Shopify opens checkout to browser-based AI agents

While some retailers, likeAmazon(andAdidas, apparently!), areblockingAI agents from making purchases on users’ behalf on their respective platforms, e-commerce platform Shopify has moved in the other direction. On Monday, the companyannouncedthat browser-based AI agents can now complete purchases on Shopify merchants’ sites, extending their capabilities beyond just searching for products and adding items to carts. Shopify previously supportedWebMCPfor its storefronts and carts, allowing browser-based AI agents to comb through a Shopify retailer’s inventory, search for products, and add them to a cart. The addition of WebMCP support for checkout, including Shop Pay, means these agents can now read the checkout screen, update it, and submit the transaction with the buyer’s authorization, without relying on screenshots or scraping webpages, the company said. This update introduces three new tools — get_checkout, update_checkout, and complete_checkout — that allow agents to inspect a checkout, change things like the customer’s address or delivery option, and then place an order after the buyer authorizes it. The feature is rolling out to all eligible Shopify merchants, saidGil Greenberg, a staff product manager who works on agentic commerce at Shopify, in apost on X. Shopping with an agent shouldn’t feel like watching paint dry. 🥱Today, we’re launching WebMCP support for checkout, including Shop Pay, for all eligible Shopify merchants.Learn how it works, where UCP fits, and what the data shows:https://t.co/U96VtJaeyc Shopify already offers a hostedModel Context Protocol (MCP)server, which allows agents to work server-to-server. The proposed standardWebMCP, meanwhile, is designed for agents that work inside the buyer’s browser. Both leverage Shopify’sUniversal Commerce Protocol(UCP), which provides a common way to search for and discover products, build carts, and check out. Top AI agents likeMuseandInstinctalready have direct partnerships with Shopify for agentic commerce. The Instinct partnership wasannouncedtoday. “If your agent is operating in the buyer’s browser, use WebMCP tools provided on storefront and checkout to efficiently complete order placement, instead of navigating HTML built for humans,” Greenberg wrote on X. “These WebMCP tools provide structured and efficient APIs, purposely designed — via UCP — to ensure accurate commerce facts, required disclosures, and handoff requirements.”