Cleotic

Product feeds, AI shopping and apps

Updated 17 October 2026 · 10 min read

Andy Bright

Director of Product and Technology

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A business that sells products can also send its product details to AI assistants directly, and in the US customers can now buy without leaving the conversation. A software business can build an app that an assistant uses on a customer's behalf.

These routes are new. The buying features only work in the US so far, and the details change every few months. This chapter sticks to what the companies themselves have published, as of October 2026. If you sell services and don't make software, you can skip to AI agents that visit your site, which applies to any business with a booking or contact form, and then to the measurement chapter.

If you sell products

Product feeds

A product feed is a file that lists every product you sell, with details such as its name, price, stock level, size, photos and a product code. You upload it to a shopping platform, such as Google Merchant Center, and update it automatically whenever something changes. Most online shop platforms, including Shopify and WooCommerce, can create one for you.

AI assistants use product feeds because they need facts they can trust and compare across shops, such as today's price and whether something is in stock. A web page shows the same facts, but in a different layout on every site.

Google

Google's AI features use the information shops send to Google Merchant Center, its free service for product listings. Google's page on AI features and your website⁠(opens in a new tab) recommends "checking that your Merchant Center and Business Profile information is up-to-date".

A protocol is an agreed set of rules that lets different companies' systems work together. In January 2026 Google announced the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open protocol, which any company can use, for buying inside AI assistants. It was developed with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart (Google⁠(opens in a new tab)). The customer still buys from the retailer, not from Google. An attribute is one labelled field in a product feed, such as price or colour. Google also announced "dozens of new data attributes in Merchant Center" for questions people ask while shopping, such as answers to common product questions and which accessories fit a product.

On 15 October 2026 Google began rolling out Universal Cart in the US, in Google Search and the Gemini app. It lets shoppers save products from several retailers in one place and, for many shops, pay with Google Pay without leaving Google. Retailers include Walmart, Target, Wayfair and many Shopify shops. UCP is the set of rules behind its checkout (Google⁠(opens in a new tab)). In May, Google said UCP checkout would reach Canada and Australia next, "and later to the U.K." (Google⁠(opens in a new tab)).

For shops, joining is still an early access programme in the US, with Australia and Canada due early in 2027 (Merchant Center help for developers⁠(opens in a new tab)). Products need an extra attribute in the feed, native_commerce, before a "Buy now" button can appear.

ChatGPT

When someone asks ChatGPT about buying something, it can show product results. OpenAI's help page on shopping in ChatGPT⁠(opens in a new tab) says these "are selected independently by ChatGPT and are not ads". It says ChatGPT draws on structured information about products from the shops themselves and from other companies, as well as the conversation. When several shops sell the same product, it ranks them on factors such as "availability, price, quality, and whether they are the maker or primary seller". ChatGPT also shows ads, which OpenAI keeps separate from product results, as the chapter on each assistant explains.

There are two ways for a shop's products to get there:

  • Shops on Shopify or Etsy are included automatically, and OpenAI says no extra work is needed (OpenAI⁠(opens in a new tab)).
  • Other shops can apply to send OpenAI a product feed, and go on a waiting list. The rules for these feeds are called the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP). OpenAI's documentation⁠(opens in a new tab) says the required fields make sure the price and availability are shown correctly. Recommended extras, "like rich media, reviews, and performance signals", then "improve ranking, relevance, and user trust".

OpenAI launched Instant Checkout, for buying inside ChatGPT, in 2025. In March 2026 it said the first version "did not offer the level of flexibility that we aspire to provide" (OpenAI⁠(opens in a new tab)). Merchants would use their own checkouts while OpenAI focused on helping people find products. Most shoppers are now sent to the shop's own website, though a few products can still be bought inside ChatGPT. OpenAI's page for merchants⁠(opens in a new tab) says shopping is "currently live for ChatGPT users in the U.S."

Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft launched Copilot Checkout in January 2026, rolling out in the US on Copilot.com through PayPal, Shopify and Stripe (Microsoft Advertising⁠(opens in a new tab)). The customer still buys from the shop. The same announcement says product feeds in Microsoft Merchant Center "help inform organic Copilot results", meaning Copilot's ordinary, unpaid answers, so they matter even if you never use the checkout.

Perplexity

Perplexity launched free shopping for US users in November 2025, with checkout through PayPal and the retailer as the seller (Perplexity⁠(opens in a new tab)).

What this means for Fernhill

Fernhill Coffee sells in the UK, Ireland and Germany, so none of the checkout programmes above is available to it yet. It still uses product feeds:

  1. It keeps its Google Merchant Center feed complete, with prices including VAT, stock levels, weights, grind options and clear photos.
  2. It sends the same feed to Microsoft Merchant Center, because Microsoft says the feed informs Copilot's ordinary answers.
  3. It makes sure each product page answers the questions shoppers ask in text, such as the roast date, tasting notes, bag size and delivery times. Assistants that read the page and not the feed need these too.
  4. It checks that the price on the page, the price in the feed and the price in the page's structured data are always the same. When they differ, assistants have conflicting facts to choose between, as the chapter on describing your business explains. To see a page's structured data, paste its address into Google's Rich Results Test⁠(opens in a new tab), or ask your developer.
  5. It checks each company's merchant pages every few months to see whether the programmes have reached its countries. Google has said UCP checkout will come to the UK after Canada and Australia.

If you make software: apps and connectors

For a software business, the closest thing to a product feed is an app that lets an AI assistant use its product. Someone could ask ChatGPT to find last month's invoices in their accounting software, and the assistant would use that software's app to look them up. OpenAI calls these apps, and Anthropic calls them connectors.

Most of them are built on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard for connecting AI assistants to other software. A business builds one MCP connection, and it can work with several assistants.

ChatGPT apps and plugins

OpenAI let any developer submit apps to ChatGPT in December 2025 (OpenAI⁠(opens in a new tab)). In July 2026 it replaced⁠(opens in a new tab) the app directory with a Plugin Directory. A plugin can contain one or more apps, along with written instructions for particular tasks (OpenAI⁠(opens in a new tab)). People find plugins in the directory, by naming them in a conversation, or when ChatGPT suggests one during a conversation. Developers submit them through OpenAI's plugin submission process⁠(opens in a new tab).

Claude connectors

Anthropic's Connectors Directory⁠(opens in a new tab) is one catalogue shared by all of Claude's apps, including its website, desktop and mobile apps and its apps for coding and office work. Listed connectors are eligible to be suggested to people in conversation, and Anthropic says "ranking is usage-based". Listings have to follow Anthropic's software directory policy⁠(opens in a new tab).

The MCP Registry

The MCP Registry⁠(opens in a new tab), launched as a preview in September 2025, is a central list of MCP connections that other app directories can copy from. When you publish to it, the registry checks that you control the name or domain you're publishing under (MCP Registry⁠(opens in a new tab)).

Should you build one?

These directories are a way to be found by people who already use AI assistants for their work. There's no evidence that listing an app changes how often an assistant mentions you in ordinary answers. Usage decides how prominently Claude lists a connector, so an app nobody uses won't help.

Build one if your customers would benefit from using your product from inside an assistant, for example to look up their own data or create records without switching windows. Then:

  1. List it in each relevant directory, including the MCP Registry, ChatGPT's Plugin Directory and Claude's Connectors Directory.
  2. Describe it in plain language that matches your fact sheet, because assistants read those descriptions when they decide whether to use it (OpenAI⁠(opens in a new tab)).
  3. Keep it working. A listing that's down or returns errors puts people off.

Brand agents

Google and Microsoft both offer ways for a business to run its own chat assistant about its products. This guide calls them brand agents.

Both answer questions from your own product information.

AI agents that visit your site

An AI agent is an AI tool that uses websites on a person's behalf. It might compare products, fill in a form or go through a checkout. Someone could ask an agent to order a bag of Fernhill's Ethiopian coffee for their office, and the agent would visit Fernhill's site and buy it.

Agents identify themselves in different ways. A user-triggered fetcher is a program an AI company uses to fetch a page while answering a person's question. Each has its own name, such as ChatGPT-User, Perplexity-User or Claude-User. Google's agents use the name Google-Agent.

ChatGPT's agent, part of ChatGPT Work, runs a web browser on OpenAI's computers. It adds a digital signature to each visit, so that a website's security settings can check the visit really comes from ChatGPT (OpenAI⁠(opens in a new tab)). Security companies list it under names such as ChatGPT Agent (Akamai) and ChatGPT Operator (Cloudflare). Other agents, such as a browser built into an app on the customer's own computer, can look like an ordinary visitor.

Many websites sit behind a firewall, security software that decides which visitors to accept, or a CDN (content delivery network), a service such as Cloudflare that delivers pages quickly and often filters visitors too. If either one blocks these visitors, it can block a customer who has sent an assistant to buy from you. If you don't know whether your site uses one, ask your developer or web host. The technical SEO guide explains how to let them in, in its crawlability chapter, and how to make pages agents can use, in its section on AI agents.

What you can leave for now

  • Checkout programmes, if you don't sell in the US. Keep your feeds accurate and check back every few months.
  • Building an app or connector, unless your customers would use your product from inside an assistant.
  • Brand agents, unless you're a US retailer using Google Merchant Center, or a Shopify or WooCommerce shop willing to try Microsoft's.

What to do next

  1. If you sell products, check your Google Merchant Center feed for missing prices, stock levels, photos and product codes, and fix any errors it reports.
  2. Set up Microsoft Merchant Center with the same feed.
  3. Pick five products and check that the price and stock on the page, in the feed and in the structured data match. Google's Rich Results Test⁠(opens in a new tab) shows a page's structured data.
  4. If you sell in the US, read the current requirements for Google's UCP early access, OpenAI's direct feeds and Copilot Checkout.
  5. If you make software, ask ten customers whether they'd use your product from inside ChatGPT or Claude before you build an app.

Further reading