What? PayPal has partnered with OpenAI. From 2026, PayPal will facilitate payments for ChatGPT users, and merchants that use PayPal will be able to plug directly into the chatbot. In other words, millions of small and large businesses will be able to make their products discoverable and purchasable in ChatGPT.
This partnership follows ChatGPT’s launch of its ‘Instant Checkout’ feature in the US last month, which allows users to make purchases from select merchants — well, just Etsy sellers, to begin with — mid-conversation.
In a statement, PayPal explained that it will be responsible for managing ‘merchant routing, payment validation, and orchestration behind the scenes’, making transactions simpler for both customers and merchants.
Why should brands care? Because agentic shopping might be a substantial part of the future of online commerce. During P&G’s Q3 earnings call, CFO Andre Schulten called agentic shopping an opportunity that brands need to be prepared for. ‘Might’ is the operative word, though. It’s still early days and we have no idea if consumers will take to the idea or not.
Will it move the needle? Although this partnership will certainly offer brands a new channel for discovery, OpenAI’s own study from last month found that only 2.1% of all ChatGPT conversations contain inquiries about products or services available for purchase. Therefore, while promising, this development could take some time to reach its full commercial potential.
Main image by ilgmyzin on Unsplash
