Shopify’s history is surprising
Most of us are familiar with Shopify. For us at Radiant, as Shopify design and development experts, it’s our bread and butter and a platform we know inside out. But Shopify didn’t begin as the ecommerce giant that it is now. So how did it get started? Well, first we have to ask…
When was Shopify founded?
Shopify was created and launched in 2006, making it a 19-year-old platform in 2025. But though Shopify the ecommerce platform started in 2006, its origins stretch back further.
Work With Radiant
The Shopify founder story
In 2004, friends Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake realised that existing ecommerce solutions for selling online were unsatisfactory, so built their own platform and used it to begin selling snowboarding equipment. This original store was known as Snowdevil, and was launched following two months of development. Two years later in 2006, the platform that had been created to host Snowdevil was launched in its own right as Shopify, ultimately filling the niche for the type of platform its founders once sought.
Who owns Shopify now?
While Tobias Lütke is still with Shopify as the CEO, the company has been publicly traded since April 2015, when they filed for an initial public offering on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange. This means the company is owned by shareholders and managed by a board of directors.
About Shopify’s rocky history
Shopify's involvement in ecommerce blossomed quickly. In 2009, they created their application programming interface (API), which allowed for applications specific to Shopify to be sold on their App Store. In 2010, they went even further by bringing Shopify to mobile, adding a Shopify app to the Apple App Store. From there, business owners were able to view and manage their Shopify stores on their favourite devices.
Investment into the development of the platform has been key to its success. New features are rolled out almost on a weekly basis, making commerce increasingly easy for merchants and their customers. The last 5 years have seen huge improvements in how businesses can manage multi-location, international, online and offline businesses, with increasingly comprehensive functionality.
Talk To Us About Your ProjectShopify’s success story with POS
One of the biggest impacts Shopify has made was redefining the point of sale (POS) for ecommerce. In 2013, they implemented Shopify payments. This addition totally removed the necessity of third party payment gateways, allowing merchants to bypass them. In 2017, they embraced bricks and mortar as well as online commerce, producing point of sale software and hardware that directly accepts debit and credit card payments. This POS is still used daily by physical business establishments every day, and forms an integral part of their business tech, bringing together both their online and offline commerce.
Similarly, Shopify’s presence in the ecommerce space allowed the power of running a business to be put in the hands of many, revamping merchant processes. When Amazon's Webstore, which hosted merchant services, was closed in 2015, they recommended Shopify as the "preferred migration provider," causing Shopify's shares to jump. Shopify then announced direct Amazon integration capabilities in 2017.
How many companies use Shopify?
As of 2025, there are over 5.23 million companies on Shopify, including Gymshark, Skins, Meta, Supreme and others. The platform is available in more than 175 countries, making it a truly international solution for businesses around the globe.
The number of Shopify stores in 2025
How many Shopify stores will there be in 2025 and beyond? In the third quarter of 2024, the total number of Shopify stores increased by around 20% more than the previous quarter’s growth, and it shows no sign of slowing down. As more features are added and functionality improves on the platform, it only gets easier for businesses of all sizes to get up and running - and grow - on Shopify.
How to be successful on Shopify
With so much power in a singular platform, moving your business to Shopify is simple, but standing out can be hard. You need specialists to help you differentiate from millions of other merchants, and Radiant’s team of ecommerce experts know everything about Shopify’s platform, from the technical development side to how to get the best out of it from a customer experience and UX/UI design perspective. We specialise in creating custom sites that fully help brands express themselves, as well as offering strategic advice on how to improve your ecommerce performance. Take your ecommerce business to the next level with Radiant’s custom Shopify themes, branding, and priority support services.
Ready to take your Shopify store to the next level? Discover how Radiant’s Shopify store redesign services can transform your business and help you stand out in the crowded ecommerce market.
Who knows? Maybe your company will be the next big success on Shopify.
