Agentic Commerce: How to Make Your Marketplace or Online Store Visible in ChatGPT

Product development

Updated: November 14, 2025 | Published: October 27, 2025

AI shoppers are already placing orders without touching a screen. Welcome to agentic commerce – a model of online shopping in which autonomous AI agents act on behalf of customers to discover, decide, and buy products. These agents operate inside conversations, meaning your marketplace or online store can get the sale without a traditional storefront UI.

OpenAI’s Instant Checkout brings this new channel to life inside ChatGPT, letting U.S. users complete purchases from selected merchants today, with over a million Shopify merchants “coming soon.”

The technical backbone? The Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) – an open standard co-developed by Stripe and OpenAI that lets agents interface directly with checkout flows, securely exchanging product, payment, and fulfillment data so transactions can be completed autonomously inside ChatGPT.

Fear of missing out may be just around the corner. Adobe found out that:

“Of those who have used AI for shopping, 92% said it enhanced their experience, with 87% saying that they are more likely to use AI for larger or more complex purchases.”

If you’re running a marketplace or online store, the question isn’t if you’ll need to be visible in ChatGPT; it’s how soon. You don’t need to rebuild your entire store. What matters is strategic readiness and ensuring your backend can “talk” to AI agents via ACP and integrate with Instant Checkout.

This guide will show you exactly how to get visible in ChatGPT and why partnering with the right IT team will get you agent-ready faster.

Why Does Your Marketplace or Online Store Need Agentic Commerce Now?

AI is rapidly changing how customers discover and buy. There’s a shift from keyword searches to AI-powered conversations. As large platforms and payment providers align around the Agentic Commerce Protocol, a new ecosystem for instant checkout inside ChatGPT is taking shape.

The message is clear: visibility in this new channel depends on early action. Adopting Agentic Commerce now means your products can be found and purchased where customers are already talking.

AI Is Becoming the New Search and Discovery Layer

While the role of eCommerce UX remains strong, customers they’re asking AI assistants what to buy and acting on the answers. Surveys show this shift is real: 17% of consumers used an AI assistant or LLM for product searches in the past year, and analysts expect AI-referred retail traffic to surge again this season.

Here’s what that means for your store:

Search becomes conversational – instead of typing a specific request into Google, users say it via voice command to their chatbots.
AI agents now act as shopping guides – they analyze descriptions, reviews, and prices to recommend products, skipping traditional ads or search listings.
Agentic commerce gives you visibility – your catalog can appear directly inside ChatGPT when shoppers express intent by connecting through the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP).
Checkout happens instantly – customers can complete the purchase in a single message with no redirects or cart abandonment using Instant Checkout in ChatGPT.

In short, AI is becoming the new storefront. If your catalog isn’t readable by assistants and your checkout isn’t agent-compatible, you’ll miss the growing share of shoppers who start and finish their buying journey in chat.

Leading Platforms Are Already Implementing It

The agentic commerce shift isn’t theoretical or anything. It’s already happening across major eCommerce platforms that you’ve likely heard of. For example:

Etsy sellers are live in ChatGPT today – using OpenAI’s Instant Checkout in ChatGPT, U.S. Etsy merchants can sell products directly inside users’ conversations with AI chatbot. Shoppers simply describe what they want and complete the entire purchase in a single message, without leaving the chat.
Shopify is next – OpenAI confirmed that Shopify integration is “coming soon,” unlocking access for over a million Shopify merchants to appear in ChatGPT’s shopping results. This will effectively turn conversational AI into a mainstream discovery and sales channel.

Etsy and Shopify joined the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) ecosystem early because implementation is simple. Merchants don’t need to rebuild their stores as they just connect existing checkout and payment systems through lightweight ACP endpoints.

Instant Checkout in ChatGPT can plug directly into your current Stripe or Shopify setup. This way, you can maintain control of pricing, branding, and fulfillment while gaining visibility in conversational commerce.

This simplicity is why adoption is moving so fast. For marketplaces and merchants, implementing ACP doesn’t mean rebuilding; instead, it enables stores to “speak AI.” The same way SEO made websites visible to Google, Agentic Commerce makes your products visible to ChatGPT.

The takeaway? The era of “chat-to-checkout” has already begun. The question now is whether your store will appear in those conversations or be left behind.

Major Payment and Infrastructure Players Are Building the Ecosystem

Behind every instant checkout in ChatGPT is a growing network of financial and infrastructure leaders standardizing how AI-driven transactions work. The world’s biggest payment providers are laying the groundwork to make Agentic Commerce secure, compliant, and scalable.

Visa is building trust into AI transactions – the company announced its Trusted Agent Protocol (TAP), which is a framework that verifies the identities of both agents and merchants before any payment is made. TAP introduces clear rules for consent, authorization, and risk management, creating the same trust layer that exists in today’s credit card networks.
Google is ensuring secure agent-to-payment communication – the company’s newly announced Agents-to-Payments (AP2) protocol defines how AI agents can initiate, authorize, and verify payments across different financial systems.

Together, these standards are shaping a unified financial backbone for AI commerce. Visa’s TAP builds trust, Google’s AP2 ensures authorization and auditability, and ACP manages product and checkout interactions between AI agents and merchants.

So what’s the result? A seamless, interoperable layer that allows merchants to sell securely through AI channels. The layer will be characterized by transparency, compliance, and user consent built in from the start.

This alignment across OpenAI, Stripe, Visa, and Google proves that Agentic Commerce isn’t a passing experiment. It’s becoming the open standard for AI-driven payments and commerce, ensuring that merchants, customers, and AI agents can transact safely and confidently across the web.

The Competitive Edge – Early Adoption Means Visibility

In the world of conversational commerce, visibility is everything. When AI assistants like ChatGPT become the default way people discover and buy, only agent-ready merchants will appear at the moment of purchase intent.

Adopting the ACP early gives your marketplace a clear edge:

Be discoverable first – Early adopters get indexed by AI systems ahead of competitors, just as SEO pioneers once dominated Google search results.
Own your customer relationships – integrating ACP means customers can complete purchases directly with your store.
Adapt before the curve – platforms like Shopify, Etsy, and Stripe are already developing the agentic commerce system. By acting now, your store aligns with their standards before latecomers are forced to play catch-up.
Stay visible as AI search evolves – as more buyers use prompts instead of keywords, agentic readiness determines whether your brand shows up in those high-intent moments — or disappears entirely from the conversation.

Early adoption goes beyond technology. It shapes your positioning and determines your survival in the next era of AI-powered commerce.

Implement AI in Your eCommerce Platform

Partner with professionals at DBB Software and stay ahead of the competition within the new agentic commerce ecosystem.

How DBB Software Helps to Implement Agentic Commerce

eCommerce marketplaces and custom stores now need to adapt to a new sales channel: AI-powered shopping through ChatGPT and the ACP. Whether you're evaluating what agentic commerce means for your platform or preparing to implement Instant Checkout, DBB Software provides the technical foundation and integration support needed to make your store compatible with this evolving standard.

ACP API Integration to Make Your Store “Talk” to ChatGPT

The Challenge:

Most eCommerce platforms weren’t built with AI agents in mind. They lack the structured APIs and real-time logic needed to let assistants like ChatGPT interact with your product catalog, manage a cart, or complete a purchase without a human user.

Our Solution:

We build the ACP gateway layer for your store, which is a secure set of API endpoints that expose product, cart, and checkout data in the format required by the Agentic Commerce Protocol. Your catalog becomes machine-readable and accessible to ChatGPT users. We handle:

Product feed generation in the ACP schema – transforming your catalog into a structured, machine-readable format that includes product titles, descriptions, prices, availability, and metadata;
POST /checkout_sessions and update endpoints – building RESTful APIs that allow AI agents to initiate checkout sessions, update cart contents, and retrieve dynamic pricing, tax, and shipping info;
Cart state synchronization – ensuring any changes to the cart are reflected in the backend and returned to the agent in the required response format;
Checkout finalization flow – including the secure transmission of order intent and delegated payment tokens, validation of shipping and billing details, and finalization of the order. Currently, Instant Checkout supports single-item purchases.

You keep your existing storefront and backend — we make it agent-readable.

Result:

Your store becomes a plug-and-play component in the agentic commerce ecosystem, ready to process instant checkout in ChatGPT and connect with any AI agent following the ACP open standard.

Order & Payment Handling to Connect ACP to Real Transactions

The Challenge:

ACP coordinates the conversation and intent, but it doesn’t actually process the payment or manage order status. That responsibility stays with you, the merchant of record, which means your backend still needs to do the heavy lifting.

Our Solution:

We extend your backend to fully support agent-initiated purchases. That includes:

Accepting and processing delegated payment tokens – integrating with your existing payment service provider (e.g., Stripe, Apple Pay, or Google Pay) to charge encrypted payment tokens passed by ChatGPT;
Managing order creation, refund workflows, and confirmations – generating official orders in your system, issuing confirmations to users, and handling refund requests or cancellations through your existing payment gateway and business logic;
Sending real-time order status updates via webhooks – implementing the webhook endpoints required by ACP so ChatGPT stays in sync with your backend throughout the order lifecycle;
Syncing transactions with your CRM, inventory system, and analytics tools – updating internal systems with every agent-driven transaction, ensuring that inventory levels, customer profiles, and performance dashboards reflect sales.

We integrate with your current PSP — no need to migrate.

Result:

You gain operational control and reliability, even when orders are placed by an AI. Every step from checkout to fulfillment is connected and traceable — just as if the user bought through your storefront.

Semantic Search & AI-Driven Recommendations to Help Agents Find the Right Products

The Challenge:

Shoppers no longer search by SKU; instead, they ask questions like: “Find me an eco-friendly candle under $25 with free shipping.” If your catalog isn’t structured to support that level of natural language intent, your products won’t surface when ChatGPT queries its index.

Our Solution:

We make your catalog AI-friendly by embedding a semantic search layer:

NLP embeddings and vector search – representing both product data and user queries as vectors in a shared space, so that ChatGPT or any LLM can match intent to relevant catalog items;
Structured metadata enrichment – tagging your catalog with rich product attributes such as sustainability indicators, materials, price ranges, shipping options, or compatibility details;
Schema-aware product feeds – ensuring your catalog feed is formatted to match ACP’s expectations and conversational commerce best practices

This isn't ACP-mandated, but it is critical for discoverability.

Result:

Your products appear inside the conversation rather than being buried behind keywords. You don’t just show up in chat — you show up at the right moment with the right offer.

Bottom Line

Getting visible inside ChatGPT doesn’t happen by default — it requires a few core capabilities. Here’s a simple checklist to consult:

Agentic Commerce Implementation Checklist

If even one of these is missing, your store may be invisible to the next generation of shoppers.

Why DBB Software for Agentic Commerce

DBB Software has developed a wide variety of custom eCommerce solutions, from online marketplaces and mobile storefronts to AI-powered shopping assistants. Projects like Bookis and Renovai demonstrate our ability to build platforms that manage large-scale product inventories, enable secure payment flows, and support personalized user journeys.

Through long-term experience in the eCommerce domain, the team has followed the shift from responsive web shops to tokenized payments and now to agentic commerce standards like ACP. That ongoing exposure positions DBB to help clients assess, adapt to, and implement emerging technologies such as Instant Checkout in ChatGPT.

Ensure Your Platform is Ready for Chatbot Shopping

Book a call and conduct a complete audit of your existing eCommerce solution to identify whether it’s ready for agentic commerce.

Conclusion: The Future of E-Shopping is Agentic Commerce

AI agents are already guiding customers through product discovery, comparison, and purchase decisions. Think about how your own behavior has changed – when you’re looking for buying advice, are you still browsing pages of Google results, or do you turn to ChatGPT for a faster answer?

The future of agentic commerce is unfolding in real time, and visibility depends on technical readiness, not guesswork. That means exposing structured product data, integrating with the Agentic Commerce Protocol, and enabling instant checkout flows where AI agents can take action.

OpenAI takes the lead with Instant Checkout in ChatGPT, co-developing an open protocol that’s reshaping how products are discovered and purchased. The question is no longer if your store should adapt – it’s whether AI agents will find your catalog or someone else’s. Being agent-ready now means your business will be present where buying decisions actually happen: inside the conversation.

If you're ready to upgrade your eCommerce stack for the AI era, we're here to help you get agent-ready. Contact us to request an audit of your existing solution and to learn how we can help.

FAQ

ChatGPT Instant Purchases, also known as Instant Checkout, is a new way for customers to buy products directly inside conversations with AI — without ever visiting a traditional website. Powered by OpenAI and integrated into ChatGPT, this feature allows users to ask for a product, view results from agent-ready merchants, and complete the purchase in a single message.

For merchants, Instant Checkout in ChatGPT means their store can appear where buying decisions happen — inside a conversation. The protocol uses structured product feeds, real-time cart APIs, and secure delegated payments (via providers like Stripe) to process transactions safely.

The ACP enables AI agents like ChatGPT to interact directly with a merchant’s backend, enabling end-to-end transactions within a chat interface. To implement ACP, merchants must expose structured APIs that handle product catalog access, cart creation, and checkout session management.

ACP requires support for delegated payments, where ChatGPT securely transmits a tokenized payment credential to the merchant’s system. Merchants then process the transaction using their existing provider, such as Stripe, Apple Pay, or other PSPs compatible with the protocol. ACP connects to a store’s infrastructure, enabling instant checkout and conversational discovery without disrupting existing order logic, inventory management, or CRM integrations.

To implement the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) in your custom marketplace, here are the main steps your team will need to take:

Structure your product data – organize your catalog so AI agents like ChatGPT can understand it — including product names, prices, descriptions, and stock levels.
Enable AI-powered checkout – set up secure connections (called APIs) that allow ChatGPT to:
- Start a checkout session.
- Update the cart (quantities, shipping options, etc.).
- Complete the purchase directly in the chat.
Send order updates automatically – add simple automations (webhooks) to notify ChatGPT when an order is placed, shipped, or refunded so the AI stays in sync with your store.
Accept delegated payments – let customers pay using saved payment details in ChatGPT. The system sends you a secure payment token, which you process through your current provider.

To integrate your custom marketplace with e-commerce search in agentic commerce, the key is making your catalog easily understandable to AI agents like ChatGPT. Here’s how that typically works:

Structure your catalog for AI understanding – use a clean, standardized format (e.g., JSON, CSV) that includes product titles, descriptions, prices, categories, tags, and attributes like size, material, and delivery options. Think in terms of how a shopper would describe what they want and make sure that kind of detail is captured.
Enrich your metadata for semantic matching – apply product tags and descriptions that reflect real search intent. AI agents don’t rely on exact keywords as they interpret meaning, so the richer your product data, the more likely your items will appear in agentic commerce search results inside ChatGPT.

Implementing agentic commerce and enabling Instant Checkout in ChatGPT introduces both technical and organizational challenges:

Lack of structured product data.
Missing or incomplete API endpoints.
No webhook handling for order updates.
Delegated payment integration complexity.
Backend systems not designed for real-time sync.
Poor semantic product tagging.

Addressing these challenges is essential for becoming agent-ready and participating effectively in the evolving agentic commerce protocol ecosystem.

Yes. ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout marks a major shift in how people discover and buy products online, signaling the rise of conversational commerce as a serious customer experience (CX) channel. By combining natural language search with built-in checkout, ChatGPT transforms product discovery from a multi-step web journey into a single conversation.

This shift reduces friction, shortens the buying process, and keeps the experience contained within the AI interface. For merchants, integrating with the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) enables their catalog to surface in these high-intent moments.

Since OpenAI’s Instant Checkout supports secure delegated payments through providers like Stripe, merchants don’t lose control of fulfillment, branding, or the customer relationship. In short, this model combines AI, personalization, and seamless transactions, and it may redefine what modern conversational commerce CX looks like going forward.

No. Implementing the OpenAI Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) does not mean businesses lose control over customer relationships or branding. In fact, one of the core principles of ACP is that the merchant remains the merchant of record. That means you still manage pricing, fulfillment, returns, and post-purchase communication.

Merchants also keep control over their payment provider, product feed, and order systems. The checkout happens via delegated payments, where the transaction is processed by your system using secure tokens. This setup ensures customers complete purchases through your backend, not OpenAI’s.

To get your products listed through the ACP, you’ll first need to provide a structured product feed (CSV or JSON) with key details like product names, prices, descriptions, and availability. This feed allows ChatGPT to index your catalog and surface your listings during conversational searches.

You’ll also need to implement ACP-compatible APIs to support checkout sessions, cart updates, and order completion, plus webhooks to send status updates. Lastly, your store must accept delegated payments via providers like Stripe, allowing users to complete purchases securely inside ChatGPT. Once these parts are live, your store becomes agent-ready and eligible for Instant Checkout visibility.

When purchases happen through ChatGPT using the ACP, standard consumer protections still apply. The merchant of record is responsible for fulfillment, refunds, and legal compliance — just like in traditional eCommerce.

Payments are processed through trusted providers like Stripe using delegated tokens, which include encryption, consent, and auditability. Users see key details (price, merchant, item info) before completing an Instant Checkout, ensuring transparency and control throughout the conversational flow.

If a product goes out of stock after ChatGPT recommends it, the ACP is designed to catch it before the order is completed. To prevent errors, the protocol revalidates availability during checkout using the merchant’s backend.

Here’s how it works:

When a user starts Instant Checkout, ChatGPT creates a checkout session by calling your API. If the item is no longer in stock, your system returns an error (out_of_stock) and blocks the purchase.
The user sees a clear message (e.g., “This item is no longer available”), and the transaction is stopped before payment is processed.
Optionally, ChatGPT may suggest a similar in-stock item or allow the user to ask for alternatives — preserving a seamless conversational flow.

Merchants using ACP are responsible for keeping their product feeds updated and for checking availability in real time during checkout. This two-layer approach —feed freshness + live API validation —ensures that users aren't charged for unavailable products and that the chat-to-checkout experience remains trustworthy and secure.

When people say “AI agents shop for humans,” they mean that tools like ChatGPT can now search for products, compare options, and complete purchases on users’ behalf. These AI agents understand natural language prompts, go through merchant catalogs using structured data, and present personalized suggestions.

For merchants, this shift means commerce is no longer just about clicks and website funnels. It’s about being visible and compatible within conversations powered by AI. To support this new buying experience, your platform needs structured product data, ACP-compliant APIs, and real-time inventory and payment capabilities.

To implement Agentic Commerce and support features like Instant Checkout in ChatGPT, your eCommerce platform must meet several key technical requirements. These are designed to make your store “agent-ready” — meaning AI assistants like ChatGPT can discover your products, initiate transactions, and complete purchases securely.

Here’s what’s required:

Structured product feed – your catalog must be formatted in a machine-readable structure (e.g., CSV or JSON) with key data like product names, prices, descriptions, and availability.
API-first checkout and cart logic – you need to expose ACP-compliant endpoints so AI agents can create, update, and complete transactions in real time.
Webhook event handling – your system should send real-time order updates so ChatGPT stays in sync with fulfillment status and user expectations.
Delegated payment support – you must be able to accept tokenized payment credentials (via Stripe, Visa’s TAP, or similar), allowing users to pay through ChatGPT without directly entering payment details on your site.
Inventory, pricing, and compliance alignment – your platform must validate stock and pricing during checkout, and comply with regulations around security, refunds, and customer data.

Together, these components ensure your store is discoverable, trustworthy, and fully transactable through the ACP, enabling a smooth conversational commerce experience for users.

To make your products visible and readable to AI agents like ChatGPT, you need to provide a structured product feed (CSV or JSON) that includes key details like name, description, price, availability, and attributes. This feed should follow ACP guidelines and be kept up to date so ChatGPT can accurately index your catalog.

It also helps enrich your product data with semantic tags, such as “eco-friendly,” “giftable,” or “travel-ready,” that match how users naturally search in conversation. When structured correctly, your products can appear in ChatGPT’s responses and support Instant Checkout, turning visibility into conversions.

Small and mid-sized stores can benefit from Agentic Commerce as well. The ACP is designed as an open standard, meaning any merchant who implements the required components can become visible inside ChatGPT and support Instant Checkout.

Smaller merchants may gain a competitive edge by adopting early. With conversational search becoming a new discovery channel, agent-ready stores can reach high-intent shoppers without relying on ads or complex SEO.

When implementing Agentic Commerce with the ACP, several risks and common mistakes can lead to poor performance, failed checkouts, or low visibility in ChatGPT. Most issues stem from either incomplete integrations or poorly structured data.

Here are key risks to consider:

Outdated or incomplete product feeds – if your catalog data isn’t refreshed frequently or lacks essential fields, ChatGPT may not surface your products or may recommend out-of-stock items.
Missing or misconfigured APIs – failing to implement the required ACP endpoints can break the checkout experience and lead to failed transactions or unfulfilled orders.
No support for delegated payments – without secure, tokenized payment processing (via Stripe, TAP, or AP2), your store can’t complete purchases in the chat.
Lack of semantic product structure – if your catalog isn’t optimized for natural language queries, your products may not match user intent in conversational searches.
Ignoring post-checkout sync – without proper webhook and CRM integration, you risk fulfillment errors, customer confusion, or analytics blind spots.

Avoiding these mistakes ensures a smoother integration and maximizes your visibility and conversion potential in the new era of conversational commerce.

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Dmytro Hruzin

AI/ML / Back-End / Tech Lead

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Agentic Commerce: How to Make Your Marketplace or Online Store Visible in ChatGPT

Why Does Your Marketplace or Online Store Need Agentic Commerce Now?

AI Is Becoming the New Search and Discovery Layer

Leading Platforms Are Already Implementing It

Major Payment and Infrastructure Players Are Building the Ecosystem

The Competitive Edge – Early Adoption Means Visibility

How DBB Software Helps to Implement Agentic Commerce

ACP API Integration to Make Your Store “Talk” to ChatGPT

Order & Payment Handling to Connect ACP to Real Transactions

Semantic Search & AI-Driven Recommendations to Help Agents Find the Right Products

Bottom Line

Why DBB Software for Agentic Commerce

Conclusion: The Future of E-Shopping is Agentic Commerce

FAQ

What is ChatGPT Instant Purchases (Instant Checkout)?

How does the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) work in implementation?

What are the steps to implement ACP for a custom marketplace?

How do you integrate a custom marketplace with e-commerce search in agentic commerce?

What are the common challenges in implementing agentic commerce and Instant Purchases?

Could ChatGPT's Instant Checkout Be the Dawn of Conversational Commerce CX?

Does implementing the OpenAI Agentic Commerce Protocol mean businesses lose control over their customer relationships or branding?

How does an e-commerce business get its products listed and visible through the OpenAI Agentic Commerce Protocol?

What consumer protections apply when purchases happen through conversation rather than traditional checkout flows?

What happens when products are out of stock after ChatGPT recommends them?

What does it really mean that “AI agents shop for humans”?

What are the main technical requirements to implement Agentic Commerce?

How can I make my products visible and readable to AI agents like ChatGPT?

Is Agentic Commerce only for large marketplaces, or can small stores benefit too?

What are the key risks or mistakes to avoid when implementing Agentic Commerce?