What happened
Shares of Shopify (NYSE: SHOP) have popped today, up by 7% as of 1:30 p.m. EDT, after Chief Technology Officer Jean-Michel Lemieux disclosed on social media that the e-commerce platform was seeing a massive surge in traffic. The COVID-19 pandemic is driving many consumers to place online orders due to ongoing containment efforts.
So what
Lemieux said that Shopify was seeing daily traffic levels comparable to Black Friday, the biggest shopping holiday of the year. The executive even suggested that there could be even more upside, while encouraging job seekers to apply for a position to help Shopify scale.
As we help thousands of businesses to move online, our platform is now handling Black Friday level traffic every day!
— Jean-Michel Lemieux (@jmwind) April 16, 2020
It won't be long before traffic has doubled or more.
Our merchants aren't stopping, neither are we. We need 🧠to scale our platform.https://t.co/e2JeyjcEeC pic.twitter.com/6lqSrNUCte
Image source: Shopify.
When pressed, Lemieux declined to elaborate on how traffic levels may or may not correspond to gross merchandise volume (GMV). For reference, GMV had jumped 47% in the fourth quarter to $20.6 billion, bringing GMV for 2019 to $61 billion.
Now what
Larger e-commerce peer Amazon.com has similarly been seeing a surge in online orders as a result of the novel coronavirus outbreak. The company is also hiring more workers in order to meet that demand.
In response to the crisis, Shopify has been trying to help its merchants by offering more free trials, making gift cards available to all merchants on all plans, and facilitating in-store/curbside pickup and delivery for certain merchants. Like many other companies, Shopify suspended its 2020 guidance due to the ongoing uncertainty. Shopify reports first-quarter results on May 6.
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