Shopify Suffers Hours-Long Outage On Cyber Monday
Shopify experienced a service disruption on Cyber Monday that prevented some merchants from processing transactions during one of the busiest retail days of the year. The company reported on its status page that a subset of merchants encountered login failures and that others could not access point‑of‑sale systems, which are essential for handling in‑store transactions and back‑office functions.
By mid‑afternoon, Shopify indicated that services were recovering, while cautioning that intermittent issues with POS and Admin tools might persist for some users. In a 2:31 p.m. EST update, the firm said it had identified and resolved a problem in its login authentication flow and was monitoring signs of recovery. A Shopify spokesperson referred inquiries to the company’s status page.
Traffic to outage‑tracking site Downdetector showed thousands of reports around 1:15 p.m. EST, with incident reports peaking at roughly 4,000 at about 11:00 a.m. EST. Shopify provides e‑commerce software and related services, including advertising and payment processing, and handles more than 10% of U.S. online transactions. While the platform is widely used by small and direct‑to‑consumer merchants, it also hosts storefronts for larger brands such as Reebok, Mattel, Barnes & Noble and Nestle.
The outage coincided with Cyber Monday’s promotional surge; Adobe Analytics estimated U.S. online spending at $14.2 billion for the day, a 6.3% increase year over year. Adobe also reported $11.8 billion in U.S. online spending on Black Friday, up 9.1% from the prior year. Shopify President Harley Finkelstein said the company recorded $6.2 billion in Black Friday gross merchandise volume, a 25% year‑over‑year rise, with cosmetics, activewear, fitness and nutrition among the top categories.
Some market participants reacted cautiously. Oppenheimer analysts anticipated a “slight negative reaction,” noting that Shopify’s sales growth fell short of consensus expectations for fourth‑quarter GMV growth of 28% year over year. Shopify’s shares closed down 5.8% on Monday.
