Shopify could become the Amazon of the AI era — and here's one simple reason why

While President Trump’s sweeping tariffs continue to rattle global trade, Shopify (SHOP) is powering ahead.

The Canada-based e-commerce services giant posted second-quarter revenue of $2.68 billion, up 31% year over year and roughly $130 million ahead of Wall Street estimates.

Earnings per share (EPS) rose 35% to $0.35, signaling that Shopify’s model is gaining traction even in an increasingly protectionist global trade environment.

Unlike Amazon (AMZN), which operates as a digital marketplace and retailer, Shopify provides a platform for merchants to build and run their own online stores with inventory tools, analytics, web design, and integrated payments.

That approach seems to be working. Gross merchandise value (GMV) — the total value of goods sold across Shopify-powered stores — climbed 31% to $87.8 billion, compared to Amazon’s 11% growth in North American sales to $100 billion over the same period.

“Shopify is seemingly growing faster than the market and has posted eight straight quarters of 20%+ growth,” wrote Marketplace Pulse founder Joe Kaziukėnas.

While critics have downplayed Shopify’s GMV in the past — since it isn’t a consumer-facing destination — he argues that view is changing thanks to AI.

Kaziukėnas compares Shopify to QuickBooks more than Amazon.

It’s a powerful backend tool for businesses, not a storefront for shoppers. But in a world increasingly run by AI agents, that backend access becomes a massive advantage.

“AI agents from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic don’t want to integrate one merchant at a time,” he said. “They want merchants all in one place. Shopify has what every AI company wants.”

Instead of trying to strike individual deals with thousands of sellers or build their own marketplace from scratch, AI platforms can now plug into Shopify and instantly access millions of merchants and SKUs.

Shopify is already leaning into the trend.

It recently released a new framework called the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which enables AI agents to search catalogs, read reviews, create carts, and guide users through checkout.

The company says its AI tools also help merchants build stores, generate promotions, and track performance more efficiently.

“We’ve consistently proven to be experts in anticipating where consumers will be showing up next and building accordingly,” said Shopify President Harley Finkelstein on the latest earnings call.

“We’ve built a suite of products that make it easy for AI platforms to bring shopping to their agents — from discovery to checkout.”

Shopify’s positioning hasn’t gone unnoticed by investors.

Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood, whose ARKK ETF holds over 2.6 million shares of Shopify, was quick to praise the company’s results.“Based on its earnings report last night, $SHOP seems to be seizing the agentic AI moment in retail,” she posted on X.

Shopify’s stock is now up 41.6% year-to-date, firmly establishing itself as a breakout AI-commerce hybrid in a retail landscape rapidly being reshaped by automation and intelligent agents.