Shopify (SHOP) shares rallied on Sept. 22 after Meta Platforms (META) said it will integrate the firm's Shop Pay checkout into its newly launched personal artificial intelligence (AI) assistant, Muse. The expanded partnership will enable Muse to browse Shopify merchants and execute autonomous transactions on behalf of users via Shop Pay. The announcement comes as Shopify stock is already staging an exciting comeback, currently up more than 50% versus its year-to-date low.
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Meta Platforms is integrating Shopify Catalog and Shop Pay's one-tap checkout into its mobile AI assistant. For SHOP stock, the deal is bullish as it establishes the firm as the essential back-end infrastructure for agentic AI shopping, silencing fears that external AI models could disintermediate e-commerce platforms. While rivals like Amazon (AMZN) have actively blocked Muse from scraping or accessing their retail sites, Shopify's open ecosystem approach grants millions of merchants access to META's high-intent AI user base.
As transactions process through Shop Pay, the company will capture additional gross merchandise volume (GMV) and processing fees, reinforcing its competitive moat as the preferred transaction engine for next-gen AI commerce. Despite Shopify shares' recent outperformance, options traders remain positive on what lies ahead for the Canadian company. The put-to-call ratio on contracts expiring mid-October sits at 0.32x as of this writing, signaling a strong bullish skew.
And the upper price on those options contracts, according to Barchart's data, is set at about $161 currently, indicating potential for a more than 8% rally over the next four weeks. Note that SHOP has a history of losing about 1.37% in October, followed by a remarkable 12.63% gain on average in November, a seasonal pattern that further improves its near-term appeal. Crucially, Wall Street analysts also remain convinced that Shopify's ongoing surge is not at all out of steam just yet.
According to Barchart, the consensus rating on SHOP shares sits at "Strong Buy," with the mean price target of about $174 indicating potential for a nearly 20% rally through the remainder of this year. On the date of publication, Wajeeh Khan did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes.
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