Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce software out there. According to Wikipedia, over 800,000 eCommerce stores in 175 countries run on Shopify. Plus, it boasts of over 1,000,000 active users.

Ideally, Shopify helps merchants to set up their own eCommerce stores quickly and start selling.

In fact, you don’t need an expert web designer to build an eCommerce store with Shopify for you. You can do it yourself because the platform comes with premade templates, including all eCommerce features, payment gateways such as Paymill and functionalities to help you start and run an eCommerce store easily.

While Shopify is a popular eCommerce platform, here are things you probably didn’t know about it:

1. Shopify started as a platform to sell snowboard equipment

Tobias Lütke, Scott Lake and Daniel Weinand founded Shopify in 2004.

However, Tobias Lütke, an expert computer programmer, was dissatisfied with the range of products online. So, he decided to create his own online store. And that’s how Snowdevil’s online store was born. In June 2006, they launched the platform as Shopify.

2. Tobias Lütke, one of Shopify founders, dropped out of school at the age of 16 to focus on his dream

Tobias Lütke dropped out of high school at the age of 16 to pursue his dream of becoming an elite programmer. In fact, after dropping out of high school, he enrolled in an apprenticeship in computer programming.

He was a quick study, which helped him acquired skills and experience quickly to build an online store, which has grown to become Shopify.

3. Shopify founders closed an exceptional deal with Amazon

We all know that Amazon is the largest and most successful eCommerce platform right now. However, Shopify went head to head with Amazon and managed to beat them by offering unique services.

Amazon even discontinued their website service in 2015 and even motivated their merchants to take advantage of the unique services offered by Amazon.

In 2016, Shopify integrated with Amazon

Shopify made a bold decision to integrate its services with Amazon in 2016. That means its unique services became available to every Amazon merchant. This integration allowed Shopify to access a ton of customers from Amazon who could not find what they wanted on Amazon.

4. Shopify is in no rush to expand

Shopify is focused on helping new and existing merchants to grow. They know that if the merchants grow, their platform will also grow. That’s why they are happy to be in the shadows of large eCommerce platforms like Amazon and BigCommerce. They want to help merchants to offer quality products and flawless customer experience, which are key to increasing traffic to the platform and scaling it.

However,  Shopify is looking to offer software dedicated to selling cannabis online

5. One of Shopify founder is a German Canadian

Shopify is based in Ottawa, Canada. However, one of its founders, Tobias Lütke, was born in Koblenz, Germany. He met his wife when visiting Canada on a snowboarding adventure. The couple moved to Germany, but later moved back to Ottawa, Canada where he set up his showboating online store.

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