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Imagine being able to shop across multiple webshops and finalize everything in a single, unified checkout - all within one flow in ChatGPT. That’s what OpenAI is currently testing with its ‘universal cart.’ It offers a glimpse into the future of e-commerce. A future that may be nearer than most expect.
Sometimes technology moves so profoundly that it feels like the ground itself is shifting. Right now, e-commerce is in the middle of such a moment.
For the past year, Vertica has been following, analyzing, and writing about the rise of agentic commerce and how it’s rewriting the rules of online trade. We’ve seen AI agents enter the customer journey—and we’ve worked with clients to prepare for it.
Now, a development is unfolding that could accelerate this transformation significantly: Universal Cart.
This technology makes it possible to search for products across multiple retailers, add them to one shared basket, and complete the purchase—all without leaving your AI chat, and without navigating through five different checkout flows.
It all takes place within the conversation with your AI agent - most likely in ChatGPT. Unsurprisingly, it’s OpenAI that is leading the way in testing this universal cart.
Thousands of Brands. One Checkout.
You probably know the feeling.
It’s Sunday afternoon, and you realize you’re running low on a few of the things you usually buy online. Fresh coffee beans from South America, that eco-friendly laundry detergent, your favorite face cream from Matas. Oh, and yes—you really do need a new 5-pack of tennis socks. Plus, your bed linen has seen better days.
That means five different webshops, each with its own checkout flow. Five times logging in. Five times reaching for your card or MobilePay, approving with Face ID and MitID. It gets frustrating quickly.
The same thing happens if you’re planning a trip—booking flights, hotels, trains, and experiences across multiple sites. Or if you’ve just picked up a new hobby and want to build your own bike, PC, or home barista corner from different parts.
We’ve grown used to these fragmented shopping experiences, where every brand controls its own little ecosystem of products, carts, and checkouts. But that wall is starting to fall.
The first outlines of OpenAI’s collaboration with Shopify are emerging. Together, the two tech giants are testing an AI-powered checkout flow where you can:
- Search across all stores—not just within one platform, but across the entire internet.
- Collect everything in one cart—whether it’s sneakers from Zalando, a book from Saxo, or a lamp from IKEA.
- Complete one single checkout—no juggling five payment flows, no inventing 17 new passwords.
And it all happens through conversational commerce in ChatGPT. You simply describe what you’re looking for, and the AI can place the items in a universal cart via the Shopify integration—without ever leaving ChatGPT.
Universal Cart: How It Works
It may sound a little too much like magic, so let’s look under the hood of the universal cart and see how it actually works.
OpenAI is currently experimenting with a system that allows any product with a Shopify ID to be added into a single cart across all Shopify stores. This is powered by Shopify’s MCP (Model Context Protocol), which enables search across massive product catalogs and delivers accurate data on pricing, stock, and delivery options.
Crucially, the universal cart also supports third-party integrations - so you’re not limited to Shopify alone. The AI simply needs a few key details like SKU, price, quantity, and product URL to place items directly in the cart. This is exactly why Vertica stresses the importance of clean schema markup data, since these are the hooks AI tools use to access correct product information across any platform.
In practice, this means ChatGPT can help you discover products across all webshops and consolidate them into your universal cart. Shopify solutions have a slight edge because the AI only requires a Shopify ID, but with solid product data, schema markup, and MCP in place, other platforms can work seamlessly too.
The biggest hurdle, however, is checkout.
For the universal cart to become truly mainstream, a unified payment flow is needed. In OpenAI’s current tests, the AI still launches separate checkouts for products outside the Shopify ecosystem. Yet, payment giants like VISA and Mastercard are already building unified payment frameworks that could make one checkout possible. And there’s little doubt that OpenAI has checkout as a key focus—essential to delivering the seamless experience they envision for both consumers and merchants across platforms.
Vertica’s Perspective: What This Means for Your Business
At Vertica, we view the universal cart as a defining milestone in the rise of agentic and conversational commerce—where shopping experiences become more automated, intuitive, and powered by AI.
This new landscape requires brands to maintain their own digital ecosystems while also competing in a market where shopping is increasingly shaped by networks of AI-driven decisions. AI agents are broadening the scope of e-commerce, placing new demands on your solution.
Findability is critical
If your product data isn’t structured for AI search, your products risk vanishing from view. AI doesn’t just filter on price and delivery—it looks for relevance. That means it must be able to parse your descriptions, categories, and metadata. Without structured data, you won’t be chosen.
The brand experience enters the AI dialogue
When customers meet your product through an AI chat rather than your website, your brand must be conveyed through product data, context, and narrative. The homepage is no longer your storefront - what matters is how ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI agents present your brand when prompted.
From clicks to conversations
The consumer journey is shifting from fragmented steps and manual actions to one continuous flow. Shopping will be increasingly conversational and semantic. As long as consumers can trust AI to safeguard compliance, usability, and security, the key differentiator will be how your brand is experienced within that smooth dialogue.
Conclusion: Frictionsless Shopping... Provided We Let It Happen
If OpenAI pulls this off, it could be the start of a whole new era in e-commerce: chat as the store, the AI agent as your personal sales rep, and one checkout for everything. Easy as ordering a pizza.
But here’s the catch: Will people actually trust it?
To work, you’d have to trust an AI with your logins - and your credit card. Even with your permission, that’s a big leap.
Right now, two-thirds of U.S. consumers say “no thanks” to AI buying products for them. They’ll let it do research, sure. But hand over the actual purchase? Not yet.
That’s the real hurdle: changing consumer behavior. Then again, weren’t you skeptical the first time you used Google Pay? Or Apple Pay? Or Face ID?
Trust grows with time and use. Most likely, this will start as human-in-the-loop: AI does the heavy lifting, finds and suggests products, but you make the call at checkout.
That’s where we see it going. And we think the brands that step into this conversation now will be the ones ahead when agentic commerce becomes the norm.
