Commerce Moves Inside Conversations

The way we discover, select, and purchase is changing. Today’s announcements from OpenAI and Stripe hint at a new paradigm in online commerce, one where shopping lives inside conversational agents and payments happen behind secure tokens. We stand at an inflection point: the shift from websites and carts to agentic commerce.

Here are the three major updates revealed today and what they mean for the future of buying and selling.

1. Instant Checkout in ChatGPT: Etsy Launches First

OpenAI’s new Instant Checkout enables users in the U.S. to make single-item purchases directly in ChatGPT without leaving the chat interface. (openai.com)

And who went first? Etsy became the first marketplace to support Instant Checkout in ChatGPT, allowing U.S. shoppers to buy from U.S.-based Etsy sellers right inside the chat. This is the proof-of-concept launch partner that shows how conversational commerce can work in practice.

Key points from the launch:

• U.S. ChatGPT users can already purchase from Etsy sellers without leaving chat

• Over time, OpenAI plans to expand beyond Etsy to other merchants, multi-item carts, and new regions

• The scale potential is enormous with over 700 million people using ChatGPT weekly

In short, Etsy proved the model first, but this is just the beginning of commerce happening inside AI agents.

2. The Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP): A New Open Standard

At the heart of this system is the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), co-developed by OpenAI and Stripe and released as open-source. (agenticcommerce.dev)

ACP defines a standard language for commerce flows between buyers, AI agents, and merchants.

Its design goals include:

• Being cross-platform and compatible with various payment processors

• Allowing merchants to retain control as the merchant of record, handling pricing, fulfillment, support, and returns

• Supporting complex commerce flows such as physical goods, digital goods, subscriptions, and asynchronous or multi-step purchases

• Being easy to adopt so merchants can integrate ACP without rebuilding their backend systems

Because ACP is open, any AI agent, not just ChatGPT, could eventually adopt it, meaning future shopping agents can tap into a shared infrastructure.

3. Shared Payment Tokens: Secure, Agent-Enabled Payments

A critical component of agentic commerce is how payments are passed from buyer to agent to merchant without exposing sensitive financial data. Enter Shared Payment Tokens, an API launched by Stripe. (stripe.com)

• Tokens are permissioned and scoped, meaning they only authorize specific amounts and merchants

• Agents can initiate payments without users reentering details each time

• Non-Stripe processors can still participate by adopting ACP’s delegated payments spec

Shared Payment Tokens make commerce frictionless while preserving trust, an essential step if agents are going to handle purchases at scale.

What These Moves Unlock and What to Watch

Together, these announcements signal more than new features. They carve out the architecture for a new commerce frontier.

This shift also connects directly to Transactional SEO, where websites prepare not just to rank but to enable actions like bookings, reservations, and now AI-driven purchases. As I’ve written in my blog, Transactional SEO for the E-commerce Future, businesses that structure their sites for machine readability and agent-driven interactions will have a critical edge as commerce moves inside AI ecosystems.

Conclusion: Etsy First, Many to Follow

Etsy’s role as the first merchant partner makes this shift feel real, not theoretical. And with ACP and Shared Payment Tokens in place, the door is open for thousands of other merchants to follow.

Today’s launches do not just add convenience. They mark the foundation of a new AI-driven shopping ecosystem. Businesses that adopt early will be best positioned to thrive as commerce migrates from websites to conversations.