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Ringing the cash register at Shopify
Good morning, digital dynamos. This is your Stock Market Rundown for November 28th, 2023. Thank you for tuning in once again. Let’s get it started:
TODAY’S TOP STORY: BLACK FRIDAY FRENZY
If you’ve ever impulse-bought something you saw advertised on Facebook or Instagram, you probably got it via a Shopify store. The Canadian tech company is the leader in providing tools and services for businesses that want to sell stuff online.
Vendors hawk everything from stylish dog leashes to profane cross-stitch kits using Shopify’s platform, and even big online retailers like FashionNova and GymShark are built on it.
Be careful what you “add to cart”, though. Shopify is home to some scams, with fake sites selling everything from counterfeit Pokemon cards to fake Bose headphones. If a deal seems too good to be true, just keep scrolling.
Shopify’s CEO, Tobi Lutke, is a nerdy video game fan who’s been known to livestream himself playing Starcraft. But he might’ve taken the gamer metaphors too far when he published a memo earlier this year that explained a layoff by saying too many employees were being distracted by “side quests.” What’s next, an enchanted raccoon as head of HR?
Even if the layoffs made the employees who got fired feel like non-player characters, Lutke was successful in leveling up the business. The most recent quarter saw Shopify beat expectations thanks to lower headcount expenses and surging revenue.
Now, its holiday season is off to a record-smashing start: Shopify merchants rang up $4.1 billion in Black Friday sales, up 22% from a year earlier. And CEO Lutke proudly tweeted that over thirteen thousand Shopify stores scored their very first sale. Given the joy he brings to merchants, Lutke is basically the Santa Claus of capitalism.
SO WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
You might buy your next car while scrolling online instead of drinking bad coffee at a dealership. Amazon will sell Hyundai vehicles online starting next year. Much nicer shopping experience than having some pushy salesperson with a quota try to upsell you on the undercoating.
Have you installed that tiled backsplash in your kitchen yet? Home Depot beat estimates on a trend to “smaller projects”. Nobody’s moving house with mortgage rates this high; might as well invest in a fire pit.
Wall Street has cash flow problems: many investment banker bonuses will drop by double digits this year due to challenging capital markets conditions. Hopefully this won’t affect Junior’s tuition at Exeter.
Elon Musk’s implantable brain chip company, Neuralink, just closed a multi-million-dollar financing round, and is gearing up for human trials. Maybe soon kids will learn calculus overnight just by getting a surgically-implanted chip from a Texas Instruments calculator.
That's the end of today's briefing, pals; let’s reconvene bright and early tomorrow. Yours in capitalism, The Axe
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Hit me up at theaxe@stockmarketrundown.co