Shopify Declares 'AI Agents Will Not Bypass Our Checkout' — Platform Strategy for the Agentic Commerce Era

Shopify President States at Earnings Call: "LLMs Will Not Bypass Our Checkout"

Shopify says AI shopping will 'not bypass' its checkout

Shopify wants to make the agentic commerce experience feel like a merchant's online store.

On February 11, 2026, during Shopify's Q4 2025 earnings call, President Harley Finkelstein delivered a clear message to investors. He stated that "LLMs will not bypass Shopify's checkout" and that "the complex backend of commerce will always go through Shopify," signaling that no matter how advanced AI agents become, Shopify intends to maintain control over the core payment and order processing functions.

Behind this statement lies a rapid shift where Shopify merchant products are being discovered and purchased on major AI platforms including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot. AI-driven shopping orders have surged 15x since January 2025.

Industry Trends

Agentic commerce — a model where AI agents discover and purchase products on behalf of consumers — has become the defining theme of the e-commerce industry in 2026. At the NRF (National Retail Federation) expo in January 2026, major companies including Google, Walmart, and Shopify presented their agentic commerce visions.

At the core is the "Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP)," co-developed by Shopify and Google. UCP is an open standard for AI agents to connect and transact with any merchant, with over 20 retailers and platforms already expressing support. This framework — with Walmart, Target, Microsoft, and Google participating — is rapidly gaining traction as the infrastructure standard for agentic commerce.

Meanwhile, OpenAI and Stripe announced the "Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP)" in September 2025, deploying "Instant Checkout" functionality on ChatGPT. When asked about the difference between UCP and ACP during the earnings call, Finkelstein emphasized that UCP is "the only protocol that covers the entire commerce journey end-to-end — from discovery to cart to checkout to post-order."

Technical Architecture of Checkout Control

According to Finkelstein, checkout has two dimensions: "frontend" and "backend."

In traditional Shopify stores, Shopify operates both the frontend (the UI buyers interact with) and the backend (order processing and payments). With AI agent-driven transactions, this structure separates. In the case of ChatGPT, for example, OpenAI handles the frontend (screen and forms), while the backend (order processing and payment via Shopify Payments) continues to run on Shopify's infrastructure.

Key design features of UCP include:

• Payment Agnostic: Works with any payment processor, including Shopify Payments
• Preserves Merchant Checkout Logic: Reflects each merchant's unique features such as subscriptions, discount codes, and loyalty programs
• Flexible Architecture: Supports multiple protocols including REST, MCP, AP2, and A2A

The key point for e-commerce merchants is that even when shopping is completed through AI agents, "payments still go through Shopify" and "merchant-specific checkout experiences remain intact." Finkelstein explicitly stated that "for merchants, the same economic terms apply through agentic channels as through their online store."

Agentic Commerce Expansion Strategy

Beyond protecting checkout, Shopify is pursuing a strategy to capture the entire agentic commerce ecosystem.

First, "Agentic Storefronts" enables merchants to distribute products to Google AI Mode, Gemini, ChatGPT, and Microsoft Copilot with one click from the Shopify admin panel. Brands including Glossier, SKIMS, Spanx, and Steve Madden are already live.

Also noteworthy is the "Agentic Plan." This new plan allows brands without a Shopify online store to sell products through AI channels via Shopify's catalog infrastructure. For Shopify, this serves as an entry point for building relationships with previously unreached companies.

In an NRF interview, Finkelstein described agentic commerce as ushering in "merit-based shopping." Since AI agents display results based on product relevance rather than ad spend, even small and medium-sized brands with limited ad budgets have a better chance of being discovered by consumers — if they offer quality products.

Impact and Strategies for E-commerce Merchants

Shopify's approach carries the following practical implications for e-commerce merchants.

For Shopify Merchants: By activating Agentic Storefronts, merchants can sell products on ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Copilot without additional development. Payments are processed through Shopify Payments, and the same economic terms as the online store apply.

For Non-Shopify Merchants: By registering products in the Shopify catalog through the Agentic Plan, merchants can sell through AI channels. A "gradual adoption" approach, with an eye toward eventual full migration to Shopify, is also viable.

Common Actions for All E-commerce Merchants: Improving product data quality is urgent. Finkelstein specifically advised to "check how your catalog catches, how products are indexed, and how information is registered with UCP." Whether AI agents can accurately recommend products depends heavily on the quality of structured product data.

As a caveat, agentic commerce is still in its early stages. While the 15x growth rate is impressive, Shopify itself acknowledges that the base was small. With annual GMV of $378 billion in 2025 and Q4 revenue exceeding $3 billion, the business is performing well — but the share of AI-driven transactions in these figures remains limited.

Conclusion

Shopify's declaration that "checkout will not be bypassed" clearly defines its positioning in the agentic commerce era. The strategy is that even as AI changes the entry point to shopping, the platform controlling commerce's "backbone" will be the ultimate winner.

Key points to watch going forward are how the two protocols — UCP and OpenAI/Stripe's ACP — will coexist or compete, and how far the share of orders through AI channels will actually grow. With annual revenue of $11.6 billion in 2025 and free cash flow exceeding $2 billion, Shopify is undeniably at the center of this battle. For e-commerce merchants, the priority is not to wait for protocol standards to solidify, but to start preparing product data and AI channel readiness now.