Shopify (SHOP) wants just 30 minutes of your time.
The e-commerce platform, which makes tools for companies to sell their products, is urging retailers to gear up for the holidays by taking a half-hour course to help guide them through the most wonderful time of the year.
Related: Analysts revise Shopify stock price target after earnings
"By investing 30 minutes of your time, you can unlock the potential for increased sales, customer engagement, and overall success this holiday season," the company said on its blog last month. "Let’s make this peak season one for the books!"
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Shopify, which was founded in 2006, hosts 5.6 million active stores across 175 countries as of this year.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are around the corner, the company said, and "now is the perfect moment to equip yourself with the knowledge and strategies that will make this holiday season a success."
"That's where Shopify Academy’s comprehensive new course comes in: Planning for Peak Season 2024," Shopify said, adding that the 30-minute course "is designed to help you navigate the complexities of peak season selling, ensuring you’re not just prepared, but poised for success."
Analysts are expecting a somewhat muted shopping season this year.
Shopify urges merchants to prepare holidays
Boston Consulting Group's 2024 Holiday Outlook forecast a mixed growth outlook for the gift-giving period.
Related: Goldman Sachs analyst overhauls S&P 500 targets for 2024 and 2025
The research firm said that while just over a quarter of consumers plan to spend more than they did last year, slightly more than a quarter plan to spend less — and a bit less than half plan to spend the same.
"On one hand, real consumption has continued to grow in the post-pandemic era, and American household incomes and balance sheets are strong relative to historical levels," BCG said. "Moreover, both job growth and income growth are at similar levels to the prepandemic economy."
But other factors are keeping all the good cheer in check, it said.
"Despite positive indicators of economic [growth,] consumer sentiment has fallen over the past two years," Boston Consulting said. "Ongoing geopolitical tensions, global military conflicts, and the upcoming 2024 presidential election are creating an environment of split attention for US consumers."
In addition, the firm said, even as inflation has cooled recently, it has prompted peak prices for consumer staples, thus tightening consumers' holiday-shopping budgets and making for more intentional channel selection and deal-seeking throughout the season.
Last year, Shopify said, its merchants reported $9.3 billion in sales during the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend alone, up 24% from the previous year.
"The earlier you start preparing, the better positioned you’ll be to take advantage of the holiday season," the company said.
Shopify's stock is up 6.6% year-to-date and up 55% from a year ago. The company is scheduled to report earnings in a few weeks.
In August, Shopify beat Wall Street’s second-quarter-earnings expectations and gave an upbeat forecast for the current period.
"Our relentless focus on our mission has not only empowered our merchants but has also strengthened Shopify significantly," President Harley Finkelstein told analysts. "We are at our strongest yet and we could not be more excited about the future of commerce and the future of Shopify."
The company said gross merchandise volume, or the total volume of merchandise sold on the platform, climbed 22% during the quarter to $67.2 billion.
Shopify president: 'Shopify captures it all'
"These results reiterate what we've been saying all [along: We] are building for the long term, and our business model is working," Finkelstein said. "Whether online or offline, direct-to-consumer or [business-to-business,] domestic or global, Shopify captures it all."
"What makes Shopify so powerful is how seamlessly all parts of the product work together, reducing complexity at every stage of a merchant's journey," he added.
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Investment firms have been updating their price targets for Shopify recently.
Loop Capital's Anthony Chukumba raised the firm's price target on Shopify to $90 from $80 while affirming a hold rating on the shares.
The investment firm has updated its quarterly survey of current Shopify merchants to gain a better view of the platform from their perspective.
Chukumba said he was "very encouraged" by the survey results, including sequential improvements in sales channel utilization, merchant solutions engagement, sales trends, and merchant satisfaction.
He added, however, that the stock's current valuation levels justify its hold rating.
Baird raised its price target on Shopify to $90 from $79 and affirmed an outperform rating on the shares.
The investment firm said that while SHOP's shares are typically volatile around quarterly earnings, it continues to like the company following its latest platform survey, which suggests ongoing healthy ramp in its core, Shopify Plus, international and enterprise offerings.
Earlier this month Barclays raised its price target on Shopify to $70 from $65 while maintaining an equal-weight rating on the shares as part of a third-quarter-earnings preview for the group.
SHOP has continued its strong outperformance year-to-date, the analyst tells investors in a research note.
And last month, Citi raised its price target on Shopify to $103 from $90 and kept a buy rating on the shares.
Recent conversations with the company provided incremental confidence in Shopify's payments adoption and cross-sell of select merchant-solutions products, the firm said.
Citi said that it remained optimistic that revenue growth would speed up in the second half of 2024 with its profitability set to inflect in 2025. The firm sees upside to Wall Street forecasts for Shopify.
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