If you’re still thinking about e-commerce in terms of websites, shopping carts, and conversion funnels, you’re already living in the past. Today, OpenAI didn’t just launch a new feature; it fired the starting gun on the next era of commerce, and it’s happening right inside ChatGPT.
This isn’t an incremental update. This is a seismic shift. The launch of Instant Checkout within ChatGPT marks the dawn of what OpenAI calls “agentic commerce”. The core idea is simple but revolutionary: the AI is no longer just a research tool—it’s your personal shopper, and it can now complete the purchase for you.
From Search to Transaction: A Seamless Leap
Here’s how it works: A user can ask ChatGPT something as natural as “find me the best running shoes under $100” or “what are some good gifts for a ceramics lover?”. ChatGPT will surface relevant products, and here’s the game-changer: if a product supports Instant Checkout, the user can simply tap “Buy,” confirm their details, and complete the transaction without ever leaving the chat interface.
For the user, the friction of navigating to a website, adding to a cart, and filling out forms evaporates. For merchants, this is a direct line to over 700 million weekly users, turning every conversation into a potential point of sale. Initially launching with U.S. Etsy sellers, this feature will soon expand to over a million Shopify merchants, including major brands like Glossier, SKIMS, and Vuori.
Crucially, product results are organic and unsponsored, ranked purely on relevance to the user’s query. While enabling Instant Checkout is a factor in ranking, it doesn’t grant preferential treatment, ensuring a user-centric experience.
The Engine Room: The Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP)
What makes this all possible is a powerful, open-source standard called the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), co-developed with payments giant Stripe. Think of ACP as the universal language that allows AI agents, users, and businesses to communicate and transact securely.
This isn’t about OpenAI building a walled garden. It’s about creating an open foundation for the next generation of commerce. The protocol is designed to be platform-agnostic, integrate quickly without overhauling backend systems, and—most importantly—keep merchants in full control. Sellers remain the merchant of record, handling payments through their existing systems, managing fulfillment, and owning the customer relationship from start to finish.
For businesses already on Stripe, enabling this capability can be as simple as adding a single line of code. For others, the protocol is flexible enough to work with different payment processors.
Why This Is the Tipping Point for Conversational Commerce
We’ve talked about conversational commerce for years, but it’s always been clunky. This is different. OpenAI has built this experience on a foundation of trust and security.
• User Control: Users explicitly confirm every step before any action is taken.
• Secure Payments: Encrypted payment tokens are authorized only for specific amounts and merchants, with user permission.
• Minimal Data Sharing: Only necessary order information is shared with the merchant.
As Will Gaybrick, President at Stripe, puts it, this is about “re-architecting today’s commerce systems” for the AI era.
My Take: The line between discovery and purchase has just been erased. As tech entrepreneurs and business leaders, our roadmaps need to reflect this new reality. The question is no longer “How do we drive traffic to our site?” but rather, “How do we make our products natively purchasable within the AI interfaces where our customers are already spending their time?”
This is just the beginning. The age of agentic commerce is here. It’s time to start building for it.