Shopify Says AI Search Is Adding E-Commerce Traffic, Not Replacing Google

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While publishers worry that AI summaries are reducing click-throughs from search, Shopify is presenting a very different picture for commerce. On its second-quarter earnings call, Shopify President Harley Finkelstein said AI has become a complement to search rather than a replacement, and that the shift is especially helpful to the long tail of smaller merchants on the platform.

Key takeaways

• AI-driven traffic and orders are rising fast: Shopify said AI-referred traffic and orders to its stores tripled year over year in the second quarter. The company cited AI search as one factor behind its stronger-than-expected quarter.
• Traditional search is still growing: Shopify pushed back on the idea that AI is simply taking share from Google-style discovery. Finkelstein said search remains one of the largest sources of buyer traffic for merchants. Traditional search sessions are up 1.3x over the past two years and still represent roughly one-third of all storefront sessions.
• AI agents can interpret more specific shopping intent: Traditional search often ranks products around a limited set of keywords. By contrast, Shopify argues that AI agents can make multiple calls into its catalog and use richer structured data to understand constraints. In the example cited by Finkelstein, a shopper looking for the best car seat that fits three across a sedan is not just searching for “car seat”; the request involves dimensions, vehicle type and quantity.
• Shopping journeys are shorter: Shopify said half of AI-referred sessions land directly on a product description page, a rate 2.5 times higher than traditional search. That matters because landing closer to the product decision can improve the odds of conversion.
• The long tail may benefit: The company said 75% of AI-attributed purchases in Q2 happened outside the top 100 categories, an area Shopify described as its sweet spot.

Why it matters

The Shopify data underscores that AI search does not affect every internet business in the same way. For ad-supported media, AI answers can reduce visits to the original source. For commerce, however, an AI assistant that understands detailed intent and routes a shopper to a relevant product page can create a more valuable visit rather than eliminate one.

The deeper implication is that structured product catalogs, checkout infrastructure and merchant tools may become critical rails for AI agents. Shopify said it has built connectors to Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Manus, Replit and Vercel, as well as vibe-coding platforms such as Lovable. If AI systems play a larger role in discovery and transactions, platforms that expose reliable product data and trusted checkout flows could gain new leverage.

Still, Shopify’s comments describe a platform-level trend, not a guarantee for every merchant. The degree of benefit will likely depend on catalog quality, category dynamics, how AI systems rank or recommend products, and whether consumers become comfortable letting agents guide more of the buying process.

Source: TechCrunch AI