Shopify Gave Employees Bonuses Worth A Million Dollars; Firm Exceed Profit Expectations!

Canadian company Shopify announced Monday, that it will give its each of its employees $1,000 to spend on any of their company's merchants, according to Ottawa Citizen.

The bonus given by the online retail specialist will cost one million dollars upfront. The Ottawa-based company has a yearly tradition of thanking their employees for their efforts.

"Every year we do a gift for our employees. This year we wanted to bring two things together that we really care about, our merchants and our employees," said Konval Matin, culture lead at Shopify.

The company sells e-commerce technology used by 200,000 merchants. This includes mattress retailer Leesa, Tesla Motors, and GoldieBlox, which sells engineering toys for girls. Shopify also has approximately 1,000 nonprofits like Charity Water.

"We had a really incredible year," said Craig Miller, Shopify's marketing chief. "We wanted to give a big thank you to our employees, but also thank our merchants."

The company has exceeded profit and revenue expectations after going public in May. Partnerships with giant tech firms like Facebook, Amazon and Twitter were also made. The majority of Shopify's merchants are in the United States but employees are based in Canada, revealed CNN Money.

Miller added also, that the holiday gift is a reminder to retailers to ship to Canada.

Shopify started in 2004 and it is a company known to find creative ways to treat their employees during the holidays. Last year, employees were given $1,000 each but had to use the money to travel. The firm focused on personal growth in 2014, so the company encouraged staff to go on a five-day vacation.

The company has an unlimited vacation policy.

"We wouldn't give you the $1,000 until you booked the trip," said Miller. Employees explored the world and postcards started to come in from different places like India, Bangkok, China and Hawaii.

In 2013, a weekend getaway at a ski village in Quebec was hosted by the company; a nod to the company's roots as a startup that boosted an online snowboard store.

"Each year, we try to outdo ourselves. Which is actually the big challenge," added Miller.

Shopify has encouraged its merchants to Instagram or tweet Shopify employees. This is to sway their decisions on how they will spend their bonuses, reported Betakit.