An update from our Director of Innovation: Google, Shopify and the next phase of eCommerce

Описание: January has already delivered several important developments across Shopify and the wider eCommerce ecosystem.

To help cut through the noise, Liam Quinn, our Innovation Director, has recorded a short video outlining what has changed and why it matters for merchants.

January highlights

SHOPIFY AND GOOGLE ACCOUNCE THE UNIVERSAL COMMERCE PROTOCOL

A new framework designed to connect product data, AI agents, and commerce platforms end-to-end. This is expected to become a standard for how AI-driven and agent-led commerce operates. It will layer in merchant-specific context, such as loyalty schemes and shipping configurations, to achieve the same functional experience away from the storefront.

GOOGLE SELECTED AS THE UNDERLYING AI MODEL POWERING APPLE DEVICES

This positions Google as the intelligence layer behind a significant share of global consumer hardware and reinforces its role as the primary starting point for future commerce interactions (Barring any major new hardware emerging from the likes of OpenAI or Meta).

OPENAI CONFIRM ADVERTISING ROLLOUT IN CHATGPT

Despite previously stating that ads would be a last resort business model, ChatGPT will start monetising product discovery. It may also present an early opportunity for merchants to test paid visibility as early adopters.

Orders that were discovered from ChatGPT are confirmed as costing 4% of the order value taken directly from Shopify - purely a cost on conversion. For some brands, this will be great value vs. ad costs. Regardless, a merchant will need to build authority to be a suggested purchase in the first place.

There are rumours of pure ad model costing $60 per 1000 impression, which might be less appealing.

What else is happening?

Uniqlo launched Live Station in the UK, highlighting the continued growth of live commerce and interactive retail formats.
Amazon Go & Amazon Fresh physical locations are all being shut down. While seeing positive data on the uptake of physical locations, Amazon blames a lack of a joined-up brand & customer experience for cutting back and focusing on same-day delivery logistics.
Recommerce/Preowned has been a major growth trend on-site or tied into a physical store proposition in the last 12-18 months. Ikea have announced this month that they're rolling out their secondhand buying/selling strategy across Europe.

Each month, we’ll continue to track these developments closely and share what they mean for you and your business. Keep an eye out for our next innovation update.

Visualsoft. Open on every channel.

--

Social Links:

Website: http://www.visualsoft.co.uk
Instagram:   / visualsoft  
Facebook:   / visualsoftltd  
X:   / visualsoft  
Linkedin:   / visualsoft-uk-ltd  

--

Visualsoft Ltd
Visualsoft House, Prince's Wharf, Stockton-on-Tees TS17 6QY
01642 633604

Find us everywhere @visualsoft