E-commerce platform Shopify has enabled browser-based AI agents to complete purchases on its merchants’ sites, taking the opposite approach to retailers such as Amazon and reportedly Adidas, which are blocking AI agents from buying on users’ behalf.
Shopify previously supported WebMCP for storefronts and carts, letting agents search inventory and add items to carts. Extending that support to checkout, including Shop Pay, allows agents to read the checkout screen, update it and submit transactions with the buyer’s authorization, without relying on screenshots or scraping. The update adds three tools that let agents inspect a checkout, change details such as address or delivery option, and place an order once approved.
Gil Greenberg, a staff product manager working on agentic commerce at Shopify, said on X that the feature is rolling out to all eligible merchants. He advised developers whose agents run in the buyer’s browser to use these structured tools rather than navigating pages built for humans, noting they are designed to ensure accurate commerce information and required disclosures.
The browser-based WebMCP complements Shopify’s hosted MCP server for server-to-server agents, with both built on its Universal Commerce Protocol. AI agents Muse and Instinct already partner directly with Shopify, with the Instinct deal announced today.
