Shopify reported this week that AI-driven traffic to their stores is up 7x since January. Orders from AI-powered search are up 11x.
The base is small, obviously. But this isn't another Adobe forecast deck about what might happen in 2027—this is looking back at actual numbers that already happened. We've been hearing projections for months. It's good to see something real.
President Harley Finkelstein called it "the biggest shift in technology since the internet." He's excited for a reason: e-commerce has been mostly stagnant in the last decade, at least in the west (China is a different universe altogether). Now AI is here, and consumers want AI—64% of shoppers say they're likely to use it for purchases. Shopify has partnerships with OpenAI, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot. Things are moving.
Here's the question on everyone’s mind but on the lips of only a few: who owns the customer when shopping happens inside AI platforms?
It's the same trade you make when you sell on Amazon instead of your own webshop. You get distribution. You give up the customer relationship. Except now it's happening before the customer even knows your brand exists. An AI agent recommends something, the transaction happens in-app, and you've made a sale without ever touching the customer.
Great for revenue. Not great for lifetime value.
Which brings us to Amazon and Perplexity. Amazon is trying to ban Perplexity's agentic browser Comet from their platform. The official reason? "Degraded shopping and customer service experience." Their statement talks about respecting service providers and protecting customers.
Look, I'm sure Amazon cares deeply about customer experience. But we all know what this is actually about: owning the customer relationship. Amazon doesn't want your AI assistant to be too good at helping you shop there—because then they lose control of the upsells, the sponsored products, the whole manipulation layer that drives their ad business.
Perplexity's response is worth reading. It's titled "Bullying is Not Innovation" and it's surprisingly direct about what's at stake: whether agentic AI empowers users or becomes another tool for platforms to extract value. Amazon built an empire on customer obsession. Now they're fighting to make sure your AI can't actually obsess over you.
E-commerce is exciting again. The fundamental questions about distribution and customer relationships are back on the table. If you work in this space, it's worth staying on top of what's happening. Things are moving fast.
— Torsten & Peter
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