Agentic Commerce Arms Race: How To Win With The OpenAI, Shopify, And Etsy Partnership

OpenAI announced on September 29 that instant checkout will soon be launched directly in ChatGPT conversations, enabled by OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) for merchants selling on Etsy and Shopify. 

What does this look like?

This new feature will allow consumers to buy products directly in their ChatGPT conversations without leaving the platform.

What does this mean? Here’s what we know: 

• Sellers will remain the merchant of record and maintain control over the purchase, fulfillment, and customer service
• OpenAI has noted that products sold by Shopify and Etsy merchants will not receive preferential ranking treatment by their models and will be recommended based on relevance and quality, not their participation in the program
• Initially, the program will only support single-item purchases (i.e., shoppers can only buy one item at a time), but the plan is to expand to multi-item carts at a later date

How do brands opt in? 

Current Etsy and Shopify merchants will be automatically enrolled, although documentation on Shopify and OpenAI is murky and suggests that brands should still submit the application form to OpenAI. At this stage, we’d suggest clients on Shopify and Etsy still submit the form to cover their bases if they wish to participate in the program. Because the payment processing is built with Stripe, a leading payment processor, standard checkout options such as credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay are all readily available. 

It’s also worth noting that there is an undisclosed fee charged by OpenAI to the merchant on every purchase that could impact profit margins for participating sellers.

What this means for marketers

This is a long-awaited and expected development for OpenAI and ChatGPT, which has increasingly become more active in suggesting products based on criteria specified by the user. This path to streamlining purchases without needing to exit the platform follows a consistent pattern paved by platforms like Meta (Shops, checkout feature now sunset), TikTok (TikTok Shop), and Google (“Buy on Google,” now sunset), which have had mixed success in bending this type of consumer behavior in their favor. 

But with the mainstream adoption of tools like ChatGPT, this feels different, as consumers are already showing their intent and desire to use ChatGPT for product research and recommendations, and ChatGPT is obliging. In April 2024, OpenAI released their product recommendation model, which allowed ChatGPT to be more overt in recommending products to users who are actively researching, and began to display rich product results similar to Google shopping. The reaction was nearly instantaneous, as brands are already starting to see healthy amounts of traffic volume referred from ChatGPT (like this CM-managed fashion brand.)

Assuming this reality takes place and agentic commerce momentum continues to build, there are different implications for consumers and brands:

• Consumers: As consumers become more comfortable trusting and sharing data with AI, direct checkout has the potential to grow substantially as a consumer behavior and reduce the importance of direct-to-consumer (DTC) website experiences
• Brands: Brands need to be at the forefront of these developments as AI continues to become mainstream. While it may just be Shopify and Etsy merchants today, eventually, it will likely be all merchants who have the ability to participate. OpenAI has hinted at paid advertising becoming a monetization method, and the instant checkout feature is another indicator that they’re moving in this direction — think Google shopping but directly in ChatGPT. Brands that are at the forefront of supplying rich data feeds and information to OpenAI and similar LLM chatbots have an opportunity to foster deep relationships with modern customers

The age of agentic commerce is just beginning, and the on-ramp to meet consumers where they are shopping and researching is becoming increasingly more seamless for brands. Those who move quickly in this space will have a first-mover advantage over their competition.