Shopify's already getting a lot of e-commerce business from the U.K., a record of success the Canadian company hopes to extend by offering its point-of-sale and card reader to local merchants, a move that will put it in competition with a variety of companies chasing a market that's poised for growth.
Shopify provides a cloud-based, multichannel commerce platform that works on smartphones and tablets and supports chip card and contactless payments, including Android and Apple Pay. Its card reader, compatible with the Shopify POS for iPhone and iPad, is available to pre-order for a late September shipment.
The company’s e-commerce tools already serve 30,000 merchant customers across the U.K., or 10% of its total business, a spokeswoman for Shopify confirmed Tuesday. The U.K. is Shopify's second-largest market, outside of the U.S. and Canada, she added.
Shopify announced an initial public offering in the spring of 2015, just ahead of Square, which is also pursuing market share in the U.K., as is PayPal and other companies attracted to a
