ChatGPT users\u00a0in the U.S. can now make\u00a0Etsy and soon Shopify\u00a0purchases within conversations, marking a next step toward the future of online shopping\u00a0\u2014 both\u00a0for\u00a0consumers and\u00a0the platforms that control\u00a0product discovery, recommendation, and payments. In other words, OpenAI might be on the path to reshaping who holds power in e-commerce.\u00a0<\/p>\n
OpenAI\u2019s new\u00a0\u201cInstant Checkout\u201d feature\u00a0is\u00a0available to ChatGPT Pro, Plus,\u00a0and Free logged-in users\u00a0buying from U.S.-based Etsy sellers,\u00a0with\u00a0more than 1 million Shopify merchants like Glossier, Skims, Spanx, and Vuori \u201ccoming soon,\u201d\u00a0per OpenAI<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Instant Checkout builds on\u00a0previous\u00a0shopping features on ChatGPT<\/a>\u00a0that surfaced relevant products, images, reviews, prices, and direct links to merchants in response to shopping questions like \u201cwhat should I get my friend who loves ceramics?\u201d or \u201cbest sneakers to wear to the office.\u201d\u00a0Now, instead of having to leave the conversation, users can just tap \u201cBuy\u201d to confirm their order, shipping, and payment details\u00a0(options include Apple Pay, Google Pay, Stripe, or credit card)\u00a0to complete the purchase.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Last year,\u00a0Perplexity introduced<\/a>\u00a0a similar in-chat shopping and payments feature. Microsoft also offers merchants the ability to create in-chat storefront capabilities with the Copilot Merchant Program.\u00a0<\/p>\n This\u00a0type of frictionless experience has the potential to spark a new movement in how people shop online \u2014 one that moves away from search engines like Google and e-commerce platforms like Amazon toward conversational agents with curated recommendations, comparisons, and easy checkout experiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s\u00a0also setting the stage for new power brokers to\u00a0emerge\u00a0in e-commerce. Google and Amazon have\u00a0long\u00a0been the gatekeepers for retail discovery.\u00a0If more purchases start inside AI chatbots, the firms behind them will suddenly have more control over what products are surfaced\u00a0and\u00a0what\u00a0commissions or fees they charge.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Both\u00a0Amazon<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Google<\/a>\u00a0have previously\u00a0leveraged\u00a0their dominance to favor their own products or preferred partners, pushing down competitors in search results or charging steep fees to sellers simply to\u00a0maintain\u00a0visibility.\u00a0OpenAI said in a blog post that the product results it surfaces are \u201corganic and unsponsored, ranked purely on relevance to the user,\u201d and that it will charge merchants a \u201csmall fee\u201d for completed purchases.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco TechCrunch has reached out\u00a0to OpenAI\u00a0for more information.\u00a0<\/p>\n Along with OpenAI\u2019s\u00a0introduction of in-chat checkout, the AI firm also noted that it will open source its\u00a0Agentic Commerce Protocol\u00a0(ACP), the tech that powers Instant Checkout built with Stripe, so that other merchants and developers can integrate agentic checkout.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cStripe is building the economic infrastructure for AI,\u201d Will\u00a0Gaybrick, president of technology and business at Stripe, said in a statement. \u201cThat means re-architecting today\u2019s commerce systems and creating new AI-powered experiences for billions of people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n While some may balk at handing ChatGPT private payment information, the\u00a0company\u00a0says orders, payments, and fulfillment are handled by the merchant using their existing systems. ChatGPT merely acts as an agent, an intermediary that can securely pass along information between user and merchant.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Open sourcing ACP makes it easier for merchants to integrate with ChatGPT, widening the\u00a0adoption\u00a0of AI chatbots\u00a0that function as a virtual storefront.\u00a0It also expands OpenAI\u2019s potential control as a gatekeeper for retail discovery and checkout, and could position the firm to be the de facto architect of the AI commerce ecosystem.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 27-29, 2025\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n