Shopify has unveiled Agentic Storefronts, a new capability in its Winter ’26 Edition designed to help merchants connect their products directly into AI-driven shopping conversations. The update allows Shopify stores to appear in platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot, with additional AI integrations coming soon, enabling customers to discover and purchase items directly inside real-time AI chats while merchants retain full control of their brand and customer relationships.

Shopify Agentic Storefronts work by making a merchant’s products understandable to AI assistants. Merchants define how their items should be grouped and described — using standard attributes, metafields, and their own schema — so AI agents can recognize products and present them correctly when shoppers ask for something in conversation. Through Shopify’s Knowledge Base App, merchants can keep all of their policies, FAQs, and brand voice in one place, ensuring agents give accurate answers to questions about shipping, returns, materials, guarantees, and more.

Merchants also gain full visibility into how they appear across AI surfaces: orders arrive in the Shopify admin with AI channel attribution, and reporting highlights emerging search trends and the topics customers are asking about, offering insights into how the brand shows up in AI conversations.

Vanessa Lee, VP of Product at Shopify, said merchants shouldn’t have to chase every new AI channel: “In a world where there are new shopping experiences cropping up every few weeks, we’ll make sure Shopify merchants are there and show up strong. We know how much your brand means to you and we will give you the tools to keep telling your story across AI powered channels.”

The system provides complete visibility, including AI channel attribution, trending search topics, and the ability to track how customers discover products through agentic conversations.

Instead of requiring separate integrations for each AI assistant, Shopify Catalog serves as the underlying engine that keeps product information synchronized. Once merchants complete a single setup, Shopify Catalog automatically prepares and shares their products with participating AI chat platforms — eliminating the need for custom integrations or one-off technical work. Merchants can simply toggle individual AI channels on or off in their admin to choose where their products appear.

Shopify Catalog also enhances how products show up across AI surfaces. It:

These capabilities keep listings accurate and consistent, while checkout attribution shows merchants not only what sold, but which AI surface drove the sale.

Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke added: “We’re making every Shopify store agent-ready by default. Shopify is the easiest solution for merchants who want AI agents to find their storefronts, understand their products, and complete transactions.”

A core part of the rollout is that merchants remain the merchant of record, even when discovery and checkout occur inside an AI conversation. That means merchants retain full ownership of the customer relationship, including all post-purchase communication and support. They also control how the checkout experience appears, choosing whether customers complete purchases directly in-chat or through their online store. Every order flows into the Shopify admin with clear AI channel attribution, and every customer remains part of the merchant’s ecosystem.

In practical terms, the customer interaction is designed to mirror the experience merchants have already built. A shopper asks an AI agent for something they want; the agent then presents the merchant’s products with accurate details, pricing, and availability. It can answer follow-up questions, guide the shopper to the right item, and initiate checkout without breaking the conversational flow. The customer gets a seamless purchase experience, and the merchant gains a new customer without sacrificing brand control.

Shopify notes that this capability is the result of two years of foundational work to help merchants meet buyers wherever AI-driven discovery is happening today — and to prepare for the channels emerging tomorrow. Agentic Storefronts ensures products show up accurately and consistently at the moment when conversations turn into commerce.

Q: How do merchants appear in AI platforms like ChatGPT or Copilot?
A: Merchants configure their store once; Shopify automatically syndicates catalog data to participating AI platforms using Shopify Catalog.

Q: How does Shopify ensure product information is accurate inside AI chats?
A: Merchants define schema, attributes, metafields, and policies that allow AI agents to present products precisely as intended. Pricing and inventory remain synchronized in real time.

Q: Do merchants lose control of customer relationships when purchases occur inside AI?
A: No. Shopify emphasizes that merchants retain full ownership of customer data, the checkout experience, and all post-purchase communication.

Q: Can customers complete transactions inside chat platforms?
A: Yes. Merchants choose whether checkout happens in-chat or redirects to their website, preserving the brand experience.

Q: What visibility do merchants get from AI-originated orders?
A: All orders appear in the Shopify admin with clear AI channel attribution and performance insights.

The launch of Agentic Storefronts marks a meaningful step in how commerce adapts to AI-first consumer behavior. As shoppers increasingly rely on AI agents to filter, interpret, and recommend products, the storefront becomes less of a destination and more of a layer embedded inside conversation platforms.

For merchants, this shift represents both an expansion of reach and a reinforcement of brand control: discovery happens everywhere, but ownership stays centralized. By acting as the connective tissue between millions of merchants and emerging AI shopping surfaces, Shopify is positioning itself as the core infrastructure for agentic commerce — where AI intermediaries match intent with inventory in real time.

Rather than fragmenting the buying experience across dozens of new interfaces, Shopify is offering merchants a way to participate in AI-native shopping without taking on additional technical complexity. As AI agents shape more early-stage purchase decisions, Agentic Storefronts ensure that merchants aren’t just present — they’re represented accurately, consistently, and competitively.

AI isn’t replacing the storefront; it’s extending it into every conversation where shopping intent begins.

Editor’s Note: This article was created by Alicia Shapiro, CMO of AiNews.com, with writing, image, and idea-generation support from ChatGPT, an AI assistant. However, the final perspective and editorial choices are solely Alicia Shapiro’s. Special thanks to ChatGPT for assistance with research and editorial support in crafting this article.