Shopify Announces Second-Quarter 2017 Financial Results

Second-Quarter Revenue Grows 75% Year on Year, Second-Quarter Gross Profit Grows 83% Year on Year

Ottawa, Canada – August 1, 2017 – Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP)(TSX:SHOP), the leading cloud-based, multi-channel commerce platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses, today announced strong financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2017.

“The fundamental shift in retail toward multi-channel and mobile, the ongoing adoption of Shopify by larger brands, and our continued focus on building out the market-leading platform for sellers all contributed to the strength of our results this past quarter,” stated Russ Jones, Shopify’s CFO. “As we have been able to predict and capitalize on these shifts, and continue to innovate so entrepreneurs of all sizes can take advantage of them, we feel we are exceptionally well-positioned for the next several years.”

Second-Quarter Financial Highlights

Total revenue in the second quarter was $151.7 million, a 75% increase from the comparable quarter in 2016. Within this, Subscription Solutions revenue grew 64% to $71.6 million. The acceleration in Subscription Solutions revenue growth was driven by the continued rapid growth in Monthly Recurring Revenue (“MRR”) as another record number of merchants joined the platform in the period. Merchant Solutions revenue grew 86% to $80.1 million, driven primarily by the growth of Gross Merchandise Volume (“GMV”).
MRR as of June 30, 2017 was $23.7 million, up 64% compared with $14.4 million as of June 30, 2016. Shopify Plus contributed $4.3 million, or 18%, of MRR compared with 13% of MRR as of June 30, 2016.
GMV for the second quarter was $5.8 billion, an increase of $2.5 billion, or 74% over the second quarter of 2016. Gross Payments Volume (“GPV”) grew to $2.2 billion, which accounted for 38% of GMV processed in the quarter, versus $1.3 billion, or 38%, for the second quarter of 2016.
Gross profit dollars grew 83% to $86.8 million as compared with the $47.5 million recorded for the second quarter of 2016.
Operating loss for the second quarter of 2017 was $15.9 million, or 10% of revenue, versus $8.7 million, or 10% of revenue, for the comparable period a year ago.
Adjusted operating loss for the second quarter of 2017 was 1.9% of revenue, or $2.9 million; adjusted operating loss for the second quarter of 2016 was 3.7% of revenue, or $3.2 million.
Net loss for the second quarter of 2017 was $14.0 million, or $0.15 per share, compared with $8.4 million, or $0.10 per share, for the second quarter of 2016.
Adjusted net loss for the second quarter of 2017 was $1.1 million, or $0.01 per share, compared with an adjusted net loss of $3.0 million, or $0.04 per share, for the second quarter of 2016.
At June 30, 2017, Shopify had $932.4 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, compared with $392.4 million on December 31, 2016. The increase reflects the $560 million in net proceeds from Shopify’s offering of Class A subordinate voting shares in the second quarter.

Business Highlights

Shopify continues to deliver on its strategy of providing multiple sales channels for merchants:
In July, Shopify began shipping pre-orders of its Chip and Swipe Reader to merchants, enhancing its point-of-sale channel, which is its second-largest channel for GMV. Today, we are announcing that it is now generally available and free to new and existing merchants already on a Shopify subscription who have not redeemed a free reader before.
Also in July, Shopify announced the integration of eBay as a channel for merchants. The integration will enable Shopify merchants to surface their brand and products to more than 169 million active eBay buyers, while managing eBay orders, inventory and messages from within Shopify.
In June, Shopify announced the integration of Buzzfeed as a channel for merchants, paving a new way for media and publishers to drive affiliate revenue. The new channel allows merchants to easily tag products for BuzzFeed editors to search, find, and feature in its campaigns, product lists and onsite content for its audience of more than 200 million.
Shopify continues to optimize features that maximize merchants’ opportunity for success on the platform, with several notable initiatives in the second quarter:
Shopify Pay, a feature designed to increase conversion at checkout by streamlining the checkout process, especially on mobile devices, went live to all merchants using Shopify Payments.
Shopify Payments went live in New Zealand, bringing the total number of countries where Shopify Payments is available to six, including U.S., Canada, U.K, Australia and Ireland.
Shopify made Kit free to all merchants, which more than doubled the number of merchants actively using the virtual assistant to help automate online marketing.
Mobile traffic to merchants’ stores continued to grow, reaching 72% of traffic and 60% of orders for the three months ended June 30, versus 69% and 59%, respectively, exiting the first quarter of this year.
In the second quarter, Shopify Capital issued $37.2 million in merchant cash advances, nearly twice the amount issued in the first quarter. Since its launch in April 2016, Shopify Capital has grown to $86 million in cumulative cash advanced by June 30, 2017. This figure climbed to more than $95 million by July 31, 2017.

CFO Retirement

Shopify’s Chief Financial Officer Russ Jones has informed the Company and its Board of Directors of his decision to retire in 2018. Russ, who joined Shopify in 2011, intends to continue to serve as CFO until his successor is found and has transitioned into the role, a process that is now underway and that Shopify expects will be completed within the next 12 months.

Financial Outlook

The financial outlook that follows constitutes forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws and is based on a number of assumptions and subject to a number of risks. Actual results could vary materially as a result of numerous factors, including certain risk factors, many of which are beyond Shopify’s control. Please see “Forward-looking Statements” below.

In addition to the other assumptions and factors described in this press release, Shopify’s outlook assumes the continuation of growth trends in our industry, our ability to manage our growth effectively and the absence of material changes in our industry or the global economy. The following statements supersede all prior statements made by Shopify and are based on current expectations. As these statements are forward-looking, actual results may differ materially.

These statements do not give effect to the potential impact of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures or business combinations that may be announced or closed after the date hereof. All numbers provided in this section are approximate.

For the full year 2017, Shopify currently expects:

Revenues in the range of $642 million to $648 million
GAAP operating loss in the range of $62 million to $66 million
Adjusted operating loss in the range of $7 million to $11 million, which excludes stock-based compensation expenses and related payroll taxes of $55 million

For the third quarter of 2017, Shopify currently expects:

Revenues in the range of $164 million to $166 million
GAAP operating loss in the range of $17 million to $19 million
Adjusted operating loss in the range of $2 million to $4 million, which excludes stock-based compensation expenses and related payroll taxes of $15 million

Quarterly Conference Call

Shopify’s management team will hold a conference call to discuss its second-quarter results today, August 1, 2017, at 8:30 a.m. ET. The conference call will be webcast on the investor relations section of Shopify’s website at https://investors.shopify.com/events/Events-Presentations/default.aspx. An archived replay of the webcast will be available following the conclusion of the call.

Shopify’s Second-Quarter 2017 Interim Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements and Notes and its Second-Quarter 2017 Management’s Discussion and Analysis are available on Shopify’s website at www.shopify.com, and will be filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov.

About Shopify

Shopify is the leading cloud-based, multi-channel commerce platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses. Merchants can use the software to design, set up, and manage their stores across multiple sales channels, including web, mobile, social media, marketplaces and physical retail locations. The platform also provides merchants with a powerful back-office and a single view of their business. The Shopify platform was engineered for reliability and scale, making enterprise-level technology available to businesses of all sizes. Shopify currently powers half a million businesses in approximately 175 countries and is trusted by brands such as Tesla, Nestle, GE, Red Bull, Kylie Cosmetics, and many more.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement its consolidated financial statements, which are prepared and presented in accordance with United States generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), Shopify uses certain non-GAAP financial measures to provide additional information in order to assist investors in understanding its financial and operating performance.

Adjusted operating loss, non-GAAP operating expenses, adjusted net loss and adjusted net loss per share are non-GAAP financial measures that exclude the effect of share-based compensation expenses and related payroll taxes.

Management uses non-GAAP financial measures internally for financial and operational decision-making and as a means to evaluate period-to-period comparisons. Shopify believes that these non-GAAP measures provide useful information about operating results, enhance the overall understanding of past financial performance and future prospects, and allow for greater transparency with respect to key metrics used by management in its financial and operational decision making. Non-GAAP financial measures are not recognized measures for financial statement presentation under U.S. GAAP and do not have standardized meanings, and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other public companies. Such non-GAAP financial measures should be considered as a supplement to, and not as a substitute for, or superior to, the corresponding measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. See the financial tables below for a reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements regarding Shopify’s financial outlook and future financial performance. Words such as “expects”, “anticipates” and “intends” or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements.

These forward-looking statements are based on Shopify’s current projections and expectations about future events and financial trends that management believes might affect its financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs, and on certain assumptions and analysis made by Shopify in light of the experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments and other factors management believes are appropriate. These projections, expectations, assumptions and analyses are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that could cause actual results, performance, events and achievements to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Although Shopify believes that the assumptions underlying these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they may prove to be incorrect, and readers cannot be assured that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of numerous factors, including certain risk factors, many of which are beyond Shopify’s control, including but not limited to: (i) merchant acquisition and retention; (ii) managing our growth; (iii) our history of losses; (iv) our limited operating history; (v) our ability to innovate; (vi) a disruption of service or security breach; (vii) payments processed through Shopify Payments; (viii) our reliance on a single supplier to provide the technology we offer through Shopify Payments; (ix) a breach involving personally identifiable information; (x) serious software errors or defects; (xi) exchange rate fluctuations; (xii) achieving or maintaining data transmission capacity; and (xiii) other one-time events and other important factors disclosed previously and from time to time in Shopify’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the securities commissions or similar securities regulatory authorities in each of the provinces or territories of Canada. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release represent Shopify’s expectations as of the date of this news release, or as of the date they are otherwise stated to be made, and subsequent events may cause these expectations to change. Shopify undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law.

To view our detailed results with financial tables download this PDF or visit our investors site.

Source: Shopify