Shopify sales jump 32% as shoppers let AI do the buying

Shopify, the company that powers many online stores, said its revenue rose 32% to $3.7 billion. It reported the results Tuesday, Nov. 3. Company leaders pointed to a clear trend: more shoppers are asking AI tools to find products, and some are letting AI help complete the purchase.

What changed

Shopify said traffic coming from AI tools grew 2.6 times compared with a year earlier. Searches that drew on store catalogs, meaning the product lists stores keep, led to a purchase at twice the rate of general AI questions. Gross merchandise volume, the total value of goods sold on the platform, rose 29.5% to $119 billion.

How an AI can pay

Shopify recently added its Shop Pay wallet to AI apps run by other companies. The idea is that an AI can complete a purchase without directly seeing your raw credit card details. The wallet handles the payment step instead.

Executives also said shoppers are asking AI for very specific things, rather than typing broad search terms. That is helping smaller, niche merchant categories grow.

Who it affects

For shop owners, AI assistants could become a new source of customers. Shopify also described a tool called Canvas, which helps merchants launch customized storefronts. The company said sellers of items such as handmade pottery, pet treats and vintage comic books are launching 20% faster with it.

Older companies are part of the shift too. Shopify cited Omaha Steaks, a 109-year-old retailer. It had used a custom tech setup built by its own CEO before moving to Shopify.

The catch for smaller sellers

Big retailers still hold an edge. Research from PYMNTS Intelligence found that 40% of U.S. consumers who use autonomous AI assistants to buy things would prefer to do so from a larger retailer. Nearly 60% completed their most recent AI-assisted purchase on Amazon. And 57.9% of people who use AI to shop said they usually still buy from Amazon, even when AI helps them find the product.

PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster put it this way in a September column: "Recommendation is the easy part. Certainty and trust is the product."

What is not clear yet

• How many Shopify sales now come directly from AI tools was not given.
• The material does not say which AI apps offer Shop Pay or when shoppers can use it.
• It is unclear whether AI buying will help small stores or mostly reinforce big ones.