--- title: "On Shopify's Q2 earnings call they stated that 75% of AI-attributed purchases in Q2 landed outside Shopify's top 100 categories." description: "75% of Shopify's AI-attributed purchases landed outside its top 100 categories. Structured product data lets agents match precise intent." date: 2026-08-09 dateModified: 2026-08-09 author: "Malin Gaertig" canonical: https://marksuite.ai/insights/shopify-ai-attributed-purchases-structured-catalogue categories: ["Agentic commerce"] publisher: MARK (https://marksuite.ai) --- # On Shopify's Q2 earnings call they stated that 75% of AI-attributed purchases in Q2 landed outside Shopify's top 100 categories. *Market data — 2026-08-09* AI agents are reshaping how niche products get found. Shopify's Q2 data shows 75% of AI-attributed purchases landed outside its top 100 categories — not because the mix shifted, but because structured product data lets agents match on precise intent instead of keyword popularity. On Shopify's Q2 earnings call they stated that 75% of AI-attributed purchases in Q2 landed outside Shopify's top 100 categories. That might not necessarily be a surprise for some since Shopify's customer base skews niche. At the same time, Shopify says its share of sales outside major categories has held steady since 2025. So the mix hasn't shifted, but how those sales are arriving has changed. During the call Shopify's president illustrated the example of a car seat. When a shopper asks an agent for 'the best car seat that fits three across a sedan', a traditional search engine ranks on the keyword 'car seat'. An agent works through the dimensions, the vehicle type and the fact there are three seats and matches on all of it at once. That's a significant shift because under keyword-ranked search, a niche product existed but usually stayed buried under bigger, better-optimised competitors because ranking rewards scale and ad spend nearly as much as relevance. A shopper had to wade through a ranked list built on popularity to find it, if they found it at all. Commercial that's relevant because AI search powered by a [structured catalogue](/product/feed-guardian) converts at twice the rate of AI search working off a scraped website. Same shopper intent, same AI channel, the only variable is whether the underlying product data was actually built to be matched against. That gap is the difference between winning or losing a sale you didn't know you were competing for. The underlying selection logic isn't platform-specific. Any agent matching on structured attributes will favour the more precisely-described product over the more prominent one, regardless of which platform hosts it. What differs right now is readiness because not every platform's merchants have a catalogue exposing those attributes the way Shopify's does. The brands that work this out first won't necessarily be the biggest. They'll be the ones whose product data actually answers the question being asked. That's the question MARK answers: does your product data speak the language agents are matching on. Build for Selection. ## Key takeaways - 75% of Shopify's AI-attributed Q2 purchases landed outside its top 100 categories — the mix didn't shift, but how sales arrived did. - AI search powered by a structured catalogue converts at twice the rate of AI search working off a scraped website. - The winners won't be the biggest brands; they'll be the ones whose product data answers the precise question the agent is matching on. Source: https://marksuite.ai/insights/shopify-ai-attributed-purchases-structured-catalogue ## See also (related MARK analysis) - [Walmart's checkout inside ChatGPT converted three times worse than its own website. It opened the door to AI agents anyway.](https://marksuite.ai/insights/walmart-amazon-shopee-ai-shopping-agents-retail-profit) - [Just in: What Google Killing Assistant for Gemini Means for Brands Selling Through AI Agents](https://marksuite.ai/insights/google-killing-assistant-gemini-brands-selling-through-ai-agents) - [AI Shopping Isn't a Future Behaviour. Retailers Are Already Measuring It](https://marksuite.ai/insights/ai-shopping-retailers-already-measuring-it) - [What Australia's UCP Checkout Rollout Means for Brands Selling Through AI Agents](https://marksuite.ai/insights/australia-ucp-checkout-rollout-brands-selling-through-ai-agents) - [Product suite](https://marksuite.ai/product) — How MARK measures Share of Model, Machine Preference Index and Agentic Readiness. - [Framework guides](https://marksuite.ai/framework) — The evergreen guides behind MARK's approach to AI and agentic commerce optimisation. ## About the publisher This analysis is published by MARK (https://marksuite.ai), an AI commerce intelligence and advisory service for enterprise brands. MARK measures how AI models such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and DeepSeek discover, represent, evaluate and select brands, identifies who benefits instead, diagnoses why, and turns the evidence into business context and prioritised action. Written by Malin Gaertig. ## About the author Malin Gaertig is a key person to speak to about Agentic Commerce and how it impacts a company's commercial growth. Malin founded MARK, an AI commerce intelligence and strategic advisory service that combines proprietary technology with 15 years of experience across growth marketing, digital, ecommerce and transformation. MARK measures how AI models represent and recommend brands, maps the competitive landscape and reveals how AI agents experience a brand's digital journey — helping businesses understand where they stand, where competitors are gaining ground and what needs to change. Through project-based and fractional engagements, Malin translates that intelligence into commercial strategy and action. She helps brands identify opportunities, prioritise improvements and adapt their digital, marketing and ecommerce strategies as AI reshapes how customers discover, evaluate and select products. MARK provides the intelligence. Malin brings the interpretation and strategic direction. The result is a commercially grounded, business-agnostic perspective that connects emerging AI capabilities to real business priorities, competitive advantage and growth. Related MARK pages: https://marksuite.ai/score (AI Commerce Benchmark), https://marksuite.ai/product (AI commerce intelligence and measurement), https://marksuite.ai/framework (framework guides). Cite as: MARK — https://marksuite.ai