While certain retailers, such as Amazon (and Adidas, it seems!), are preventing AI agents from making transactions on their platforms, e-commerce site Shopify has opted for the opposite approach.

On Monday, the firm revealed that browser-based AI agents are now able to finalize purchases on Shopify merchant websites, expanding their functionalities beyond merely searching for items and adding them to shopping carts.

Shopify had already endorsed WebMCP for its front-end stores and carts, enabling browser-based AI agents to navigate a Shopify vendor’s stock, look for items, and incorporate them into a cart. The newly added WebMCP support for checkout, which encompasses Shop Pay, allows these agents to interpret the checkout interface, modify it, and finalize the transaction with the purchaser’s consent, without depending on screenshots or web scraping, according to the company.

This enhancement brings forth three new tools — get_checkout, update_checkout, and complete_checkout — which permit agents to examine a checkout, adjust elements like the customer’s delivery address or shipping choices, and subsequently finalize the order after receiving the buyer’s permission.

The feature is currently being deployed to all qualifying Shopify merchants, as indicated by Gil Greenberg, a product manager focusing on agentic commerce at Shopify, in a post on X.

Shopify already operates a managed Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, enabling agents to function server-to-server. The proposed standard WebMCP, on the other hand, is tailored for agents working within the buyer’s browser. Both utilize Shopify’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), providing a unified method for searching for and finding products, creating carts, and completing checkouts.

Leading AI agents such as Muse and Instinct have already established direct collaborations with Shopify for agentic commerce. The partnership with Instinct was announced today.

“If your agent is operating in the buyer’s browser, utilize WebMCP tools available on storefront and checkout to effectively execute order placement, instead of navigating HTML designed for humans,” Greenberg noted on X. “These WebMCP tools offer structured and efficient APIs, intentionally crafted — via UCP — to guarantee precise commerce facts, necessary disclosures, and handoff requirements.”