D2C brands don't need an AI team to get discovered and grow, says Shopflo

Direct-to-consumer brands can grow and be discovered without needing an AI team, according to Mihir Shah, Chief Business Officer at Shopflo by Pine Labs. At TechSparks 2026, Shah unveiled two ways Shopflo helps brands navigate the shift in shopping behavior towards AI assistants. The first is agentic commerce, which connects product catalogs to AI-powered discovery and shopping surfaces.

The second is AI agents that improve growth and operational efficiency. Shah emphasized that brands do not need to build an AI team; they need Shopflo to manage growth and efficiency. Shopflo's integration with Pine Labs' payments infrastructure allows product catalogs to be streamed to AI-native platforms like ChatGPT and Claude, enabling shoppers to discover relevant products and proceed to checkout.

Shah noted that AI visibility does not replace SEO, which remains crucial for website traffic. Shopflo's Growth Orchestrator, still in beta, consolidates various growth decisions such as conversion rates, average order value, returns, customer retention, and profitability. Brands can set priorities and receive personalized recommendations based on their store's performance data.

During the demo, Shah showcased how the system could identify drop-offs at certain stages and suggest solutions to improve conversions. The final decision on how much autonomy to give AI agents remains in the hands of the brands. For lean D2C businesses, Shopflo offers a streamlined approach to managing growth decisions with the help of AI, rather than adopting every new AI tool.