Shopify Says AI Search Tripled Traffic And Orders As Traditional Search Grew

Shopify says artificial intelligence-powered discovery is adding a new source of buyers rather than replacing traditional search, with AI-driven traffic and orders to its merchants tripling year-over-year during the second quarter of 2026.

TL;DR

 

• AI-driven traffic and orders to Shopify stores tripled year-over-year in Q2 2026.
• Traditional search sessions grew 1.3 times over two years and generated roughly one-third of storefront sessions.
• Half of AI-referred visits landed directly on product pages.
• Shopify reported $3.58 billion in quarterly revenue, up 34%.

AI Search Is Adding Buyers To Shopify Stores

AI search tools may be reducing referral traffic for some online publishers, but Shopify says merchants on its e-commerce platform are seeing a different outcome.

As reported by TechCrunch, Shopify President Harley Finkelstein told analysts that AI had become “a complement to search, rather than a substitute for it.” The company said AI-driven traffic and orders to Shopify stores both tripled from the same quarter a year earlier.

Source

Traditional search continued to grow alongside these newer channels. Search sessions increased 1.3 times during the past two years and continued to account for roughly one-third of all storefront sessions, according to Shopify’s earnings call.

This means the reported AI growth did not come simply from shoppers moving away from conventional search engines.

AI Referrals Are Sending Shoppers Directly To Products

Shopify believes AI agents can produce more relevant product recommendations because they process detailed catalog information and multiple requirements instead of relying primarily on a small collection of keywords.

Finkelstein used the example of a buyer looking for three car seats that could fit across a sedan. A traditional search may focus heavily on the phrase “car seat,” while an AI agent can consider the vehicle, dimensions, number of seats and other requirements simultaneously.

The company said half of all AI-referred sessions landed directly on a product description page. That rate was 2.5 times higher than the share generated through traditional search, suggesting buyers arriving from AI services were being directed closer to a purchasing decision.

Techbuzz highlighted the tripling of both visits and completed orders as an indication that AI referrals were delivering commercial activity, not merely low-intent browsing. However, its report was primarily based on TechCrunch’s coverage rather than separate first-party data.

Smaller And Specialized Merchants Could Benefit Most

Shopify said 75% of purchases attributed to AI during the quarter took place outside its 100 largest product categories.

According to Finkelstein, this particularly benefits smaller merchants selling specialized products, which make up much of Shopify’s customer base. AI systems may be better positioned to identify these products when a buyer describes a specific requirement that does not correspond neatly with popular search terms.

Bitcoin World similarly emphasized that AI agents can match detailed buyer intent with structured product information, potentially improving the visibility of niche sellers that might struggle to rank through keyword-based search.

Shopify did not provide a platform-by-platform breakdown showing how much traffic came from ChatGPT, Google, Perplexity, Claude or other AI services. Therefore, the results support growth across AI-driven discovery as a category but do not establish which individual service generated the largest contribution.

Shopify Reports 34% Revenue Growth

Shopify’s AI search update arrived alongside stronger second-quarter financial results.

The company’s official release states that revenue increased 34% year-over-year to $3.583 billion, while gross merchandise volume rose 32% to $115.57 billion. Gross profit increased 31% to $1.708 billion, and free cash flow reached $654 million, according to Shopify.

 

TechCrunch and BitcoinWorld reported revenue growth of 36%. However, Shopify’s official financial release lists the reported growth rate as 34%, which is the figure used here.

“This was a monster quarter,” Finkelstein said in the official results announcement, adding that Shopify was expanding what businesses could achieve using AI.

The company expects third-quarter revenue to grow at a low-thirties percentage rate year-over-year. However, it has not provided a separate revenue forecast for AI-referred commerce or indicated when AI traffic could become a material share of total storefront visits.