Shopping through AI agents: what a store must prepare

More and more people start shopping by asking AI: “find me a kettle under PLN 200 that has good reviews and will arrive by Friday”. The next step is an agent, that is, AI that compares offers on its own, chooses the store and pays. This is so-called agentic commerce, and the owner of a small store hears that they “have to be in ChatGPT” before it’s too late.

As of 29 October 2026: what works today for a Polish store in ChatGPT, in Google and in BLIK (the Polish mobile payment system) payments, what is only an announcement, and which three steps are worth taking right now, regardless of which agent wins the customers.

ChatGPT: checkout went back to the store

In September 2025, OpenAI launched Instant Checkout in ChatGPT, that is, buying without leaving the chat, for users in the US and, at launch, with products from Etsy sellers. Underneath was the open ACP (Agentic Commerce Protocol) from OpenAI and Stripe, a standard describing how an AI agent talks to a store: catalog, order and payment.

In March 2026, OpenAI changed course. A company spokesperson told Digital Commerce 360 that Instant Checkout is moving to apps in ChatGPT that have large networks, for example Target or Instacart, while ChatGPT itself focuses on product discovery.

The OpenAI page for merchants shows how it looks today:

• ChatGPT shows products, and the customer finishes the purchase on the store’s website or in its app, and OpenAI doesn’t charge fees on such purchases,
• ACP currently serves to pass product data, and over time is meant to cover the whole purchase path,
• shopping in ChatGPT works for now for users in the US, and stores apply through a form and go on a waitlist,
• catalogs of stores on Shopify and Etsy are connected automatically,
• OpenAI announces a self-service panel for merchants later this year and more countries, but without dates.

Conclusion: today ChatGPT is a storefront, not a checkout. The store that wins is the one whose data AI understands well and on whose website it is easy to finish the purchase.

Google: the UCP protocol and buying in AI Mode

In January 2026, Google presented its own standard: Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP). According to Google’s documentation for merchants, UCP lets people buy directly in AI Mode in search and in Gemini, while the store remains the seller and keeps the relationship with the customer. The starting point is the product feed in Merchant Center.

The catch: according to the same documentation, buying through UCP covers selected sellers in the US and only products sold in the US. Australia and Canada are to join early next year. Google says nothing about Poland and the rest of the EU for now.

So what works in Poland? Free product listings and the Shopping tab: according to Merchant Center help, Poland is on the list of supported countries. AI Mode has worked in Polish since October 2025, and Google, in its guide to AI features in search, recommends keeping the data in Merchant Center and in the Business Profile up to date. The same feed will be the foundation if buying through UCP ever reaches Poland.

BLIK for AI agents: a pilot for now

For a Polish store the key question is whether an agent will pay with BLIK: according to a Cashless.pl roundup for Q4 2025, BLIK was used to pay for about 71% of transactions in Polish e-commerce. On 12 August 2026, PPRO, a company that supplies payment providers with local payment methods, announced a partnership with BLIK on payments ordered by AI agents. This is an announcement of work, with no start date and no list of stores.

On 9 September 2026, BLIK described the first pilot transaction completed independently by an AI agent. In a store of the brand Your KAYA, an AI assistant watched for an unavailable variant of a hand cream, and when the cream came back, it added it to the cart itself and paid PLN 19.99 with BLIK. The buyer had approved the consent and limits beforehand in the bank’s app, the payment was handled by PayU, and the chat in the store was provided by the company Juo.

Conclusion: there is no “BLIK for agents” plugin today that you could switch on in your store, so don’t pay anyone for such an implementation. In the pilot the payment went through an ordinary payment provider, so I expect a ready solution to reach stores through payment gateways. An up-to-date gateway plugin and a question to your account manager about plans are enough.

What works for a Polish store as of 29 October 2026

Step 1: feed and product data

A feed is a file or a connection from which Google, and in the US also ChatGPT, pulls product data. The OpenAI feed specification requires an ID, title, description, link, brand, seller name, image, availability and price. These are almost the same fields Google has required for years, so one solid catalog will serve both channels.

An agent compares offers like a very thorough customer, so also fill in the fields that help it choose:

1. GTIN (EAN) and manufacturer code, so that AI knows it is the same product as at your competitor,
2. dimensions, weight, material, color and size as separate fields, not only in the description,
3. shipping cost and delivery time,
4. return policy: whether you accept returns and how many days the customer has (OpenAI has separate fields for this),
5. number of reviews and average rating, if you collect reviews in the store,
6. sale price (in Google also with effective dates).

Write the title for a human and for a machine: brand, model, key feature, variant. “Electric kettle Brand X100, 1.7 l, steel, black” will tell an agent more than “Super kettle on sale!”.

Most important, though, is for the feed to update itself. A price or stock level that differs from the website is a common reason Google rejects a product, and OpenAI in its specification asks you to update prices and availability whenever they change. I describe setting up the account step by step in the guide on Merchant Center. I make feeds for Google and marketplaces in the Feed for Google Merchant and marketplaces service, and when a store plugin still uses the old Content API, I move the integration to the Merchant API.

Step 2: a page AI can read without guessing

ChatGPT and Google also read your website. Check three things.

Product page content. Enter parameters as text, not only in an image. Add answers to the questions customers ask by phone: what the product is compatible with, what is in the set, how long shipping takes.

Structured data. Product and Offer markup in the page code helps search engines read the price, availability and reviews. Google stresses that AI features don’t need special markup, but structured data must match what is visible on the page.

Access for crawlers. According to OpenAI’s documentation on crawlers, pages that block OAI-SearchBot do not appear in ChatGPT search answers. The GPTBot crawler, which collects data for training models, is a separate matter: you can block only that one and leave search alone. Check your robots.txt file and your firewall or CDN settings, because some services block AI bots with a single switch.

You can check how much of this you already have right in Check your website: the free test has a separate “AI visibility” area. I prepare websites for ChatGPT and AI Overviews in the AI visibility service.

Step 3: checkout, payments and seller obligations

Since ChatGPT sends the customer to the store, checkout must work from the first click. A customer from the chat arrives after already comparing offers: if you lose them at account creation or at a delivery surcharge, they will go back to the chat and choose another store.

A list for today:

• purchase without creating an account,
• BLIK, instant bank transfers and cards, and for customers from abroad also wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay,
• delivery cost visible already on the product page,
• a cart that you have tested yourself on a phone, from the product page to payment confirmation.

Measure this traffic too. ChatGPT appends the utm_source=chatgpt.com parameter to many links, and GA4 has had a separate AI Assistant channel since May 2026. After a month you will see whether customers from AI buy at all and how much they are worth.

You are still the seller. Both OpenAI (ACP) and Google (UCP) stress that the store remains the seller. Your obligations toward the consumer, that is, pre-purchase information, the terms and conditions, the right to withdraw from a distance contract and complaints, stay with you. How the rules will treat a purchase entirely delegated to an agent is only now being clarified. This is not legal advice, only a description of the state of play as of 29 October 2026, so consult a lawyer before changing your terms and conditions.

Summary

Shopping through AI agents in Poland today is mainly product discovery, and BLIK for agents is at the pilot stage. The best-spent money goes to a complete, automatically updated feed, readable product pages and a smooth checkout, because every agent will benefit from them.

If you want me to check your feed and store for AI, write to me. I reply within 24 hours, and new clients get 20% off their first job.