There are over 34,000 Shopify merchants in Canada living outside of the six major urban centers, representing more than 64 per cent of all Shopify merchants in Canada, reveals Shopify’s first global impact report produced by Deloitte.
“The future is borderless commerce. Small businesses are becoming global businesses much faster than ever before,” Tobi Lutke, founder and chief executive officer of Shopify said in a tweet after the release of the report.
An increasing number of Canadian entrepreneurs are now becoming independent to build their own businesses and the majority of them live in the less populated regions of the country. Their earnings totaled more than CA$3.9 billion from 2016 to 2018, higher than the CA$2 billion in sales generated by Canadian entrepreneurs in the six biggest cities of the country. This is “proof that anyone, anywhere can create impact,” indicated the report.
It also sheds light on the company’s merchants and how the success of independent business owners is important to economic prosperity.
In Canada, Shopify merchants supported more than CA$14.5 billion in economic activity from 2016-18. Globally, businesses built on Shopify supported CA$240 billion in economic activity from 2016-18.
The report also revealed that Shopify has a growing number of merchants which recently reached the one million mark. Shopify is reportedly the largest tech company, by market cap, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2019. The company’s revenue surpassed US$1 billion in 2018, while its partner ecosystem generated nearly $1.7 billion.
Shopify’s share of R&D expenditure across technical, professional and scientific services sector in Canada was nine per cent in 2018, highest among their peers in the country.