Shopify

OUR ORIGIN STORY 🛤

The first Shopify store was our own.

More than a decade ago we started an online store to sell snowboard equipment directly to those who loved the sport as much as us.
We could have listed our products on a number of marketplaces, but we wanted to own our brand and build relationships with our customers, along with selling our goods. Such a tool didn’t exist, so we built it for ourselves. We soon realized a number of other stores were in need of a hassle-free platform to build their retail business, and Shopify was born. Since then, it's been our mission to make commerce better for everyone and we now power over 1 Million businesses across the globe with no signs of slowing down.

SHOPIFY EASES THE PAINS OF COMMERCE 😌

Consider what it was like to start a business 10 years ago. You had to call a bank, send documents, and wait for weeks. Then you had to hire a designer and a marketing consultant to build a website and somehow hook it up to your bank. It was a confusing, expensive, and extremely frustrating process.
We created Shopify to get rid of this terrible experience. We want merchants to focus on their businesses instead of dealing with layers of bureaucracy that just get in the way. This means we are first and foremost a product company. We believe that we can use software to continually simplify how commerce happens around the world. We want to make the best products our industry has ever seen.

Shopify is designed for scalability, allowing our merchants to grow their businesses with us. We want to make Shopify accessible to everyone and powerful enough that when a merchant’s ideas take off, they don’t have to migrate to another platform to handle it.

The field of selling is so vast that merchants often have unique requirements, so making a user interface that works great for almost everyone is an enormous challenge. But this is what we set out to do.

We focus on making commerce better for everyone, so businesses can focus on what they do best: building and selling their products. Today, our merchants use our platform to manage every aspect of their business — from products to orders to customers, selling online, in retail stores, and on the go.

VALUES THAT CREATE PROGRESS 💪🏿

Our values are how we make the decisions that move the needle on our mission. They aren’t so much “Shopify Values” as the things that Shopify values. They are the behaviors we’ve observed in people who are successful at Shopify.

🚀 Be impactful
We’re building a company where everyone has the potential to have a positive impact on everything, from our products to our technology to our people. You achieve impact through the challenges you accept and conquer, the projects you choose to work on, and the environment you create for those around you. Impact comes from doing the tasks that no one else will, and learning to say no when necessary. Impact is all those parts combined. Keep this at the core of everything you do.

🚀 Be merchant obsessed
The products we build are critical to our merchants’ livelihoods and the success of their businesses. Building the best products is only possible by relentlessly working to understand their struggles, caring deeply, and being committed to helping them succeed every step of the way. Merchants depend on us to invent products that allow them to support their livelihoods. This is our responsibility, and we must never forget that.

🚀 Make great decisions quickly
The value we bring to our merchants can be seen as the sum of the decisions we make. To make great decisions, you’ll need to gather context. We default to open internally so that you can access the context you need and have the autonomy to make informed decisions. You should actively seek out information — get curious, ask questions, connect with others, explore other perspectives, and do your research.

🚀 Thrive on change
Commerce is always evolving, Shopify is ever-changing, and change is constant. We’re building an anti-fragile Shopify: a company that benefits from shock. This means thriving and growing when we’re exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, or stressors. It’s difficult to thrive on change. But if we want our growth to actualize, we need to see and appreciate the benefits of change, and learn to thrive in an environment that’s always moving. If we can do that, we’ll see that the rewards of change are greater than the risks of uncertainty.

🚀 Be a constant learner
Since change is constant, we need everyone to be a perpetual and deliberate learner. Deliberate learners acquire new information or experience a new concept or skill, practice it, and self-reflect. Mastering a craft requires a commitment to continuously improving your skills and knowledge. It takes a lifetime of work, and there’s an almost infinite level of expertise you can acquire in your craft.

🚀 Build for the long-term
We want to be a company that sees the next century. To do this, we need to build solutions for our merchants that can adapt to whatever the world throws at them, and us. Whether we’re focused on experiments, features, or infrastructure, we’re intentionally building solutions that will define the future of commerce. If you’re experimenting, move fast, fail quickly, learn, and pivot as you try new ideas.

DIVERSITY AT SHOPIFY 💛

At Shopify, diversity is an organizational imperative

We know that in order to build a sustainable product that will compete globally, we need a workforce that is reflective of the global commerce ecosystem. To unlock the value of a diverse workforce and retain talent, we focus on ensuring our employees experience the fundamental human need for belonging.

By deliberately creating spaces where employees feel included, valued, and heard, employees are encouraged to bring their full selves to work and contribute with their unique and innovative perspectives and experiences. That is how we achieve our mission of making commerce better for everyone.

EQUITY AT SHOPIFY 💚

We hire people who care deeply, who are here to do their life’s work.
In return, we care just as deeply about their experiences, how we show up as an employer, and how we can best enable them to do that work.
We take a humanized research-based approach to diversity and belonging, working with our in-house research and analytics teams to help us address and understand the largest gaps and inform program development around hiring, employee engagement, retention, leadership training, and learning and development.

BELONGING AT SHOPIFY 💜

We believe the future includes more voices, in tech and entrepreneurship.
Our focus on diversity is not confined to the hiring process. We have a number of initiatives that work on fostering a sense of belonging so all employees can feel included, valued, and heard. An example of one of those initiatives is Employee Resource Groups (ERGs).
ERGs are employee groups that form based on a shared identity like race and ethnicity, gender, abilities, or sexual orientation, and help elevate the voices and experiences of their respective communities. ERGs are more than social groups: they have the potential to not only guide and contribute to creating an inclusive work environment through fostering belonging but can also act as a resource to impact business objectives.

OUR LEADERS CARE ✨

From the first days onboarding in Startup, folks are offered access to incredible resources (lifestyle spending account, extensive mental health coverage, personal development allowance, internal coaching team).

Leading at Shopify (exclusive to leads) focuses on the craft of leadership including: clarifying purpose and values, energy management, understanding the inner critic, wellness, receiving feedback, building team trust and safety.

We also know that even a machine needs to be ‘unplugged’ at some point. That means sharing a laugh, taking a breather, and engaging in real talk thanks to our phenomenal Culture team who produce thoughtful events with world-class speakers and performers from around the world. And, we are fluent in emoji. 😻🚀🔮🌷

To be a 100 year company, Shopify understands that optimal performance means periods of intermittent rest. Therefore, self-awareness, a consistent wellness practice and fun, social connections are requirements of our work.

MEASURABLE STEPS TOWARDS CHANGE 🧮

✨ We have a computing education outreach program focused on providing access to tech education opportunities for underserved and marginalized youth.

✨ By maintaining consistent engagement with youth in our communities, we have a better chance of supporting them over the long-term, adapting to their needs, and building real relationships. If we support kids by exposing them to new opportunities and access to STEM education, we can help create pathways for them towards a career in tech, enabling economic growth in their communities and increased quality of life for them and their families.

✨ Recruiting diverse candidates, especially to our work integrated learning programs like Dev Degree, means a diverse pool of well prepared software developers making a positive impact wherever they land, whether that’s at Shopify, another company, or their own startup.

OUR INTERVIEW PROCESS ⏳

STEP 1: Application (can include screening questions)
STEP 2: Initial Vetting Call
STEP 3: Life Story - For some roles, this stage includes initial skills test like a Coding Challenge
STEP 4: Shortlist (set of multiple skills-based interviews)
STEP 5: Offer 🎉

OUR BENEFITS 🏖

In addition to our core coverage (Health, Dental, Life Insurance, Disability Insurance, Own Your Own Development), full-time, permanent employees have the ability to allocate funds where they most need it.

Allocate your flex perks to the following accounts:
Health Care Spending Account (Canada)
Lifestyle Spending Account (all countries)
Retirement Savings Account (Canada, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, UK)
Charitable Giving Account (all countries)

Lifestyle Spending Account:
Shopify has compiled a list of eligible expenses to support your wellness outside of work. For example: helping you and your family get and/or stay healthy and active, offering family care and support to all family types (partners/spouses, children, aging parents, pets), and supporting our entrepreneurs