SHOPLINE: AI adoption boosts GMV by 1.2x for 40% of Hong Kong merchants

Non-adopters fall behind as AI merchants outperform within the SHOPLINE ecosystem.

Forty percent of Hong Kong merchants that use artificial intelligence (AI) achieved an average gross merchandise volume (GMV) 1.2 times higher than non-adopters, according to the SHOPLINE Hong Kong eCommerce Whitepaper 2026.

It also found that merchants recorded an 11% rise in average GMV in 2025 and a 31.9% repurchase rate, as overall GMV fell 2.1%. Average order value (AOV) increased to $669, with existing customers accounting for 53.6% of total GMV.

Online-merging-offline (OMO) merchants, which made up 38.5% of the base, generated 62.9% of total GMV and recorded average sales 7.7 times higher than pure online stores. Adoption of the OMO model rose 7.4% year on year (YoY).

The report also showed that 40% of merchants have deeply applied AI features in operations.

The performance gap between AI adopters and non-adopters widened by 48.7% compared with 2024, the report said.

Referral traffic from generative AI platforms accounted for 2.5% of total traffic, whilst AI-driven referral traffic rose by 485% YoY in December 2025.

Customer retention strengthened, with repurchase rates rising for a third consecutive year to 31.9%. Merchants with brand-owned apps recorded average GMV 11.7 times higher than those without, alongside a 22.7% increase in AOV.

By category, 3C accessories and electronics posted GMV growth of 41.9% and an AOV of $1,261. Cross-border merchants rose 7% in number and recorded GMV growth of 11.3%.

SHOPLINE launched Hong Kong-exclusive tools including the AI Widget and AI Smart Lister.

The AI Widget generates code-based store features from natural language input, whilst the AI Smart Lister converts product images into search engine optimisation listings and enables product uploads in under 30 seconds via chat interfaces.

Vincent Kan, General Manager of SHOPLINE Hong Kong, said the company is building AI integration through open APIs and data standards to connect merchants to external AI systems.