October 7, 2025 4 mins

Shopify Merchants Can Now Sell Directly in ChatGPT

ChatGPT

shopify

Shopify Plus

Online shopping is changing at an unprecedented rate. Soon, Shopify merchants will be able to sell products directly within the ChatGPT chatbot.

This major partnership was officially announced on September 29, 2025.

The new capability, called Instant Checkout, is currently rolling out for US-based sellers and will quickly expand to thousands of Shopify merchants in the United States.

It will transform the way customers discover and purchase products, making it faster and smoother than ever.

What Instant Checkout Means for Shoppers

Instant Checkout makes buying products feel effortless. Shoppers will no longer need to click a link and navigate to a separate website.

They can simply:

Complete the entire purchase within the chat conversation
Browse suggested options, check details, and confirm the purchase in just a few steps
Eliminate repetitive form filling as shipping and payment details can often be handled instantly using saved information.

This system is currently focused on single-item purchases, though support for multi-item carts is expected to be added soon.

Why This Is a Powerful New Sales Channel

For Shopify merchants, this is a massive opportunity to reach customers exactly when they are ready to buy. ChatGPT will not act like just another marketplace but a new way for your products to be discovered organically.

Some of the key benefits for Shopify merchants include:

New Audience: Your products are now discoverable by millions of chatbot users.
Organic Discovery: When a shopper asks the chatbot for recommendations ("What are the best lightweight running shoes?"), your products appear.
Unsponsored Results: Product recommendations are based purely on relevance to the query, real-time availability, competitive price, and product quality, not advertising spend.

And the best part is merchants get to keep full control.

The order flows directly into your existing Shopify backend, allowing you to maintain:

Brand Identity: You keep the direct customer relationship.
Existing Workflows: You handle payment processing, fulfillment, and shipping using your current systems.
Customer Service: You manage all returns and support directly, just like a sale on your own site.

Also read: Best Shopify & Shopify plus agency in 2025

The Secure Technology Driving the Change

This innovative buying system relies on a shared, open technical standard developed by the chatbot's creator and Stripe, a major payment processor.

Key technical details include:

Feature	Description
Open standard	The core code is an open-source rulebook (licensed under Apache 2.0). This means the capability isn't exclusive to one chatbot; other conversational systems can adopt it, allowing merchants to "build once" for multiple future channels.
Security mechanism	Payment is secured through a process called tokenization. The chatbot never sees or stores the customer's raw credit card number.
The token	The payment processor issues a secure, one-time-use token that is valid only for the specific merchant and cart total. This token is passed through to your payment system to authorize the charge, ensuring PCI compliance.

How Can You Prepare Your Store For This Change?

To get your Shopify store ready and and maximize your visibility within the chatbot, focus on these critical actions:

The system reads your store's data, so it must be impeccable:

Enable the Crawler: Ensure your store's robots.txt file permits access to the chatbot's web crawler (OAI-SearchBot). Blocking this bot will make your store invisible to the shopping feature.
Use Structured Data: Implement Structured Data (JSON-LD) on your product pages. This standardized code acts as a cheat sheet for the system, clearly defining the price, real-time availability, and customer ratings.
High-Quality Content: Write detailed, natural descriptions focusing on product benefits and use cases. The chatbot uses this information to match your product perfectly to a user's conversational query.

Understand the Cost

Merchant Fee: Merchants will pay a small commission or fee on completed purchases made through the chatbot. The service itself is free for the end-user.
Initial Scope: The rollout begins with US-based merchants and is set to expand internationally over time.

Also read: A Shopify merchant’s guide to ranking in ChatGPT shopping

Conclusion

Allowing Shopify merchants to sell directly in the ChatGPT chatbot is a fundamental shift towards conversational commerce.

This integration benefits everyone: shoppers get an easier, faster, and more secure way to buy, while merchants gain access to a massive new audience without sacrificing control over their operations or customer relationships.

By focusing on data quality and readiness now, Shopify merchants can take full advantage of this pioneering opportunity and stay ahead of the curve.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is eligible to sell through the chatbot?

Initially, the feature is rolling out to US-based Shopify merchants on an active paid plan. Expansion to other regions is expected soon.

Do I lose control of the customer relationship?

No. You remain the merchant of record. Orders flow into your existing Shopify dashboard, and you handle all customer service, shipping, and returns directly.

How are payments processed and secured?

Payments are processed through a new open standard co-developed with Stripe. It uses secure, one-time-use payment tokens to authorize the charge, ensuring sensitive financial details are never seen or stored by the chatbot.