Will ChatGPT Revolutionize E-Commerce with Instant Checkout?

Every week, more than 700 million people use ChatGPT to support them in their daily tasks — from finding information and generating content to researching products. With the announcement of Instant Checkout and the launch of the Agentic Commerce Protocol (co-developed with Stripe), OpenAI is transforming the conversational assistant into a true transactional interface. It’s no longer just about getting recommendations, but about completing a purchase directly within the conversation.

This marks a major milestone in the history of digital commerce. AI is no longer limited to guiding the user: it becomes an active player in the buying process, paving the way for what we now call agentic commerce. This model relies on a three-way interaction: consumers, businesses, and AI agents working together in real time to simplify and accelerate purchase decisions.

For more than twenty years, digital commerce has evolved in successive waves. The first generation of e-commerce 1.0, led by players like Amazon, introduced the “search & click” logic and online catalogs. The rise of m-commerce through mobile apps then shifted the experience into consumers’ pockets, imposing new standards of speed and simplicity. Today, with the advent of conversational commerce and now agentic commerce, a new era is opening: one where AI is not only the interface but also the central actor of the transaction. In this continuum, ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout is a clear rupture: buying is no longer a separate step, but a natural extension of the conversation.

Instant Checkout: How ChatGPT Redefines the Buying Experience — From Search & Click to Chat & Buy

For two decades, online shopping has revolved around the same journey: search for a product, compare options, add to cart, confirm payment. This process has been optimized and streamlined, but it has remained fundamentally unchanged. With Instant Checkout, that paradigm shifts.

Concretely, this could mean that on an e-commerce site, the user no longer needs to navigate through complex menus to find a product; they simply ask a question (“best waterproof jacket for hiking”) and place the order in two clicks. For a retail brand, it means that recommendation and purchase happen seamlessly within the same conversation, drastically reducing cart abandonment rates.

In the U.S., this feature already allows users to purchase items from Etsy sellers, with upcoming integration of over 1.75 million Shopify merchants — including iconic brands like Glossier, SKIMS, and Spanx. Stripe powers the payment infrastructure, ensuring a secure and smooth process. For the end user, the experience is transparent, while for merchants, it opens access to a massive audience while keeping full control over payments, systems, and customer relationships.

For now, Instant Checkout is only available to U.S. users. However, OpenAI has confirmed its expansion to additional merchants and regions, suggesting that Europe may not be far behind.

Why ChatGPT’s Agentic Commerce Is a Strategic Issue for Decision-Makers

Behind this technological leap lie profound challenges for businesses.

• For a CEO, ChatGPT becoming a transactional channel represents an unprecedented growth lever. Capturing the attention of hundreds of millions of weekly users, directly in a conversational context, creates opportunities far beyond traditional online acquisition. It’s no longer just about differentiating on product or price, but about being present at the very interface where purchase decisions are now made.
• For a CMO, this change completely redefines customer experience. Buying becomes invisible, integrated into the natural flow of conversation.
  Example: instead of pushing a generic advertising campaign, AI can suggest the right product at the right time, directly within ChatGPT’s interface. Where today a consumer compares multiple sites, tomorrow they could complete a purchase in 30 seconds, without leaving the conversation. For marketing teams, this means rethinking content to make it “AI-ready”: structured, enriched with metadata, and optimized for conversational agents.
• For CTOs, a new technical standard emerges: the Agentic Commerce Protocol. Designed with Stripe and other partners, it allows integration without overhauling existing infrastructure. Businesses can plug in quickly, leveraging current payment and management systems, lowering adoption barriers. In a context where speed-to-market is a decisive competitive factor, this flexibility is critical.

From Visionary Potential to Concrete Benefits

Beyond the technical innovation, the benefits of this model are tangible. Brands can increase their visibility by appearing directly in the most-used generative AI interface. The user experience, now conversational, gains fluidity and simplicity, boosting engagement and reducing purchase friction. And unlike closed models, merchants retain control of the customer relationship: payments, data, and support remain managed within their own systems.

Example: a user asks ChatGPT “a gift for a ceramics lover around $50.” Today, this would require browsing several sites, reading reviews, and checking shipping options. With Instant Checkout, the process becomes instantaneous. For brands, this reduces conversion friction and raises purchase probability.

According to Juniper Research, conversational commerce is expected to exceed $290 billion by 2025. OpenAI’s announcement is therefore not just an experiment, but a catalyst accelerating an already emerging trend that will profoundly reshape the e-commerce landscape.

Preparing for the Age of Agentic Commerce

The rise of agentic commerce raises a fundamental question: are businesses ready to interact with their customers through AI-driven interfaces?

In practice, this involves several transformations:

• LLM referencing: SEO is no longer limited to Google. Already today, your visibility depends on how models like ChatGPT understand and surface your content. This means enriching content with clear, structured data and standardized metadata. For example, a poorly described product or missing technical details may never appear in an AI recommendation — even if you rank well on traditional search engines.
• Restructuring websites and applications: it will no longer be enough to have a polished website. Architectures must be designed to be machine-readable by conversational agents. This requires:
  • Product pages enriched with metadata (price, stock, delivery times, conditions, etc.),
  • Navigation that is not just user-friendly, but machine-readable (schemas, APIs, structured catalogs),
  • And openness to interoperability protocols (such as the Agentic Commerce Protocol).
• AI-ready marketing: marketing content must be written to be processed by AI. This means clear, contextualized, segmented messages enriched with the right keywords. Vague or generic arguments won’t be understood by AI, and therefore won’t ever reach the end user.
• Organization and governance: this is not just an IT topic. Marketing, data, and tech teams must collaborate to ensure the company remains visible in tomorrow’s interfaces. Otherwise, even with great products, the risk is invisibility in the very channels where purchase decisions will be made.

In short: preparing for agentic commerce is not just about investing in new tools. It’s about restructuring information, content, and digital architectures to be understood by AI — just as companies once had to optimize their sites for Google in the 2000s.

Conclusion: Turning Disruption into Opportunity

OpenAI’s announcement signals a strategic acceleration for the entire digital ecosystem. It illustrates the speed at which usage patterns evolve and the need for organizations to stop seeing AI as mere support, and instead embrace it as a true business accelerator.

At ENEON, we help organizations anticipate the age of agentic commerce and transform AI into a tangible lever for digital growth. Entering this new era means guaranteeing simpler, smoother, and more personalized experiences for customers, while ensuring businesses remain competitive in an environment where innovation is the new standard.