Shopify Inc. says its loss grew in the last quarter to US$72.8-million as it ramped up spending on capacity and service offerings, while revenue grew 45 per cent compared with a year ago.
The Ottawa-based e-commerce platform, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, says the loss amounted to 64 US cents a share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a loss of US$23.2-million or 22 US cents a share a year ago.
On an adjusted basis, Shopify says it lost US$33.6-million or 29 cents US a share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of US$5.8-million or 5 US cents share in the same quarter last year.
Analysts had expected adjusted earnings of US$13.17-million, or 11 cents US a share according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.
Shares of the company dropped more than 13 per cent to close at $409.36 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Revenue totalled US$390.6-million in what was the e-commerce company’s third quarter, up from US$270.1-million a year ago, and ahead of analyst expectations of US$384-million.
The company’s revenue rose as the total number of merchants on its platform hit over a-million, a scale that company CEO Tobi Lutke said on a conference call he had never expected when he started the company 15 years ago.
“This is kind of blowing my mind right now,” he said.
Merchants did US$14.8-billion in sales on the platform in the quarter compared with US$10-billion for the same quarter last year.
The company continues to work to establish a U.S. fulfillment network, with seven warehouses expected to be up and running by the first quarter of 2020. The company also completed its roughly US$450-million acquisition of 6 River Systems in the quarter to bolster its fulfillment operations with software and robotics.
In its outlook, the company raised its guidance for its full-year revenue to a range of US$1.545-billion to US$1.555-billion compared with expectations put out in the first quarter of US$1.48-billion and US$1.51-billion.
Your time is valuable. Have the Top Business Headlines newsletter conveniently delivered to your inbox in the morning or evening. Sign up today.