ChatGPT Instant Checkout & ACP: What It Means for Merchants

OpenAI has introduced Instant Checkout inside ChatGPT, powered by the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP)—an open standard built with Stripe. Shoppers can discover products via natural-language search and complete purchases without leaving the chat, while you remain the merchant of record (orders, payments, fulfilment, and customer relationship stay with you). It’s US-only for now, with Etsy live and Shopify “coming soon”. Merchants outside Etsy/Shopify can apply and integrate via ACP plus a product feed.

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What’s new

• Turn chats into checkouts: Product discovery and purchase happen directly in ChatGPT conversations.
• Powered by ACP: An open, Apache-licensed protocol from OpenAI and Stripe for agentic commerce—designed to plug into your existing systems, keep payments secure, and let you accept/decline orders.
• Discovery by relevance: Products are ranked on how well they match the user’s query/context, not pay-to-play. It’s free to be discovered; you pay a small fee only on completed purchases (refunded on returns).

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How the flow works

1. Shoppers search naturally (“durable carry-on under £250”) and ChatGPT recommends relevant products. Ranking is purely relevance-based.
2. Compare options in one place: ChatGPT lists where the item is available. Merchant ranking factors include availability, price, quality, whether you’re the maker/primary seller, and whether Instant Checkout is enabled. Even without Instant Checkout, shoppers still get a direct link to your site.
3. Buy from you: Users confirm details and tap Pay Merchant; you accept/decline, process payment, and fulfil as normal—you’re the merchant of record end-to-end.
4. Payments: Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Link by Stripe; Plus/Pro users may have payment/shipping prefilled (still editable). Payment data flows securely from buyer to you via trusted providers.
5. Post-purchase: You send confirmation, handle returns/support, and shoppers can view orders in ChatGPT and track on your site. (No auto-opt-in to marketing from these orders.)

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Where it’s available

Instant Checkout is live in the United States with US merchants today, with the goal to expand user and merchant geographies next year. Etsy is already supported; Shopify is coming soon.

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Two routes to get started

1) Etsy or Shopify merchant

If you sell on Etsy or Shopify, you’re eligible without building a custom integration. Apply to participate and you’ll be onboarded on a rolling basis.

2) Custom integration via ACP

For other stacks, you can integrate by:

• Applying to Instant Checkout.
• Providing a Product Feed that ChatGPT ingests for accurate price/availability. Supported formats: TSV/CSV/XML/JSON. OpenAI accepts updates every 15 minutes.
• Implementing ACP Checkout endpoints and webhooks, returning rich checkout state each step.
• Payments via Delegated Payment: Use a compliant PSP. Stripe’s Shared Payment Token is the first compatible implementation.

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Practical implications for growth teams

• New high-intent surface: Capture demand at the exact moment people are deciding what to buy.
• Relevance is king: Like SEO for conversations—feed quality, completeness, freshness, and being the primary seller all matter.
• Faster conversion: Prefilled details for eligible users and native wallet support reduce friction.
• You own the customer: Orders, payments, fulfilment, and support remain on your systems.

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Readiness checklist

• Catalogue hygiene: Unique IDs, accurate prices, inventory, rich attributes/media in the Product Feed; plan ≤15-minute refresh cadence.
• Payments: Confirm PSP compatibility with Delegated Payment (e.g., Stripe Shared Payment Token) and define your acceptance rules.
• Order ops: Map ACP order events to your OMS, notifications, and returns flows.
• Measurement: Decide how you’ll attribute and track ChatGPT orders alongside existing channels.

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How Dragon AI can help

• Discovery audit & feed build: We structure and validate your Product Feed to maximise relevance and freshness.
• ACP checkout integration: We implement the Agentic Checkout spec, webhooks, and state machine, wired to your current stack.
• Payments enablement: We integrate with Stripe’s Shared Payment Token or your PSP under the Delegated Payment spec.
• Governance & scale: Production readiness, monitoring, entitlement management, and playbooks for roll-outs.