Shoppers are asking AI to find gifts, and stores must be readable to it

Shoppers are starting to ask AI assistants to find gifts, and an online store the AI cannot read may never be recommended. Shopify says 65% of shoppers plan to use AI for at least one holiday shopping task. Retail Dive reports that big brands are rethinking the systems behind their storefronts to be ready.

What changed

Shopify says AI-referred traffic to its storefronts was up 2.6 times from a year earlier as of Q3, and orders were up 3.3 times. Stanley 1913's AI-referred U.S. orders grew 5 times. ILIA's AI-referred sales nearly tripled. These shoppers also convert 64% more often than visitors from organic search. These are Shopify's own figures, and it sells the tools involved.

Three hurdles

• Legibility: an AI can only recommend what it can read, and that means complete, accurate product data.
• Reach: new AI platforms keep launching, and each connection adds upkeep.
• Identity: stores often do not know who the shopper behind the AI agent is.

Detail matters. Shopify found that shoppers sent from structured product data converted at twice the rate of those from scraped feeds. Shopify's Lauren Nemeth says it is not enough for an AI to know a store sells boots. It should know every product detail. She says one Shopify connection covers Muse, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Mode and Gemini.

Trust at checkout

Only about one-third of shoppers say they trust an AI agent to buy for them. Shopify's answer is a familiar checkout with saved details. Buyers with a Shop identity, the account behind Shop Pay, convert at about 1.6 times the rate of those without one. In Meta's Muse, buyers can check out with Shop Pay, and the brand stays the merchant of record.

Old systems are the drag

Many large retailers run systems built for another era. Gartner says roughly 72% of IT spending goes to maintenance. David's Bridal runs more than 190 stores on Shopify. Bonobos runs its website and 48 Guideshops there, so staff can ring up online orders in one in-store sale. Nemeth admits that switching platforms can be expensive and slow.

What to do

A full move pays off most, but small steps work too. ALICE + OLIVIA added Shop Pay to its existing checkout, and it became the brand's top payment method at 35% of orders. It then moved fully to Shopify in 10 weeks. Brands on other platforms can list products in AI channels through Shopify's Agentic plan. Nemeth advises unifying customer data before switching on any AI channel.