For retailers, keeping up with rapidly changing patterns in consumer product discovery has become extraordinarily difficult. 

Traditional pathways such as search engines, online marketplaces, physical stores and branded websites are now joined by social platforms, creator channels, conversational AI and emerging agentic shopping experiences.

The challenge is ensuring a retailer’s products, brand, and customer experience remain visible when shoppers are no longer following a single path to purchase.

This is the shift Shopify is meeting with its Spring ’26 Edition, ‘Everywhere’, unveiled recently. The company’s ninth Edition introduces more than 150 updates designed to help merchants, developers and partners build, grow and sell in a commerce environment where customers can discover and buy products almost anywhere.

The Edition theme reflects a broader reality facing retailers: Commerce is no longer confined to a website, an app, or a store; it is increasingly happening wherever customers choose to search, browse, ask questions or make decisions.

“Commerce is becoming more distributed,” says Shaun Broughton, MD, Apac and Japan at Shopify. “Customers are discovering products in more places than ever before, whether that’s through social channels, marketplaces or now AI-powered experiences.

“The retailers that succeed will be the ones that can create consistency across those touchpoints, ensuring their products are discoverable, their information is accurate, and their customer experience remains strong wherever that interaction begins.”

The rise of AI-powered discovery

One of the biggest changes underway is the emergence of AI as a new shopping interface.

Rather than starting with a search box or a retailer’s website, consumers are increasingly asking AI assistants for recommendations, product comparisons, and buying advice. Merchants now face the new challenge of understanding whether their brand appears in these conversations and what happens after customers discover it.

Shopify’s new Agentic Storefronts capabilities are designed to help merchants address this challenge by bringing AI commerce management directly into Shopify Admin.

For the first time, merchants can manage their Agentic Storefronts and insights in one place, providing visibility into how AI channels contribute to sales and where improvements may be needed.

The updated Admin experience allows merchants to see orders, sales, and conversions generated through AI channels, while search intelligence highlights the AI queries most relevant to their category, including where they rank and where they are missing opportunities.

The platform also identifies actions merchants can take. If products appear in AI conversations but are not converting, Shopify Sidekick can suggest improvements, such as adding model numbers, specifications or clearer product information to improve discoverability.

The new Knowledge Base feature helps merchants understand what AI agents are asking about their business but cannot yet answer – such as store locations, bulk ordering options or customer service information – and allows them to update those details directly.

Shopify’s Agentic Storefronts are designed to allow merchants to manage selling across AI platforms, including ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Mode and Gemini, as well as Shopify’s Shop app.

“The next generation of commerce is about meeting customers where they already are,” says Broughton. 

“Retailers don’t necessarily need customers to follow a traditional journey. They need the infrastructure to participate in many different journeys.”

Bringing AI into the merchant’s workflow

While AI is transforming the customer side of commerce, Shopify is also focused on how AI can help merchants operate more effectively. At the centre of this is Sidekick, Shopify’s AI assistant built specifically for commerce.

With the latest updates, Sidekick is becoming more deeply embedded into Shopify Admin, providing merchants with personalised recommendations and faster ways to take action.

Within Shopify Admin Home, Sidekick Pulse analyses store and user data through an offline pipeline to identify potential next steps for each merchant. Rather than requiring business owners to search through dashboards or interpret reports themselves, the system surfaces relevant opportunities.

Shopify is also opening Sidekick to third-party app integrations through Sidekick App Extensions. This allows merchants and Shopify partners to connect apps directly into Sidekick, enabling the AI assistant to pull information and guide users to the right place to act.

At launch, Sidekick App Extensions will support more than 15 partner apps, including Loop, Klaviyo, Judge.me, Matrixify, Avia and Seguno, with opportunities for more developers to build integrations in future.

For many smaller retailers, the appeal is clear. AI can help close capability gaps by making sophisticated tools easier to access without requiring large teams or specialist expertise.

Shopify research shows 77 per cent of Australian merchants are currently using AI in their business, compared with 71 per cent globally. Meanwhile, 81 per cent expect to use AI more over the next 12 months.

Among Australian merchants already using AI, 66 per cent say it helps with brainstorming and creativity, while 82 per cent of Australian Sidekick users say it helps troubleshoot store issues, compared with 61 per cent globally.

Turning marketing automation into a growth partner

Customer acquisition remains one of the biggest challenges for retailers, particularly as advertising becomes more complex and competitive.

Shopify’s Campaign Autopilot aims to help smaller merchants compete by bringing digital marketing capabilities directly into Shopify Admin.

The tool allows merchants to run paid and organic campaigns within budgets and guardrails they define, acting as an always-on marketing assistant that tests and optimises campaigns over time.

Campaign Autopilot supports multiple channels from day one, including Meta, the Shop app and email marketing automations, with Microsoft Advertising, ChatGPT Ads and Snapchat among future planned channels.

For entrepreneurs and smaller retailers, the ambition is to make sophisticated marketing more accessible.

“The gap between what large retailers can do and what smaller businesses can do has traditionally been driven by resources,” says Broughton. “AI is helping change that by putting more capability into the hands of every merchant.”

Improving the shopping experience with Storefront Agent

Discovery is only the first step. Once shoppers arrive, retailers still need to provide a frictionless experience that builds confidence and helps customers make decisions.

Shopify’s Storefront Agent is designed to support that next stage by acting as an AI-powered shopping assistant within a merchant’s storefront.

The agent can answer customer questions about products, orders and policies, while providing personalised recommendations based on the merchant’s catalogue, brand voice and information.

For shoppers, this can reduce friction by helping them quickly find relevant products and complete purchases with confidence.

For merchants, activation is simple: Storefront Agent can be enabled directly in Shopify Admin without requiring an additional app installation.

Expanding opportunities through Shopify Collective

While AI is reshaping digital discovery, Shopify is also expanding the ways merchants can build their product offerings.

Shopify Collective is now available to merchants in Australia, enabling retailers to partner with Australian suppliers and sell products through their storefronts without holding inventory or making upfront purchases.

The model creates benefits for both sides. Retailers can expand their catalogues and test new products with less operational complexity, while suppliers gain access to new customers through retailers whose audiences align with their brands.

It reflects a broader movement towards more connected commerce ecosystems, where partnerships can help businesses grow without traditional barriers.

• Discover more about Shopify’s latest Edition, Everywhere here.