OpenAI has just taken a bold step: you can now purchase products directly inside ChatGPT. This isn’t a toy experiment—it’s a fundamental shift in how commerce is delivered.
Here’s where things stand today (and where they’re heading):
Today (US only): ChatGPT users — whether free, Plus, or Pro — can buy from U.S. Etsy sellers inline, without leaving the chat interface.
Soon (coming months): Over one million Shopify merchants (brands like Glossier, SKIMS, Spanx, Vuori, etc.) will be enabled for the same seamless experience—no redirects, no separate checkout pages.
What’s next: OpenAI plans to support multi-item carts, expand to more regions beyond the U.S., and broaden merchant integrations.
This isn’t just “adding commerce.” It’s collapsing the funnel: discovery, buying, and transaction all exist in one flow now.
This shift is powered by a new open standard: the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), co-developed by OpenAI and Stripe.
Here’s how it works in brief:
Structured product discovery: ChatGPT surfaces relevant product options in conversation (price, images, variants) using data from merchant catalogs.
In-chat “Buy” triggers: If a product supports Instant Checkout, ChatGPT shows a Buy button. The user confirms payment and shipping details without leaving chat.
Shared Payment Token (SPT): Rather than exposing your whole card, ChatGPT requests a token scoped to a specific merchant and cart total. That token is passed securely to the merchant, who processes the actual payment (through Stripe or another payment provider) using existing systems.
Merchant control is retained: Merchants remain the merchant of record, handling fulfillment, inventory, returns, and customer relations. ChatGPT acts as the agent.
Open source & standards: ACP is open source, allowing developers and merchants to build integrations freely without being locked in.
This protocol is the plumbing, not the show. But its openness suggests that OpenAI is aiming not only to operate this environment, but to expand a broader agentic commerce ecosystem around ChatGPT and beyond.
When you combine the commerce shift (discovery → purchase in chat) with ACP underneath, you get a paradigm shift in e-commerce. Some key implications:
Funnel collapse = lower friction. No more “go to site, add to cart, checkout.” The step-by-step funnel is flattened into one conversational flow.
AI becomes the new storefront. The place people “go” to shop is increasingly ChatGPT, not Google or Amazon or a merchant website.
Discoverability shifts. Ranking inside ChatGPT’s recommendation engine becomes as critical as SEO is today.
Layer of aggregation intensifies. ChatGPT can assemble multi-brand bundles or outfits seamlessly — fetching items from different merchants in one chat flow.
Merchant risk & opportunity recalibrated. Being on Shopify (or using ACP) becomes a strategic moat—or absence thereof becomes a liability.
As Shopify puts it:
“Shopify merchants will be able to sell directly through ChatGPT conversations—no links or no redirects, just seamless commerce.” Shopify
Vanessa Lee, VP of Product at Shopify, adds:
“Shopping is changing fast. People are discovering products in AI conversations, not just through search or ads. This will let our merchants show up naturally in those moments and give shoppers a way to buy without breaking their flow.” Shopify
Etsy’s side is equally optimistic. Rafe Colburn, Etsy’s Chief Product & Technology Officer, said:
“ChatGPT helps us meet buyers where they are.” TechRadar
The announcement sparked sharp moves in financial markets: Etsy’s stock leapt (though later pulled back) and Shopify shares jumped in response. Reuters
But some analysts urged caution. For example:
“We are encouraged to see Etsy adapting for agentic (commerce) … but the long-term benefits remain uncertain.” — Nathan Feather, Morgan Stanley Investors
That skepticism is fair. Execution is hard. Merchant adoption, buyer trust, policy, fraud, global scaling—all have to line up.
Meanwhile, retail metrics already show early signs of ChatGPT’s influence: one study found that 20% of Walmart’s referral traffic now comes from ChatGPT, with similar effects for Etsy and Target. Digiday
If you combine referral migration + now built-in purchasing, the shift is accelerating.
If you’re in e-commerce, this moment demands strategic action. Here’s your playbook:
| Move | Why it’s urgent |
|---|---|
| Integrate with Shopify / enable ACP / Instant Checkout | To be discoverable and transactable inside ChatGPT |
| Expose rich structured catalog & metadata | Good AI dialogue needs good data: variants, attributes, descriptions, availability |
| Optimize for conversational discovery, not just SEO | Think “what would someone ask ChatGPT?” rather than just web keywords |
| Prepare fulfillment, returns & operations | A bad chat purchase experience will nullify gains |
| Measure new signals | Conversational engagement, conversion inside chat, chat abandonment, attribution |
| Experiment with bundles / multi-brand flows | In chat you can pull items from multiple merchants—be ready to compete in that space |
| Prepare for regional rollout & multi-cart support | The stack will evolve; early adopters gain experience |
Data mismatch & latency risk: If your inventory, pricing, or product data is stale or misaligned, trust will break fast.
Brand control dilution: When ChatGPT re-assembles your product among many, brand narrative and direct relationships risk being diluted.
Dependence on platform rules: If you’re heavily dependent on OpenAI/ACP, policy or fee shifts could hurt you.
Security, fraud & compliance: Handling payments, tokens, and sensitive customer data inside chat brings new regulatory burdens.
Global rollout friction: Payments, currencies, local retail rules, tax, shipping—all must scale internationally.
The significance isn’t only in adding in-chat buying. It’s that chat is becoming commerce. Over time:
The boundary between “conversational help” and “transaction” dissolves.
Discovery, support, and transacting become one stream.
The edge for brands won’t just be SEO, UX, or conversion optimization—it will be agentic positioning: how well your products are surfaced in conversational contexts.
The locus of value may shift from “site traffic ownership” to “agent-native discoverability.”
In short: the digital storefront as we’ve known it is being subsumed by conversation itself.
ChatGPT is no longer just a search or assistant tool. It’s becoming a shopping destination. With Instant Checkout and the open-sourced Agentic Commerce Protocol, OpenAI & Stripe have laid the foundation. Etsy is the initial launch, Shopify is coming soon, and the roadmap is broad.
For brands and retailers, this is the kind of moment where early positioning matters. If you can’t show up inside conversation, you risk being sidelined in the era of intelligent commerce.
This is more than a new feature. It’s a redefinition of where and how commerce happens—inside the chat, powered by AI, modular and fluid.