ChatGPT and the Agentic Commerce Protocol Transform Online Shopping

Energizing Product Discovery with ChatGPT

On March 24, 2026, a new era of online shopping was ushered in thanks to ChatGPT and the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP). This innovation aims to reinvent the online shopping experience by making it richer and visually immersive. More and more consumers are starting their shopping journeys on ChatGPT, looking to explore, compare, and decide on products to purchase. Traditionally, online shopping requires knowing exactly what one wants, but for those who are uncertain, it often involves navigating multiple tabs, consulting "Best Products" lists, and cross-referencing information to find the best option.

ChatGPT solves this problem by helping users determine what to buy. Users can describe their needs, refine their searches throughout the conversation, and quickly compare options that meet their specific requirements. Today, this experience is enhanced to be more intuitive and visual. Users can now browse products visually, compare options side by side, and obtain detailed and up-to-date information, all in one place. What once took hours of research and tab navigation can now be accomplished in seconds.

To make this possible, the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) is being extended to product discovery, directly integrating more comprehensive, relevant, and up-to-date information into ChatGPT.

Smoother and More Immersive Shopping Journeys

Instead of scrolling through pages of results, ChatGPT helps users find what they are looking for based on their budget, preferences, and constraints by suggesting suitable products. Users can visually explore products, add images as sources of inspiration to find similar items, and refine results throughout the conversation until they find the right option.

Comparing products also becomes much simpler. Products are presented side by side with essential information such as price, reviews, and features, allowing users to quickly evaluate options without having to switch from one site to another.

In the background, the speed, relevance, and coverage of products have been improved to make results more up-to-date and useful. This means less searching, fewer tabs, and faster decision-making.

For users, this transformation turns shopping, which was previously fragmented and time-consuming, into a unique and seamless experience. For merchants, it attracts buyers with a strong intent to purchase, closer to taking action.

These updates are being rolled out this week for all ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, and Pro users. More will follow as the investment in product discovery with ChatGPT continues.

The Foundations of Natively Integrated AI Commerce

To power this shopping experience, the ACP is being extended to serve as an interconnection layer between merchants and users throughout the discovery phase. Through the ACP protocol, merchants share their product feeds and promotions so that their catalogs are accurately represented in ChatGPT. Several delivery modes are supported, including through third-party providers like Salesforce and Stripe, allowing merchants to participate via their existing systems. Ultimately, the ACP protocol will serve as the foundation for more extensive native AI commerce experiences, including personalization, local availability, and estimated delivery times.

Major retailers like Target, Sephora, Nordstrom, Lowe’s, Best Buy, The Home Depot, and Wayfair have integrated ACP for the discovery phase.

For merchants on Shopify, product data is already integrated into ChatGPT via Shopify Catalog, allowing for more accurate and comprehensive product displays in relevant conversations with users. No additional action is required from merchants.

“Millions of Shopify merchants are now present in ChatGPT. When buyers search for products, Shopify Catalog offers the most relevant options from the brands users love the most. They can complete purchases on the merchant's online store through an in-app browser, ensuring everything flows smoothly, with the merchant's brand front and center. This is AI serving large-scale shopping.” — Mani Fazeli, Vice President of Product at Shopify.

Connecting ChatGPT Users and Merchants

Our goal is to provide the best possible experience for both consumers and merchants. The best consumer experiences rely on a close partnership with merchants. To forge these close ties, we want to offer merchants various options to convert users into customers. We found that the initial version of instant payment did not provide the level of flexibility we aim to offer. Therefore, we allow merchants to use their own payment experiences while we focus our efforts on product discovery.

Merchants wishing to experiment with deeper integrations and native experiences in ChatGPT still have the option to develop applications for ChatGPT. Today, we are excited to announce that Walmart is launching an app experience in ChatGPT, which transitions users from product discovery in ChatGPT to a personalized Walmart environment that supports account linking, loyalty programs, and Walmart payments. This new experience is now available in web browsers, with access via iOS and Android apps coming soon.

“By working closely with OpenAI, we have been able to learn together while moving quickly to shape what agentic commerce can become.” Today's launch directly integrates Walmart into the ChatGPT experience, combining cutting-edge conversational AI with decades of retail expertise to serve customers. — Daniel Danker.