Shopify saw a three-fold increase in traffic sent by artificial intelligence assistants, while these visits converted at twice the rate of traditional search. The data was released by PYMNTS on Wednesday (5), based on the company's results and comments on the second quarter.
The company ended the period with revenue of US$ 3.6 billion, up 34% from the same quarter a year earlier. Gross merchandise volume, or GMV, reached US$ 116 billion.
Half of sessions originating from AI tools arrive directly at product pages. According to Shopify, that proportion is 2.5 times higher than among users coming from traditional search engines.
Conventional search, however, remains relevant within the platform's stores. Sessions of this type grew 1.3 times over the past two years and still represent approximately one-third of store traffic.
Structured catalog improves conversion
Shopify attributes part of the performance of AI visits to the structure of its product catalog. The database brings together organized information on more than 1 billion items sold by merchants on the platform.
The system allows external artificial intelligence tools to query structured information about products, instead of relying solely on collecting data directly from pages available on the internet.
According to Shopify's president, Harley Finkelstein, AI searches supported by the company's catalog convert twice as much as queries based on information extracted from web pages.
The company says the structured format provides specifications and attributes used by systems to relate products to consumer requests.
Sidekick reaches 34 million conversations
Use of Sidekick, the AI assistant integrated into merchants' dashboard, also advanced in the quarter. The number of daily active merchants on the tool grew 3.6 times year over year.
The assistant recorded nearly 34 million conversations during the period.
Merchants also created more than 36,000 custom apps with the help of Sidekick. In the first quarter, that number had been approximately 12,000.
Shopify says AI search tools are also directing consumers to more specific products, including those from smaller, specialized sellers, by using detailed item characteristics as a discovery criterion.
Among the examples cited by the company are a child car seat designed for installing three units side by side and a sunscreen aimed at reef environments without leaving white residue.
Shop Pay surpasses US$ 400 billion in cumulative GMV
Shop Pay surpassed US$ 400 billion in gross merchandise volume processed at an accelerated pace since launch, according to data for June.
GMV generated directly by the Shop app grew more than 70% in the quarter.
The Cart Sync feature, which keeps the shopping cart synchronized between the merchant's website and the Shop app, already accounts for more than 30% of GMV recorded within the app.
In addition to the expansion tied to artificial intelligence, Shopify reported growth in payments, business-to-business commerce, and partnerships related to AI technologies.
