Shopify Tumbles on a Report of It Terminating Fulfillment Contracts

(Bloomberg) — Shopify Inc. plunged by the most since March 2020 amid a report that the Canadian e-commerce company terminated contracts with several warehouse and fulfillment partners.

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Its U.S.-listed shares closed down 14% on Friday to its lowest level since September 2020 on high trading volume after an Insider report said Shopify was expected to have about half of its previous capacity for e-commerce orders for merchants once the changes are implemented. The report cites executives at four fulfillment companies in Shopify’s network.

The company wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Baird analyst Colin Sebastian said that, if true, the timing makes sense for Shopify to grow its own owned-and-operated distribution warehouses.

“As they reach a ‘fork in the road,’ the timing seems right for Shopify to alter course in fulfillment, the question being in which direction do they turn,” Sebastian said in a note to clients.

“In the evolving e-commerce landscape, it’s pretty clear that fulfillment and delivery need to be core competencies, and for Shopify, the sweet spot of an ‘asset light’ hybrid approach has proven to be a challenge to scale,” he said.

At least three analysts have cut their share price targets on Shopify since Tuesday, pushing the average target to its lowest point since July, as e-commerce growth slows with pandemic restrictions lifting and as shoppers return to brick-and-mortar stores. It has slumped 48% from its November peak

Amid a broad selloff in tech stocks late last year, Shopify was dethroned as Canada’s most valuable company. It is now the third-largest Canadian public company by market value, behind two banks.

(Updates closing share price.)