"As the world begins to return to some normalcy and the extreme levels of online shopping over the past year make way for more in-person retail and experiences, e-commerce's share of overall retail has reset lower than the peak last year," said
Despite the downward trend, the chief financial officer of the
Shapero's remarks come as many Canadian provinces and territories have loosened pandemic restrictions and allowed for restaurants and entertainment venues to raise their capacity limits.
Analysts and the retail industry have watched the ease up closely to develop a sense of whether consumer spending patterns and levels will return to pre-pandemic norms and whether e-commerce will keep up the flurried pace that materialized when some stores were temporarily closed.
Shopify's online sales software perfectly positioned the company to benefit from the move toward e-commerce, but also made the firm among those most likely to detect retail changes early and be impacted by shifts back to brick-and-mortar.
In recent months, people started moving around more often and were spending on services, recreation, entertainment and shopping in stores because vaccination was so widespread, Shapero said.
"As a result, in July, we saw overall retail actually dip, and that was because e-commerce dips as folks were moving about," she said.
"But then we saw a rebound in August for e-commerce...which is attributed to people going back to physical workspaces and kids returning to in-person learning, and then we saw another uptick from August to September."
Shopify recorded a third-quarter profit of nearly
The company, which keeps its books in
On an adjusted basis, Shopify said it earned
Revenue in the quarter totalled
Shopify president
But analysts are worried about the company's ability to hold onto less prominent clients.
"We believe that unit churn is high within the business due to the small and medium-sized business nature of the customer base," RBC's analysts wrote in a recent note.
"As the base grows, merchant growth will be harder to sustain given the churn effect on the base."
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Companies in this story: (TSX:SHOP)
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