What happened

Shares of Global-e Online (GLBE 2.44%) were down 9.8% as of 1 p.m. ET Tuesday, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, as the cross-border e-commerce enablement specialist announced strong second-quarter results but didn't raise its forward outlook quite enough to appease Wall Street's high expectations.

Global-e's quarterly revenue climbed 53% year over year to $133.3 million, translating to a net loss of $35.5 million, or $0.22 per share. Analysts, on average, were modeling a wider loss of $0.25 per share on lower revenue of $128.9 million.

So what

"The results of the second quarter of 2023, together with the updated guidance for the remainder of the year, illustrate the continued strong momentum of our business, as evident from both top-line growth, improved profitability and new client launches," stated Global-e founder and CEO Amir Schlachet. "We remain focused on executing across all fronts, as we continue to tap into the massive global opportunity presented by the direct-to-consumer cross-border e-commerce market."

Indeed, Global-e's gross merchandise volume climbed 54% year over year this quarter, to $825 million, both as the company onboarded new merchants and expanded within existing merchant groups.

Global-e also confirmed that its strategic partnership with Shopify "remains on track" as it works to migrate all legacy Shopify-based enterprise merchants onto its new native app. Global-e says it's also working to expand its current early access rollout of Shopify Markets Pro in both the U.S. and U.K. later this year.

Now what

For the current third quarter of 2023, Global-e expects revenue of $136 million to $142 million -- technically below Wall Street's estimates for Q3 revenue just above the upper end of that range. For the full year 2023, the company also raised its outlook to call for revenue of $570 million to $596 million, up from its previous range of $562 million to $590 million. Analysts, on average, were already modeling 2023 revenue of around $584 million -- slightly above the midpoint of Global-e's new guidance range.

The company's second quarter was undeniably strong, and its thesis appears to remain intact. But the bar set by Wall Street was a bit too high this time. With shares still up more than 80% year to date -- even after today's decline -- short-term-oriented traders are using it as an excuse to take some profits off the table.