ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout: What Brands Need to Know

TL;DR

• ChatGPT’s new Instant Checkout lets users find and buy products directly within a chat.
• The feature is live for U.S.-based Etsy sellers and select Shopify merchants including Glossier, SKIMS, and Spanx.
• General Shopify support has been announced but isn’t live yet, and OpenAI hasn’t shared a public launch date.

What’s Going On

OpenAI announced Instant Checkout in ChatGPT, a new feature that lets users browse and buy products without ever leaving the conversation. The rollout started with U.S. Etsy sellers, who can currently use the feature. Support for Shopify merchants is coming, but it isn’t live yet, and OpenAI hasn’t shared when it will launch. Shopify merchants can start preparing for this now though. Brands can apply to be considered for early access to the feature, and they can start reviewing product data to make sure titles, descriptions, pricing, and inventory are accurate and aligned with OpenAI’s guidelines.

How Instant Checkout Works

What the Shopper Sees

A shopper can ask for something specific (like “best yoga mats under $100”) and see real-time results from participating merchants, complete with prices, product images, and availability. Once they find what they’re looking for, checkout happens right in the ChatGPT interface. 

How Results Are Ranked

Product results are organic and unsponsored, meaning retailers can’t pay for higher placements. Instead, results are ranked based on relevance to what the user is searching for. When multiple merchants offer the same item, ChatGPT weighs factors like price, availability, product quality, and whether Instant Checkout is enabled to figure out which options rank first. 

Where That Information Comes From

Behind the scenes, ChatGPT doesn’t pull product information directly from a brand’s website. Instead, merchants provide OpenAI with a structured product feed. This feed includes key details like titles, descriptions, images, pricing, availability, inventory, and fulfillment policies.

How Checkout Actually Happens

Checkout happens inside ChatGPT, but the merchant is still the seller. Using OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol, built with Stripe, ChatGPT connects to a brand’s systems in real time to complete the purchase. The brand still handles fulfillment, shipping, and customer service, and retains ownership of customer and order data.

Other Important Details

• Orders are processed through the merchant’s existing system and will appear in Shopify Admin.
• The feature is currently limited to single-item purchases, with multi-item checkout expected in future updates.
• Merchants control whether individual products are discoverable in ChatGPT and whether they’re eligible for Instant Checkout.

What This Means for Brands

This update changes how and where people shop. Instead of clicking through to a brand’s website, shoppers can now find, evaluate, and purchase products in a single conversation. It shortens the path from discovery to conversion and completely collapses the traditional sales funnel.

Because customers may never visit a brand’s site before buying, product data has to do more heavy lifting. Images, titles, descriptions, and specifications need to be clear, accurate, and written the way people actually search and ask questions. Brands that invest in clean, structured product data now will have an advantage as AI-driven shopping continues to grow.

The post-purchase experience also matters more now than it did before. When someone buys through ChatGPT, they haven’t browsed your site, read your story, or interacted with your brand directly. Their impression is shaped entirely by what happens next, how fast the product ships, how clearly you communicate, and how simple it is to make a return.

Questions We’re Hearing From Brands

These are the questions we’ve been getting from brands as they think about ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout:

Should our brand be on ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout?

Yes. Early adoption gives your brand a head start as shoppers begin using ChatGPT to discover and buy products. The sooner your catalog is available, the sooner ChatGPT can learn which of your products people engage with and buy. 

What to do now: Apply to join ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout as soon as it becomes available, and confirm that data is flowing back through Shopify to your ad platforms and CRM. Then monitor how customers acquired from ChatGPT behave over time to understand how this channel fits into your broader performance mix.

How do we make sure our products appear in ChatGPT results?

OpenAI hasn’t shared a full ranking formula, but it has shared how products are indexed and surfaced. ChatGPT pulls from merchant-submitted product data, not by crawling brand websites. That product feed acts as the source of truth for what appears in search and shopping results. Products are more likely to show up when their data is clean and complete. Clear titles, helpful descriptions, accurate pricing, up-to-date inventory, and strong imagery all help ChatGPT understand what you sell and match your products to relevant shopper searches.

What to do now: Review your product catalog and make sure details are accurate and up-to-date. Well-structured, regularly updated product data will put you in the best position to show up. 

Can we pick which SKUs or collections are available to buy through ChatGPT? Or will it be our entire Shopify catalog?

Based on OpenAI’s Product Feed Specification merchants can control which products appear in ChatGPT search and which are available for Instant Checkout.

How will the customer journey change when shoppers can discover and buy without ever visiting a brand’s site?

Every stage of the traditional customer journey is likely to change.

First, discovery may start somewhere new. As AI becomes a more common place to ask questions and get product recommendations, some shoppers will begin their search in ChatGPT instead of a traditional search engine. 

Second, Instant Checkout compresses the traditional customer journey. Discovery, consideration, and conversion can all happen in a single ChatGPT thread, without the shopper visiting a brand’s site at all. Because the first impression now happens through product data instead of a website experience, titles, descriptions, imagery, pricing, and availability take on a much bigger role. Shoppers need enough information to feel comfortable buying without ever visiting the brand’s site.

Finally, the biggest shift is what happens after purchase. Since ChatGPT may be the first touchpoint, the post-purchase experience becomes the main brand impression. Fast shipping, clear communication, and easy returns will matter even more, especially for first-time buyers who haven’t interacted with the brand directly.

How will this affect our attribution and performance tracking? 

In the short term, not much changes. Orders made through ChatGPT should still run through a merchant’s existing Shopify systems, so conversion events should continue flowing through the same server-side tagging or CAPI setups already in place.

Longer term, as more shoppers start discovering products through ChatGPT, some upper- or mid-funnel touchpoints may not get full credit if the final purchase happens inside the chat. That makes incrementality testing, lift studies, and MMM more important for understanding the true impact of Prospecting and Awareness campaigns.

What to do now: Make sure all ad platforms are using CAPI or Enhanced Conversions and keep an eye on Shopify’s rollout for any new tracking or attribution settings tied to Instant Checkout.