Shopify's second-quarter earnings call delivered a surprise twist in the AI debate: the e-commerce software maker says artificial intelligence is boosting traffic and sales for its merchants, not replacing the search engines that once ruled the web. The company credited its earnings beat and soaring revenue to AI search, at least partly, and its president framed AI as a friendly addition to the status quo.
"AI has become a complement to search, rather than a substitute for it," said Harley Finkelstein, Shopify's president, on the call. That message stands in sharp contrast to the publishing industry, where AI summaries have led to a measurable drop in click-through rates, lowering traffic and eating into advertising revenues. Shopify believes AI is a boon to its business, and the numbers back that up.
AI Traffic Tripled in Q2
The most striking figure came early in the call. AI-driven traffic and orders to Shopify stores tripled year-over-year in Q2. That growth is not coming at the expense of traditional search, according to Finkelstein. "In fact, search remains one of our largest sources of buyer traffic to our merchants, and it's still growing," he said.
He offered a concrete measure of that resilience. "Traditional search sessions are up 1.3x over the past two years, holding roughly a third of all storefront sessions." So while AI is surging, the old guard is holding its ground. Shopify's customer base includes many smaller merchants, the long tail of e-commerce, and Finkelstein said AI has benefited that group, which makes up the majority of its merchants.
Why AI Converts Better
Shopify's explanation for AI's success comes down to how the two systems work. "While search engines rank by popularity against a handful of keywords, AI agents make multiple calls into Shopify's catalog, working with richer structured data to match products with the buyer's specific intent, rather than just keywords," Finkelstein said.
He gave a practical example. AI can understand a request for "best car seat that fits three across a sedan" by considering dimensions, vehicle type, and the need for three, rather than just the keyword "car seat." That capability to search across many dimensions results in better conversions for merchants.
The data supports that claim. Half of all AI-referred sessions land directly on a product description page, which is 2.5 times more than with traditional search. "Buyers' shopping journeys are being compressed as half of all AI-referred sessions are landing directly on a product description page. That is 2.5 times more than what we see with traditional search," Finkelstein said.
The Long Tail Wins
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The impact is most visible outside the biggest product categories. In Q2, 75% of AI-attributed purchases happened outside the top 100 categories, which Shopify called its "sweet spot." That means AI is surfacing niche products that traditional search often buries under popular results.
Shopify stands to benefit from AI playing a larger role in transactions thanks to its trusted checkout experience. The company has built connectors to a range of AI tools and platforms, including Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Manus, Replit, Vercel, and vibe-coding platforms like Lovable. Those connectors let merchants meet buyers where they are, whether that is a chatbot, an agent, or a development platform.
Earnings Beat Wall Street
The financial results gave weight to the AI story. Shopify reported revenue rising 36% to $3.6 billion from a year earlier, beating Wall Street's forecast of $3.4 billion. Gross operating profit rose 31% to $1.71 billion, ahead of analysts' expectations of $1.63 billion. Those numbers show that AI is not just a talking point; it is moving the bottom line.
The contrast with online publishing is stark. AI summaries have lowered traffic and advertising revenue for publishers, but Shopify sees the opposite effect. For merchants, AI is compressing the path from interest to purchase, and that is good for business.
A Note on Coverage
This article was written by Sarah Perez, Consumer News Editor at TechCrunch. She has been a reporter there since August 2011, previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb, and worked in I.T. in banking, retail, and software. She can be reached at sarahp@techcrunch.com or on Signal at sarahperez.01.
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Other stories drawing attention this week include Bending Spoons' $1.28 billion deal to buy Airtable, Sequoia's Shaun Maguire leading a $1 billion round for nuclear startup Valar Atomics, and Okta's roughly $200 million acquisition of AI security startup Permiso. The AI conversation is everywhere, but Shopify is making a case that it can be a win for commerce.