Consumers may be minding their bank balances a little more carefully, but they kept buying from Shopify’s clients in the second quarter.

The Ottawa-headquartered commerce company reported adjusted profit of 26 cents per share on almost US$2.05 billion in revenue, above analysts’ consensus estimate of 20 cents and US$2.01 billion, respectively, as compiled by FactSet.

The top: Shopify makes the most money when its clients do, and gross merchandise volume—a measure of sales via its technology—was US$67.2 billion in the second quarter, up 22 per cent year over year.

The growth was fuelled in part by new merchants with chains of brick-and-mortar stores, and those selling to other businesses, firm president Harley Finkelstein said on a Wednesday earnings call. Against a “backdrop of mixed consumer spending,” shoppers bought more from stores in high-turnover segments like apparel and accessories and food and beverage, Shopify CFO Jeff Hoffmeister said. 

The tech firm brought in US$1.5 billion in revenue from its merchant solutions business, made up of fees its clients pay for services like payment processing, point-of-sale (PoS) systems and cash advances.

The bottom: Shopify spent US$804 million on operating expenses in the second quarter. That was up five per cent once one-time items are accounted for, Hoffmeister said. Some of the increased outgoings went to marketing, with affiliate partners delivering more merchants and Shopify spending a bit more to publicize its enterprise and PoS offerings.

Controlling expenses and improving margins “will give investors more confidence in the company’s ability and willingness to drive profitability,” wrote Jefferies analysts Samad Samana and Jeremy Sahler in a client note Wednesday.

The reaction: The company’s share price rose as much as 25 per cent in Wednesday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. That reversed some of the drop off of the last quarter, as Shopify suffered alongside much of the rest of the tech sector and public markets in general.

“Considering commentary from the megacap companies on slowing trends and data points from retailers on consumer weakness, we believe investors will view [Shopify’s] resilient growth as impressive,” Samana and Sahler said.

Shopify’s stock had been weak heading into earnings “on what we believe have been questions on the potential impact of a consumer spending slowdown and [operational expenses] trends,” Scotia Capital analysts Kevin Krishnaratne and David Weiss wrote in their own note.

What’s next: Shopify is projecting revenue will increase “at a low-to-mid-twenties percentage rate” in the third quarter.