Shopify on Monday opened up artificial intelligence-powered tools like a sidekick assistant and image generation features to more users in an effort to make its e-commerce platform more appealing and fuel revenue growth.
The Canada-based company said at its biannual product launch that customers can now use its editing tools on their smartphones to improve the quality of images they use in promotional materials, including emails — a feature that was previously limited to editing product images online.
Shopify also expanded access to Sidekick, a chatbot that assists merchants with questions containing insights about customer behavior, which it has been testing with more than 2,000 users since last year.
Shopify President Harley Finkelstein said the company has released more than 150 updates designed to build a more integrated platform and help merchants grow their businesses with a unified, seamless experience.
The company said last month it would invest in marketing after forecasting its slowest quarterly sales growth in two years. The announcement sent the company's shares plummeting to their lowest in six months, wiping C$25.25 billion from its market capitalization that day.
Shopify's growth soared during the pandemic as stay-at-home orders forced consumers to turn online, but higher inflation and uncertain consumer spending in recent years have hurt the company, whose customer base is largely made up of small and medium-sized businesses.
The company's market capitalization has fallen by more than half from its peak in November 2021 and is now worth C$112.67 billion (US$82.22 billion).
But some analysts see the recent weakness as a buying opportunity.
“SHOP's research and development investments surpass those of its peers, creating unparalleled capabilities and capabilities that keep the company at the cutting edge,” the JPMorgan analysts said, adding that the company has penetrated just 11% of the total services market, worth $60 billion.
(1 dollar = 1.37 Canadian dollars)
