Shopify reports tripled AI-driven store traffic and orders in Q2

AI search adds traffic alongside traditional search

Shopify said AI-driven traffic and orders to its merchants tripled year over year in the second quarter, while its revenue rose 36% to $3.6 billion. The e-commerce software company also reported gross operating profit of $1.71 billion, up 31% from a year earlier.

Both figures exceeded analysts’ expectations: Wall Street had forecast $3.4 billion in revenue and $1.63 billion in gross operating profit. On the earnings call, Shopify President Harley Finkelstein described AI as a complement to search rather than a replacement for it.

Traditional search remains one of the largest sources of buyer traffic for Shopify merchants and continues to grow, Finkelstein said. Traditional search sessions have increased 1.3 times over the past two years and still account for roughly a third of all storefront sessions.

Structured catalog data changes product matching

Shopify attributes part of the effect to how AI agents use its catalogue. Rather than ranking products chiefly by popularity against a limited set of keywords, agents can make multiple calls into Shopify’s catalogue and work with richer structured data to match a shopper’s particular requirements.

Finkelstein used the example of a buyer seeking a car seat that fits three across in a sedan. A conventional keyword search may concentrate on “car seat”; an AI agent can account for the dimensions, vehicle type and the need to fit three seats simultaneously, then search across those constraints.

That distinction matters because it can direct shoppers to products that meet the stated need rather than merely those with the highest keyword rank. It also differs from the traffic pressure facing publishers as AI-generated summaries reduce click-throughs. The shift toward Google’s move toward AI search answers has changed the content market, while Shopify reports a different outcome for its merchant storefronts.

Shorter journeys and a wider category mix

Shopify said half of AI-referred sessions arrive directly on a product description page. That share is 2.5 times higher than for traditional search, indicating that AI referrals are more frequently reaching a product-level destination without an extended storefront journey.

The company also said 75% of AI-attributed purchases in the quarter occurred outside its top 100 categories, an area it called its “sweet spot.” Shopify expects its trusted checkout experience to matter as AI assumes a larger role in transactions.

To support AI tools and agents, Shopify has built connectors to Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Manus, Replit and Vercel, as well as the vibe-coding platform Lovable. For merchants, the practical implication is to maintain detailed, structured product information and assess AI referrals alongside search, not as a reason to abandon established search channels.