AI is already driving eCommerce growth: key lessons from Shopify

Artificial intelligence is rapidly moving from an experimental technology to an increasingly important part of eCommerce. Shopify's latest results provide a clear example of this shift: the company continues to grow at a strong pace and identifies AI as one of the factors expanding what its merchants are able to achieve.

During the second quarter, Shopify surpassed 115 billion dollars in gross merchandise volume, or GMV, representing year-on-year growth of 32%. At the same time, revenue increased by 34% to 3.583 billion dollars. Beyond the scale of these figures, what matters for online retailers is understanding which factors are contributing to this growth and what brands can learn from them.

Artificial intelligence enters a new phase of eCommerce

Over the past few years, much of the discussion around artificial intelligence in eCommerce has focused on generating text, images and product descriptions, supporting customer service or automating repetitive tasks. Shopify's recent developments, however, point towards a much deeper transformation.

AI is beginning to influence directly how consumers discover products, compare alternatives and reach online stores. This means that it can no longer be seen exclusively as an internal productivity tool. It is also starting to emerge as a potential customer acquisition channel.

Shopify has, for example, introduced tools that allow merchants to identify purchases originating from assistants such as ChatGPT, Copilot and Google AI Mode. This capability is particularly important because it helps retailers understand a type of traffic that, until recently, was difficult to distinguish using traditional analytics platforms.

This takes eCommerce into the territory of agentic commerce, a model in which AI-based assistants and agents can actively participate in product research, selection, comparison and potentially even the purchasing process itself.

Sidekick and AI in day-to-day store management

Another indication of this transformation is the growth of Sidekick, Shopify's integrated artificial intelligence assistant. According to the figures shared by the company, the number of daily active users of Sidekick has increased by 3.6 times over the past year.

Sidekick allows merchants to interact with different areas of their store using natural language. Retailers can use this type of tool to analyse information, receive recommendations, prepare content, identify SEO opportunities or automate processes that previously required more time or specialist technical knowledge.

The most relevant point is not simply the increase in users, but the behavioural change it represents. Traditional interfaces based on menus, reports and configuration panels are starting to coexist with a new way of managing technology: describing an objective to an assistant and using AI to accelerate its execution.

For businesses, this can reduce the barrier to accessing a range of digital capabilities. It does not, however, remove the need for strategy. In fact, the easier it becomes to generate content, analysis and automations, the more important it is to establish clear objectives, maintain high-quality data and measure the real impact of each initiative.

AI is starting to generate traffic and orders

One of the most significant figures reported by Shopify is directly related to customer acquisition. According to the company, traffic sent to merchants' stores from AI-powered searches has tripled over the past year. Orders originating from these environments have also tripled.

Although this channel still needs to be considered alongside search engines, social media, digital advertising, marketplaces, email marketing and direct traffic, its rate of growth is difficult to ignore. For an online store, the question is no longer simply how to appear on Google. Businesses also need to consider how to ensure that an AI assistant can understand, select and recommend their products correctly.

This shift may have important implications for SEO and organic search strategies. Digital visibility will continue to depend on high-quality content, brand authority and strong technical foundations, but it will become increasingly important to structure information in a way that can be correctly interpreted by new search and recommendation systems.

Product data is becoming a competitive advantage

Shopify's strategy around its product catalogue helps illustrate another major challenge associated with AI-assisted commerce. Shopify Catalog already structures information relating to more than one billion products, including prices, variants, availability and delivery information.

The importance of this infrastructure lies in the fact that an artificial intelligence agent needs clear, consistent and up-to-date data in order to make useful decisions. When it has access to structured information, it can understand more accurately which product is available, which variant best matches a particular requirement, how much it costs and how quickly it can be delivered.

According to Shopify, AI-powered searches convert at twice the rate when assistants have access to structured information rather than having to interpret product data through website scraping.

This reinforces an important principle for any eCommerce project: catalogue quality no longer affects only the customer's experience within the online store. It may also determine how effectively search engines, external platforms and intelligent agents can understand and recommend products.

Incomplete fields, poorly configured variants, inconsistent prices, outdated stock information or a weak technical architecture can gradually become barriers to both visibility and conversion.

A particularly interesting opportunity for niche products

Another notable figure is that 75% of orders attributed by Shopify to artificial intelligence come from categories outside the platform's 100 most popular categories.

If this trend continues, AI assistants could become an especially important discovery mechanism for niche products and specialist brands. In traditional search, results are often influenced by domain authority, popularity, advertising investment and previously established rankings. An assistant may introduce different criteria and attempt to identify a solution that is particularly well matched to the user's stated requirements.

This could create new opportunities for specialist brands with competitive products that have traditionally struggled to gain visibility against larger operators.

Taking advantage of these opportunities will require more than effective brand communication. Businesses will also need the right technological architecture. A scalable Shopify Plus eCommerce platform can make it easier to integrate catalogues, management systems, data sources, external applications and new customer interaction channels.

Shopify Payments strengthens the integrated platform model

Artificial intelligence is not the only significant factor in Shopify's performance. Shopify Payments also continues to increase its importance within the company's ecosystem. During the quarter, the service processed approximately 78 billion dollars, equivalent to 68% of the platform's total GMV.

This means that more than two thirds of the commercial volume handled by Shopify now passes through its own payments infrastructure. The trend demonstrates how the business is evolving from a platform primarily focused on creating online stores into a broader technology ecosystem covering an increasing proportion of eCommerce operations.

Catalogue management, payments, analytics, automation, artificial intelligence and sales channels are therefore becoming part of an increasingly integrated infrastructure. For merchants, this integration can reduce operational complexity, but it also makes it important to assess factors such as cost, flexibility, technological dependency, integration possibilities and future business requirements.

What should online stores do now?

The arrival of a new acquisition channel does not mean abandoning existing ones. SEO, search advertising, social media, marketplaces, email marketing and customer retention strategies will continue to play a central role. What is changing is the competitive and technological environment in which these channels operate.

Online retailers should begin by reviewing how their products are structured, which information can be interpreted by automated systems, how prices and stock levels are updated and whether their technical infrastructure is ready to communicate with new channels.

Analytics will also need to evolve. If ChatGPT, Copilot, Google AI Mode and other assistants begin generating an increasing number of visits and conversions, businesses will need to identify these interactions, understand the customer journey, attribute sales correctly and determine which products and content perform best in these new environments.

Rather than implementing isolated tools, companies will benefit from a coordinated approach. A digital transformation strategy that connects business objectives, technology, data, marketing and user experience can become increasingly important when trying to capture the real value of artificial intelligence in eCommerce.

eCommerce is preparing for both consumers and intelligent agents

Shopify's results suggest that artificial intelligence is already beginning to produce measurable effects within eCommerce. Traffic is arriving from AI assistants, orders are being attributed to these environments and major platforms are building infrastructure specifically designed to support this new way of searching for and purchasing products.

We are probably still at an early stage of this transformation. Consumer behaviour, attribution models and the capabilities of AI agents will continue to evolve. There is, however, already a practical conclusion for brands: preparing an online store for AI involves much more than installing an assistant or automating product descriptions.

It means ensuring structured data, a robust technical architecture, accurate product information, relevant content and systems capable of communicating with new channels and platforms.

The final customer of an online store will continue to be a person. The difference is that, increasingly, that person may rely on an artificial intelligence agent to research, compare and select products on their behalf. Brands that make this process easier will be better positioned to compete in the next phase of eCommerce.