Shopify president says small business will lead the pandemic recovery in cities

Small business is emerging as a key driver in the U.S. economic rebound, Shopify President Harley Finkelstein told CNBC Tuesday.

“What we are seeing is that entrepreneurship is now part of the global recovery story,” he said in a “Mad Money” interview with Jim Cramer. “Small business is going to lead the charge in bringing our cities and communities back to where we were pre-pandemic.”

Thousands of small businesses were forced to temporarily suspend their operations or permanently close down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Many are still struggling to recover, even as the broader U.S. economy continues to rebound and the stock market keeps setting record highs.

Finkelstein also announced earlier in the day Shopify, which hosts online stores and offers retail point-of-sale systems, is preparing to drop commissions on a portion of sales that developers make. It’s a part of the Canadian company’s plan to beef up its client base in part by eliminating the 20% cut it takes on the first $1 million clients collect through its marketplace.

“That means that if you built an app on Shopify, your first $1 million is all yours,” Finkelstein said. “That is really important because we believe in this idea of building a real ecosystem, and we want thousands — and tens of thousands — of developers building on Shopify.”