Shopify CEO Bullish on Future as Shop Pay Accounts for 38% of Volume

Shopify President Harley Finkelstein highlighted the company’s fiscal performance in the fourth quarter of 2024, marking a solid finish to the year.

“I’ve honestly never been more excited about what we achieved and how it’s positioning us for 2025,” Finkelstein said Tuesday (Feb. 11) during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call. “2024 was one for the books and further solidified us as a leader in unified commerce. I’m especially proud to share that in the U.S. alone Shopify is now over 12% of the eCommerce market share. And we continue to grow rapidly in places like Europe and Japan.”

Shop Pay Emerges as Game-Changer for eCommerce

While Shopify reported a 31% increase in fourth-quarter revenue, to $2.81 billion, a 26% rise in full-year revenue to $8.88 billion, and a 9.1% increase in subscription revenue, Finkelstein noted Shop Pay has emerged as a game-changer for eCommerce businesses.

“The Shop Pay component has also become a compelling entry point into the Shopify ecosystem for enterprise brands,” Finkelstein said. “We now have hundreds of millions of Shop Pay users with Shop Pay representing 38% of GPV, up from 33% of GPV in 2023. We also help merchants turn their retail locations into powerful acquisition channels by capturing more emails at checkout powered by the network effect of Shop Pay.”

Enterprise brands have taken notice of Shop Pay, Finkelstein added. “The Shop Pay Commerce component has been generating very strong interest amongst enterprise level brands. In 2024, GMV from this component alone surged by nearly 20x, with major brands like Arctic and Boot Barn adopting it.”

Everlane First Merchant to Adopt Shop Pay

Clothing retailer Everlane was the first merchant to sign up for Shop Pay about 15 months ago.

“Everlane came in for this component and then came entirely onto Shopify,” Finkelstein said. “We’re seeing more and more of these merchants want to learn about Shopify. I’ve heard people say they will only check out if they see the Shop Pay purple button.”

Everlane transitioned from a complex, self-built checkout system to Shopify’s Shop Pay, addressing issues of high engineering resource consumption and poor customer experience. Shop Pay’s one-click checkout and mobile-first design simplified the process, Shopify found, resulting in faster transactions, increased conversion rates and reduced cart abandonment.

Since integrating Shop Pay in November 2023, Everlane has seen a 15% adoption rate within the first 30 days and a significant increase in checkout conversion, Shopify said. Shop Pay also allowed Everlane to focus on innovation and customer experience. Shop Pay’s one-click checkout feature reduces cart abandonment, which typically hovers around 70% in online retail. With one-click checkout, shoppers are 75% more likely to complete their purchase. Shop Pay has more than 150 million global users.

“Since then, our partnership has only grown stronger, and by Q4 of this year, we’ve expanded our agreement with them, bringing more of their operations over to Shopify and we believe this trend should continue to play out over time for the Shop Pay Commerce component,” Finkelstein said. “We expect that enterprise retailers may often begin with a simple integration of Shop Pay and gradually over time adopt more and more of Shopify’s products and services.”

US Online Retailers Look to Elevate Checkout Experience

According to a PYMNTS Intelligence report, “U.S. Merchants Want Help From PSPs on Make-or-Break Checkout to Boost Conversion,” a collaboration with Mastercard, 78% of U.S. online retailers want technology upgrades to improve checkout experiences.

A smooth checkout experience plays a key role in customer retention, according to a separate PYMNTS Intelligence report, “At the Checkout: Deal-Chasers Versus Loyal Customers,” done in collaboration with checkout.com.

PYMNTS found 76% of loyal customers, 64% of persuadable customers, and 63% of deal-chasers note its significant impact on future purchases.