TLDR: ChatGPT has rolled out agentic shopping in the US, starting with Etsy and soon expanding to Shopify. Buyers can now discover and purchase products directly within ChatGPT without ever visiting Etsy or Shopify websites. For merchants, sales will appear in their existing Shopify dashboards, but attribution and tracking are currently limited.
Agentic shopping goes live
OpenAI has launched instant checkout inside ChatGPT, starting with Etsy sellers in the US. Shopify merchants will be next, with the rollout expected to be simplest for those already using Stripe.
The key change? Shoppers can now ask ChatGPT for a product recommendation, “What are the best running shoes under $100?” and complete the purchase entirely in chat. The Etsy or Shopify store never has to be visited to browse or make a purchase.
What does this mean for consumer behaviour?
As Tom Pickard, our Head of Paid Search, explained, this will change how people shop. Instead of visiting a store or search engine, buyers will ask ChatGPT open-ended, conversational questions like:
- “What lamp works best for my living room? Here’s a photo.”
- “Which trousers match this jacket?”
- “What’s trending for Christmas party dresses this year?”
It’s fast, personalized, and frictionless. For consumers, the benefits are clear: fewer clicks, better recommendations, and a checkout process that takes seconds.
How do sellers enable this?
For Etsy sellers in the US, the good news is it’s automatic. No extra setup is required, their products are already available in ChatGPT. Shopify integration is on the way, with complexity depending on your current payment gateway. The Stripe partnership will likely make this the easiest way to get started.
Where will merchants see these sales?
This is where things get interesting. Purchases made through ChatGPT should appear in merchants’ existing dashboards (Etsy or Shopify) as though they were made directly through their own checkout.
However, there may be additional fields merchants can set up, such as “Payment via ChatGPT”, to help them identify which orders originated from OpenAI’s shopping system. The problem? Current attribution is very limited. It doesn’t look like sales will automatically show up as “ChatGPT” traffic in tools like Google Analytics.
Why attribution matters
This lack of visibility is where tools like ASK BOSCO® come into play. As Tom highlighted, merchants need to know not just that a sale happened, but where it came from. ASK BOSCO® can help bridge that gap by pulling in payment data from Shopify (or Etsy) and matching it against other traffic sources. This allows merchants to see whether a sale originated from ChatGPT, Google search, paid ads, or elsewhere.
In short:
- Without a tool like ASK BOSCO®, merchants may just see a “sale” without clarity on how it was earned.
- With ASK BOSCO®, those ChatGPT-driven conversions can be identified and measured alongside other performance marketing data.
That insight could prove crucial as conversational commerce scales, otherwise, sales attribution risks becoming a blind spot.
Payment processing and privacy concerns
OpenAI’s system passes payment and order details directly to the merchant. The merchant still validates the order, handles shipping, applies taxes, and manages risk. Payment is processed at the moment of purchase, usually through the merchant’s payment gateway.
On privacy, OpenAI claims to protect payment data like any payment gateway would. Interestingly, merchants may actually see less customer data than before, since ChatGPT doesn’t pass browsing history or cookies, just the essentials needed to fulfil the order.
Looking ahead
The launch of ChatGPT shopping in the US marks the start of a new realm of ecommerce that needs to be tracked and measured. For consumers, it’s a faster, smarter way to shop. For merchants, it’s an exciting new channel, but one with tracking gaps that need solving.
Right now, the best advice for sellers is to closely monitor their Etsy or Shopify dashboards for any new sales tagged as coming from ChatGPT (once setup), as these will likely appear much like regular orders but will include ChatGPT identifiers. At the same time, merchants should consider using tools like ASK BOSCO® to connect these purchases with their wider marketing mix, ensuring they don’t lose sight of which channels are really driving performance.
And with OpenAI expected to introduce a paid placement or “ad version” of ChatGPT shopping within the next 12 months, sellers would also be wise to start preparing for this, positioning themselves to take advantage of what could become a powerful new performance marketing channel. For more information on agentic shopping or ASK BOSCO®, please get in contact with our team, team@askbosco.com.
