The AI adoption in E-commerce is happening faster than the industry expected. Shopify reported that their traffic from AI tools to merchant stores has increased 7x since January, while purchases attributed to AI-powered search have risen 11x. This shows Shopify’s shift towards agentic commerce, where autonomous AI agents handle shopping tasks on behalf of consumers.
Traffic from AI tools climbing 7 times in just 10 months shows the rapid pace at which user adoption is taking place. The elevenfold increase in AI-driven purchases shows an even more compelling trend where consumers are not merely exploring AI shopping experiences but converting at higher rates, suggesting genuine trust and satisfaction with AI-assisted commerce.
“We’ve been building and investing in this infrastructure to make it really easy to bring shopping into every single AI conversation,” said Shopify President Harley Finkelstein.
These numbers blow past anything you’d normally see in e-commerce, making one thing very clear. AI isn’t a side experiment anymore, it’s become the real money-maker for Shopify’s merchants.
The company services millions of merchants operating billions of transactions annually, making these statistics relevant not to a niche segment but to mainstream online retail at scale.
Finkelstein stated that AI represents the biggest technological shift since the internet, a bold claim supported by the company’s financial performance and competitive positioning.
Shopify’s competitive advantage arises from two critical assets. Access to transactional data from millions of merchants and billions of transactions, and an organizational culture prioritizing rapid product deployment and iteration.
This data moat becomes increasingly valuable as AI models require massive datasets to train and improve. Shopify’s position as a central hub in global e-commerce provides unmatched visibility into real-time consumer purchasing behavior, merchant operations, and market trends. Few technology companies possess comparable scale or data granularity.
Beyond external partnerships, Shopify has deployed AI internally through tools like Scout, which analyzes hundreds of millions of pieces of merchant feedback to inform product decisions. Finkelstein stated that Scout represents just one tool in a broader suite designed to convert signals into actionable intelligence.
Building the Infrastructure
Shopify’s partnerships with leading AI companies reveal a deliberate strategy to embed shopping capabilities across multiple AI platforms. Beyond its September partnership with OpenAI and ChatGPT, Shopify is collaborating with Perplexity AI and Microsoft Copilot to enable shopping directly within conversational AI interfaces. This multi-partnership approach ensures Shopify merchants reach consumers wherever AI conversations occur.
The term agentic commerce describes shopping agents that operate autonomously on behalf of consumers. For example, an AI agent that finds, compares, and purchases eco-friendly products matching specific preferences without explicit consumer direction for each step. This represents the departure from traditional search-driven commerce.
Finkelstein stated that Shopify is building infrastructure to “bring shopping into every single AI conversation,” positioning the platform as the backbone of this emerging commerce paradigm. A recent Shopify survey found that 64% of shoppers indicated likelihood of using AI when making purchases, indicating mainstream consumer acceptance.
Finkelstein also acknowledged uncertainty regarding which specific paths agentic commerce will take. The company is intentionally building flexibility to prepare for multiple potential futures, mirroring past transitions such as social commerce and omnichannel retail.
By laying groundwork early and remaining agnostic about specific implementations, Shopify positions itself to capitalize regardless of which agentic commerce approaches ultimately dominate.
Shopify’s Q3 results showed revenue climbing 32% year-over-year to $2.84 billion, beating analyst estimates, while gross merchandise volume increased 32% to $92 billion. Profit reached $264 million, or 20 cents per share. These figures reflect underlying merchant ecosystem health and growing reliance on Shopify’s platform.
However, the stock experienced a slight decline following news that operating income of $434 million fell short of estimates by $3 million. The miss highlights that despite strong top-line growth, profitability expansion is slowing.
Competitive Advantage
While Shopify leads with its 7x AI traffic growth, the broader e-commerce industry is quickly catching up. Competitors like eBay, Amazon, and Walmart have each announced major AI shopping initiatives even though Shopify appears to hold a timing advantage.
eBay announced an AI shopping agent pilot earlier in 2025, with CEO Jamie Iannone acknowledging they are “testing a variety of agentic experiences in search and shopping.” eBay has also invested in developing proprietary large language models optimized for shopping tasks, demonstrating commitment to this space.
Amazon, through partnerships with third-party developers and its own AI initiatives, offers personalized recommendations at scale. However, Amazon’s AI strategy remains largely internal to its marketplace and has not publicly disclosed comparative metrics for AI-driven traffic growth. Walmart partnered with OpenAI in October 2025 to enable shopping through ChatGPT, representing a significant external-facing move but one that operates within ChatGPT rather than Walmart’s own platform.
Shopify’s advantage comes from its positioning as the backbone platform for independent merchants. Unlike Amazon or Walmart, which operate as closed marketplaces, Shopify provides the infrastructure that millions of small and mid-sized businesses rely upon
Shopify’s AI growth metrics align with a broader technology industry trend showing AI adoption accelerating faster than anticipated. The elevenfold increase in AI-driven purchases signals that AI shopping agents are not a future possibility but present reality reshaping commerce behavior today.
For merchants using Shopify, these trends carry significant implications. As AI-driven shopping becomes increasingly common, merchants optimizing for AI agent discovery and interaction may gain competitive advantages over those maintaining traditional e-commerce approaches. Shopify’s merchant solutions growth of 38% in Q3 suggests that merchants are investing in AI capabilities and relying on Shopify’s platform to facilitate this transition.
“We’re not just growing, we’re delivering consistent growth and profitability, quarter after quarter,” said Jeff Hoffmeister, Shopify CFO.
