Shopify Q1 2026 Earnings: Sales Surge 34% Past $100B in Merchant Sales

May 5, 2026 · Published August 7, 2026

Shopify's sales jumped 34% to $3.17B and merchants sold over $100B in goods, but a net loss tied to investment swings and cautious guidance weighed on the stock.

Figures as reported by the company to the SEC for the quarter ended March 31, 2026. Analyst estimates are not part of a filing, so no comparison to expectations is shown.

Key takeaways

• Revenue reached $3.17 billion, up 34% from a year earlier, as the total value of goods sold through Shopify’s platform (gross merchandise volume, or GMV) topped $100 billion for a quarter for the first time, up from about $75 billion a year ago.
• The quarter’s net loss was driven almost entirely by non-cash paper losses on Shopify’s stock holdings in other companies (including Affirm, Global-E and Klaviyo), not by the core business — operating income, which excludes those investment swings, more than doubled year over year to $382 million.
• Subscription revenue (fees merchants pay to use Shopify’s platform) grew to $750 million from $620 million, while merchant solutions revenue (payments, shipping and other transaction-based services) grew faster, to $2.42 billion from $1.74 billion.
• For the current quarter, Shopify guided to revenue growth in the high-20% range year over year — a step down from the 34% pace just reported — along with operating expenses equal to 35-36% of revenue and stock-based compensation of about $145 million, partly reflecting continued investment in AI.
• Trailing-twelve-month figures show the underlying business remains solidly profitable even though this single quarter posted a loss: gross margin near 48%, operating margin near 14%, and net margin around 14.5%, with a 15% return on equity.
• President Harley Finkelstein said Shopify is showing ‘the strongest version of Shopify’ in its history and highlighted that nearly 90% of the quarter’s revenue came from merchants who had already been on the platform for more than a year, pointing to steady customer retention.
• Despite the revenue growth, shares fell sharply after the report as investors focused on the slower growth pace implied by Q2 guidance and the rising costs tied to Shopify’s AI investments.

Q1 2026 in context

Figures for the quarter ended Mar 2026 and the quarter ended Mar 2025, as reported to the SEC.

How the stock took it

Shopify Inc closed at $127.55 on May 4, 2026, the last session before the report, and at $105.44 on May 6, 2026, the first session after it — -17.3% across the report.

Closes from the market's daily record. Each figure spans the report date — from the last session that closed before it to the first that closed after — because a company may report before the open or after the close.

Financial history →

Sources: company report · earnings call · Yahoo Finance