While the Canadian economic front is looking a mite unpleasant right now, e-commerce giant Shopify (TSE:SHOP) is looking to make things a little smoother for the businesses getting hit by the conditions on the ground. Shopify recently set up a deal with Affirm (AFRM) to bring a pay-later service to the platform. This did not help things much with shareholders, though, as Shopify shares slid over 2.5% in Wednesday morning’s trading.
The same logic as ever seems to apply here; Shopify wanted access to a pay-later service, which would allow customers to buy things, but not have to have the cash to pay for those things all at once. Thus, Shopify turned to Affirm to bring out the Shop Pay Installments program, which would allow customers to make payments on items instead of buying them outright up front.
This is the first time that Shop Pay Installments has been available outside the United States, reports noted, and the rollout will be in stages. The first stage will come this summer, when Shop Pay Installments is made accessible to Canadian users, as well as those in the United Kingdom. After that, cross-border capabilities will come online, allowing shoppers in Canada to shop United States stores with Shop Pay Installments, and so on among the various participants.
You May Have Already Lost Your Job to an AI
We know that artificial intelligence (AI) is in a position to take currently-held jobs away from their human holders. But at Shopify, AI may have taken your job before it even existed. A new policy from CEO Tobi Lutke noted that, before putting in a request for new headcount, managers must justify the new headcount request by proving that an artificial intelligence cannot do the job instead.
Lutke noted that the proposition that managers must justify human hires can “…lead to really fun discussions and projects,” and that there was a “…fundamental expectation…” at Shopify that employees should make AI part of everyday operations. Though how long it is before AI goes from merely preventing new hires from finding work to actually resulting in job losses is unclear, and likely a serious hit to morale.
Is Shopify Stock a Buy or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on TSE:SHOP stock based on 22 Buys and 13 Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 9.43% rally in its share price over the past year, the average SHOP price target of C$186.80 per share implies 74.92% upside potential.
