company’s revenue rose as the total number of merchants on its platform hit over a million, a scale that company CEO Tobi Lutke said on a conference call he had never expected when he started the company 15 years ago.

“This is kind of blowing my mind right now,” he said.

Merchants did $14.8 billion in sales on the platform in the quarter compared with $10 billion for the same quarter last year.

The company continues to work to establish a U.S. fulfillment network, with seven warehouses expected to be up and running by the first quarter of 2020. The company also completed its roughly $450-million acquisition of 6 River Systems in the quarter to bolster its fulfillment operations with software and robotics.

In its outlook, the company raised its guidance for its full-year revenue to a range of $1.545 billion to $1.555 billion compared with expectations put out in the first quarter of $1.48 billion and $1.51 billion.