Giles Thomas, Author at Acquire Convert

It gives you the Shopify facts behind the hype; the truth before the guesswork; and the stats behind the fluff! This includes the numbers on:

Global ecommerce in general
Shopify store statistics
Shopify usage statistics
Shopify sales and revenue statistics
Shopify growth statistics
Other interesting Shopify stats

We’ve updated it as best as possible with Shopify sales and usage statistics from 2023 but, wherever that’s not possible, some 2023, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 statistics are included. As new Shopify statistics come in, we’ll keep updating so that you have the latest info at hand. Let’s get straight into it these B2B ecommerce statistics.

A few quick Shopify facts

Shopify was started in Ottawa, Canada, in 2004 by three Canadians, inspired by a poor online shopping experience with snowboarding equipment.
It now has over 7,000 employees and contractors working for the company.

It is one of the most popular ecommerce platforms on the planet, with a 23 percent market share in the U.S.
It’s second only to WooCommerce and outpaces competitors like Squarespace, Wix, Magento, Weebly, and BigCommerce.
You don’t need to be an expert to use Shopify – it’s used by many startups.
It’s highly flexible and easy to use, with over 6000 apps available on the Shopify App Store to customize the user experience
There are over 100 free and paid-for Shopify themes available.
The Shopify POS system allows online store integration in any retail setting.
Shopify Plus, the enterprise version, allows a higher degree of customization among other benefits.
Shopify pricing plans are affordable for most store owners, starting at just $29 per month for the basic plan.
Shopify has a large affiliate program, where affiliates can earn an average of $58 for each user who signs up for a paid plan.
Shopify has a large database of Shopify experts who provide marketing tasks including Shopify SEO services.
In October 2018, Shopify opened its first brick-and-mortar storefront in Los Angeles.

Global ecommerce stats

How big is global ecommerce and what are a few of the main trends?

Shopify recently provided some interesting statistics to help us see where things are heading:

In 2014, the global ecommerce market was worth around $1.3 trillion.
In 2021, global ecommerce is forecast to hit $4.89 trillion – almost a 400 percent increase in seven years.
In 2019, only 13.6 percent of sales were made from online purchases. It is expected to reach 19.5 percent in 2021 and 21.8 percent by 2024.
North America is second behind Latin America in the growth of retail ecommerce sales in 2020 with Europe and Asia not far behind.
The U.S. ($843 billion) is second to China ($2.8 trillion) in total ecommerce sales
China is the largest single market and is set to become the first country to transact more than half of its retail sales online, with 52.1 percent of retail happening through ecommerce.
Mobile ecommerce has seen particularly rapid growth worldwide, with Insider Intelligence forecasting that m-ecommerce will grow at a 25.5 percent compound annual rate until 2024.

It is estimated that there will be over 2.14 billion people worldwide buying goods and services online. This is up from 1.66 billion global digital buyers in 2016.

Ecommerce sales are expected to account for 21.8 percent of retail sales worldwide by 2024 (up from 18 percent in 2020).

For a check of ecommerce sales by country, go here.

Shopify aims to be “the world’s first global retail operating system” in this growing ecommerce environment.

It’s well on the way to that, as you’ll see from the following statistics…

Shopify statistics: how big is it?

If you’re considering using Shopify and are checking a few statistics first, you’ll see that you’re in good company.

You’re probably asking yourself:

How many Shopify stores are there in 2024?

If there is a go-to platform for ecommerce, it’s Shopify with well over four million stores – and on its way to five million!

However, the question is not as simple as it first sounds. It does depend on who you listen to – and what you count as a store:

How many Shopify stores are there in 2024? As of December 2023, Shopify has over 4.8 million online stores. In terms of Shopify users by country 70% of stores are under Shopify USA then United Kingdom and Australia are second and third.
1.75 million merchants sell on the Shopify platform and 1.59 million live websites use Shopify (Source: Backlinko).
17, 683 domains currently run Shopify Plus – note merchants can run stores on multiple domains (11,788 distinct merchants currently run Shopify Plus) (Source: Store Leads).
Shopify stores now run businesses in 175 different countries
Approximately 42,200 partners referred a merchant to Shopify in 2020, up 72% compared with 24,500 in 2019 (Source: Shopify)
Shopify powered 20 percent of all e-commerce websites in 2020 (Source: Statista)

Shopify usage statistics

71.27 percent of domains are registered in the U.S, followed by the UK and Australia (source: Backlinko)

Shopify customers include major brands like Nestle, Pepsi, Unilever, and Budweiser, as well as innovative brands like Gymshark, Hawkers, and Leesa and celebrities like Kanye West (Sources: Shopify).

Most Shopify merchants use apps – the most-installed apps are Product reviews, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Instafeed, Printful, Provy and Loox (Source: Store Leads).
As of June 2019, more than 100,000 merchants were using the Shopify POS system (Source: Shopify & You Blog)
Customers are twice as likely to purchase a product if it has a 3D product image rather than a flat image (Source: Shopify)

Shopify sales, revenue and traffic statistics

The latest Shopify statistics show total revenue for 2020 of $2,929.5 million, an 86 percent increase over 2019 (source: Shopify).
Gross profit grew 78 percent to $1,541.5 million in 2020, compared with $865.6 million for 2019 (source: Shopify).
Current forecasts have Shopify exceeding 2020 revenues again in 2021 with upwards of $3.6 billion in revenue expected by year-end (Source: Website Hosting Rating)
As of June 2019, total Shopify platform sales from around the world are estimated at $135+ billion to date (Source: Shopify & You Blog)
Shopify received its one billionth order in the second quarter of 2018 (Source: Shopify & You Blog)
In the 3rd quarter of 2019, 81 percent of traffic and 71 percent of orders on Shopify stores come through mobile devices – up from 77 percent and 67 percent in 2018 (mobile traffic in 2014 was just 50.3percent) (Source: Shopify & You Blog).
There were 457 million buyers on Shopify in 2020 – up from 218 million in 2018 (Source: Shopify)
Conversion rates for Shopify stores are as follows: 4.29 percent email, 3.04 percent search, 2.93 percent direct, 1.81 percent social. (Source: Shopify)
From the start of Black Friday in New Zealand, through the end of Cyber Monday in California, sales on Shopify’s platform reached more than $5.1 billion – compared with $2.9 billion in global Black Friday Cyber Monday 2019 and $1.5 billion in 2018 (Source: Shopify).
25 percent of Shopify’s recurring revenue comes from Shopify Plus.
The average shopify store revenue is $67,000 USD
When considering GMV, Shopify has about 10.3% market share in USA.

Shopify growth statistics

In 2012, Shopify had 42,000 merchants; in 2016 it had 377,000 merchants; in 2019, it had over one million merchants; and in 2020 Shopify reported 1,749,000 merchants (Source: Shopify)
Since its IPO in 2015, Shopify stock has grown by a multiple of 50 (Source: Motley Fool)

Shopify’s gross merchandise volume (GMV) increased by 95.58 percent between 2019 and 2020 (Source: Shopify) and it is 170 times greater than its GMV in 2012.

Shopify growth and revenue statistics in 2019

In 2012, Shopify had 42,000 merchants; in 2016 it had 377,000 merchants; just three years later, it has more than double that number (Source: Host Sorter)
Shopify’s revenue for the first quarter of 2019 was $320.5 million, a 50% increase from the first quarter of 2018 (Source: Shopify)

Total revenue in the second quarter of 2019 was $362.0 million, a 48% increase from the comparable quarter in 2018 (Source: Shopify)

Shopify stock has grown by a multiple of 10 since its IPO in May 2015 (Source: Forbes)
Shopify plus merchants, with annual sales revenues from $1 million to $500 million, have seen an average year-over-year growth of 126% (Source: Shopify)
Shopify paid over $100 million to partners in 2018, up from $79 million in the previous year, while over 700,000 people are employed directly and indirectly in the partner community (Source: Shopify and You Blog)

Shopify revenue statistics 2018

The latest revenue statistics show a total revenue for 2018 of $1.073 billion (Source: Shopify)
This represents a 59% increase over 2017, when revenue was $673.3 million (Source: Shopify)
Forecast revenue for 2019 is $1.51 billion to $1.53 billion (Source: Shopify)

Other interesting Shopify statistics

While Shopify has suffered denial-of-service and other attacks in tbe past, the platform paid ethical hackers over $850,000 between 2015 and 2018 to help secure its customer transactions and data (Sources: Tech Crunch and HackerOne).
Some Shopify themes are recognized for their ability to convert traffic. Three of the best converting themes currently are eCom Turbo, Booster and Konversion (Source: IMRHYS)
The Black Friday weekend is a busy time for Shopify. In 2018, it made $1.5 billion in sales during the period. Peak orders were at 10,978 per minute and peak sales volume $870,000 per minute (Source: Shopify)
Packages from sales on Black Friday 2018 will be shipped by Shopify merchants over 30 billion miles: that’s ten times the distance between the Earth and Pluto! (Source: Shopify)
Most Shopify sellers are first-time entrepreneurs (Source: Wall Street Journal).
Shopify has suffered denial-of-service attacks but the platform paid ethical hackers over $850,000 between 2015 and 2018 to help secure its customer transactions and data (Sources: Tech Crunch and HackerOne).

Ready to become a Shopify statistic?

If you’ve read the Shopify facts and statistics above and would like to become part of the next round of statistics, it’s time to start growing your traffic and sales.

Table of Contents:

What is Shopify Plus?
What does Shopify Plus offer ecommerce businesses that Shopify doesn’t?
A few Shopify bonuses
How much does it cost?
Alternatives to Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus Case Studies
Final Review

What is Shopify Plus?

Shopify Plus is Shopify’s answer to those ecommerce businesses who require a platform with a bit more.

It’s for those businesses who are tired of crashed servers when a promotion goes well.

It’s for businesses who are clearing six-figures or more each month and are tired of fighting a payment system built-in 2009.

It’s for businesses looking for a complete solution that works, rather than five solutions which work well enough.

In short, while Shopify’s other are designed for smaller businesses, the Shopify Plus mission is to handle high-volume stores or stores who anticipate high volume in the very near future.

What does Shopify Plus offer ecommerce businesses that Shopify doesn’t?

This is the real question, isn’t it?

What value can you get from the Shopify membership that you can’t get with regular Shopify?

Here are the most-impactful differences between Shopify Plus and Shopify’s regular plans.

Advantage #1. Shopify Plus gives you hands-on help from a “Launch Engineer.”

Shopify’s Launch engineers help your business get online more quickly, alongside helping you connect any third-party integrations you need.

If necessary, they’ll also connect you with design or developer partners to help you get up and running.

“Shopify Plus support and especially my Launch Engineer, Paul Moretti, have been incredible. […] Paul answered emails, Slack messages, and smoke signals typically within minutes and many times in the middle of the night. His guidance and advice were crucial to our success.” – Alex Cranmer, Vice President of International Military Antiques

(Source)

The launch engineer assigned to your account will help you with the following when using the platform:

Advantage #2. Shopify Plus gives you first-in-line, 24/7 priority support.

Being a Shopify Plus merchant means your request, ticket or issue goes to the front of the line when you contact Shopify (no matter if that call is made at 3 pm or 3 am).

Even if you’re looking for a small developer change, Shopify Plus will be there (and they’ll be there before your Basic Shopify competitors).

Advantage #3. Shopify Plus gives you their “Shopify Flow” automation system.

Shopify’s automation tool, Shopify Flow, is exclusively available to Shopify Plus users and makes those monotonous ecommerce management tasks automatic.

For instance, you can use Shopify Flow to send you an email every time a product’s inventory gets below a certain threshold:

The system also integrates with Trello, Asana, Slack and Google Sheets.

Here’s the video breakdown of Shopify Flow:

Shopify Flow works like a charm, allowing you to automate tasks that would normally be tedious as a high-level online store.

Tasks like reordering inventory when stock is low, or assigning VIP status to big spenders:

Shopify Flow helps you do more with less employees and less manual selection.

If automation is your thing, Shopify Flow is perfect for you.

Advantage #4. Shopify Plus gives you complete confidence your systems won’t fail at the most important moments.

If you’re running a Christmas sale and your marketing campaign goes viral, Shopify Plus guarantees 99.98% uptime and “blazing-fast servers,” meaning you won’t miss a single purchase.

Uptime and speed are both guaranteed with Shopify Plus.

With a system able to handle 10,149 peak orders per minute (even when your stockroom is emptying faster than you can fill it and your staff are asking for scooters), you can be confident your back end will run without a hiccup.

Advantage #5. Shopify Plus gives you third-party apps and integrations which are unavailable to normal users

Shopify Plus has all of the bells and whistles that your online store can utilize to improve sales, efficiency, and customer service markers.

Some of the best apps and tools you get access to include:

Wholesale channel:

The Shopify Plus Wholesale channel uses your existing inventory, customer, and product info as a protected storefront.

If you cater to wholesale buyers, you can invite them directly to this password-protected storefront to browse in bulk, customizing their offers, prices, discounts, and more.

Plus, it syncs directly with your CRM. Win-win.

Launchpad

Launchpad is an event scheduling tool that Shopify Plus users can leverage for holidays and other large sale events.

With a dashboard to schedule them, you can make big changes on your site that automatically start and end on specified dates.

Other fantastic tools in the Plus-only category include:

Transporter app
Script Editor
Bulk Account Inviter
Tax services with Avalara AvaTax (Integration)

Advantage #6. Shopify Plus makes your global market more accessible.

If you are looking to expand past regional or even country-specific sales, look no further than Shopify Plus.

Shopify Plus helps you build a presence around the world.

It does this in a couple of primary ways:

It gives you the ability to sell in multiple currencies.

This is an absolute necessity for larger ecommerce brands. Multiple currencies enable you to go global and show international markets you care about their needs.

It gives you nine possible store sites.

This means if your enterprise ecommerce business has multiple store locations, targets international markets, or (really) anything else, Shopify Plus has you covered with nine possible sites under your brand umbrella. Shopify plus expansion stores can really help you ramp up global sales.

Advantage #7. Shopify Plus enables more customization.

One of the primary criticisms of Shopify’s standard platform is the inability to customize the checkout process.

With Shopify Plus, that’s no longer an issue. You’ll have complete control over the branding of your store and your checkout.

For instance, this is what the checkout page looks like for HiutDenim (a regular Shopify client):

And this is what it looks like for MVMT (a Shopify Plus client):

With Shopify Plus, you can better tailor your checkout process to customer needs and behavioural patterns.

If you want and need more control, regular Shopify can’t give it to you.

Advantage #8. Shopify Plus gives you Launchpad:

Like Shopify Flow, Launchpad makes it easier for your business to automate those awkward (but essential) tasks.

For instance, Launchpad allows you to…

Automate changes to product prices (i.e., discounts) automatically during an event. This means you don’t have to stay up until midnight to start a Black Friday or Cyber Monday event, for instance.
Queue publication of new products to your sales channels. This means you can schedule your releases for a certain time and date.
Automatically ramp up your inventory before a sale.
Schedule creative changes before an event. Similar to the “change product prices” automation, this means you don’t have to stay up until midnight to add a new, sales-oriented header to your site.

Here’s a video which shows you how Launchpad’s automation works:

A Few More Shopify Bonuses

Let’s review some of the best Shopify plus extensions.

Customized, Liquid Landing Pages

Shopify’s own “liquid” code enables your business (or, perhaps, your web developer) to customize your brand’s landing pages.

Using liquid code, you can create static sections within a landing page template, and (depending on what your campaign’s objective is), populate those sections with whatever you want:

Collections
Products
Blog posts
Newsletters
Etc.

Once created, all you’ll have to do is choose your new custom, liquid landing page from your Shopify Plus theme library:

Why is this awesome?

You no longer have to beg your web developer to create a landing page every time you want to run a promotion to targeted segments of customers.

Imagine being able to create multiple landing pages for your multiple target segments.

You could change your campaigns landing page from basic merchant financing…

To this, targeting the fashion industry in specific:

(Source)

Liquid landing pages are a scaling dream come true.

What normally would cost a fortune with a developer or massive amounts of time on your own now takes minutes.

A Built-in Content Marketing (and PPC) Tool

Shopify knows that content marketing generates sales for ecommerce businesses and B2B alike. They know that blogging results in a business being 13x more likely to see a positive ROI from their marketing efforts.

It’s why Shopify offers a built-in blogging platform, meaning their customers don’t need a third-party CMS integration.

And, as Shopify’s own CMS integrates already with their other content-marketing apps, it’s a great place to start your blog.

With SEO tools, you can optimize everything you’d be able to on WordPress.

But, it’s not only content marketing that Shopify has integrations with Plus. In addition, you can leverage your existing information on products, SKUs, and inventory to run PPC ads:

(Image Source)

And PPC has a stellar ROI. This way you can tackle both content marketing and PPC in one swoop with existing information.

Shopify Plus makes it smooth, fast, and automated.

The Shopify Plus Community on Facebook and the Shopify Plus Academy

The Shopify Plus Community on Facebook, with almost 5,000 members, is a closed group made up exclusively of Shopify Plus users.

In their own words, the Community offers:

“A place for merchants on Shopify Plus to network, collaborate, and share strategies & experiences.”

Shopify Academy, with more than 600,000 other entrepreneurs, is a goldmine for business owners. The academy provides free online Shopify training and business courses led by industry leaders.

Courses include (but aren’t limited to):

Shopify Tutorials
Homemade Products
Dropshipping
Instagram
Product Photography and Editing
Email Marketing
Ecommerce Website Design
SEO for Beginners
Facebook Advertising
Google ads

Shopify Plus Pricing Plans

Shopify Plus’ pricing starts at $2,000 per month, with a 12-month commitment.

Pricing varies based on how much your business is making each month.

If your monthly revenue is $1,000, Shopify Plus would cost $2,025.50.
If your monthly revenue is $10,000, Shopify Pus would cost $2,275.00.
If your monthly revenue is $100,000, Shopify Plus would cost $4,750.00.
If your monthly revenue is $1,000,000, Shopify Plus would cost $29,500.00.

Like most enterprise-level software providers, Shopify Plus wants to start a conversation before jumping into pricing:

(Source)

Alternatives to Shopify Plus

Not every business needs Shopify Plus.

In fact, for most, it might be information overload. If your business hasn’t scaled to a giant in your niche, you might consider alternatives before diving into the Plus platform.

If you’re looking for an enterprise-level platform…

Shopify Plus’ main competitor is Magento Commerce, but there are a few differences between the two.

(Source)

Shopify Plus has only been pushed by Shopify for the past couple years, so their market share is significantly smaller than Magento’s (about 5,300 stores vs. 250,000), but they’re growing more quickly.

Shopify Plus gives their merchants 24/7 care and the “launch engineer” which you won’t get with most Magento plans.

However, the primary difference between Shopify Plus and Magento is the hosting.

Magento, unlike Shopify, requires your ecommerce website to be self-hosted.

As a result, all of the things Shopify Plus promises, such as 99.98% uptime and security compliance, become your responsibility. And that can be a headache.

Price-wise though, there’s not much in it:

Magento Commerce starts at $22,000/year and increases based on a merchant’s sales. Compare that to Shopify Plus, which starts at $24,000/year (which includes hosting), and goes up from there.

If you’re looking for a mid-range platform:

Depending on your monthly revenue, Shopify’s regular plans may fit better than Shopify Plus (and be more economically viable).

From a competitor standpoint, BigCommerce is the closest for your mid-range business.

Most reviewers (including myself) agree that Shopify’s interface is simpler and more powerful.

BigCommerce wins for its total number of features, but Shopify has everything you really need.

Shopify wins for its inventory system and multi-channel selling (mobile, social media, etc), but struggles (at the Shopify Basic level) to scale internationally.

If you’re a small business:

Basic Shopify, which starts at only $29 per month, is your go-to if you’re just starting out. It offers the store, the blog, unlimited product listings, support, and discount codes.

You’ll struggle a bit on the analytics front, unfortunately, as Basic Shopify doesn’t include reporting.

Looking for industry-specific or cheaper ecommerce software providers? Here are a few great examples:

Just starting out with 1-2 products to test the waters or explore a hobby? Check out Weebly or Prestashop
For the Legal Profession: Clio
For service businesses who need online store capabilities: HouseCallPro
Financial Services, Logistics, or Communications: CloudSense

Shopify Plus Case Studies

Let’s take a look at some of Shopify Plus’ most successful clients: MVMT and Blenders Eyewear.

For more Shopify Plus case studies, check out their library here.

1. MVMT Watches uses Shopify Plus’ apps and social selling to their greatest potential

While Shopify Plus themselves talk about MVMT’s use of mobile optimization (which is all well and good), it’s really their capitalization of Shopify’s app partnerships and social selling partnerships which have driven their success.

(Source)

MVMT uses more than 30 Shopify apps to “collect and display customer reviews, host contests, manage their email marketing, offer live chat, and rescue abandoned carts.”

“The real win, however, was their innovative approach to selling. MVMT’s Facebook Shop, for instance, generated 60,000 visitors and $15,000 in revenue during its first three months. Over the last year, it’s accumulated nearly $150,000 that could have otherwise been lost.”

Here’s a video outlining MVMT’s successful use of Shopify Plus:

2. Blenders Eyewear increases Black Friday & Cyber Monday sales by 10X YoY

Back in 2017, Blenders Eyewear was unsatisfied with its ability to capitalize on the year’s biggest consumer holidays: Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Their strategy wasn’t incredibly innovative, but it didn’t have to be. Founder Chase Fisher ran the following campaign:

He rolled out targeted email ads and social media posts for almost four weeks before Black Friday.
He ramped up paid ads from Thursday before to the Wednesday before, investing $34,200 into Facebook and Instagram.
He ran a promotion which discounted all sunglasses by 55%, with 40% all snow goggles for Cyber Monday.

(Source)

Standard, right?

But it was his use of Shopify Plus’ Launchpad automation which brought it all together.

He scheduled two separate site designs to publish at 12:01 am on Thursday and then again on Monday morning. This enabled him to plan it all and automate it, meaning he could nap in an armchair after the football game:

“When things go live at midnight, you don’t want to have to stay up till midnight to do all these changes. We had our offers switched to go out through Launchpad. We had our themes switched to go out through Launchpad. They pushed everything through successfully.” – Chase Fisher, Blenders Founder

Final Review of Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus is an all-round winning platform. It’s meant for some of the biggest online stores in the world.

With Shopify Plus, you get:

A launch engineer to help you get set up, and have your back always
24/7 support where you’ll always be the priority
Reliable, 99.98% uptime and security confidence you need to run a stable, enterprise-level business with no surprises
The benefits of automation through Shopify Flow and Launchpad
International flexibility with foreign currencies and nine store sites make every market accessible

And, with hosting provided, you’ll pay about the same as you would with Magento, for a more reliable platform from which to grow your business.

While it’s not for everyone, and it’s surely expensive, Shopify Plus is one of the most “decked-out” platforms for online stores you can use.