GoKawiilListen to this post
AI has made it easier than ever for small business owners to open up shop, Harley Finkelstein, Shopify’s president, told CNBC’s “Mad Money.” “Every 26 seconds, a brand new entrepreneur gets their first sale on Shopify,” he said.
Finkelstein said traffic and orders from AI platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini to Shopify stores tripled over the past year. A big chunk of that is going to small players, not big brands: 75% of AI-driven purchases last quarter came from product categories outside the top 100.
“AI is kicking entrepreneurship into overdrive,” Finkelstein said. “This is going to be the golden age of entrepreneurship, and Shopify is powering it.”
He also pointed to Sidekick, Shopify’s AI assistant, which fielded 34 million conversations last quarter. Merchants who lean on it early tend to land their first five sales faster, something Finkelstein says can make or break a new business.
Shopify shares jumped 17% after the earnings report, though the stock is still down 8% for the year.