On December 1, 2025, Shopify experienced a widespread outage that prevented merchants from accessing admin dashboards and point‑of‑sale systems during the Black Friday‑Cyber Monday weekend. The outage began in the morning, with thousands of merchants reporting login failures on Downdetector, and lasted roughly four hours before services were fully restored by evening.
The outage coincided with a record‑setting sales period, as Shopify merchants generated $14.6 billion in gross merchandise volume (GMV) over the weekend—a 27 % year‑over‑year increase from the $11.5 billion recorded in 2024. The disruption forced many high‑volume stores to miss sales opportunities, with estimates of merchant losses ranging from $15 million to $30 million.
Root‑cause analysis revealed that a flaw in the login authentication flow caused a cascading failure in the authentication microservice, which overwhelmed the system during peak traffic. Shopify’s engineering team deployed a hotfix within hours and subsequently rolled out additional capacity to prevent recurrence.
The incident had immediate market repercussions. Shopify’s shares fell 6.3 % on the Toronto Stock Exchange and 5.9 % on the Nasdaq on December 1, reflecting investor concern over the platform’s reliability during critical sales periods. Analysts highlighted that the outage exposed a vulnerability in Shopify’s infrastructure that could erode merchant trust and retention.
Despite the outage, Shopify’s underlying business fundamentals remained strong. The company’s Q3 2025 earnings beat expectations, with revenue of $2.89 billion and adjusted EPS of $0.34, driven by robust demand for its e‑commerce and AI‑powered Sidekick platform. Management emphasized continued focus on cost discipline and strategic investments in high‑return verticals, signaling confidence in maintaining profitability amid operational challenges.
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