By Shopify StaffShopify StaffShopify Staff
Publication Date: 2026-04-02 00:00:00
Shopping with artificial intelligence (AI) is on the rise, and that’s good news for ecommerce companies that are prepared to serve this new consumer behavior. Traffic to US retail websites from AI sources grew 693% during the 2025 holiday season, according to Adobe Analytics. A follow-up report from Adobe found that AI-referred shoppers were 33% less likely to bounce from a retail site; they also converted 31% more than those from other sources.
Perplexity is one of the AI platforms driving this change in online shopping behavior. Here’s what you need to know about how Perplexity Shopping works, how it compares to ChatGPT and Google AI Mode, and how to optimize your store so your products show up when AI-powered shoppers are ready to buy.
What is Perplexity Shopping and how does it work?
Perplexity Shopping is the ecommerce feature built into Perplexity, an AI platform that answers users’ questions with responses it sources and cites in real time from across the web. When a user asks a shopping-related question like “What’s the best DSLR camera under $2,000?” Perplexity generates a written answer with cited recommendations.
Users can search for any type of product on Perplexity Shopping, but the tool tends to save shoppers the most time when making research-heavy purchases in categories like electronics, home goods, and skin care, where there are more specs, reviews, and trade-offs to compare.
Clicking the Shopping tab at the top of the results page displays…
