Platform & products

Direct checkout

Definition

A Shopify-powered checkout that runs inside an AI channel, so the shopper pays without leaving the conversation. It's on by default for eligible stores on Google AI Mode and Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and Meta. ChatGPT has none: Shopify sends ChatGPT buyers to your online store checkout.

Defined in Should You Turn Off Agentic Storefronts? What You Lose and What You Keep.

How else it gets framed

The same term carries different emphasis depending on the surface it’s used on. Both readings are correct.

A Shopify-powered checkout that runs inside an AI channel, so the shopper completes the purchase without leaving the chat. On the Agentic plan it requires a payment provider, shipping and tax settings in Shopify, and it's off by default until you opt in per channel.

Shopify's Agentic Plan: Who It's For and What It Leaves Out →

Where Direct checkout comes up

The guides that put this term to work, rather than just defining it.

Related terms

AI Mode: Google Search's conversational mode, launched in the U.S. on May 20, 2025. Google describes it as using a "query fan-out" technique that breaks a question into subtopics and searches each one. In Search Console, a follow-up question in AI Mode counts as a new query.
Agentic storefronts: Shopify's way of selling inside AI channels such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Google AI Mode — active by default for eligible stores and managed under Sales channels → Agentic.
Shopify Catalog access: The per-channel permission that lets an AI channel receive your product data (titles, descriptions, images, prices, availability) from Shopify Catalog. Turning it off filters your products out of what Catalog sends that channel. It doesn't remove your products from Shopify Catalog itself.
Shopify Agentic plan: A Shopify plan for merchants who don't use Shopify as their ecommerce platform. It adds their products to Shopify Catalog and lets them sell through agentic storefronts in AI channels, and on other Shopify channels such as the Shop channel, without a published Shopify online store. It has no monthly subscription fee; payment and app fees can apply.
Shopify Catalog: Shopify's standardized, enriched dataset of eligible merchants' products, made available to AI channels; eligibility starts at the Starter plan.
Universal Commerce Protocol: The open standard behind Shopify's Catalog, Cart and Checkout MCPs, which lets AI surfaces such as Microsoft Copilot complete purchases inside a conversation.

All 157 terms

Can AI channels list your products?

Every product in your public feed against Shopify Catalog's rules, plus robots.txt, policies and product data. About 20 seconds.

Run the eligibility check Agentic Commerce Setup