As AI shifts from a search tool to a shopping companion, retailers are facing a familiar challenge in an unfamiliar form: How to stay visible when the customer journey changes overnight.

For decades, commerce has evolved alongside the platforms consumers use to discover products. Desktop gave way to mobile. Social media became a shopping channel in its own right. Now, retailers are preparing for what many see as the next major transition: Agentic commerce, where AI assistants not only recommend products, but increasingly shape – and potentially complete – the purchase journey itself.

For Shaun Broughton, managing director, Apac and Japan at Shopify, the shift is already underway.

“Consumers now have access to a personal shopper that can understand their needs, budget and preferences, available in any conversation, at any time,” he says. “This reduces the distance between discovery and purchase.”

The implications for retailers are significant. Shoppers are no longer simply typing keywords into search engines and browsing dozens of websites. Instead, they are asking AI tools such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot to compare products, suggest options and narrow choices before they ever land on a retailer’s site.

That changes the economics of discovery.

According to Shopify data, AI-referred orders on the platform grew nearly 13-fold year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026. The quality of that traffic is also outperforming traditional organic search in key areas. More than half of AI-referred sessions begin directly on product pages, compared with around 20 per cent for organic search. Conversion rates are nearly 50 per cent higher, while average order values are 14 per cent higher.

The pattern reflects what many in the industry are calling “journey compression” – the idea that AI condenses the research, comparison and consideration phases of shopping into a single conversation.

“In a traditional search journey, shoppers might visit multiple sites over several sessions before making a purchase,” Broughton says. “With AI, a lot of that comparison and discovery work happens before the customer even reaches the retailer.”

The result is traffic that arrives with much stronger purchase intent.

For retailers, however, visibility inside AI systems introduces a new set of operational challenges. Traditional search optimisation focused on ranking well in search engines. Agentic commerce requires retailers to think about how AI models interpret, understand and represent their products and brand.

“Beautiful, evocative copy is great for branding, but AI needs structure,” Broughton says. “It needs dimensions, compatibility, use cases and attributes that make a product searchable, comparable and recommendable.”

That distinction between human-optimised and AI-optimised content is becoming increasingly important as AI assistants mediate more purchasing decisions. Retailers that fail to provide structured, reliable product information risk being overlooked entirely – or worse, misrepresented.

To address this, Shopify has been investing heavily in infrastructure designed specifically for AI-driven commerce.

One of its most significant recent announcements is the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard that defines how AI agents transact with merchants across any platform and any payment processor. Backed by companies including Amazon, Mastercard, Microsoft, Salesforce, Stripe, and Visa, UCP aims to standardise how AI platforms interact with commerce systems.

Broughton describes it as a foundational layer that allows critical functions such as checkout rules, discounts, payment processes and post-purchase experiences to operate consistently regardless of which AI assistant initiates the transaction.

“Today, every AI platform has a different interface and different buying experience,” he says. “Merchants shouldn’t have to rebuild their commerce logic for every new channel.”

The broader goal is to reduce fragmentation as AI shopping ecosystems multiply. Rather than forcing retailers to create bespoke integrations for each platform, Shopify is positioning itself as the connective infrastructure layer behind those interactions.

That strategy extends to Agentic Storefronts, another recently launched capability that allows merchants to manage how they appear across AI platforms, including ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Mode and the Gemini app.

The functionality reflects a growing industry belief that AI platforms will increasingly become transactional surfaces in their own right, not simply discovery tools.

“More transactions will eventually happen inside AI conversations,” Broughton says. “The infrastructure behind those conversations becomes incredibly important.”

The Shopify Catalog and Knowledge Base app are designed to support that transition by improving the quality and reliability of information AI systems use when recommending products. Shopify Catalog acts as a structured global product data layer, providing AI systems with real-time access to product attributes, inventory and pricing information, while the Knowledge Base app gives retailers greater control over how their brand policies and information are represented.

“AI agents can scrape FAQs or About pages, but they do not always interpret that information correctly,” Broughton says. “The goal is to ensure trustworthy brands are represented accurately in AI conversations.”

That matters because the stakes rise considerably when AI systems become the primary intermediary between brands and consumers. An inaccurate inventory level, unclear returns policy or incomplete product description can derail the customer experience before the retailer even knows there was demand.

The shift also has strategic implications for retailers beyond technology alone.

Shopify research suggests Australian shoppers are becoming increasingly comfortable with AI-assisted shopping experiences. During the recent holiday period, 61 per cent of Australian consumers said they intended to use AI while shopping. Nearly half planned to use it specifically to save money, while others expected AI to improve product discovery and inspiration.

Retailers appear equally aware of the trend. Shopify data shows 89 per cent are already investing – or planning to invest – in AI-powered shopping experiences.

Importantly, Broughton does not position AI commerce as a replacement for existing channels. Instead, he sees it following the same pattern as previous digital transitions.

“Web did not replace stores. Mobile did not replace desktop. Social did not replace search,” he says. “Each new channel became additive.”

That historical perspective shapes Shopify’s message to merchants. The company is encouraging retailers to prepare early, while the channel is still emerging, rather than waiting for mainstream adoption.

The parallels with mobile commerce are difficult to ignore. In the early 2010s, retailers that invested early in mobile optimisation gained a significant competitive advantage as smartphone shopping accelerated. Many in the industry now believe agentic commerce may follow a similar trajectory.

At the same time, Shopify is also attempting to lower the barriers to participation.

Its recently launched Agentic Plan enables brands that are not currently using Shopify as their commerce platform to add products into the Shopify Catalog and sell across AI channels without fully replatforming their operations.

“Not every retailer is ready to rebuild their commerce stack,” Broughton says. “They should still be able to participate in AI commerce.”

That broader interoperability focus reflects Shopify’s ambition to position itself not simply as a commerce platform, but as foundational commerce infrastructure for the AI era.

For retailers, the practical challenge now is balancing experimentation with operational discipline. Traditional fundamentals such as strong SEO, accurate inventory data and compelling product information remain critical. In many cases, they become even more important because AI systems increasingly rely on those signals to determine which products to surface and recommend.

The brands most likely to benefit from agentic commerce may ultimately be those that combine strong customer experiences with structured, machine-readable data that AI systems can trust.

As the channel matures, Broughton believes the pace of adoption will accelerate rapidly once consumer trust solidifies.

“The shopping experience is getting better very quickly,” he says. “As more consumers try it and have positive experiences, trust builds. Once enough consumers trust it, the channel goes mainstream.”

• Shopify powers millions of businesses in more than 175 countries. In Australia, it is used by brands including JB HiFi, July, Heinz, Patagonia, LSKD, and HiSmile. Find out how prepared you are for optimised AI selling here.