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OTTAWA — The chief executive of Shopify Inc. has intimated that consumers are ushering in a new era wherein artificial intelligence wields unprecedented influence over purchasing decisions.
On Tuesday, Harley Finkelstein remarked that the e-commerce powerhouse’s latest quarter represented the inaugural instance of shoppers engaging in what he termed “delegated purchasing.”
This innovative practice entails AI agents not merely providing product recommendations but executing purchases on behalf of the consumer.
“This signifies a novel gateway into commerce,” he elucidated to analysts during a conference call. “The behaviour is indeed fresh. While transaction volume remains modest, the trajectory is upward.”
The concept of delegated purchasing holds significant promise for Shopify, as it broadens the visibility of merchant offerings utilizing its platform.
Given that AI agents are privy to individuals’ shopping inclinations and historical data, this innovation renders it simpler for users to uncover items they might never have encountered independently, subsequently facilitating the acquisition.
This emerging trend capitalizes on an expanding array of opportunities that Shopify has been eager to embrace as consumers increasingly grow accustomed to deploying AI chatbots for not just exploration but also for actual purchases.
“Commerce is undergoing fragmentation. AI is not solely redefining shopping methodologies; it is also revolutionizing operative modalities for merchants — a foundational aspect upon which Shopify was built,” Finkelstein asserted.
Recently, Shopify initiated measures to enhance the discoverability of hundreds of millions of merchant products via ChatGPT.
The firm further commenced the integration of its checkout solution, Shop Pay, into an extensive array of new AI tools including Muse, Claude Duet, Grok Bot, and Instinct.
“This development does not merely afford our existing merchants greater flexibility; it also acts as a conduit for new merchants,” Finkelstein declared.
“Consider an aspiring entrepreneur engaging with ChatGPT, Claude, or Muse regarding the establishment of a retail enterprise. The AI agents recommend commencing with Shopify, subsequently assisting them in constructing their store within the chat environment.”
Finkelstein’s observations on the transformative impact of AI on commerce were made in tandem with Shopify’s share price plummeting nearly 10 percent to $197.07 upon market opening.
John Shao, an analyst at TD Cowen, noted in a brief to investors that “there appears to be no discernible reason for this significant decline in stock value.”
“In our perspective, elevated expectations preceding Q3 left little margin for misstep, resulting in Shopify being penalized for delivering results that were largely consistent with expectations,” he remarked.
Just hours prior to the decline, Shopify disclosed a third-quarter net income of US$462 million, an increase from US$264 million recorded in the same period the previous year.
The company, which reports in U.S. dollars, indicated that this profit equated to 36 cents US per diluted share for the quarter ending September 30, compared to 20 cents US per diluted share a year ago.
On an adjusted basis, the profit translated to 49 cents US per diluted share in the most recent quarter, an improvement from an adjusted profit of 34 cents US per diluted share during the third quarter of 2025.
The quarter’s revenue reached a total of US$3.74 billion, rising from US$2.84 billion in the same quarter last year.
This revenue encompassed US$836 million from subscription solutions, up from US$699 million a year prior, while merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$2.91 billion, an increase from US$2.15 billion year-on-year.
In its projections for the fourth quarter, Shopify anticipates revenue growth at a low-thirties percentage rate year-over-year.
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