Shopify says AI traffic has increased 7x since January, and AI-driven orders are up 11x

E-commerce software provider Shopify He is bullish on AI-driven shopping agents, citing AI as an “amazing tool” to empower more entrepreneurs and calling it “the biggest shift in technology since the Internet” during a third-quarter earnings call. The company that Partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI In September, it reported that traffic from AI tools to its online stores had increased seven-fold since January of this year, and purchases attributed to AI-powered search had increased 11-fold.

According to Shopify CEO Harley Finkelstein, the company’s advantage in the age of AI comes from its ability to access data from millions of merchants and billions of transactions, and its “founder mode” mentality to ship products quickly.

This also includes its internal tools, like Scout, which uses artificial intelligence to help Shopify employees sift through hundreds of millions of merchant reviews to make better product decisions.

“Scout is just one of many tools we’re developing to transform our own signals, whether it’s support tickets, usage data, reviews, social interactions, or even The friend “It demands that we make quick and informed decisions,” Finkelstein said on the call. “If you take away one thing from this call, let it be this: AI isn’t just a feature of Shopify. It’s fundamental to our engine that powers everything we build.

In addition to ChatGPT, Shopify is working with Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot on other in-chat shopping experiences. A recent Shopify survey found that 64% of shoppers said they were “likely” to use AI to some extent when making purchases.

“We’ve built and invested in this infrastructure to make it easier to bring shopping into every AI conversation,” Finkelstein said. “I think the fact that we’re already working with leaders in this space should be a testament to the fact that we want to make sure that Shopify merchants are better prepared than those who aren’t. And it’s clearly still very, very early,” he continued. “But what we’re really trying to do is outline the agent trade.”

While the company is currently focused on building connections with AI agents, it is also prepared for the fact that there will be “different permutations” of how agent commerce evolves, Finkelstein also noted, meaning it needs to be ready for “which path wins.”

“This was the same thing as when social commerce started getting a lot of attention, or when people (realized it wasn’t) e-commerce versus physical commerce but… the idea of ​​commerce everywhere,” he added.

Separately, Shopify’s third-quarter financial results showed revenue rising 32% to $2.84 billion, ahead of estimates, and earnings of $264 million, or 20 cents per share. However, the stock fell on news that the company’s operating income reached $434 million Missing Estimates: $437 million.