Shopify
Commerce infrastructure for the AI era, 2026
Essential internet infrastructure for commerce
Commerce infrastructure for the AI era
Merchants sold $115.6 billion through Shopify in the second quarter of 2026, up 32%, and Shopify’s revenue grew 34% to $3.6 billion, with free cash flow at 18% of revenue. Its plan is to add more kinds of seller, more channels, and more of the payment on the platform, while investing in the tools that let AI find and buy from its merchants.
Commerce in the AI era
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Research and development spending rose to $445 million in the second quarter of 2026, from $394 million.
Shopify expects operating expenses of 33% to 34% of revenue in the third quarter, down from the 35% to 36% it expected for the second.,
Shopify keeps a small share of what its merchants sell
Shopify measures GMV, the value of the orders on its platform. It says GMV is not its revenue, but shows how its merchants are doing.
- Sold by merchants (GMV)
- $115.6bn
- Shopify’s revenue
- $3,583m$3.10 of $100
- Gross profit
- $1,708m$1.48 of $100
- Free cash flow
- $654m$0.57 of $100
The shares are worked out. The outline behind the largest circle is GMV in the same quarter a year earlier, $87.8bn.
Shopify Payments processed 68% of GMV
Shopify Payments is the biggest driver of merchant solutions revenue. Its share rose from 64% a year earlier, while GMV grew 32%.
$56.6bn of $87.8bn GMV.
Revenue $2.68bn
$78.1bn of $115.6bn GMV.
Revenue $3.58bn
The GMV through Shopify Payments and the penetration rates are as Shopify reports them. The split of revenue is worked out from its two lines of revenue.
Business-to-business sales grew fastest in 2025
GMV grew 29% in 2025. Some parts of Shopify grew faster than that, and some more slowly.
All growth is 2025 against 2024, as Shopify reports it.
Define your own unit, and hold to it.
Shopify measures itself by GMV, the value of orders on the platform, and says plainly that it is not revenue and only an indicator of merchant success. Revenue follows it at about 3% of every dollar. We recommend choosing the one measure that shows your customers winning, and reporting your own take from it separately.
Grow the share you handle before you grow the whole.
Shopify Payments processed 68% of GMV in the second quarter, up from 64%, so revenue from merchant solutions grew faster than GMV itself. We recommend looking for the part of your customers’ activity that you touch only some of the time, and setting a target for that share.
Say where growth is running ahead.
In 2025 GMV grew 29% while B2B GMV grew 96%, Shop Pay GMV 62%, and international revenue 36%. Shopify lists these against the total each time. We recommend naming which parts of a plan are running ahead of the whole, so that resources can follow them and the average does not hide them.
Sources
- 1. Shopify Inc. (2026). Shopify delivers big: 30%+ growth across GMV, revenue, gross profit, and free cash flow. News release, Form 8-K exhibit 99.1, 5 August 2026. sec.gov
- 2. Shopify Inc. (2026). Quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 June 2026. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 5 August 2026. sec.gov
- 3. Shopify Inc. (2026). Shopify delivers again as merchants clear $100 billion in Q1 GMV. News release, Form 8-K exhibit 99.1, 5 May 2026. sec.gov
- 4. Shopify Inc. (2026). Shopify’s standout 2025: the launchpad for a new era of commerce in 2026. News release, Form 8-K exhibit 99.1, 11 February 2026. sec.gov
Headwater is not connected with Shopify Inc. Shopify, Shop Pay, Shopify Plus, and Shopify Payments are trade marks of their owners. Updated 28 September 2026.