Shopify’s Q2 earnings beat was driven in part by AI-powered search, which the company says is complementing traditional search rather than replacing it.

On the earnings call, President Harley Finkelstein reported that AI-driven traffic and orders to Shopify stores tripled year-over-year, while traditional search sessions grew 1.

3x over two years and still account for about a third of all storefront sessions.

The key insight is that AI agents use richer structured data to match products to buyer intent across multiple dimensions, unlike keyword-based search engines that rank by popularity.

For example, a query like “best car seat that fits three across a sedan” triggers an AI agent to consider dimensions, vehicle type, and quantity simultaneously, leading to more relevant results and higher conversion rates.

Half of all AI-referred sessions land directly on a product description page—2.

5 times more than traditional search—and 75% of AI-attributed purchases in Q2 happened outside the top 100 categories, benefiting Shopify’s long-tail merchants.

The company reported Q2 revenue of $3.6 billion (up 36% YoY) and gross profit of $1.71 billion, both ahead of Wall Street expectations.

Shopify also emphasized that its trusted checkout experience positions it to benefit as AI plays a larger role in transactions.

The platform has built connectors to AI tools including Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Manus, Replit, Vercel, and vibe-coding platforms like Lovable, allowing merchants to integrate however they choose.

The article notes that this contrasts with the impact of AI on online publishing, where AI summaries have reduced click-through rates and ad revenue.

Shopify’s case suggests that for e-commerce, AI search can expand the discovery surface and improve purchase intent matching without cannibalizing existing search traffic.