Shopify President Harley Finkelstein on Q4 results: 2025 was company 'at full throttle'

Shopify President Harley Finkelstein addresses the company’s 2024 performance and its strategic pivot toward an AI-driven commerce era. Despite missing earnings expectations, the company achieved significant growth with a 29% increase in Gross Merchandise Volume to $378 billion and a 30% rise in revenue to $11.5 billion, now powering 14% of the U.S. e-commerce market. Central to Shopify's future is the co-development of the Universal Commerce Protocol with Google, an open standard designed to connect AI agents with brands across platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot. This infrastructure includes agentic storefronts that allow merchants such as Gymshark and Skims to syndicate product catalogs directly into AI search environments. With AI-driven searches increasing fifteenfold, the company is positioning itself as the essential rail system for how global consumers will discover and purchase goods through autonomous agents.