(Reuters) -Shopify on Tuesday forecast fourth-quarter revenue growth above estimates, as the Canadian company's focus on employing artificial intelligence-powered tools attracts more merchants to its e-commerce services sooner. of the important Christmas season.
Its U.S.-listed shares rose nearly 15% in premarket trading after the company also beat analyst expectations for third-quarter revenue.
Shopify (NYSE:), which allows businesses to create and manage online stores by providing tools for everything from creating a website to shipping products, has improved its services by integrating ai-powered features this year.
In June, the company launched its ai assistant, Sidekick, which provides sellers with sales reports, customer behavior data, and helps execute tasks such as setting up discount codes for more merchants on its platform.
“Both the pace and the forecast are very impressive… Shopify is better positioned than other software providers because it is not only growing its existing customers, but it is adding customers in a variety of categories,” said Gil Luria, head of technology. research at DA Davidson.
The company has sought to make shipping faster and cheaper for brands on its platform by offering discounted rates, among other efforts to gain and retain customers.
It forecast current quarter revenue to rise in the mid-20s percentage range, while analysts expected a 22.7% increase, according to LSEG data.
“The dynamic that investors are going to walk away with, given the really strong third quarter and the upbeat fourth quarter, is that Shopify gains shares,” said Oppenheimer analyst Ken Wong.
“With the rest of retail a little softer than expected and Shopify continuing to operate, that's going to be the first thing on people's minds.”
Shopify reported a 26% increase in revenue to $2.16 billion for the third quarter ended September 30, compared to the average analyst estimate of $2.11 billion, marking the ninth quarter consecutive sales improvement.
Gross merchandise volume (GMV), or the total value of orders facilitated through Shopify, increased 24% to $69.72 billion in the July-September period.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
