Shopify says ‘extreme’ levels of pandemic-fuelled online shopping are easing

Despite the downward trend, Shopify found e-commerce's portion of the retail market was still higher than it was two years ago.

Shopify Inc. is starting to see the intense levels of online sales companies garnered during the COVID-19 pandemic ease.

“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 Amy Shapero on a conference call Thursday with financial analysts to discuss the company’s latest results.

Despite the downward trend, the chief financial officer of the Ottawa-based technology company said Shopify found e-commerce’s portion of the retail market was still higher than it was two years ago and is poised to resume a more normalized rate of growth for the long-term.

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.