SHOPIFY BANS THOUSANDS OF USERS FOR FALSE COVID-19 CLAIMS.

Shopify Inc. announced Wednesday that it is suspending financial guidance as the COVID-19 pandemic upends its business, and the company will give more detail on how business is evolving when it reports first-quarter earnings on May 6.

The Ottawa-based e-commerce giant said it is seeing merchants offer major discounts, and the company was forced to suspend thousands of accounts for making false claims or otherwise profiteering by selling hand sanitizer or face masks.

Across the economy, the conventional wisdom is that e-commerce is one of the few bright spots in the COVID-19 crisis, as social distancing measures and retail shutdowns force more people to buy goods online.

The statement from Shopify doesn’t necessarily indicate that its business is hurting amid the pandemic, and the company said strong momentum through the end of 2019 and into January and February will allow it “to report revenue and adjusted operating income for the first quarter within or ahead of the range of expectations provided” during the last earnings report.

“Shopify is analyzing the data across its platform for insights into how COVID-19 is affecting merchants’ operations in order to provide the most effective support, as well as to inform our own planning and decision-making during this period,” the company said.

In particular, the company said that its point-ofsale business in physical retail stores has been impacted by the steep decline in foot traffic, and many of those businesses are pivoting to online sales.

The company also said “merchants are heavily leveraging discounts to boost sales” since March 8, when social distancing measures steadily ramped up in North America.

Moreover, the company said, “in March, we terminated thousands of merchants charging unfair prices or making false claims about COVID-19-related items such as face masks or hand sanitizers.”

Overall, the company didn’t say whether sales trends are increasing or decreasing, but the statement Wednesday said sales “are aligning to specific industries based on the evolving environment, consumer concerns and needs.”

Throughout the month of March, Shopify has been making moves to help support the million merchants who use their software platform for e-commerce order fulfilment and payment processing.

Shopify announced it will be making US$200 million in loans available to merchants through the company’s Shopify Capital program, and on Monday the company expanded that program to the United Kingdom.

The company is also offering an extended 90-day free trial for new merchants, and making gift cards more available to all users.