# Turn ChatGPT Into Your New Sales Channel: A Guide to Agentic Commerce

OpenAI's Instant Checkout turns ChatGPT into a shopping platform. Learn how your brand can access 700M high-intent shoppers and the data trade-offs to consider.

ChatGPT is already sending 20% of Walmart's referral traffic. If you've been watching your Google Analytics lately, you've probably noticed it: traffic from ChatGPT is growing while traditional search slowly declines. Brands everywhere are watching AI change how people discover products. People are getting product recommendations from ChatGPT instead of clicking through from Google. They're asking AI what to buy instead of browsing your site. The bad news? AI is fundamentally changing product discovery, whether you're ready or not. The good news? OpenAI just gave you a way to turn those browsers into buyers. And the better news? These are high-intent shoppers ready to purchase—better than your average SEO traffic. What You'll Learn: How ChatGPT Instant Checkout works and who's eligible right now Why this traffic is higher-intent than traditional SEO visitors The strategic shift from search-based to conversational commerce Critical customer data implications that most brands are overlooking Technical requirements and integration timeline for your platform Post-purchase opt-in strategies to maintain your owned audience When this makes sense (and when it doesn't) for your business model Reading time: 7min What Changed OpenAI launched Instant Checkout, and it's a big deal. The 700 million people who use ChatGPT every week can now buy products without ever leaving the conversation. Available today: US Etsy sellers can sell directly in ChatGPT. Coming soon: Over 1 million Shopify merchants, including Glossier, SKIMS, Spanx, and Vuori The experience is surprisingly simple. Someone asks ChatGPT, "Best running shoes under $100." ChatGPT shows relevant products. If your product has Instant Checkout enabled, a "Buy" button appears right there. User taps it, confirms shipping and payment, and they're done. Order complete. No link-outs. No friction. No opportunity for them to get distracted and abandon their cart. Why This Actually Matters More Than Another Sales Channel The Traffic Problem You Already Have ChatGPT and other AI tools are already answering questions that used to send people to your website. Users get detailed product recommendations without ever clicking through to Google. You're losing top-of-funnel traffic to AI, and that's only going to accelerate. Your SEO traffic is shifting. Those same queries that used to lead to your product pages are getting answered by AI—and keeping users inside the AI interface. Why Instant Checkout Is Different (and Better) Instant Checkout isn't about replacing the traffic you're losing. It's about accessing better traffic. Traditional SEO traffic: Someone searches "running shoes," clicks through multiple results, browses around, maybe compares prices, and often leaves without buying. ChatGPT Instant Checkout traffic: Someone asks, "What are the best running shoes under $100 for someone with flat feet?" They're not just browsing. They're not still researching. They're asking what to buy. These aren't casual browsers. They're high-intent shoppers who've already decided to purchase. They're just looking for the right product. And instead of leaking potential customers at multiple touchpoints (Google search results page → your homepage → product page → add to cart → checkout), the entire funnel collapses into one conversation. Question → recommendation → purchase. The First-Mover Advantage Right now, not everyone can do this. OpenAI is onboarding merchants selectively. Early adopters will shape how ChatGPT understands their products, how their items get surfaced in conversations, and how they're positioned against competitors. When this becomes saturated—and it will—being established in the system will matter. Just like early SEO adopters had advantages that later entrants struggled to replicate. How It Actually Works The technical side is actually surprisingly straightforward. A user asks a shopping question in ChatGPT. ChatGPT shows relevant products based on organic ranking—these results are unsponsored, purely based on relevance. If your product has Instant Checkout enabled, a "Buy" button appears alongside it. User taps "Buy," confirms shipping and payment. The order gets sent to your existing systems via the Agentic Commerce Protocol. You fulfill exactly as you do now. Nothing changes on your end. You stay in complete control. You remain the merchant of record. You handle fulfillment, returns, customer service, and all customer communication. ChatGPT is just the channel where discovery and purchase happen. The whole system is powered by the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), an open-source standard that OpenAI built with Stripe. The protocol defines how AI agents, shoppers, and businesses communicate to complete transactions securely. The Strategic Shift to Agentic Positioning This isn't just about adding another sales channel. Product discovery is fundamentally changing. From Keywords to Conversations Traditional SEO taught us to think in keywords. "Running shoes." "Women's running shoes." "Best running shoes for flat feet." People don't talk to AI that way. They have actual conversations: "What should I get my friend who loves ceramics?" "I need sneakers I can wear to the office that don't look like dad shoes." "Gift ideas for someone training for their first marathon" Your products need to make sense in how people naturally talk, not just how they search. The context works differently. The attributes that make your product relevant in a conversation are often different than the keywords that rank on Google. Discovery is Contextual In traditional e-commerce, customers browse categories or search specific terms. In conversational commerce, ChatGPT picks up on nuance, context, and implied needs. Someone asking about "comfortable work shoes" might get totally different recommendations if they mention standing all day versus sitting at a desk. ChatGPT can reason about use cases, preferences, and constraints in ways that traditional search never could. This means your product descriptions, attributes, and brand presentation all matter in new ways. You're not just optimizing for a search algorithm anymore—you're positioning for an AI that's actually trying to help someone find the right product. The Amazon and Google Challenge Make no mistake: this is OpenAI's move to compete with Amazon and Google for e-commerce dominance. They're not trying to send traffic elsewhere. They're trying to keep it inside ChatGPT. For you, that means a decision: Do you want to be part of that new ecosystem early, while it's still forming? Or wait to see what happens while others establish themselves? Consider where you want your products to be discovered in 2026. The shift is already happening. Who Can Do This (And How to Get Started) Automatically Eligible Etsy and Shopify merchants—over 1 million of them—are being automatically onboarded. If you're on either platform, you're likely already eligible. For Everyone Else OpenAI is accepting applications and onboarding merchants on a rolling basis. The process starts at their developer portal, where you can apply to make your products available through Instant Checkout. Technical Requirements If you already use Stripe for payments: You can enable agentic payments with as little as one line of code. If you use a different payment processor: You can still participate using Stripe's Shared Payment Token API or the Delegated Payments specification included in the Agentic Commerce Protocol—without switching your primary payment provider. What you need to provide: A product feed meeting OpenAI's specifications Integration with the Agentic Commerce Protocol Your existing payment and fulfillment systems (no changes required) Current Limitations and What's Coming Right now, Instant Checkout supports: US sellers and buyers only Single-item purchases only Limited merchant pool OpenAI plans to expand: Multi-item carts Additional geographic regions More merchant categories and types The rollout is happening throughout 2025, with new merchants being added regularly. What to Do Right Now Immediate Actions Start with eligibility. Are you on Shopify or Etsy? If yes, you're likely automatically eligible or can be easily onboarded. If not, figure out whether you should apply through OpenAI's developer program. Audit your product data. Look at your product descriptions, attributes, and images through a new lens. Do they make sense in a conversational context? Are they detailed enough for AI to understand use cases? Do they capture the qualities that would matter to someone asking for recommendations? Check your payment setup. Using Stripe? Implementation will be simple. If not, you'll need to understand what integration requires and whether Stripe's Shared Payment Token API makes sense for your situation. Investigate the customer data flow. Before enabling Instant Checkout, find out exactly what customer information and marketing permissions you'll receive. Contact OpenAI or review the ACP documentation. If marketing consent doesn't transfer automatically, review alternative ways to enroll new purchasers into your online marketing. Consider applying early. If you're not automatically eligible, the application process is open now. Getting in the queue early puts you ahead of competitors who wait. Strategic Considerations Beyond the technical setup, evaluate these questions: How do your products show up in conversational contexts? If someone asks ChatGPT for recommendations in your category, what would they ask? How would they describe what they're looking for? What questions naturally lead to your products? Understanding the queries that should surface your items helps you position them correctly. How dependent is your business on email and SMS marketing? If retention revenue relies heavily on owned marketing channels, the customer data trade-off deserves careful consideration. How can you optimize for AI-driven discovery? This is uncharted territory. Just like brands spent the past two decades figuring out SEO, we're now figuring out how AI agents recommend products. The Bottom Line AI is already changing product discovery. ChatGPT is sending significant traffic to major retailers, and that percentage is growing. You can watch that traffic disappear into AI-generated recommendations that lead elsewhere, or you can be where those recommendations convert. Instant Checkout is live. The Agentic Commerce Protocol is open source. Major platforms like Shopify and Etsy are already integrated. The brands that move now will get established before this gets saturated. More importantly, these are better buyers. High-intent shoppers are asking what to purchase, not casual browsers. The funnel compresses from multiple leak points down to a single conversation. The shift from search-based commerce to conversational commerce is happening. The question is whether you're positioned for it.  Want to explore if Instant Checkout is right for your brand? We're helping clients assess eligibility, prepare product data for AI discovery, and position for agentic commerce. Contact us to schedule a conversation about your specific situation. Already on Shopify or Etsy? You might be automatically eligible. Let's make sure you're ready to take advantage of it.

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