Who Owns Shopify?
Shopify Inc. is a Canadian multinational e-commerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. The founder of Shopify is Tobias Lütke who is an IT specialist, collaborated with Daniel Weinand and Scott Lake on building Shopify. Based on their passion for snowboarding, they decided in 2004 to create an online shop called “Snowdevil”. In doing so, however, they became aware of the problem that there was no suitable software solution that would enable them to develop quickly. Together the three joined forces and decided to build their e-commerce platform.
Since Snowdevils conveyed such a professional appearance, other companies also wanted a piece of the new shop system. In 2006, the three partners named the e-commerce platform under the official name “Shopify.”
It was particularly important to the shop developers to set up a way that encourages inexperienced people to set up an online e-commerce store. Therefore no programming skills like PHP are required. Shopify is one of the only systems that works in a modular system. The client decides on a layout programmed in advance and can then make further adjustments, as well as insert product images and content. Since it is so easy to use, Shopify seemed to be becoming more popular, especially with smaller businesses.
Shopify wanted to take part and stay in touch with the latest technologies, at the time when smartphones became popular. This is how Shopify created an app for the App Store in 2010.
From this app, shop operators have access to their store’s insight and updates. As a result, shop owners can now access their shop at all times and check and prevent potential errors. With their campaign in 2010, the Shopify owners proved to the world that simple solutions are available. A competition took place to determine who uses Shopify best for their purposes and who has developed the best online shop. The winners received a mentoring program from the Shopify Foundation to promote start-ups.
Over time, Shopify has expanded massively. This is how projects such as Shopify Plus came to life, where large corporations were addressed for the first time. As such the Shopify Payments resulted, for which Shopify received criticism. If the payment methods by PayPal or Klarna are not applied, extra fees will apply. Still, it’s important to remember that Shopify does a lot for customer support. The e-commerce platform was one of the first shop developers to set up a live chat in 2019, where shop operators can ask for help and advices for free.
If you want to learn more about e-commerce development platforms or apps, make sure to read our Shopware lexicon as well. Our dedicated outsourcing team can be your partner in e-commerce.
