Google is turning Gemini into a shopping platform. Users can now search, compare and buy directly in the chat at Walmart, Shopify shops and Wayfair – without ever opening a traditional online shop. This is Google’s answer to ChatGPT’s commerce offensive and the beginning of a new era: agentic commerce, where AI assistants decide what you see, what you buy and where.
Anyone searching Google for a product normally lands on a list of links, clicks through shops, compares prices, adds to basket, enters payment details. That was yesterday. From now on, you can simply say in Gemini: “Equipment for skiing holiday”, “low-maintenance sofa for small flat” or “vegan skincare set under 60 dollars”. Gemini curates suitable products from the inventories of Walmart, Shopify merchants, Wayfair and other partners, displays them as product cards and comparison tables directly in the chat, and completes the purchase via “Instant Checkout” – without you ever opening a traditional online shop. Google is transforming Gemini from a chatbot into a shopping platform. And that changes everything.
What’s Actually Happening
Google is extending Gemini with shopping functions that unite product search, advice and checkout in one chat. At launch, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Shopify merchants, Wayfair and other major retailers are connected. Users can build shopping baskets and complete orders directly in Gemini, without jumping to traditional online shops – an “embedded experience” where the shop disappears into the chat and only the product matters.
Walmart is connecting its entire range to Gemini, so customers can find and buy products from Walmart and Sam’s Club in the Gemini app or browser. Anyone linking their Walmart account with Google receives personalised recommendations based on previous purchases. Orders from Gemini can be merged with existing baskets at Walmart or Sam’s Club. Walmart positions this as a step to maximally shorten the distance from “I want something” to “I have it” with AI, including parallel initiatives like drone deliveries. The vision: from thought to product in seconds, without detour.
Google is cooperating with Shopify so merchants can sell directly in “AI Mode” of Google Search and in the Gemini app, controlled via Shopify’s Unified Commerce Platform. Products from participating Shopify shops appear as shoppable product cards, comparison tables and offers directly in the Gemini dialogue, including prices and merchant information. Further partners like Wayfair, Chewy, Quince and other US retailers are included in the initial rollout and will be added progressively.
How It Works
Users pose natural queries. Gemini curates suitable products from partners’ inventories, shows product cards, comparison tables and possibly exclusive offers – “Direct Offers” – directly in the conversation. Via “Instant Checkout” or agentic checkout, Gemini can with consent complete the purchase directly in the chat, often via Google Pay or merchants’ preferred payment methods. This is no longer shopping as we know it. This is conversation commerce: you speak what you want and get what you need.
Agentic Commerce: The New Architecture
Google is in parallel introducing an open protocol or standard for “agentic commerce”, so platforms and merchants can more easily connect AI assistants like Gemini to their commerce infrastructure. This fundamentally changes discovery. Products no longer compete just in traditional search results, but in AI-curated “zero-click” experiences where the assistant takes over selection and ranking. The user no longer sees a hundred options, but three that Gemini considers best. Who decides what “best” means? Gemini. And thus Google.
For merchants, Google Merchant Centre or a clean Shopping Graph connection is crucial to even feature in the new Gemini shopping experience. Those not in the Graph don’t exist. Those not recommended by Gemini won’t be bought. This is the new reality: the assistant becomes the gatekeeper.
The Strategic Dimension
This is Google’s direct answer to OpenAI’s commerce offensive. ChatGPT has begun offering shopping integrations, embedding apps like Instacart and Kayak, enabling bookings and purchases in the chat. Google sees this and responds with an ecosystem: not individual apps, but a platform uniting Walmart, Shopify, Wayfair and dozens more merchants. This isn’t a feature. This is a new frontend for commerce.
The implications are enormous. For users it means convenience: no more clicking through shops, no comparing tabs, no entering payment details. Simply ask, select, buy. For merchants it means dependency: those not in Gemini won’t be found. Those not recommended by Gemini lose revenue. And those who don’t understand the rules by which Gemini ranks lose control.
For Google it means power. Because if Gemini decides which products are shown, which merchants are recommended, which offers are prominent, then Google controls not just search but sale. That’s the difference between “I’ll show you where you can buy” and “I’ll buy for you”. And that’s a paradigm shift.
The Open Questions
How transparent is the ranking? By what criteria does Gemini choose which products it shows? Is it relevance, is it price, is it who pays most? Google emphasises that user experience is paramount, yet the history of platforms shows that monetisation follows. Today it’s free, tomorrow there could be “Featured Placements”, the day after “Sponsored Recommendations”.
How secure is the data? Anyone linking their Walmart account with Google gives Google access to purchase history, preferences, behaviour. That enables personalisation, but also profiling. How is this stored, how is it used, how is it protected? Google assures privacy, yet the architecture means Google becomes an intermediary – between user and merchant, between desire and purchase.
And what happens to small merchants? Those without the resources to integrate into the Shopping Graph, those without the technology to work with Shopify or Google Merchant Centre, don’t exist in this new world. Agentic commerce favours large platforms, established merchants, scalable systems. That’s efficient, but not fair.
What Remains
Google is turning Gemini into a shopping platform, and this is more than a feature update. It’s the beginning of agentic commerce – an era where AI assistants decide what we see, what we buy, where we buy. This is convenient, this is fast, this is the future. But it’s also power. Because whoever controls the assistant controls the market. And whoever controls the market writes the rules.
Gemini becomes the salesman. The question is: for whom is he selling?
