Lessons from Walmart's agentic shopping trial

What happened?

Starting in November 2025, Walmart offered about 200,000 products through OpenAI's Instant Checkout, so people could buy without leaving ChatGPT. In March 2026, Daniel Danker, Walmart's EVP of product and design, said purchases made in chat converted at a third of the rate of shoppers who clicked through to Walmart's own site, and called the experience “unsatisfying”. OpenAI said the same month that it was phasing out Instant Checkout in favour of apps that merchants control.

Some of the coverage called it a failure. We read it differently.

Why did it convert lower?

Because Walmart's own site has had years of tuning for exactly this: saved baskets, saved payment details, membership prices, delivery slots. A checkout inside a chat starts with none of that. Our read, not Walmart's, is that the comparison was always going to favour the site.

That makes it a result about a very strong incumbent, not a verdict on agents. A brand measuring a new channel against a good site, not a world class one, faces a different comparison.

What was the trial for?

Learning, in our view. A few months with 200,000 products tells a retailer what people ask an assistant, where they pause, and what they expect to carry over from their account. You can't get that from a survey, and it's the kind of knowledge that makes the next version better.

What did Walmart do next?

It did not step back. It changed the shape.

1. Sparky inside ChatGPT.Walmart's own shopping assistant now runs inside ChatGPT, for paid subscribers from March 2026. Shoppers sign in to their Walmart account, sync their cart and finish the purchase in Walmart's own system.
2. A partnership with Google.On 11 January 2026 Walmart announced a deal with Google, built on the Universal Commerce Protocol, to bring Walmart and Sam's Club into Gemini, with account linking and membership benefits applied. Shoppers can check out with Google Pay.
3. Open partnerships.Hari Vasudev, Walmart's US chief technology officer, said: “That approach of open partnerships is something that we strongly believe in.” On working with several AI companies he added: “Ultimately, there are multiple platforms.”
4. Conviction at the top.John Furner, then Walmart's incoming CEO, said: “The transition from traditional web or app search to agent led commerce represents the next great evolution in retail.”

What changed is the shape, not the ambition. Discovery and the conversation happen in the assistant. Identity, basket, loyalty and checkout stay with the retailer. Walmart's Danker put it this way: “Shopping can start anywhere now, whether that's Walmart or a question in ChatGPT.” Working with several platforms is also a sensible position if, as we expect, regulators in the EU, UK and US insist on fair access when a few assistants gather power.

Who else is doing this?

Gap is making its products buyable inside Gemini through Google's protocol. Sephora launched a ChatGPT app with its loyalty program and personalized recommendations, with in app checkout planned for later. Shopify says millions of its merchants can sell inside AI chats while keeping checkout on their own sites. OpenAI, for its part, is putting its effort into product discovery and merchant control.

What should a brand take from it?

Four things.

1. Copy the shape, not the experiment.Be in the assistant for discovery, and finish on your own site, where your account, loyalty and delivery promise are.
2. Measure behavior, not only conversion.What do people ask about you, and which questions do you win? The free score shows what the assistants say about your brand today.
3. Be reachable on more than one platform.Walmart works with OpenAI and Google. A UCP profile and an MCP address make a brand readable to all of them. If you're not on Shopify, Storefront does it from your product feed.
4. Treat your site as an asset.Walmart's result shows what a well built site is worth. Agents will send shoppers to it, so make it the best place to finish.

So was it a failure?

Not by any measure we'd use. A trial that ends in a better design, new partners and a clearer plan did its job. Your next customer is AI. Your best is still human.