As the craze of earnings season draws to a close, here's a look back at some of the most exciting (and some less so) results from Q4. Today, we are looking at e-commerce software stocks, starting with Shopify (NYSE:SHOP).

While e-commerce has been around for over two decades and enjoyed meaningful growth, its overall penetration of retail still remains low. Only around $1 in every $5 spent on retail purchases comes from digital orders, leaving over 80% of the retail market still ripe for online disruption. It is these large swathes of the retail where e-commerce has not yet taken hold that drives the demand for various e-commerce software solutions.

The 6 e-commerce software stocks we track reported a mixed Q4; on average, revenues beat analyst consensus estimates by 1.7%. while next quarter's revenue guidance was 0.9% below consensus. Inflation (despite slowing) has investors prioritizing near-term cash flows, but e-commerce software stocks held their ground better than others, with share prices down 2.1% on average since the previous earnings results.

Shopify (NYSE:SHOP)

Originally created as an internal tool for a snowboarding company, Shopify (NYSE:SHOP) provides a software platform for building and operating e-commerce businesses.

Shopify reported revenues of $2.14 billion, up 23.6% year on year, topping analyst expectations by 3.4%. It was a strong quarter for the company, with and a decent beat of analysts' revenue estimates: that was driven by better-than-expected gross merchandise volume ($75.1 billion vs estimates of $71.6 billion) and gross payments volume ($45.1 billion vs estimates of $42.1 billion), which led to outperformance in its merchant and subscription solutions segments.

"2023 was an incredible year for both Shopify and our merchants. Our strong Q4 and annual results are a powerful testament to the progress we have made building fast, reliable, and unified software for merchants of all sizes," said Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify.

Shopify pulled off the biggest analyst estimates beat and fastest revenue growth of the whole group. The stock is down 16.5% since the results and currently trades at $74.45.

Is now the time to buy Shopify? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it's free.

Best Q4: Squarespace (NYSE:SQSP)

Founded in New York City in 2003, Squarespace (NYSE:SQSP) is a platform for small businesses and creators to build their digital presences online.

Squarespace reported revenues of $270.7 million, up 18.3% year on year, outperforming analyst expectations by 2.9%. It was a very strong quarter for the company, with revenue guidance for the next quarter and full year exceeding analysts' expectations.

Squarespace delivered the highest full-year guidance raise among its peers. The stock is up 10.6% since the results and currently trades at $37.31.

Is now the time to buy Squarespace? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it's free.

Slowest Q4: Wix (NASDAQ:WIX)

Founded in 2006 in Tel Aviv, Wix.com (NASDAQ:WIX) offers a free and easy to operate website building platform.

Wix reported revenues of $403.8 million, up 13.7% year on year, in line with analyst expectations. It was a weaker quarter for the company, with full-year revenue guidance missing analysts' expectations.

The stock is up 7.7% since the results and currently trades at $134.85.

Read our full analysis of Wix's results here.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN)

While the company is not a domain registrar and does not directly sell domain names to end users, Verisign (NASDAQ:VRSN) operates and maintains the infrastructure to support domain names such as .com and .net.

VeriSign reported revenues of $380.4 million, up 3% year on year, in line with analyst expectations. It was a decent quarter for the company, with a narrow beat of analysts' revenue estimates.

VeriSign had the slowest revenue growth among its peers. The stock is down 7.1% since the results and currently trades at $186.95.

Read our full, actionable report on VeriSign here, it's free.

GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY)

Founded by Bob Parsons after selling his first company to Intuit, GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY) provides small and mid-sized businesses with the ability to buy a web domain and tools to create and manage a website.

GoDaddy reported revenues of $1.1 billion, up 5.8% year on year, falling short of analyst expectations by 0.1%. It was a slower quarter for the company, with underwhelming revenue guidance for the next quarter and full-year revenue guidance missing analysts' expectations.

GoDaddy had the weakest performance against analyst estimates among its peers. The stock is up 12.8% since the results and currently trades at $127.46.

Read our full, actionable report on GoDaddy here, it's free.

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