Hello, hello! 👋🏻
I remember Blockbuster before Netflix killed it. Date night negotiations in aisles of VHS videos. It died slowly, and then it was gone…🪽
800 million weekly ChatGPT users can now buy products without ever opening a browser.
No Google.
No search results.
No clicking through tabs.
Is this another "Facebook Shops" failure or the beginning of a dramatic shift in ecommerce?
Let's break it down…
The TL;DR ⏰
September 29, 2025: OpenAI + Shopify announced direct sales in ChatGPT !
September 30th: Etsy stock surged 15.8%. Shopify jumped 6.2%.
Today: Glossier, SKIMS, Spanx, Stanley, Steve Madden are reaching 800 million weekly ChatGPT users WITHOUT PAYING GOOGLE.
Colleen Waters, VP of eCommerce at Steve Madden: "AI will fundamentally reshape how our customers shop. Being on Shopify means we can automatically be wherever our customers are shopping—including inside AI conversations."
How It Works
User speaks: "Find me running shoes under $100"
ChatGPT Mobile: Shows curated products with images, prices, ratings
User: Says “Buy Now"
Done: Checkout happens inline, no browser switch required
The Tech Behind It
Agentic Commerce Protocol (open-source, co-developed with Stripe)
Real-time inventory + pricing
Secure payment processing (no card data exposed)
Orders flow into standard merchant systems
SHORT-TERM: The Immediate Impact 🥊
If You're Already on Shopify:
✅ You're automatically eligible. No setup required initially.
✅ 800M weekly ChatGPT users become potential customers.
✅ Orders process through your existing admin, no new workflows to learn.
But here's what most brands are missing:
Your team optimized for Google's keyword algorithm.
ChatGPT doesn't care about keywords…it cares about context.
If You're NOT on Shopify
❔Do you migrate to Shopify?
❔ Do you build your own integration using Stripe's ACP standards?
❔ Does your team even have the skills to compete as Google's dominance fades?
MID-TERM: The Strategic Shift ♟️
This is where things get interesting.
Channels ARE About to Get Disrupted
1. Google Shopping
When users can ask ChatGPT "best wireless headphones for running" and buy instantly, why would they:
Open Google
Scan shopping results/ads
Click multiple tabs
Compare manually
Navigate to checkout
Enter credit card
My wife won't. My parents might.
2. Amazon's Browsing Dominance
Amazon wins on speed, breadth, and brand trust. I see less impact here. The question: Will Amazon play ball with ChatGPT? If yes, it's the end of Google Shopping. Speed + 353 Million Amazon products + Shopify = Big trouble for Google.
3. E-commerce SEO Changes
Keywords → Context
PageRank → Relevance in conversation
Backlinks → Brand mentions in training data, particularly video
Brand To-Do’s ✅
Restructure product data for AI readability
Rich, detailed descriptions
Clear use cases, questions/answers, and lots of videos
Customer review integration
Rethink attribution models
ChatGPT won't show up in your Dashboards the same way
New metrics: AI discovery rate, conversation-to-conversion
Prepare for multi-item carts
Bundle strategies for conversational shopping
Cross-sell optimization for AI recommendations
Multi-product solution videos
The Revenue Model Reality
OpenAI charges a "small transaction fee" (refunded if returned)
Merchants keep customer relationships and data
Product results are organic and unsponsored for now
This is just the beginning of AI platform fees
OpenAI needs to pay for a trillion dollars' worth of compute. Just like Ads slowly took over Google, the same will eventually happen to ChatGPT. The bills are simply too large not to have Ads in the mix.
Grab your free space before it's gone. 👋🏻💸
LONG-TERM (18+ Months): The Shift 📈
Rise of Agentic Commerce
Google and Amazon will react. Money will flow towards Agents who shop for you. As Amazon showed us, speed matters…
Your AI assistant knows you need new running shoes
It scans inventory across ALL merchants (not just Shopify)
It finds the best price on your behalf
It completes purchases and returns without you lifting a finger
The Predictions 🔮
$16 trillion in AI-mediated GMV by 2030
Advertising revenue is shifting from Google to AI platforms
New category: "Conversational commerce" (like mobile commerce in 2010 as ‘Agentic commerce’ is too fan boy for me)
Dynamic Pricing: Amazon currently owns this market, but ChatGPT and AI agents will likely challenge it in a way that Google cannot because of its reliance on ad revenue.
A Few Uncomfortable Questions 🤔
Will small brands survive if AI prioritizes big names?
How do you optimize for Black Friday sales in a set of black-box AI algorithms?
What happens when Google/Amazon/Bing/Meta launch competing shopping agents?
The Bottom Line 👀
This isn't Facebook Shops 2.0 or Google Shopping Express. This is new. Your team is likely unprepared for it. They love the stability of the Googleplex. AI is disruptive. Are you going to take market share or fade like Blockbuster?
Quote from Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke: "We've had a hard time keeping quiet about this"…
…and now I know why.
Are you ready for AI commerce?
Forward these to your e-commerce lead 👇
Cheers,
Alec
P.S. Want to get a head start with ChatGPT Commerce? Text Tim: +16 032 414 735.
