Perplexity Rolls Out Its AI-Powered Ecommerce Experience in the US

“A lot of people that were using Perplexity [used it] to research potential purchases,” said Shevelenko. “We saw this behavior and [it was] a natural extension from just giving you an answer [to] take the next step of purchasing.”

The startup is integrating Shopify’s API on its platform to enhance its ecommerce experience, gaining access to Shopify’s product catalog and merchants. Shopify powers ecommerce capabilities for brands like Kylie Cosmetics and Gymshark.

Perplexity isn’t directly working with merchants beyond Shopify’s merchants. Instead, Perplexity acts as an agent, completing transactions for users from those merchants, according to Shevelenko.

Buy with Pro is powered by a classifier, or a machine-learning model that detects user intent—particularly when someone is researching products like shoes or earbuds. When the system identifies this intent, it triggers a shopping card displaying the most relevant items, including details like price. According to Perplexity, these cards aren’t sponsored—they’re AI-driven recommendations tailored to each user’s search.

Getting into visual search

Perplexity is also launching a ‘Snap to Shop’ feature, a visual search tool akin to Google’s image search. Users can snap pictures of products and upload them to Perplexity, which will then surface relevant items based on the image. This feature wasn’t a part of Perplexity’s test phase.

“A big difference between Google and us is that one-click seamless experience inside of Perplexity,” said Shevelenko.

As a part of its ecommerce rollout, the startup is also launching its Perplexity Merchant program for free, designed to help large retailers share their product specifications with the platform. In exchange, Perplexity gets real-time details like price points on available products.

This initiative mirrors Perplexity’s approach with publishers. When publishers participate in the Perplexity Publisher program and have more content indexed, their material is more likely to appear as a source. Similarly, merchants with detailed product data in Perplexity’s index will see their offerings surface more frequently, especially in search results tied to the shopping experience.

Merchants can also access Perplexity’s API tools to customize how their products appear in search results and use a custom dashboard to gain insights into shopping trends, helping them better highlight and promote their products. This is separate from Perplexity’s sponsored search ad offerings.

“What merchants care about is volume,” said Shevelenko. “That sets the stage for more interesting commercial relationships down the road.”