Skincare brands Josie Maran and Cannuka are among the first merchants to sell products containing hemp or CBD—the non-intoxicating compound in cannabis—on the e-commerce giant’s platform. Meanwhile, Shopify announced plans to raise US$603 million in a secondary offering scheduled for Thursday, which Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley are underwriting. The stock was down more than two per cent on the New York Stock Exchange in late Tuesday trading, following the news of the sale. (The Logic)

Talking point: Shopify is positioning itself to take advantage of an increase in CBD use in the U.S. after the Trump administration legalized hemp in December 2018. Investment bank Cowen predicts the U.S. market for CBD will reach US$16 billion by 2025, and said more than a quarter of the substance’s current users consume it topically via creams and lotions. Ottawa-based Shopify has previous experience with cannabis retail. The provincial governments of Ontario, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador use its platform to sell pot to consumers, as do the country’s largest producers, Aurora Cannabis and Canopy Growth. The latter is making a big push into CBD. In February, it announced a partnership with Martha Stewart, and in May it acquired London-based This Works, which sells skincare and sleep products. Meanwhile, the share offering is Shopify’s third in the last 20 months, after the company raised a combined US$1.09 billion in a pair of sales in February and December 2018.