What Shopify’s Developer Conference This Week Tells Us About Investment Potential Across Canada

After the success of Toronto Tech Week in May, Canada’s largest city is set to host another influential tech showcase. This week, thousands of engineers and innovators head to DotDev 2026, the annual conference by commerce giant Shopify (SHOP).

The tech event is set to give tech decision makers the inside scoop on what to expect from the platform in the second half of this year, and will also have wider ramifications for investors into the e-commerce industry as a whole, given the prevalence of Shopify’s platform globally. 

During the first quarter of 2026 alone, merchants on the Shopify platform generated over $100 billion in Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) while the company’s own financial performance saw revenue grow by 34%. 

The tech heavyweight is one of the biggest e-commerce success stories in the U.S. and across emerging markets, and is notable given its ability to hold out against other dominant online retailers like Amazon (AMZN). In its Q4 2025 earnings call, for instance, Shopify claimed a 14% share of the massive e-commerce market in the United States. 

Not only is this an example of a Canadian tech company that can hold its own on the global stage, it also points towards the inherent strengths of Canada’s tech scene. While Canada may not produce global startups or high-value unicorns at the same pace as places like its neighbors to the south, what it does excel in is building ecosystems.

In turn, the ecosystem continues to provide interesting investment opportunities as the community of developers and companies evolves alongside the platform. As DevDot 2026 opens its doors, we can get a clearer picture into where we can expect to see investment opportunities associated with Shopify's ecosystem this year.

Shopify continues to invest in developers and app builders 

The global e-commerce market is set to reach $6.88 trillion in 2026, accounting for 21.1% of total retail sales. Shopify has captured a major share of this boom over the past decade, as seen by the amount of GMV generated through merchants this year. 

The platform has been built around the idea that anyone, anywhere can start a business. Here, Shopify has helped small businesses and merchants punch above their weight by providing the digital infrastructure to build online stores and reach customers across a variety of channels and geolocations. 

Rather than building only another software company, Shopify built an economic platform. Consumers don’t head to Shopify to shop. Its record-breaking GMV in 2026 is the aggregate of millions of independent storefronts, each with their own URLs and brand identities. In turn, thousands of independent software businesses now make their living creating applications, integrations and services for millions of merchants worldwide. Entire consulting firms, design studios and AI startups have emerged because Shopify exists.

According to data from the company, Shopify paid out more than $1.3 billion to the developers who build across its ecosystem in recognition of the integral role this community of app builders has played in the success of the platform. 

The platform has its own app store where millions of merchants across all categories of commerce can download solutions tailored to a range of seller use cases, whether they want to build a unique storefront, connect checkout features across channels or create a mobile commerce app. 

In fact, active app installs across the ecosystem climbed nearly 20%. This is largely driven by the ability for specialist software providers to create solutions that help merchants save time, lower their customer acquisition costs or optimize the sales pathway. 

For example, StarApps is the company behind some of the most widely installed product merchandizing apps on the Shopify App Store. Its tools are used by over 20,000 merchants and over 1,000 Shopify Plus stores, with solutions including everything from an auto-image resizer for product listings to features that allow dynamic descriptions and dynamic pricing. 

The billions that Shopify has recently allocated to its developer community suggest that the company will continue to lean into the advantages of the platform ecosystem business model. This means that companies listed on Shopify App Stores continue to offer potential investment opportunities. Here, it's advisable to look out for those with a clear industry focuses and strong metrics with existing merchants. 

Additional companies to watch following Shopify's growth include Affirm (AFRM) and Mattel (MAT).

Lowering the cost of AI innovation for e-commerce 

As the rising costs associated with AI innovation are being scrutinized by large companies, the Shopify success story also highlights another benefit of the platform approach.  

Although Shopify allocated billions of dollars to grow its network of specialist software companies and continues to invest in the technology available on its platform, it doesn’t shoulder all the responsibility of building all the latest innovations itself. Its "build alongside the platform" strategy lowers acquisition costs for the platform while allowing engineering teams to focus on solving narrowly defined business problems exceptionally well that support more merchants. 

For the next calendar year, we expect to see a significant uptick in AI-related opportunities associated with Shopify, as the company announces a slew of new features at DotDev 2026 this week.

So far, it looks like these will hinge on the frictionless checkout experience and make the lives of sellers easier with AI-driven "agentic commerce" featuring heavily in new features for both consumers and merchants. 

While the purpose of AI agents in other industries can be harder to pin down, they have crystal-clear use cases here, from AI-assisted shopping reviews through to automated checkout experiences. 

In fact, 43% of consumers who have used a GenAI tool expect that brands will employ the technology to improve their customer experience this year. 

Shopify Magic will leverage new AI capabilities that streamline store creation and improve developer workflows, and Sidekick can now generate custom admin apps like product bundlers and inventory reorder systems. Both of these AI integrations are set to launch at the end of 2026. 

The company is also launching platform-wide AI integration in order to address bottlenecks in inventory and checkout. 

This means that investors could be in line for opportunities with a faster ROI when compared to slow and expensive enterprise AI initiatives. This is particularly true as ventures in the greater ecosystem such as MyUser make it easier for companies to approach outbound outreach. 

Further, companies like Upfirst are making it easier to handle calls by providing affordable AI receptionists, providing even more opportunity for smaller businesses. According to the company, the value at risk for a single unanswered call sits at around $1,900 for a roofing company and around $620 for a legal practice. 

Another trend relates to the increasing dominance of mobile channels, which now account for 59% of all e-commerce sales. To capture this growth without causing customer acquisition costs to skyrocket, many merchants are looking to native mobile apps that also leverage the latest in mobile-unique capabilities like geolocation data, real-time recommendations or integrated payment solutions. 

Here, StarApps has made a play to capture this demand through the acquisition of AppMaker, a company that builds high-converting native mobile apps for over 200 enterprise merchants on  Shopify. 

We can expect to see a further concentration of activity in Shopify’s platform ecosystem around the dominant tech trends for e-commerce this year. For investors, it also offers a way to capture AI-related opportunities that are likely to have more immediate returns than the megarounds for frontier technology. 

This is thanks in part to AI's ability to connect ecosystems and address real-world use cases. Other companies to watch that are applying AI to address real challenges include HIPAA-compliant communication platform QuickBlox, AI ad management platform ADvendio, agentic retail execution platform Effie.ai, and the first communication partner for life sciences that fuses AI and experts, Prezent Vivo.

Taking Canadian tech global through platform ecosystems 

The success of Shopify isn’t just another software company, but its platform effect that works both locally and globally. The rise of Shopify and its investments into AI show that Canada’s tech scene can still compete and deliver vertical growth in crucial markets internationally. 

For example, Shopify commands a massive presence in the United States, serving as the country's leading e-commerce platform by business adoption. Through its developer ecosystem, Shopify has managed to secure a solid foothold in this highly competitive yet highly valuable region - something that startups and software companies commonly struggle to break. 

The B2C retail market in the U.S. alone could see up to $1 trillion in orchestrated revenue from agentic commerce, with global projections reaching as high as $3 trillion to $5 trillion, according to McKinsey research. Wrote modernization engineering company Sonata Software, “McKinsey’s 2025 State of AI survey found that while AI adoption is widespread, many organizations still struggle to translate experimentation into scaled business value. The same research highlights workflow redesign as a critical enabler of AI value realization.”

Shopify and companies such as Microsoft (MSFT) are poised to capture a significant share of this AI growth, along with the startups and app builders leveraging the technology.

Rather than trying to export and compete directly with the likes of Amazon, Shopify has been able to create a global footprint thanks to its marketplace of apps that cater to every commerce need.

That trajectory illustrates an important example of how Toronto and Canada can maintain its position against the growing dominance of AI frontier companies in the US and China. 

Instead of competing directly with Shopify, companies create complementary products that enhance the platform. Their customers are global from day one because Shopify's marketplace is global.

Platform companies generate multiplier effects that traditional vendors rarely achieve. With the pressure to scale companies successfully, a focus on the network effect of platforms is one way that Toronto can continue to attract investors and backing for its tech scene. 

Publicly traded companies to watch here include Constellation Software (CNSWF), Celestica (CLS), and OpenText (OTEX).

Leveling the playing field with platforms 

The power of platforms could ignite the next tech boom for the Toronto local scene. If AI becomes an invisible productivity layer powering logistics, payments and customer experiences, Canadian software companies may find themselves competing on deep technical expertise instead of only marketing budgets.

While Shopify is one example of how platform ecosystems work for e-commerce, the powerful network effect can be built across other verticals.