Part of successful investing is picking stocks with long-term potential, but since that's focused on the future, it's always a bit unknown. The winners of today may not be the stocks to own tomorrow.
A stock's valuation can often seem out of sync with recent performance, but that's because investors are pricing in future potential. A stock will frequently fall if the outlook is poor. Or its valuation may seem absurdly high, but that's because of the company's incredible growth potential. There's some science to it, but it's not always entirely rational.
Three stocks that merit optimism now are Shopify (SHOP 1.11%), Global-e Online (GLBE 2.44%), and Airbnb (ABNB 0.75%). All look like they have the potential to be incredible growth stocks in 2030.
1. Shopify: Making E-commerce easier
Shopify captured a growing niche early on in the e-commerce story. It has grown to become the premier turnkey web site builder for small businesses, but it's also so much more.
There are two ways Shopify has expanded its business outside of its core base. It started targeting larger-size clients and offer more products that it can upsell to current clients or to new ones. Shopify's products and services make it simple for businesses to plug in and press go, or for existing businesses to integrate into their operations. This has led to wild success over the past decade-plus that it's been in operation.
Now, Shopify's mission is to become the "unified commerce operating system" for its clients. In the early days of the internet, getting into e-commerce involved finding a web developer and designer, signing up for payment processing, paying for a server, and other details that were time-consuming and complicated. Shopify rolls everything into one, with different packages for different-sized businesses.
It recently launched Shopify components, which allow users to pick and choose Shopify products to add to existing web sites. This amplifies its voice and opens it up to a new market. It's also gaining traction with a wide array of other services, including point-of-sale products and Shopify-branded omnichannel checkout services.
Finally, it has developed a streamlined sales process to create customized packages of all of the above for clients that need something outside of the prepackaged box.
E-commerce took a step back after a gargantuan step forward early in the pandemic, and that affected Shopify negatively. But it's regrouping, and it's well-positioned to harness e-commerce growth trends far into the future.
2. Global-e: A no-brainer for e-commerce sites
Global-e helps e-commerce retailers sell internationally. It's a deceptively simple model, but it offers so much to clients, and it's demonstrating incredible growth rates that justify its premium price tag of 13 times trailing 12-month sales.
It's partnering with Shopify, which was an early investor in the company, but it has charted its own path toward success. Shopify benefits from offering it as a service for its merchant clients. They can simply integrate Global-e as a plug-in to their websites and offer cross-border services such as sales in many currencies and instant customs calculations. Global-e benefits from the high exposure the deal with Shopify gives it to its millions of merchant clients.
But Global-e counts many huge, international companies as clients, from names like Adidas and Marc Jacobs and new clients like Rebecca Minkoff and Kylie Jenner to clients like Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue from its acquisition of Borderfree last year.
Because there's no reason for an e-commerce retailer not to offer these services to customers if they're as easy to implement as Global-e makes them, there's every reason to offer them, specifically in the potential to boost revenue from new markets. In the case of Native shoes, for example, international revenue jumped 92% one year after integrating Global-e's platform.
Global-e's revenue increased 53% year over year in the second quarter, beating expectations, and net income improved from $48.8 million to $35.5 million. This is how it's performing as retail is pressured, and it could seriously explode as the economy improves, becoming a premier growth stock by 2030.
3. Airbnb: Getting bigger and better
Airbnb is already a growth company that provides a better alternative to traditional travel for many people. But it could soon eclipse the hotel market and grab market share in all sorts of other parallel industries.
The story is so compelling because there are so many ways Airbnb could go -- and they could all add tremendous value to the company. Right now, it continues to display robust growth in its core activities as a vacation rental platform. There's an upward cycle as it attracts more hosts and more residences, which in turn offers more options for rental seekers, and that dance continues.
One area where it's been sustaining momentum is long-term stays. There's a lot to unpack in that sector, since real estate is an entirely different industry that's been the basis for extreme wealth for a long time. The company hasn't made any announcements yet as to how it's going to play this opportunity, but it could be huge.
In the meantime, it has already become consistently profitable and is a viable long-term operation. It's not bogged down by large and expensive buildings, which need upkeep and capital layouts to achieve growth. Rather, it operates a platform model that can expand quickly and meet demand as it changes.
Growth is decelerating in the inflationary environment, but there are many growth drivers that should keep Airbnb moving in the right direction for years.
