Shopify's Subscription Growth Accelerates: More Upside Ahead?

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Shopify's Subscription Growth Accelerates: More Upside Ahead?

Shopify’s SHOP prospects benefit from robust Subscription Solutions segment revenues, which contributed 21.2% to the total revenues in the fourth quarter of 2025. Subscription Solutions revenues climbed 16.7% year over year to $777 million, driven by a larger percentage of subscriptions coming from higher-priced plans and higher variable platform fees. Monthly Recurring Revenues (“MRR”) increased 15%, supported by continued growth across standard, Plus and offline, wherein Plus represented roughly 34% of MRR. 

Shopify benefits from steady subscription revenues, driven by reliable plans and loyal users, reducing revenue volatility. The growing contribution from Plus is significant, as these higher-tier merchants deliver stronger Gross Merchandise Volume (“GMV”) per merchant, multi-store needs and long-term stickiness. This is a sign that the company scales existing merchants and adds larger merchants.

Subscription Solutions continues to deliver gross margin in the 81% range. It provides solid operating leverage even as the company ramps up investments in AI capabilities, product enhancements and international expansion. Gross profit for Subscription Solutions grew 18% year over year.

Subscription growth faces short-term headwinds. Higher tariffs, trade disruptions and geopolitical uncertainty are expected to keep subscription margins under pressure.

Shopify Faces Significant Competition

The competitive intensity in e-commerce remains high for Shopify, with Commerce.com CMRC and eBay EBAY standing out as key challengers.

Commerce.com, the newly rebranded parent company behind BigCommerce, Feedonomics and Makeswift, is sharpening its competitive edge in the modern e-commerce landscape. A central part of Commerce.com’s strategy is its commitment to providing flexible, enterprise-grade subscription solutions, which drive recurring base revenues. In the fourth quarter of 2025, Subscription Solutions revenues reached $65.2 million, representing a 5% year-over-year increase and a sequential improvement.

eBay is a direct competitor to Shopify in the e-commerce space. Unlike Shopify’s merchant-owned storefront model, eBay operates a large third-party marketplace. Serving both individuals and businesses, eBay spans new, used and collectible goods, supported by a highly engaged buyer base. The company delivered another strong fourth quarter, with GMV rising more than 8% to $21.2 billion and active buyers reaching 135 million as of December 2025, highlighting eBay’s sustained strength and influence in the e-commerce market.

SHOP’s Share Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Shopify shares have lost 28.8% year to date, underperforming the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s decline of 1.4% and the Zacks Internet Services industry’s drop of 0.8%.

                                        SHOP’s YTD Price Performance

 

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

 

Shopify's stock is overvalued, with a forward 12-month price/sales of 9.36X compared with the broader sector’s 6.06X. SHOP has a Value Score of F.

                                                             SHOP’s Valuation

 

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

 

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 earnings is pegged at $1.78 per share, unchanged over the past 30 days. This suggests 52.14% year-over-year growth.

                                            Shopify Inc. Price and Consensus

 

Shopify Inc. Price and Consensus

Shopify Inc. price-consensus-chart | Shopify Inc. Quote

Shopify currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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eBay Inc. (EBAY): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Shopify Inc. (SHOP): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Commerce.com, Inc. (CMRC): Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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