Shopify delivers upbeat revenue forecast on resilient demand, shares surge

By Deborah Mary Sophia

Aug 6 (Reuters) - Shopify on Wednesday forecast upbeat quarterly revenue, saying there was no slowdown in consumer demand yet and sellers on its platform are holding up well under tariff pressures, sending its shares soaring 20%.

The Canadian company's SHOP.TO, SHOP.O merchant base has been resilient through early August after showing steady growth in the April-June period, powering a 31% surge in its second-quarter revenue.

Shopify's results assuaged some investor concerns over President Donald Trump's shifting trade policies that have left many retailers unsure about demand, production, sourcing, and the costs of running their business.

"We haven't seen any drops in U.S. demand, whether inbound, outbound or local. In fact, the U.S. accelerated in the second-quarter," CFO Jeff Hoffmeister said on a post-earnings call, adding that Shopify saw growth in all merchant segments.

Sellers with more than $50 million in annual gross merchandise volume (GMV) and those below $2 million were particularly strong, he said.

Many merchants were also raising prices, Shopify said, without providing more details on the range of hikes.

Last week, e-commerce giant Amazon AMZN.O had said it was yet to see a notable rise in prices after reporting strong retail results.

"The tariff situation is still playing out, there's still disruption that could happen, but I think we have a little bit more clarity into how consumers are going to react, and frankly, the lack of impact that it's going to have on Shopify," Third Bridge analyst Charlie Miner said.

Shopify expects revenue to rise at a mid- to high-twenties percentage rate in the third quarter, while analysts estimated a rise of 21.54%, according to data compiled by LSEG.

The company is also benefiting from its investments in artificial intelligence-powered features to help retailers with tasks such as building store websites, generating images and collating sales data.