This is the latest installment of the Marketplace Briefing, a weekly Modern Retail+ column about the ever-changing e-commerce marketplace landscape. More from the series →Shopify is rolling out a new set of tools designed to help merchants understand how their products appear across AI shopping platforms such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot, as the company doubles down on its bet that more consumers will use chatbots to find and purchase products.The features, announced Wednesday as part of Shopify’s latest Editions product showcase, give merchants a new dashboard inside Shopify’s admin panel where they can track sales, orders and conversions generated through AI shopping channels. Merchants can also see what kinds of questions shoppers are asking AI tools and identify gaps in their product information that may be preventing products from appearing in AI-generated recommendations.

The updates come as retailers and brands race to prepare for a world in which consumers increasingly turn to AI assistants for shopping advice instead of typing keywords into Google. AI chat interfaces still account for less than 1% of overall web traffic, according to Sensor Tower. But retailers are starting to see more shoppers arrive through those platforms. AI referrals now account for more than 1.5% of traffic to Walmart and Target, up from less than 1% a year ago, Sensor Tower found.