Shopify says purchases are coming ‘inside ChatGPT’ through agentic storefronts as OpenAI retreats on Instant Checkout
By Allison Smith • March 16, 2026 •
Ivy Liu
This story was first published by Digiday sibling Modern Retail.
Shopify told merchants their products will soon be discoverable and purchasable inside ChatGPT through its new “agentic storefronts” feature as OpenAI shifts how checkout works inside the chatbot.
“Coming later in March: ChatGPT in Agentic Storefronts,” Shopify said in an email sent to merchants Wednesday and reviewed by Modern Retail. “Buyers can find your products and complete purchases inside ChatGPT. This agentic storefront channel will launch by default for your store, and you will be able to modify settings in your Admin.”
Shopify confirmed the email and its contents to Modern Retail. According to details shared by Shopify, its earlier pilot with OpenAI allowed buyers to complete purchases directly inside ChatGPT through a native checkout experience, known as Instant Checkout, powered by Shopify Payments. Products were surfaced through Shopify’s global product catalog, while orders flowed through Shopify’s existing merchant infrastructure.
Under the updated approach, Shopify merchants’ products will still appear inside ChatGPT conversations, but buyers will typically complete purchases on the merchant’s own online storefront. That may happen either through an in-app browser inside the ChatGPT mobile app or through a separate browser tab on desktop.
Transactions will still run through Shopify’s checkout and payments infrastructure, and orders will continue to appear in the Shopify admin dashboard like any other sales channel, the company said.
The subtle shift also reflects how OpenAI, Shopify and other technology companies are still experimenting with what role commerce should play inside AI assistants. While more consumers are using tools like ChatGPT to research products and compare options, it remains unclear how many shoppers are comfortable completing transactions directly inside chat interfaces rather than on traditional retail websites.
“We’re evolving how we approach commerce in ChatGPT to better meet merchants and users where they are. We’re prioritizing making ChatGPT search and product discovery great, with the Agentic Commerce Protocol serving as the infrastructure that connects users to merchants across the full shopping journey,” an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement to Modern Retail. “Instant Checkout is moving to Apps, where purchases can happen more seamlessly. We appreciate our partners for learning with us and look forward to sharing more as we continue building in this area.”
The company also said that Shopify’s email, specifically the phrase “complete purchases inside ChatGPT,” refers to making products discoverable for purchase inside ChatGPT, but that purchases themselves will not be completed through OpenAI’s Instant Checkout system.
The Information reported last week that OpenAI was scaling back Instant Checkout inside ChatGPT.
Shopify first announced Agentic Storefronts in December as a way for merchants to distribute products across AI shopping interfaces while keeping their own storefronts and checkout systems at the center of transactions. The system allows product data to be syndicated through the Shopify Catalog so AI assistants can surface relevant items in response to user queries.
Importantly, Shopify said merchants do not need to build dedicated ChatGPT apps to participate. Instead, Agentic Storefronts automatically makes eligible products available to AI platforms through Shopify’s existing data infrastructure.
The Information previously reported on Wednesday that Shopify has no plans to build a dedicated ChatGPT app despite OpenAI’s broader push toward app-based commerce integrations.
