Agentic Commerce 101: The Agentic Commerce Protocol and the Next Stage of Shopping on E-commerce Stores
Agentic Commerce Protocol by OpenAI streamlines how AI agents collaborate with merchants to complete purchases end to end.
TL;DR: Agentic commerce enables AI agents to complete purchases on behalf of shoppers. The Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) is an open standard co-developed by OpenAI and Stripe. Instant Checkout in ChatGPT demonstrates ACP with 700M+ weekly active users. Early deployments show 20–30% AOV uplifts, far exceeding legacy chatbots. Merchants must prepare now by implementing ACP-compliant APIs and endpoints. Add To Cart AI simplifies integration of AI Agent and helps merchants become agent-ready.
What is Agentic Commerce?
Agentic commerce represents a new stage of online shopping where AI agents can plan, research and execute purchases on behalf of people. The Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) is an open standard that allows AI agents, customers and merchants to interact to complete transactions. This article explains the basics of agentic commerce and why Add To Cart AI is a pioneer in this revolutionary approach to e-commerce.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
- A shopper tells ChatGPT, “I need wireless headphones for working out, under $150”
- The AI searches multiple merchants, filters by sweat resistance and battery life
- It presents three options with reasons: battery duration, fit ratings, price
- The shopper picks one
- Transaction complete. Under a minute.
The Agentic Commerce Protocol orchestrates every step of the buying journey—from shopper prompts to fulfillment and payment—in a single agent-led flow.
The Progress of Agentic Commerce
The ACP was co-developed by OpenAI and Stripe and powers features like Instant Checkout in ChatGPT. With ACP, a conversation between a shopper, their AI assistant and a business can handle the entire purchase journey—from discovery to payment—without leaving the chat interface. This protocol is open sourced so more merchants and developers can build integrations, enabling a broad ecosystem around agentic commerce.
Add To Cart AI was the first end-to-end AI shopping agent for ecommerce stores and remains at the forefront of agentic commerce. Our earlier articles, such as What Is an AI Shopping Agent? and Introducing Add To Cart AI, lay the foundation for this new paradigm.
Why This Matters
Agentic commerce will fundamentally change product discovery and purchase flows. Instead of visiting multiple websites and comparing products manually, shoppers can ask an AI agent to find, compare and buy items across merchants. This approach removes friction from the shopping experience and could raise average order value through smarter, more contextual recommendations.
For merchants, supporting ACP means being ready for a future where AI-mediated purchases become common. Early adopters will gain access to high-intent customers and new sales channels that didn’t exist before.
How Instant Checkout in ChatGPT Brings the Agentic Commerce Protocol to Life
OpenAI’s Instant Checkout feature in ChatGPT demonstrates ACP in action. More than 700 million people use ChatGPT weekly, and Instant Checkout lets them buy from supported merchants inside the chat without ever leaving the conversation.
How Instant Checkout Works
When a shopper finds a product in ChatGPT, Instant Checkout enables a streamlined purchase flow:
- The AI agent adds the item to the cart
- Fetches real-time price and shipping information
- Uses a securely stored payment method to complete the order
- Confirms the transaction—all without redirecting to a separate website
ACP ensures that the merchant remains the merchant of record and that payment tokens and order data are exchanged securely. This maintains merchant control while delivering a seamless customer experience.
Benefits for Merchants and Shoppers
For shoppers, Instant Checkout eliminates extra steps, reducing cart abandonment and making buying as simple as sending a message. The purchase intent is captured at the moment of maximum interest.
For merchants, this creates:
- A new high-intent sales channel with 700M+ weekly active users
- Reduced cart abandonment through streamlined checkout
- Access to customers who prefer AI-mediated shopping experiences
ACP-driven experiences lift AOV, improve conversion, and surface new first-party insights for merchants while reducing friction for shoppers.
The Future is Agentic: Who is Building on ACP
Beyond Etsy as the initial launch partner, Shopify Merchants, with over a million Shopify stores, are in the integration pipeline, with these brands confirmed:
Agentic commerce has started its take off with giants like OpenAI, Stripe, PayPal, Visa and many others partnering to make it happen now. With over 800 million weekly ChatGPT users and growing adoption of AI assistants across platforms, the question is no longer if agentic commerce will transform e-commerce, but when your store will be ready.
The Agentic Commerce Protocol provides the open standard that makes this future possible, and Add To Cart AI is your partner in navigating this transformation.
Agentic commerce elevates every stage of the shopping journey compared with legacy chat interfaces, setting new benchmarks for speed and personalization.
Want to accelerate your agentic commerce roadmap?
Contact us to explore a tailored plan for your store, or learn more about Add To Cart AI and how we’re pioneering the future of shopping.