Do You Really Care If Your Checkout Disappears?

I posted something earlier this week that got a lot of attention. It was about Shopify quietly updating the robots.txt files on big-name sites like Allbirds, Alo Yoga, and Brooklinen. The update warns AI agents, bots, and other shopping tools not to automatically transact on behalf of a customer. It’s a small line of code, and while largely toothless, it signals something big.

It’s a hint at the turf war brewing between Shopify, OpenAI, and a wave of new agent-led shopping startups. The battle for the checkout is well and truly on.

Which got me thinking... do we, as retailers, actually care if a customer skips our checkout altogether?

If a customer uses an agent to find, decide, and buy a product based on the data we provide - whether that’s through ChatGPT, a video game, a VR store, a chatbot, or an ad platform... is that actually bad? Do we really need to control the experience from discovery all the way to conversion?

I played around with GPT this week to see what it looks like right now. I asked it to recommend a water bottle for travel. It asked smart follow-ups like whether I’d be flying, hiking (lol), or just commuting for work. Then it gave me three product options - Frank Green, Hydro Flask, and Que - with multiple retailers for each.

When I asked, “How do I decide where to buy?”, GPT gave context-based options depending on my urgency, location, delivery preferences and more. The final suggestion? Buy Frank Green directly if I wanted free delivery, or go with the Q bottle via Amazon AU if I needed it fast.

Soon, we’ll be able to complete the whole transaction right there in GPT.

From a customer point of view, it was easy but it placed a lot of trust in the machine.

From a retailer point of view… have I actually lost anything?

I’d only be worried about losing control of the experience if I’m a brand that:

• Relies on emotional connection to sell with things like testimonials, UGC, and beautiful content or…

• Depends on upselling, gifting, or subscription services rather than one-off purchases or…

• Has complicated, customisable or bundled products or…

• Isn’t the most competitive on availability, delivery speed, or shipping cost or…

• Needs time to educate and tell a pre-purchase story or…

• Has messy product data, or depends on GPT to make up for bad content (muahaha) or…

• Is a high fraud risk or…

• Already struggling to cut through the SEO noise or…

• Rely on clearly attributed earned traffic, such as affiliates or influencers, or…

• Can’t afford extra clips from extra channels (even if Shopify does a deal to embed checkout, it won’t be free) or…

You get the gist. That’s my brain dump from the great unknown for now.

So, back to the original question: do you care if your checkout disappears into GPT?

For most retailers, I reckon you should. It’s only early but it’s inevitable.

Cheers,
Bushy

PS. No newsletter next week. I’ll be on a flight home from Online Retailer. Maybe rocking myself to sleep in row 27 of a Qantas flight. If you’re going to be at Online Retailer, let me know!

ECOMMERCE NEWS (from the past week)

☝️ Amazon’s “Biggest Ever” Prime Day (But, Yeah, It Was Four Days Long)
Amazon declared its biggest Prime Day ever, which is no surprise, considering they doubled it from two days to four. Unlike previous years, they didn’t share any post-sale numbers (sniff sniff), but Adobe Analytics pegged total sales at $24.1B, just ahead of the $23.8B forecast and up 30.3% year-on-year. Order value was down, volume was up, and traffic from generative AI surged 3300% (off a tiny base, but still). No word on how much extra ad revenue they pulled in with the extended sale which is likely where the real win came from.

🌟 Aussie Shoppers Name Their Top Online Retailers
The IAB’s 2025 Commerce Report just dropped, and as always, it’s packed with solid research. Aussies' top five online retailers and marketplaces over the past year? Amazon, Coles, Big W, eBay, and Kmart. Yep, grocery and discount retail still dominate… and Big W is not dead yet. Temu held onto 8th spot for actual purchases but topped the charts for audience traffic - proof we love browsing, even if we’re not checking out. What do Aussie shoppers value most? A free shipping threshold, easy and free returns, and delivery updates via text or email. All the stuff that costs retailer margin.

💬 Klaviyo Enters the Chat (Literally)
Klaviyo just dropped its own conversational AI agent, stepping firmly into customer service territory. It offers 24/7 support, personalised product recommendations, cross-sell prompts, and uses real-time customer and product data to get the answers right. This move puts Klaviyo squarely in Gorgias’ lane, not just as a marketing and data platform, but now as a serious player in the customer support game too. It’s now available in beta for users of their Customer Hub.

▶️ Meta Updates Its Reels Playbook
With video now making up 60% of time spent on Facebook and Meta and Reels accounting for over 50% of Instagram time, Meta’s dropped a fresh 5-page Reels guide (PDF). It’s a solid little resource covering things like safe zone templates, resizing to 9:16, using sound collections, and tapping into the Creator Marketplace. The guide itself is handy but the real win is the direct links to ready-made Reels templates. Perfect if you’re keen to sharpen up your short-form game without reinventing the wheel.

👯‍♀️ AI Models Hit The Iconic - And Shoppers Aren’t Impressed
Grab the popcorn. A Reddit thread, spotted via Pedestrian, has blown up over a $400 Atoir dress listed on THE ICONIC that uses an AI-generated model. The disclaimer reads: “Imagery has been created using artificial intelligence technology and does not feature a real model.” Let’s just say… the comments weren’t kind toward Atoir or The Iconic. While virtual model tech is improving fast, the backlash shows that shoppers might not be ready. The question is… if an AI model is created in the woods, would a customer still know? The dress remains up on THE ICONIC.

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