Shopify in-chat checkout: The complete 2025 guide

The way we shop online is changing, and it’s all starting with a simple chat. In a pretty big move, Shopify and OpenAI have teamed up to let customers buy products directly inside a ChatGPT conversation. Yep, you read that right. No more clicking away to a website or fumbling through checkout pages, just a smooth chat that goes from asking a question to making a purchase.

This isn’t just a slightly smarter chatbot. It’s a real shift from using chat for basic support to something being called "agentic commerce," where an AI acts like a personal shopper, finding what you need and handling the purchase for you. It’s a fascinating peek into the future, but what does it actually mean for store owners like you?

In this guide, we’ll break it all down. We’ll look at what this new tech is, how it works, the opportunities it opens up, and some of the serious limitations you need to be aware of. Most importantly, we’ll show you how you can bring that same conversational power to your own website, on your own terms.

What is Shopify in-chat checkout?

At its heart, Shopify in-chat checkout is exactly what it sounds like: a customer can buy something from a Shopify store without ever leaving the chat window.

The big headline here is the new partnership that lets anyone using ChatGPT find and buy products from Shopify merchants in the middle of a conversation. This is one of the first big steps toward making AI chats truly transactional. It introduces an idea called "agentic commerce," where AI agents don’t just fetch information for you, they actually do things on your behalf. Think of it as asking a personal assistant to go buy something for you, but your assistant is a chatbot.

This is a whole different world from the classic chatbots we’re all used to seeing on websites. For years, those bots have been stuck on a script. They could answer simple questions like, "What’s your return policy?" or send you to the right product page, but the second you were ready to buy, you were kicked back to a normal checkout flow. With the new Shopify in-chat checkout, the entire journey, from discovery to payment, happens in one continuous conversation.

How the new Shopify in-chat checkout works

This new feature isn’t just a simple button; it’s built on a system designed to be secure and straightforward for both the shopper and the merchant. Let’s peel back the layers and see how it works.

The customer experience in ChatGPT

For the customer, the process feels completely natural. It starts with a simple question. Someone might ask ChatGPT for "thoughtful gifts for a coffee lover" or "the best running shoes under $100." ChatGPT then scours the web and suggests relevant products, including items from participating Shopify merchants.

If a product supports this new feature, a "Buy" button pops up right in the chat. As the OpenAI announcement explains, the user can tap the button, confirm their details, and pay using info they have saved with Stripe, all without getting bounced to another site. The conversation keeps flowing, and all the friction of a typical checkout process just melts away.

The technology making it happen

This smooth experience is possible thanks to the "Agentic Commerce Protocol," an open standard developed by OpenAI and Stripe. You can think of this protocol as the universal translator that lets the AI agent (ChatGPT), your store (Shopify), and the payment processor (Stripe) talk to each other securely to place an order.

For merchants, the setup is just as clean. When a customer buys something through ChatGPT, the order pops up directly in their Shopify admin dashboard, looking just like any other sale. You’re still the merchant of record, which means you own the customer relationship and handle all the fulfillment, shipping, and returns just like you always have. The tech simply works in the background to connect a huge new audience to your existing business operations.

Perks and possibilities for merchants

Moving toward conversational commerce opens up some pretty cool new doors for businesses. It’s more than just a flashy feature; it’s a new way to connect with customers and, well, make more sales.

• Show up where your customers are: This integration puts your products right inside one of the world’s most popular AI platforms. You can reach hundreds of millions of people who are actively looking for recommendations and turn those "just looking" moments into instant sales.

• Less friction, more conversions: We’ve all been there, abandoning a cart because of one too many clicks. By getting rid of the need to visit a new site, log in, and navigate a checkout, in-chat purchasing makes the path to buying much shorter and simpler. A smoother journey usually means more completed sales.

• A brand new sales channel: Think of this as opening a pop-up shop in a super busy digital plaza. It’s an entirely new way to sell that works alongside your online store, social media, and search ads. Considering that 70% of Shopify Inbox conversations are already with customers on the brink of a purchase, the potential here is pretty clear.

• Stay ahead of the curve: Jumping on this technology early shows that your brand is innovative and thinking about the future. It signals that you’re serious about giving customers the most convenient shopping experience out there, which can really make you stand out.

The catch: Key limits of a third-party platform

While the ChatGPT integration is an exciting step forward, relying on someone else’s platform for a core part of your sales process comes with some big trade-offs. Before diving in, it’s really important for merchants to understand the downsides.

• You don’t control the branding: The whole experience happens inside ChatGPT’s world. You have next to no control over the AI’s personality, the branding, or how the conversation flows. The AI’s tone is set by OpenAI, not your carefully crafted brand voice. You’re basically just another product listing in their ecosystem.

• Say hello to transaction fees: This convenience isn’t free. As reported by both CNBC and Reuters, OpenAI plans to take a fee on every purchase made through the chat. This adds a new cost that cuts directly into your margins, unlike solutions that offer predictable, flat-rate pricing where your costs don’t jump just because you had a great month.

• Limited knowledge about your business: The AI in ChatGPT only knows about your product catalog. It can recommend a product, sure, but it can’t answer a tricky support question about a previous order or give a detailed pre-sales answer based on your help center articles. It doesn’t have a deep, unified understanding of your business that comes from having access to your helpdesk, internal docs, and past customer chats.

• It’s their turf, not yours: This feature is built to drive sales on ChatGPT, not on your website. You miss out on valuable chances to engage customers in your own branded space, where you control the upsells, cross-sells, and the entire experience. You’re essentially building your business on rented land instead of investing in your own property.

A better way: Take control with your own AI chatbot

The good news is you don’t have to sacrifice your brand experience to get into conversational commerce. You can get all the benefits of in-chat checkout without the drawbacks by putting a smart AI chatbot directly on your own website.

This is where a solution like eesel AI comes into the picture. It’s an AI platform built to give you the power of conversational commerce, but on your own terms. Instead of handing the keys over to another platform, you build the experience right on your own site.

Here’s how it creates a better, more connected experience:

• Total brand control: With eesel AI, you get to decide the AI’s persona, its tone of voice, and the exact conversational paths. The experience is 100% your brand, making sure every interaction feels authentic.

• Unified knowledge: This is the big one. An eesel AI chatbot connects not just to your Shopify catalog but also to your helpdesk (like Zendesk or Gorgias), your knowledge bases, and your past support tickets. This means your chatbot can handle complex sales and support questions with real context. It can sell a product and, a moment later, accurately answer, "Where is my last order?"

• Go live in minutes: Forget about drawn-out sales calls or needing a developer. eesel AI is designed to be completely self-serve. You can connect your knowledge sources, tweak your bot, and launch it on your site in just a few minutes.

• Transparent pricing: With eesel AI’s predictable pricing plans, you never have to guess what you’ll owe. Your costs are straightforward and don’t balloon with your sales volume, giving you financial clarity and control.

This video explores the upcoming Shopify checkout feature in ChatGPT and its potential impact on e-commerce.

The future of commerce is a conversation

The rise of Shopify in-chat checkout isn’t just a new feature; it’s a huge signpost pointing to where ecommerce is going. The future is conversational, with sales happening naturally within the flow of a chat.

While tapping into big platforms like ChatGPT can be a good way to find new customers, the best long-term strategy is to own the conversational experience on your own website. By building an AI-powered hub on your own turf, you keep control over your brand, build deeper relationships with your customers, and protect your hard-earned margins.

You can start building that future today. It’s time to take control of your customer conversations and turn them into sales with a tool that puts your brand, and your business, first.

Ready to build an AI chatbot that turns chats into sales on your own Shopify store? Get started with eesel AI for free and you can be live in minutes.