The First Brands to Win Inside ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity (And What They Did Differently)

The Shelf Moved. Most Brands Didn't Notice. 

In September 2025, something quietly shifted in e-commerce. A customer opened ChatGPT, typed "best hiking boots under $200," and completed a purchase without ever leaving the chat. No website visit. No search results. No friction. This wasn't a glimpse of the future. It was the future, happening right now. Today, 52% of consumers plan to use AI assistants for shopping. Traffic from generative AI to retail sites surged 4,700% year-over-year. And the brands that recognised this shift early? They're already winning in channels most competitors don't even know exist. 

The First Movers 

Etsy and ChatGPT's Instant Checkout launched the agent commerce race in earnest. US Etsy sellers could suddenly have products discovered, recommended, and purchased entirely within ChatGPT - no redirects, no external checkouts. Within weeks, Shopify followed, making over one million merchants instantly available in ChatGPT's shopping interface. 

Walmart didn't hesitate. They announced a major partnership with OpenAI, letting customers build carts, compare items, and complete purchases inside ChatGPT's native interface. Target went further, launching a custom ChatGPT app where shoppers could browse, build baskets across multiple categories, and select delivery methods - all conversationally. Target's Chief Information Officer put it plainly: "We're proud to be one of the first retailers bringing shopping into this new channel... Our goal is simple: make every interaction feel as natural and helpful as chatting with a friend." 

But OpenAI wasn't the only player moving fast. 

Perplexity's Aggressive Move 

While ChatGPT dominated headlines, Perplexity quietly built something arguably more elegant: "Buy with Pro," one-click checkout directly from search results. Search for a product, see recommendations, buy instantly - no context switching. The results stunned observers. Perplexity reported a 5x increase in shopping intent queries after launch. Users weren't researching products - they were buying them. 

Perplexity sweetened the deal for early merchants: free API access, custom dashboards tracking shopping trends, and priority placement in agent recommendations. Then came the PayPal integration in November 2025. Suddenly, merchants could accept payments through PayPal's agentic commerce services directly on Perplexity. The time between discovery and purchase collapsed to seconds. 

Google's Autonomous Layer 

Google took a different approach. Their Gemini AI doesn't just enable purchases—it takes action autonomously. 

By late 2025, Google launched "agentic checkout" within Search and Gemini. Users could instruct Gemini: "Buy me those headphones once they drop to $200." Gemini would monitor prices and complete the purchase automatically when conditions were met. Most surprisingly? Gemini can now call physical stores to check inventory. Using enhanced Duplex technology, it verifies stock levels, confirms pricing, and sends results via text. It's the first AI that bridges online and offline retail seamlessly.Initial partners include Wayfair, Chewy, and select Shopify merchants. 

What the Winners Actually Did 

These aren't just checkout integrations. The brands winning inside agents share three critical moves: 

1. They moved before perfection. Etsy's initial launch had limitations - variant products couldn't use instant checkout. Target's app launched in beta. None were flawless. But they were first. In platform shifts, timing beats perfection every time. 

2. They restructured data for machines, not humans. Traditional e-commerce optimises for human eyes: beautiful images, compelling copy, intuitive navigation. Agent commerce optimises for machine reasoning: structured attributes, real-time inventory, clear policies, comparative data. 

 Shopify built an entire "Commerce for Agents" infrastructure around this insight. Their Catalogue system makes products queryable by AI. Their Universal Cart lets customers buy across multiple merchants. Their Checkout Kit integrates payments directly into conversational flows. Shopify merchants adopting this toolkit are seeing AI-driven traffic surge 7x year-over-year. 

3. They embraced open protocols. The Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), co-developed by OpenAI and Stripe, is becoming the standard language between AI agents and businesses. Brands implementing ACP build once and distribute everywhere - ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and whatever comes next. 

The protocol is open source under Apache 2.0 license. Merchants remain the merchant of record, handling post-purchase experiences and customer relationships directly. This isn't marketplace selling. This is agent-powered direct commerce. 

The Window Is Real - And Closing 

Every platform shift creates a window for early movers. McKinsey's research is clear: "First-movers have the unique opportunity to set pricing models, capitalizing on current monetization gaps where agents are often free." 

BCG adds urgency: "Major players like Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Gemini are rapidly embedding comprehensive commerce functionalities, intensifying competition and accelerating transformation." 

The protocols are standardising. Customer behaviour is shifting. Infrastructure is being built right now. 

The brands that prepare today will own the next three years. Those that wait will be catching up in an already crowded market where the rules are set.