[eMarketer] Shopify focuses on growing merchant solutions revenues to offset slowing GMV growth.

Shopify is doubling down on merchant services as it seeks to offset slowing ecommerce sales.

While the platform’s gross merchandise volume (GMV) increased by 11% year-over-year in Q3, merchant solutions revenues rose 26%, per its earnings statement.

Significantly, merchant solutions revenues as a percentage of GMV rose to 2.14%—a company record, and a sign that Shopify’s extensive toolkit is resonating with sellers.

According to eMarketer, as conditions get more difficult for ecommerce merchants, Shopify is ramping up its revenue-based financing program to keep sellers solvent and make it easier for first-time sellers to get started on the platform.

Shopify Capital handed out $507.6 million in loans and cash advances to merchants in Q3, a 29% YoY increase. While these money-lending services may be extremely attractive to merchants struggling with soaring procurement and fulfillment costs, diminishing ecommerce demand could hamper their ability to pay back the loans.

And as with everything else it does, Shopify faces competition from Amazon, which announced last week it would give sellers access to loans ranging from $500 to $10 million via a partnership with capital provider Parafin in an expansion of its existing merchant financing tools.

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