Shopify, one of the world’s leading ecommerce platforms, recently unveiled its 2026 product vision, introducing a range of updates designed to reshape how people discover and purchase products online. One of the most significant announcements is AI Product Discovery through Agentic Storefronts—a feature that brings conversational commerce to the forefront.

In this article, we’ll break down what Agentic Storefronts are, how they work, and why this update could be a game changer for merchants of all sizes.

Agentic Storefronts: Reach buyers in AI chat platforms

With Agentic Storefronts, Shopify is expanding ecommerce beyond traditional websites and into AI-powered conversations. This new approach allows products to be discovered, compared, explained, and purchased directly within a chat interface, such as ChatGPT—without requiring users to browse a separate storefront.

This means a customer could ask a question like, “What’s the best backpack for weekend travel under $150?” and receive personalized product recommendations pulled directly from Shopify stores. The AI can answer follow-up questions, compare options, and guide the buyer through the decision-making process all in real time.

For small and mid-sized businesses, this levels the playing field. Even without a massive marketing budget, your products can appear naturally within AI conversations where shoppers are already searching for solutions.

Shopify has emphasized that Agentic Storefronts are fully white label, ensuring merchants retain control over their brand and customer experience. ChatGPT pulls structured product data directly from your Shopify store—including titles, descriptions, images, pricing, and reviews—to generate accurate and consistent responses.

Merchants decide how the checkout experience works. Customers can either complete their purchase directly within the chat or be redirected to the merchant’s online store. In both cases, the brand identity, pricing, and fulfillment remain entirely in the merchant’s control. Early access to in‑chat checkout is currently limited to U.S. stores, and some features—such as subscription products, certain checkout blocks and local delivery—aren’t yet supported. For now, merchants outside the U.S. can still benefit from AI discovery; shoppers will just be directed back to the online store to complete their purchase.

One of the most appealing aspects of this update is how easy it is to enable. Agentic Storefronts can be turned on with no coding required by simply activating “ChatGPT Instant Checkout” in the Shopify admin settings. Once enabled, your products can be syndicated across multiple AI platforms like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity through a single, centralized setup. You can also choose where you sell by switching individual channels on or off in the same dashboard.

Once enabled, merchants can refine their product data directly in Shopify Admin. This includes product names, categories, descriptions, and other structured fields that help AI systems understand and accurately present each product. Shopify also allows merchants to automatically pull this information from their existing online store, eliminating the need to rewrite content from scratch.

After setup, any orders placed through AI-powered chats flow directly into the standard Shopify orders page. Merchants can manage fulfillment, returns, and customer service exactly as they would with any other order.

To further enhance control, Shopify offers a Knowledge Base app that allows merchants to pre-write answers to frequently asked questions. This ensures that when customers ask the AI about shipping policies, sizing, returns, or product details, responses stay consistent with the brand’s voice and policies. The Knowledge Base isn’t just optional—filling it out helps the AI understand your policies and brand, so your answers stay accurate and on-message.

Instead of generic or incomplete answers, merchants can guide AI conversations with accurate, approved information - improving customer trust and reducing support overhead. At the same time, it’s important to remember that Agentic Storefronts are designed for discovery and checkout; post‑purchase interactions like “Where’s my order?” still shift back to your regular support channels, so plan your support experience accordingly.

Agentic Storefronts represent a shift in how ecommerce works. Rather than forcing customers to search, click, and compare on their own, Shopify is enabling a more natural, conversational buying experience. For merchants, this opens up a new discovery channel where intent is high and friction is low. Behind the scenes, it is powered by the Shopify Catalog (which structures product data) and the Universal Commerce Protocol, a new industry standard co‑developed with Google that lets AI agents understand and interact with stores across platforms. While the feature rolls out, tidy up your product data and learn the Knowledge Base so you’re ready to reach customers directly in conversations—without giving up control of your brand, data, or sales process.