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The news: Shopify will not allow agents and other bots to purchase on users鈥� behalf without 鈥渇inal human review,鈥� the company said in an update to the code used by merchants to operate their online storefronts. Our take: While AI agents aren鈥檛 yet reliable enough to be given free reign over purchase decisions, companies have to be prepared for a future where they soon will be.

The news: OpenAI鈥檚 GPT-5 could be the start of ChatGPT becoming a transaction-driven super app that monetizes user intent, not attention. GPT-5鈥檚 router鈥攚hich analyzes queries and decides how hard to 鈥渢hink鈥� based on complexity鈥攍ets OpenAI invest more resources during high-intent moments like 鈥渃ompare hiking boots under $200鈥� or 鈥渂est smart TVs for co-op gaming.鈥� Prioritizing queries with high commercial value could help OpenAI monetize users not through ads but via affiliate or take-rate revenues, per SemiAnalysis. Partnerships with Shopify and others suggest that monetization stack is already on the way. Our take: A full-service ChatGPT that鈥檚 intuitive enough to guide full shopping journeys inside a chatbot while keeping backend costs minimal could rewrite the AI platform鈥檚 business model. Brands should be working to optimize for AI-native commerce and integrate with agentic tools.

The news: Sovos will automate Shopify鈥檚 sales tax returns process for merchants. Our take: Reclaiming time and reducing risk for merchants helps position Shopify as a stronger commerce platform and partner.

The news: Shopify partnered with Coinbase and Stripe so customers can pay with the USDC stablecoin at checkout. Our take: Coinbase is the biggest winner in this partnership. Cryptocurrency needs to gain traction with a wide merchant network to accelerate its use, and Shopify represents a huge score for Base.

The news: Google blamed a faulty, untested policy update鈥攏ot overloaded infrastructure鈥攆or triggering a Google Cloud outage that took down Gmail, Cloudflare, Shopify, and many others. It admitted to skipping standard risk safeguards, per CNBC. Our take: The next outage is a matter of when, not if鈥攁nd the time to prepare is now. CMOs should pressure vendors for transparency, diversify martech stacks to reduce dependency, and ensure business continuity plans cover cloud failures and system disruptions.

layers browse, click, and buy real merch inside their favorite games, ushering in a new era of immersive ecommerce.

Could OpenAI turn ChatGPT into a shopping hub? The company is reportedly partnering with Shopify in an effort similar to other genAI shopping efforts by Perplexity and Microsoft.

Recently, Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke asked employees requesting more resources to prove they 鈥渃annot get what they want done using AI,鈥� according to a memo posted to X. The directive reflects a wave of anxiety among workers that AI will eliminate potential jobs鈥攐r their current ones.

Shopify is on an AI acquisition spree: The company鈥檚 latest purchase, Vantage Discovery, will enable it to offer brands genAI-powered search capabilities and improved product discovery.

Its impressive growth gives Shopify a volume and cross-sell boost

Shopify. Squarespace. Wix.

While the feature is still in development, OpenAI and partners like Shopify鈥攚hich offers embeddable checkout infrastructure鈥攈ave demoed early versions to brands and begun discussing financial terms. The feature would eliminate the current friction of sending users off-platform to complete purchases.

Zooming out: Amazon isn鈥檛 the only ecommerce platform cracking down on agentic AI tools: This month, Shopify similarly added code to its website that instructs bots and web crawlers not to purchase items on users鈥� behalf. But, just like publishers, most shopping sites only have so much control. Adding a robot.txt file can tell crawlers what they can and can鈥檛 do, but it doesn鈥檛 actually block actions.

The buy button has been on a growth tear since Shopify opened it up to enterprise customers outside of its ecosystem

Consumers checking out with autofill have a 45% higher checkout conversion rate, per Shopify internal data. Klarna, Affirm, and Zip can all benefit from the increase and ease of completed sales through the most used internet browser used worldwide, according to StatCounter Global Stats.

Shopify is seeing post-pandemic growth. After slowing to 10.5% YoY growth in 2024, Shopify is rebounding with investments in B2B automation, tax optimization, and AI-powered tools. Sales are expected to grow an average 11.9% YoY from 2024 through 2026, reaching $19.10 billion by 2026. BigCommerce is a solid competitor.

Block and Shopify started to accept on-chain payments at POS. Early Warning Services and The Clearing House are mulling their own institutional stablecoin. Remittance benefits: Crypto-integrations directly benefit remittance senders through their ability to dodge FX fees and speed up transfers.