Marketplace Briefing: Shopify launches tools to help merchants track sales and traffic from AI platforms

This is the latest installment of the Marketplace Briefing, a weekly Modern Retail+ column about the ever-changing e-commerce marketplace landscape. More from the series →Shopify is rolling out a new set of tools designed to help merchants understand how their products appear across AI shopping platforms such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot, as the company doubles down on its bet that more consumers will use chatbots to find and purchase products.The features, announced Wednesday as part of Shopify’s latest Editions product showcase, give merchants a new dashboard inside Shopify’s admin panel where they can track sales, orders and conversions generated through AI shopping channels. Merchants can also see what kinds of questions shoppers are asking AI tools and identify gaps in their product information that may be preventing products from appearing in AI-generated recommendations. The updates come as retailers and brands race to prepare for a world in which consumers increasingly turn to AI assistants for shopping advice instead of typing keywords into Google. AI chat interfaces still account for less than 1% of overall web traffic, according to Sensor Tower. But retailers are starting to see more shoppers arrive through those platforms. AI referrals now account for more than 1.5% of traffic to Walmart and Target, up from less than 1% a year ago, Sensor Tower found. Merchants are investing heavily in making sure their products can be found by large language models such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. Shopify is betting that merchants want better visibility into how AI systems are surfacing their products and what they can do to improve their chances of appearing in those recommendations. Aaron Glazer, Shopify’s director of product, said the company views the new tools as part of its broader effort to help merchants participate in what it sees as a growing shift toward AI-assisted shopping. “One of the opportunities we had with the agentic storefronts is this opportunity to bring agentic commerce and this evolving way of transacting for merchants into a new place and new home for them in Shopify admin,” Glazer said. The goal, he added, is to “bring clarity to what it’s like to sell on these different channels.” Among the new features is a dashboard within Shopify’s admin that gives merchants a single place to manage and monitor sales from AI shopping channels. Through the dashboard, merchants can track orders, sales and conversions generated by platforms including ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Shop. Merchants will be able to see orders, sales and conversion metrics from those channels in one place. Shopify said products listed in its Shopify Catalog, a database of all the products sold by stores on Shopify, will automatically be made available to participating AI shopping services. The company is also introducing Search Intelligence, a new tool that shows merchants the most common AI shopping queries in their category and whether their products appear in those results. The feature can also surface gaps in a merchant’s product data that may be limiting visibility in AI shopping experiences. For example, Glazer said Search Intelligence may flag products that are missing descriptions or other important information. Sidekick, Shopify’s AI assistant, can then recommend specific changes merchants can make to improve their visibility and performance. “One of the questions merchants have is, how does an agent discover my product?” Glazer said. Another new tool, called Knowledge Base, highlights questions AI assistants are asking about a merchant’s business that have not yet been answered. Those questions could include topics such as store locations, customer service policies or bulk ordering options. Merchants can add those answers directly within Shopify’s admin panel. The updates build on Shopify’s broader push into AI-powered commerce. Earlier this year, Shopify said products from participating merchants would become discoverable through agentic storefronts inside ChatGPT. Under that system, products can appear in AI-generated shopping recommendations while transactions continue to run through Shopify’s checkout infrastructure. Shopify also co-developed the Universal Commerce Protocol, or UCP, with Google; the UCP is an open standard designed to let AI agents complete checkout across platforms. Shopify’s latest announcements arrive as retailers and brands revamp their websites, product pages and more to show up in AI interfaces, a process also known as generative engine optimization, or GEO. Some companies are adding more detailed product information, frequently asked questions and conversational language designed to address the kinds of questions consumers ask chatbots. Even Amazon sellers are rewriting their product listings to make sure their products show up in the e-commerce giant’s chatbot, Alexa for Shopping, formerly known as Rufus. Whether shoppers will ultimately complete purchases directly through AI chatbots remains an open question. Earlier this year, OpenAI scaled back plans to introduce shopping directly inside ChatGPT. Several people involved with Instant Checkout told Modern Retail the program didn’t drive sales, and some merchants didn’t want OpenAI overseeing the checkout process. Still, there are plenty of signs that consumers turn to AI assistants for shopping research. In an IBM survey, 41% of consumers said they use AI assistants to research products, while 33% use them to find reviews and 31% to look for deals. Another survey by eMarketer found that 53% of U.S. consumers have used AI tools to research purchases. For brands, the growing use of AI for shopping research is reason enough to try to show up in chatbot answers. Shopify’s latest tools may benefit smaller brands the most, according to Sky Canaves, principal analyst at eMarketer. Large language models often rely on information that is widely available across the internet, which can put smaller merchants at a disadvantage compared to larger brands with a bigger online footprint. “This is addressing a top concern for a lot of [Shopify’s] brands and merchants, which tend to be smaller, so they might find themselves at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to AI search,” Canaves said. “This is aiming to help its merchants try to understand what’s a very fast-evolving landscape, and try to get a competitive advantage.” Shopify launches AI marketing agent as it expands ad placements to ChatGPT Shopify is also rolling out a new AI-powered marketing tool designed to help merchants launch and manage advertising campaigns. The feature, called Campaign Autopilot, acts as an AI marketing agent inside the Shopify admin. Merchants set a budget and goals, and the system recommends, launches and optimizes campaigns across channels such as Meta and Google. Shopify is also expanding Campaigns, its performance marketing product. The offering now includes placements on ChatGPT, Microsoft’s advertising network and Snapchat, in addition to existing channels. Merchants pay only when a sale is generated. Shopify Campaigns, which the company launched in 2024, buys ads on behalf of merchants to find new customers. “With Campaign Autopilot, we’re providing the capability by which merchants will be able to get a virtual marketing agency that works on their behalf to achieve their marketing goals within the guardrails that the merchant sets,” said Sachin Malhotra, Shopify’s director of product for merchant marketing. Shopify built the product after hearing from merchants who struggled to determine where to advertise, how to set up campaigns and how to optimize them once they were running. “What we found is that a lot of our merchants were lacking in all these three things, or they were short on all these three dimensions,” Malhotra said, referring to time, money and marketing expertise. The system is designed to guide merchants through campaign creation from start to finish. Shopify’s AI assistant, Sidekick, can recommend Campaign Autopilot to merchants looking for growth, help explain advertising concepts and assist with account setup on advertising platforms. Once campaigns are running, Shopify can recommend how merchants should allocate budgets across channels. The company said merchants remain in control and can choose whether they want Shopify to automatically move spending between platforms or simply provide recommendations. “We are explaining to the merchant what actions we are taking and why,” Malhotra said. “Transparency is totally one of the fundamental things we believe in.” What I’m reading Amazon is facing a possible lawsuit from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over claims the e-commerce giant misled advertisers. (Bloomberg) U.S. retailers’ sales grew more than expected in May, driven by robust consumer spending despite elevated gas prices. (The Wall Street Journal) Etsy goes after Prime Day with “Shop Other Jeffs” campaign. (Retail Dive) What we’ve covered Rising fuel costs push brands to adjust shipping policies Amazon sellers are feeling better about Prime Day, but they’re still watching margins AI forces retailers, brands to rethink their product pages