Shopify Reports 7x AI Traffic Growth, 11x Increase in AI-Driven Orders

TL;DR: Shopify announced dramatic increases in AI-driven commerce during its Q3 earnings call: traffic from AI tools increased sevenfold since January whilst AI-powered purchases grew elevenfold. The company is positioning itself at the centre of “agentic commerce” through partnerships with OpenAI, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot.

During its Q3 earnings call, Shopify revealed striking evidence of AI’s growing role in e-commerce. Traffic originating from artificial intelligence tools to Shopify stores has increased sevenfold since January, whilst purchases attributed to AI-powered search functionality have grown elevenfold over the same period.

AI as Central Strategy, Not Feature

President Harley Finkelstein emphasised the strategic importance of AI to Shopify’s platform: “AI is not just a feature at Shopify. It is central to our engine that powers everything we build.”

This positioning reflects more than marketing rhetoric. The company has established partnerships with leading AI companies to integrate shopping capabilities into conversational AI experiences:

  • OpenAI (announced in September): Shopping integration with ChatGPT
  • Perplexity: Commerce capabilities within AI search
  • Microsoft Copilot: Shopping functionality in Microsoft’s AI assistant

These partnerships position Shopify merchants to benefit from purchases made through AI-powered interfaces, regardless of which platform consumers ultimately prefer.

Internal AI Development: Scout

Beyond external partnerships, Shopify is developing internal AI tools. Scout analyses merchant feedback to inform product decisions, using AI to identify patterns and priorities across the platform’s merchant base.

This suggests Shopify is applying AI not just to customer-facing commerce but to internal product development—using merchant data to drive more responsive platform evolution.

Consumer Adoption Signals

A Shopify survey found that 64% of shoppers indicated they would likely use AI when making purchases. This consumer openness suggests the dramatic traffic and order increases may represent early stages of a broader shift in shopping behaviour rather than a temporary spike.

The company frames this as establishing infrastructure for “agentic commerce”—positioning merchants for success regardless of how this technology category ultimately evolves. By integrating with multiple AI platforms, Shopify aims to ensure merchants maintain visibility across emerging shopping channels.

Financial Performance

Q3 revenue reached $2.84 billion, up 32% year-over-year and exceeding analyst expectations. Net profit totalled $264 million ($0.20 per share).

However, operating income of $434 million slightly underperformed analyst forecasts of $437 million, suggesting the investments in AI partnerships and internal development carry meaningful costs.

Looking Forward

The sevenfold traffic increase and elevenfold order growth represent substantial validation of AI’s role in commerce. However, several questions remain:

  • Can this growth rate be sustained as AI shopping matures?
  • How will margin economics evolve as AI platforms potentially demand revenue share?
  • What proportion of “AI-driven” orders represent genuinely new behaviour versus repackaged existing search traffic?

For e-commerce businesses, Shopify’s data suggests early movers in AI shopping integration may capture meaningful traffic advantages. The 11x order growth particularly indicates that AI-driven traffic converts effectively—a crucial metric for validating this channel’s commercial viability.

The broader implication: agentic commerce appears to be transitioning from theoretical concept to measurable revenue driver, with Shopify positioning itself as the infrastructure layer enabling this shift.

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