Data & Research
2 articles
AI Orders Grew 13x on Shopify. Sessions Grew 8x. Mind the Gap.
Shopify just published its Q1 2026 commerce data, and one pair of numbers should change how you think about AI shopping traffic. AI-referred orders grew nearly 13x year over year. AI-referred sessions grew a little over 8x. Orders outran visits by a wide margin, which means the new traffic is not just bigger. It is better. TL;DR: Per Shopify's Q1 2026 data, AI-referred orders grew ~13x year over year while AI-referred sessions grew ~8x. Visitors from AI search convert at nearly 50% high
AI Shoppers Now Convert 42% Better Than Humans. Here's What Changed.
A year ago, shoppers arriving from AI tools converted 38% worse than human-driven traffic. As of March 2026, they convert 42% better. That is an ~80-point swing in twelve months, and it is the single most important data point in e-commerce right now. TL;DR: Adobe Analytics' Q1 2026 report confirms AI traffic to US retailers grew 393% year-over-year, with AI-driven shoppers now converting 42% better than human-driven visitors. The bottleneck in agentic commerce has officially moved from