AI shopping race puts retail fulfillment in focus

Amazon declined to join OpenAI’s instant-checkout flow but is placing ads in ChatGPT to close purchases there.

Shopify partnered with Muse on an integration that works only with Shop Pay. A comparison cited for Walmart’s ChatGPT checkout put conversion at one-third of its app and main website, with smaller carts. Shopify could benefit as agents direct buyers to merchants, but assembling an Amazon-like experience would require reliable fulfillment across sellers; next-day delivery may depend on which one has a local distribution center. Whether Shopify can overcome that hurdle remains unresolved.