ChatGPT is taking a step beyond recommendations and will allow users to shop inside the chat window through a feature called Instant Checkout, built on a new Agentic Commerce Protocol developed with Stripe.
The roll-out begins in the United States. Users can buy from US Etsy sellers directly in chat. More than a million Shopify merchants are slated to follow, including names such as Glossier and Spanx. The first release supports single-item orders. Multi-item baskets, more merchants and more regions are next on the roadmap.
OpenAI is also publishing the underlying standard called the Agentic Commerce Protocol. It is being open-sourced so merchants and developers can build their own integrations. The aim is straightforward: give AI agents, shoppers and businesses a common way to pass order details securely and complete a transaction. The spec was co-developed with Stripe and a group of merchants to make adoption simple and to keep sellers in control.
For users, the shopping flow is designed to feel like a natural extension of a product search.
Ask for “best running shoes under $100” or “gifts for a ceramics fan” and ChatGPT returns organic, unsponsored results ranked on relevance.
If a listing supports Instant Checkout, a ‘Buy’ button appears. Tap it, confirm shipping and payment, and the order goes through without leaving the conversation. Existing subscribers can pay with the card on file, or pick another card or an express option.
Merchants continue to run orders, payments and fulfilment through their own systems. ChatGPT acts as the shopper’s agent, passing information between the user and the seller.
Sellers pay a small fee on completed orders. The service is free for users, does not raise prices, and does not push participating items up the results list.
When several merchants sell the same product, ranking takes into account stock, price, quality signals, primary-seller status and whether Instant Checkout is enabled, with the aim of improving the customer experience rather than favouring a payment path.
Chat GPT as a form of Retail Media Network?
OpenAI setting up an ecommerce product is one step: becoming an ad network is the next step.
A recent job post suggests ChatGPT could become a media channel. The company behind ChatGPT is recruiting a ‘Growth Paid Marketing Platform Engineer’.
The job covers is recruiting for someone to help build an internal paid marketing stack with campaign tools, links into major ad platforms, real-time attribution, APIs, data pipelines and testing frameworks.
The role sits on a new growth team charged with creating the core systems for this stack.
OpenAI wants to monetise its users
OpenAI wants to monetise free users via ChatGPT ads by 2026, according to reports. As X.com user, Juan González Villa wrote: “If you’re not paying for ChatGPT, soon you could be the product.”
OpenAI’s own revenue projections show “free-user monetisation”. With around 700 million people using ChatGPT each week, a native ads product would give brands reach to audience that are even more intent driven, compared to a Google search.
Leadership hires back this up. According to AdWeek, Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s chief of applications, is currently looking for a candidate who can “lead a new team that will be tasked with bringing ads to ChatGPT.”
This is the same Fidji Simo, who as CEO of Instacart said this: “There’s an advertising product inside people’s eCommerce shopping cart…the holy grail in advertising.” In Simo’s world view, if an ecommerce store has consumers searching for a particular product and can map media assets to that product, retailers are equipped with the capabilities to become media platforms.
Simo went onto to create an almost $1bn advertising business with Instacart in just four years from scratch.
What this means for brands: if OpenAI ships what the hiring notes describe, media buyers may soon face a new line on the media plan labelled “ChatGPT Budget”.
And Retail Media Networks will have some new competition in the US for advertising dollar, as ChatGPT is the ultimate ‘intent’ network.
