How Many Shopify Stores Are There in 2026? [183,417-Store Analysis]

TL;DR from 183,417 real Shopify stores:

• Shopify reports 5.5+ million active stores worldwide, but only about 2.5 million are live and generating traffic based on third-party data
• The US dominates with 38% of stores, followed by the UK (7.1%), Canada (4.0%), and Australia (4.0%)
• Fashion is the largest niche at 24.3% of all stores, followed by Home & Garden (13.4%) and Food & Beverage (9.3%)
• 84% of stores get under 50K monthly visitors. Only 0.7% break past 200K.
• The average store runs 1.7 detected apps and uses a free theme (40.7% of all stores)
• 13.2% of stores are on Shopify Plus, with Australia showing the highest Plus adoption rate (26%) among major markets
• 21% of stores have zero detected marketing apps, a massive gap for agencies and app developers

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Every article about Shopify store count quotes the same numbers. "There are 5.5 million active Shopify stores." Or 4.8 million. Or 6.9 million. The exact figure depends on who you ask and how they define "active."

The problem is that none of these articles tell you what those stores actually look like. How big are they? What do they sell? What technology do they run? Where are they located?

We took a different approach. Instead of recycling press release numbers, we analyzed 183,417 Shopify stores in the StoreInspect database. We scanned their themes, apps, tracking pixels, product catalogs, and company data to build a real portrait of the Shopify ecosystem.

This post covers the headline numbers everyone asks about, then goes deeper into the data that no one else publishes.

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How We Collected This Data

Dataset: 183,417 verified Shopify stores in the StoreInspect database

Method: We use automated frontend detection patterns to scan live Shopify stores. Our scanner identifies apps, themes, and tracking pixels through script signatures, JavaScript variables, DOM elements, and network requests.

Time period: Data collected between December 2025 and February 2026.

What we detect:

• Themes (free, paid, or custom)
• Frontend apps (email marketing, reviews, support, upsell, analytics, loyalty, and more)
• Tracking pixels (Meta, Google Analytics, TikTok, Pinterest, and others)
• Shopify Plus status
• Product catalog size and pricing

What we cannot detect: Backend-only apps (inventory management, fulfillment, accounting), stores behind password walls, and stores that block automated scanners. Our dataset skews toward established, publicly accessible stores.

Geographic data: Country information is available for 115,036 stores (63% of the dataset). Year-founded data is available for 83,693 stores (46%).

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How Many Shopify Stores Are There?

The honest answer: it depends on how you count.

The gap between "5.5 million active merchants" and "2.8 million live stores" is significant. Many Shopify accounts are dormant stores, development stores, or stores that never launched. When people ask "how many Shopify stores are there," what they usually mean is: how many stores are actually live, selling products, and reachable?

Based on third-party crawl data, the realistic number of live, publicly accessible Shopify stores is somewhere between 2.5 and 3.5 million.

Our dataset of 183,417 stores represents a substantial cross-section of active Shopify stores, specifically those generating enough web presence to appear in crawl databases and search indexes. It's not the full universe, but it's large enough to identify clear patterns.

Shopify's Market Position

Shopify holds roughly 10.5% of the global ecommerce platform market and leads the US market with about 30% share. In 2024, Shopify merchants processed $292.3 billion in gross merchandise volume, a 24% increase over 2023. The company crossed $1 trillion in cumulative GMV that same year.

For context, Shopify serves more merchants than WooCommerce, Wix, and BigCommerce combined in the US market. It's the default choice for DTC brands, and its dominance shapes how agencies, app developers, and service providers think about ecommerce.

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Shopify Stores by Country

The US accounts for the largest share of Shopify stores by far. But the platform has meaningful adoption in at least 20+ countries.

The five English-speaking markets (US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) account for over 54% of all stores with known country data. This tracks with Shopify's Canadian origin and English-first product. If you're planning outreach campaigns, expect the best contact coverage and response rates in these five markets.

Australia stands out with the highest Shopify Plus adoption rate (26%) among major markets. One in four Australian Shopify stores is on Plus, compared to one in six in the US. Australian stores also run more apps on average (2.4 vs 2.1 for US stores).

Japan is the opposite story. Japanese stores have the lowest average app count (1.4) and Plus adoption (7.9%) among the top 15 countries. This could reflect different market dynamics, a preference for native Shopify features, or lower penetration of English-language app ecosystem tools.

Germany, the largest European market outside the UK, shows below-average Plus adoption (10.7%) and app usage (1.6). European stores in general tend to be leaner on third-party apps than their Anglophone counterparts.

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Shopify Stores by Niche

Fashion is the single largest category on Shopify, accounting for nearly one in four stores.

Beauty stores invest the most in technology. They have the highest average app count (2.2) and the highest Plus adoption (20.4%) among major categories. This makes sense: beauty brands compete heavily on customer experience, email marketing, and loyalty programs. If you sell Shopify apps or services, beauty is the vertical where stores are most willing to spend on tools.

Home & Garden is the sleeper opportunity. It's the second-largest category (24,557 stores) but has below-average app adoption (1.6 avg) and lower Plus rates (12.3%). These stores have the traffic and revenue to justify more tooling, and many of them run minimal tech stacks.

The "Other" category (stores that don't fit neatly into a vertical) is notable for its extremely low app adoption (0.9 avg) and Plus rate (5.3%). These tend to be newer, smaller, or more niche stores that haven't invested in their marketing stack yet.

For more detail on the best Shopify niches, see our 23,619-store study.

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Store Size: Most Shopify Stores Are Small

This is perhaps the most important finding. The vast majority of Shopify stores are very small.

84% of Shopify stores get under 50,000 monthly visitors. These stores run an average of 1.4 apps, mostly use free themes, and fewer than 5% are on Shopify Plus.

The jump from sub-50K to 50K-200K is dramatic. Stores in the 50K-200K tier are 10x more likely to be on Shopify Plus (55% vs 5%), run 2x more apps (3.0 vs 1.4), and have twice the tracking pixels installed (7.8 vs 3.7).

Only 1,378 stores (0.75%) in our dataset get more than 200K monthly visitors. These are the stores that dominate industry conversations, but they represent less than 1% of the ecosystem.

For agencies and service providers: The 50K-200K tier (28,328 stores) is the sweet spot for prospecting. These stores have proven traction, real budgets, and enough sophistication to value professional help. They're also the tier where contact availability is highest (79.6%), making outreach practical. You can find these stores filtered by traffic tier in the StoreInspect dashboard.

For more on how to check Shopify store traffic, see our dedicated guide.

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Theme Distribution: Free Themes Still Dominate

Four in ten Shopify stores run a free theme. The top 10 themes by popularity:

Dawn is the clear winner, used by nearly 12% of all stores. As Shopify's default theme since Online Store 2.0 (launched in 2021), its dominance was expected.

But notice the second-place theme: Debut. This is a legacy theme that Shopify deprecated years ago. 9.9% of all stores still run Debut. Add Minimal (2.4%), Brooklyn (2.1%), Venture (1.7%), and Supply (1.6%) and you have 17.7% of all Shopify stores running deprecated themes.

This is a significant opportunity for Shopify agencies. Nearly one in five stores is running a theme that no longer receives updates, security patches, or performance improvements. A theme migration pitch backed by this data is far more compelling than a generic "redesign your store" offer.

For deeper analysis, see our most popular Shopify themes report.

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App Adoption: Most Stores Run Very Few Apps

Industry sources claim the average Shopify store installs 6 apps. Our data tells a different story.

The average store in our dataset runs 1.7 detected apps. Over half of all stores (55%) use zero or one app.

The "6 apps average" statistic that gets recycled in every article likely counts all apps ever installed, including free apps, trial installs, and backend tools we can't detect through frontend scanning. Our number measures apps that are actively loaded on the storefront, which is a more accurate picture of what stores actually use day-to-day.

21.2% of stores have zero detected marketing apps. That's 38,931 stores with no email marketing, no reviews, no upsell tools, no analytics, and no loyalty programs. For agencies and app developers, this is the largest addressable market: stores that haven't started building their tech stack at all.

The data becomes more interesting when you break it down by traffic tier. Stores getting 50K-200K visitors average 3.0 apps. Stores above 200K average 4.7+ apps. The correlation between store size and app adoption is strong and consistent.

For the full breakdown of what apps stores actually use, see our Shopify tech stack study.

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Shopify Plus: Who Actually Uses Enterprise Shopify?

Our dataset contains 24,248 Shopify Plus stores, representing 13.2% of all stores we track.

Third-party estimates of total Shopify Plus stores range from 30,000 to 53,000 globally. Our 24,248 figure represents a large portion of the active Plus ecosystem.

Plus Adoption by Country

Australia and New Zealand have the highest Plus adoption rates among major markets. In Australia, one in four stores is on Shopify Plus. This suggests that the APAC DTC market tends toward larger, more established players who are willing to invest in enterprise features.

Plus Adoption by Niche

Beauty (20.4%) and Health & Wellness (18.1%) have the highest Plus adoption rates by category. Both verticals tend toward higher average order values and subscription models that benefit from Plus features like advanced checkout customization and higher API limits.

For the complete guide to identifying and detecting Shopify Plus stores, see our 44,369-store study.

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Product Catalog Size

How many products does a typical Shopify store carry?

The median Shopify store carries between 51 and 200 products. About a third of stores (31.3%) have 50 products or fewer, while only 3.2% have massive catalogs of 5,000+ items.

Stores with very small catalogs (1-10 products) often fall into two buckets: new stores that haven't fully launched, or focused DTC brands that sell a curated lineup. Think single-product supplement brands or limited-run fashion labels.

The 1,000-5,000 range (10% of stores) typically indicates established retailers with diverse product lines, wholesale operations, or stores that import large catalogs via dropshipping or marketplace integrations.

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Price Point Distribution

Nearly half of all stores (44.2%) have average product prices under $50. This is the mass market: fashion basics, accessories, beauty products, pet supplies, and food items.

The $500+ segment (11.5% of stores) is larger than you might expect. This includes jewelry stores, high-end fashion, furniture, and B2B equipment. These stores tend to have smaller catalogs but higher revenue per transaction, and they're strong candidates for premium service pitches.

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Tracking Pixel Adoption

92% of Shopify stores have at least one tracking pixel installed. The breakdown:

Over a third of stores run 6 or more tracking pixels. This is significantly higher than app adoption, likely because pixels are easier to install (a single code snippet) and many are prerequisites for running paid ads.

Google Analytics and the Meta Pixel are near-universal among established stores. TikTok Pixel adoption grows rapidly with store size, going from under 20% for small stores to over 50% for high-traffic stores.

For the complete pixel adoption analysis across all traffic tiers, see our pixel detection study.

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Lead Fit Score Distribution

We assign every store a lead fit score from 0-100 based on their tech stack maturity, traffic, and contact availability. Here's how the ecosystem breaks down:

62.3% of stores score 60 or above, indicating they have meaningful traffic, some marketing tools installed, and are likely to have budget for services or new tools. These 114,245 stores represent the addressable market for B2B sellers targeting Shopify merchants.

Stores in the 20-39 range (20.7%) are the "getting started" tier: they have a live store and some basic setup, but they haven't invested in marketing infrastructure yet. This tier is where qualification becomes critical, as many of these stores may not have budget for paid services.

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Revenue Distribution

Based on our multi-signal revenue estimation model, here's how Shopify stores distribute by estimated monthly revenue:

The majority of stores in our dataset (56.6%) fall in the $50K-$500K estimated monthly revenue range. Our dataset skews toward established stores with public web presences, so this distribution is not representative of all Shopify stores. The millions of stores outside our dataset include many that generate little to no revenue.

Only 2.3% of stores in our dataset are estimated to generate over $1M per month. These are household-name DTC brands, established retailers, and high-volume operations running sophisticated tech stacks.

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When Were These Stores Founded?

We have founding year data for 83,693 stores. The distribution tells the story of Shopify's growth:

2020 was the biggest single year for new store creation, with 9,081 stores in our dataset founded that year. The pandemic-driven ecommerce boom is clearly visible: 2020 saw 41% more new stores than 2019.

The post-2020 slowdown is also evident. Store creation dropped from 9,081 in 2020 to 5,634 in 2021 and continued declining through 2023. This tracks with broader industry data showing that the pandemic pulled forward ecommerce adoption by several years, followed by a normalization period.

37% of stores in our dataset were founded between 2015 and 2019. This cohort represents the core of Shopify's merchant base: brands that are 7-11 years old, have survived the early startup phase, and are now in growth or maturity mode.

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Stores Missing Key Tools: The Opportunity Map

For agencies, app developers, and B2B service providers, the most actionable data is what stores are NOT doing.

• 38,931 stores (21.2%) have zero detected marketing apps. No email, no reviews, no upsell, no support tools, nothing.
• 14,433 stores (7.9%) have zero tracking pixels. They're running a store with no analytics, no ad tracking, and no way to measure marketing ROI.
• 17.7% of stores run deprecated themes that no longer receive updates from Shopify.
• 84% of stores get under 50K visitors per month, indicating room for growth through SEO, paid ads, or marketplace expansion.

The "stores with zero apps" segment alone is almost 39,000 businesses that haven't started building their marketing stack. For cold outreach, the pitch is simple: "We noticed your store has no email marketing or review collection set up. Here's what stores your size typically use and why."

You can filter stores by app gaps, traffic tier, and category in the StoreInspect dashboard to build targeted prospect lists.

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How This Compares to Official Numbers

Shopify's official figure of 5.5 million active merchants includes all paying accounts. Our 183,417 stores represent roughly 3-7% of the live store universe, depending on which baseline you use.

The stores in our database tend to be:

• More established than average (46% have year-founded data going back to pre-2020)
• More likely to be on Shopify Plus (13.2% vs. the 1-2% industry-wide estimates)
• More likely to have marketing tools installed (79% have at least one app)
• Publicly accessible (password-protected and development stores are excluded)

This means our data over-represents mid-market and enterprise Shopify stores relative to the full population. The "typical" Shopify store is likely even smaller, newer, and less tooled-up than what our data shows.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How many Shopify stores are there in 2026?

Shopify reports 5.5+ million active merchants as of 2025. Third-party detection tools like BuiltWith count approximately 6.9 million websites with Shopify code, while Store Leads identifies about 2.8 million currently live stores. The discrepancy comes from counting methodology: many Shopify accounts are dormant, in development, or no longer active. The realistic number of live, publicly accessible stores is between 2.5 and 3.5 million.

How many Shopify Plus stores are there?

Third-party estimates range from 30,000 to 53,000 globally. Our dataset contains 24,248 Shopify Plus stores, representing 13.2% of the 183,417 stores we track. Plus adoption varies significantly by country (26% in Australia, 8% in Japan) and by niche (20% in Beauty, 5% in the "Other" category).

What percentage of Shopify stores are in the US?

Based on our data, the United States accounts for 38.1% of Shopify stores with known country data, totaling 69,827 stores. The UK is second at 7.1%, followed by Canada and Australia at 4.0% each.

What is the most popular Shopify niche?

Fashion is the largest category by store count, representing 24.3% of all Shopify stores (44,629 in our dataset). Home & Garden is second at 13.4%, followed by Food & Beverage at 9.3% and Beauty at 7.5%.

What is the average number of apps on a Shopify store?

In our dataset of 183,417 stores, the average store has 1.7 detected frontend apps. This is lower than the commonly cited "6 apps" figure because we only count apps that are actively loaded on the storefront. 21.2% of stores have zero detected apps, while only 2.2% have 6 or more.

How many Shopify stores actually make money?

Based on our revenue estimation model, the majority of stores in our dataset (which skews toward established businesses) fall in the $100K-$500K estimated monthly revenue range. Only 2.3% exceed $1M per month. For the broader Shopify population (including the millions of stores outside our dataset), many generate little to no revenue. Shopify itself has noted that the median store is quite small.

What is the most popular Shopify theme?

Dawn is the most popular theme, used by 11.7% of all stores (21,490 in our dataset). Debut, a deprecated free theme, is still second at 9.9%. Free themes overall account for 40.7% of all stores, paid themes for 34.0%, and custom themes for 25.4%.

How many Shopify stores use Klaviyo?

Klaviyo is the most widely adopted email marketing app on Shopify. In our tech stack study of 120,017 stores, Klaviyo had 25.8% adoption. But 59% of stores have no email marketing app at all, which represents a massive opportunity for the platform.

What percentage of Shopify stores have tracking pixels?

92.1% of stores in our dataset have at least one tracking pixel installed. 35.3% run 6 or more pixels. Google Analytics and the Meta Pixel are the most common, with TikTok Pixel growing rapidly among mid-to-large stores.

How fast is Shopify growing?

Shopify's revenue grew 26% year-over-year in 2024, reaching $8.88 billion. GMV increased 24% to $292.3 billion. The platform added significant merchant volume during the pandemic (2020 was the peak year for new store creation in our data), with growth normalizing but remaining strong post-2022.

Is Shopify bigger than WooCommerce?

In the US market, Shopify holds roughly 30% market share compared to WooCommerce's declining share. Globally, WooCommerce still powers more websites by raw count (due to WordPress's ubiquity), but Shopify dominates in active, revenue-generating DTC stores. The platforms serve different segments: Shopify is the default for funded DTC brands, while WooCommerce appeals to WordPress users who need basic ecommerce.

How do I find Shopify stores in a specific niche?

You can browse Shopify stores by category in the StoreInspect directory, which lets you filter by niche, traffic tier, tech stack, and more. For a hands-on guide, see our post on how to find Shopify stores.

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Summary: The Shopify Ecosystem at a Glance

The headline number everyone wants is "5.5 million active Shopify stores." But the more useful number, for anyone building on or selling to the Shopify ecosystem, is what those stores look like from the inside.

Most Shopify stores are small (under 50K visitors), run free themes, have one or two apps, and haven't fully built out their marketing stack. The opportunity for agencies, consultants, and app developers isn't competing for the attention of the top 1%. It's helping the other 99% close the gap.

You can explore the full dataset, filter by any of the dimensions in this study, and export prospect lists in the StoreInspect dashboard.