Shopify Opens Its Catalog to More AI Shopping Agents

Shopify Expands Agentic Commerce

Shopify announced on Tuesday that it will allow shoppers to configure AI agents to purchase products on their behalf, giving more agents access to over a billion listings in the company's catalog. The catalog consists of both items on and off Shopify storefronts. The move marks an expansion of the company's agentic commerce ambitions.

The announcement follows a September partnership with Meta that allowed Meta's Muse agent to browse and purchase items on a human's behalf. Shopify said shoppers can now use any agent without a partnership integration.

How the Feature Works

To set up the feature, customers connect an agent with their account on Shop, a Shopify-owned platform that consolidates orders, tracks packages, and recommends products. Like the Muse partnership, customers use the one-click Shop Pay feature to check out within the conversation with the agent, and orders placed through the agent are funneled back to the Shop app.

Shopify is marketing the feature as a "personal shopper" that humans can give rules to, such as setting budget guardrails or only displaying products with fast shipping. Buyers must approve each purchase.

AI Shopping Becomes a Battleground

E-commerce has become one of the battlegrounds in the era of AI, with many demos of agentic tools ending with a transaction, whether it's buying clothing, booking a flight, or ordering takeout on a human's behalf. The tech industry, including big commerce players like Google and Amazon, is investing in AI-driven shopping tools where the end goal is an agent purchasing things for a human user.

The shift is also the basis of an ongoing fight between Amazon and AI companies like Perplexity, and more recently Meta's Muse, over whether agents should be able to shop on a customer's behalf.

Sources: Theverge