Shopify unveils agentic commerce APIs for AI-driven shopping in conversational apps

Shopify is advancing conversational shopping with the launch of Agentic Commerce, a framework that lets AI-powered agents search, display, and sell products within chat and messaging applications using new APIs and Merchant Communication Protocol (MCP) servers. These AI agents can find and order items for users, covering complex product types such as subscriptions, variants, bundles, and kit configurations.

The Universal Cart tool enables adding products from multiple merchants, including non-Shopify stores, grouping them by seller and providing a combined checkout. Checkout Kit manages the process, preserving merchant-specific rules and branding while allowing AI agents to apply their own styles for a consistent in-app experience.

Agents can leverage Shopify’s standardized MCP product search to display rich, deduplicated results via Universal Product Identifier, including price, ratings, and available options. Compliance with regulations—covering GDPR, CCPA, PCI DSS v4, taxes, and accessibility guidelines—is built in, with Shopify managing legal and payment complexities. Looking ahead, features like pre-authorized payment tokens and deeper embedded checkout are planned for future releases.