Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ, TSX: SHOP) has
opened its agentic commerce infrastructure to developers, expanding access to tools designed
to help merchants make their products discoverable and purchasable across emerging
AI-powered shopping experiences.
The expansion, announced as part of Shopify’s Spring ’26 Edition, removes the previous
approval requirement for developers building with Shopify’s Universal Commerce Protocol and
Catalog API. Developers can now create end-to-end shopping experiences that move
customers from product discovery to checkout using Shopify’s commerce infrastructure.
The change also gives developers freedom to build shopping agents, marketplaces and
specialized commerce applications.
The Universal Commerce Protocol, co-developed by Shopify and Google, provides a common
framework for AI agents to interact with merchants. It supports commerce functions ranging
from product discovery and carts to checkout, while allowing retailers to maintain their own
rules, discounts and customizations.
Shopify Catalog serves as the discovery layer, organizing product information from millions of
merchants into structured data that AI systems can search and understand. Shopify says
eligible merchant products can be surfaced across AI experiences including ChatGPT, Microsoft
Copilot, AI Mode in Google Search, Gemini and the Shop app.
For merchants, the development creates additional opportunities to reach customers outside
conventional online storefronts. Shopify’s Agentic Storefronts also allow businesses to manage
participating AI channels, review sales and conversion activity, and control product discovery
and checkout settings from the Shopify Admin.

“The shift to agentic commerce will require a shared language across the ecosystem,” Shopify
Vice President of Product Vanessa Lee said when the company introduced UCP earlier this
year.
The Spring ’26 Edition also made Shopify’s AI Toolkit generally available, giving developers
access to Shopify documentation, store data and administrative tools from supported
development environments.
The expansion follows continued growth across Shopify’s commerce platform. The company
reported more than $100 billion in gross merchandise volume during the first quarter of 2026
and said millions of businesses in more than 175 countries use Shopify.