Lara Gut-Behrami wins as ski season starts in Soelden
The 32-year-old Swiss had a storming second run, jumping from fourth to first in the standings with a time of 2mins 18.94sec.
Italian Federica Brignone led after the first run but was pipped from the top of the podium by two-hundredths of a second as she recorded a time of 2:18.96.
The podium for the World Cup curtain-raiser was rounded off by Slovak Petra Vlhova, who posted a time of 2:19.08.
Shiffrin, the most successful skier in the history of the World Cup, began the new season with a sixth place finish, slipping one spot in the standings between her first and second runs.
The 28-year-old American, now a five-time overall World Cup winner with a record 88 victories to her name, finished 1.40 seconds behind Gut-Behrami.