Shopify buys pair of domain names from Emerge Commerce

Article content

Shopify Inc. has dug up a pair of internet domains from smaller Canadian e-commerce players for over $500,000 as it continues to build an online platform under the “Shop” banner.

Article content

Emerge Commerce Ltd. announced on January 6 that it will sell its domain names shop.ca and shop.us to Canada’s largest technology company. Now the URL redirects the user to Shopify’s Shop App website, Shopping retailers serve as a marketplace for sale in “digital shopping assistants” where shoppers can search for products and brands, make purchases and track shipping.

Article content

According to the figures tracked by the domain name sales database NAMEBIO, the transaction will enable the transaction to begin with all-cash domain sales so far in 2025.

According to NameBio, the most expensive publicly sold domain name last year was Rocket.com, which costs $14 million, Gold.com, $8.5 million, Shift.com, $1.3 million, TP.com, $1.2 million, and Bestodds.com, $1.025 billion.

The most expensive three most expensive publicly reported all-cash domain sales date back to 1999 with the name of $30 million, Chat.com, chanc.com at $15.5 million, and NFTS.COM at $15 million.

Toronto-based Emerge owns a portfolio of a niche e-commerce brand, including meat and seafood subscription business Trulocal, menstrual subscription service Carnivore Club, Discount Golf Experience and Products Companies and Products uderpar, and golf products and clothing retailer JustgolfStuff.

The original shop.ca, which appeared in the e-commerce marketplace in 2011, sees itself as “Canada’s largest online shopping destination.” The company filed for bankruptcy in 2016 after losing $72 million. Emerge purchased shop.ca and in 2018 it was restored to a destination for content and coupons, including shopping guides and coupon codes for large retailers.

Article content

Emerge founder and CEO Ghassan Halazon said in a press release that the Shop.us and Shop.ca domains “has been idle and uninitiated in recent years” and were sold to Shopify’s “non-second-tier cash proceeds to fund future growth plans.”

In the recently publicly reported domain name sales, shop.us and shop.ca sells quite high – but their internet sales were sold at a higher price 21 years ago. According to NameBio, Shop.com sold for $3.5 million in November 2003.

Area investment can be a profitable business. According to Ibis World, the U.S. domain name sales industry grew 4.4% in 2024 to $9.4 billion. But it’s also a crowded market – after-sales exchanges (such as Sedo and Afternic) that allow people to buy, sell and park in the fields, with millions of domains currently on sale.

However, it can bring returns to investors in the right area. In August 2020, New York-based trademark attorney Jeremy Green Eche bought Harriswalz.com for $8.99, one of several areas he bought based on speculation about future U.S. presidential tickets. He sold the domain for $15,000 in August 2024, and he told CBS MoneyWatch felt like a “hit the jackpot.”

•Email: jswitzer@postmedia.com

Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the business news you need to know – add FinancialPost.com to your bookmark and sign up for our newsletter here.

Share this article in your social network