Black Friday 2024 marked a historic milestone for Shopify and its merchants, recording a record gross merchandise volume (GMV) of $5 billion, representing a 22% increase from the $4.1 billion reached in 2023. This growth solidified Shopify’s position as a key player in global e-commerce during one of the most anticipated days of the year.
Figures Defining Unprecedented Success
The most anticipated sales day of the year was also one of the most demanding for Shopify’s technological infrastructure. The platform managed impressive peaks in demand and activity:
- Peak Sales per Minute: Merchants drove sales of up to $4.6 million in a single minute, reflecting the intensity of consumer spending during Black Friday.
- Requests Processed: Shopify handled over 173 billion requests, reaching a peak of 284 million per minute at the edge servers and over 80 million on application servers, with a bandwidth consumption of 12 terabytes per minute.
- Database Queries: The database supported a peak of 45 million queries per second, while writes reached 7.6 million per second.
- Kafka Messages: Shopify relied on Kafka for messaging, hitting a peak of 66 million messages per second, a key element for maintaining platform performance.
Sustained Year-Over-Year Growth
The Black Friday results demonstrate steady growth in sales made through Shopify. From $2.4 billion in 2020 to $5 billion this year, the platform has experienced significant annual growth:
- 2020: $2.4 billion
- 2021: $2.9 billion
- 2022: $3.4 billion
- 2023: $4.1 billion
- 2024: $5 billion
This growth reflects the increasing confidence of merchants in Shopify and the continued rise of online shopping during key promotional events like Black Friday.
The Technology Behind the Success
The volume of activity managed by Shopify during Black Friday underscores the robustness and scalability of its technological infrastructure. The company has invested in advanced tools to handle the growing demand:
- Kafka: Acting as the core of messaging, it enabled the processing of millions of events simultaneously, ensuring stable and uninterrupted performance.
- Cloud Optimization: The ability to rapidly scale resources was crucial in responding to traffic and transaction peaks.
- High-Speed Databases: Shopify demonstrated its capability to handle millions of queries and writes per second, which is essential to ensure a seamless experience for merchants and consumers.
A Promising Future
With these results, Shopify not only consolidates its position as a leader in e-commerce but also reinforces its ability to handle the exponential growth of the sector. The 2024 figures are a testament to the impact of digital commerce on the global economy and Shopify’s crucial role in facilitating the success of millions of merchants worldwide.
The company’s message is clear: “Let’s keep moving forward.” With cutting-edge technological infrastructure and a commitment to innovation, Shopify is prepared to face the challenges of e-commerce in the coming years.
via: Social Media News