Instant Checkout and the New Rules of Search
Impact on ecommerce is obvious, but there are opportunities for B2B too.
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OpenAI just made it possible to buy products directly inside ChatGPT. This is the logical next phase following the recent addition of product cards in their results.
For now it works with Etsy sellers and will soon extend to Shopify stores like Glossier, Skims, Spanx, and Vuori. Instead of clicking through to a website, adding something to a cart, and moving through checkout screens, the purchase can be completed inside the chat.
It’s a small rollout - single items, U.S. only - but it’s the clearest sign yet that search and purchase are merging.
What this means for consumer brands
Most consumer marketing has been built around driving people to a brand’s own site. That’s where the brand story lives, where upsells happen, where loyalty is built. But the buyer may never get that far anymore.
If someone asks ChatGPT for “best yoga mat under $100,” they’ll see a few options and can purchase on the spot. The seller still fulfills the order, but the decision is made within seconds.
For brands, that means:
The opportunity is to be the product that gets surfaced.
The risk is that you never get seen if you aren’t chosen in those answers.
(It should be noted that as an industry, we have put a MASSIVE amount of time into multi-channel attribution… and now first touch might commonly be the transaction. The task ahead for marketers is not inconsequential.)
What this means for B2B
It’s tempting to view this only as a retail story, but the model applies to B2B too. Many companies have leaned on gated assets—whitepapers, guides, templates—to capture leads.
In a chat-driven checkout environment, those assets may be offered as $0 / low cost purchases.
A prospect asks for a compliance checklist. ChatGPT offers yours. They hit “buy,” receive the asset instantly, and you collect the lead.
The difference is that the form-filling dance is gone, (ChatGPT will likely store your name, address, email etc like TikTok and Meta does today). The content library becomes a storefront of claimable assets, each one an on-ramp into your funnel.
How this compares to others
OpenAI isn’t the only one moving here. Each of the big players is carving out its own path:
Google just launched the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2). Unlike OpenAI, which has started by baking checkout into ChatGPT, Google is building the technical standard for AI-led transactions across the web. They’ve lined up more than 60 payments and commerce partners. The practical difference: Google is laying the pipes, while OpenAI is showing what the faucet looks like.
Perplexity has been experimenting with checkout inside answers using PayPal and Venmo. Ask for a product, and you may see not just information but an option to buy. Their approach feels like a preview of what “answers plus actions” might look like at scale.
Amazon is focused inward. It hasn’t opened up checkout to the broader web but is strengthening Alexa and building agent tools for its own sellers. Amazon’s play is to keep you inside its ecosystem, not to create an open standard.
The common thread: every platform is moving from being the place where discovery happens to being the place where the transaction happens.
Search has already shifted from lists of links to direct answers. Now those answers are becoming transactional.
That creates three fronts every marketer has to care about:
SEO: the old web visibility game.
Answer optimization (GEO): making sure your content or product is surfaced in generative answers.
Agentic optimization (AEO): ensuring your product, service, or asset is ready to be purchased or claimed the moment it appears.
I am lobbying hard that we group SEO, GEO, AEO and Agentic Search to be referred to as AI Search fo simplicity for everyone!
What to do now
For consumer brands: start preparing your catalogs for chat-native checkout. Test integrations early.
For B2B: rethink lead magnets. Package your guides, templates, or tools as checkout-ready assets. Spend time on Etsy and see what B2B offerings are winning there.
For everyone: adapt your search strategy. It’s no longer just about ranking, it’s about being surfaced and being actionable in the same moment.
The search box and the checkout button are becoming the same place.
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