Google has started testing a way for shoppers in India to buy products from Walmart-owned Flipkart directly through Gemini and AI Mode, marking the search giant's most concrete step yet from AI-powered product discovery into completed transactions.

A Buy Button Inside the Chat

Users included in the test see a "Buy" button on select Flipkart product listings that appear in Gemini and Google's AI Mode. Tapping it takes them straight into a Flipkart checkout flow without ever leaving the AI interface, according to people familiar with the matter and an experience seen by TechCrunch. For more context on this story, see our ongoing latest AI developments.

The early experiment is limited to a subset of users and a small selection of products, including smartphones, electronics, and mobile accessories. Other users continue to see regular Flipkart product listings in Gemini and AI Mode, but without the option to buy them directly from the AI interface.

A broader rollout is planned for later in October, according to one of the people familiar with the plan, timed to arrive ahead of India's festive shopping season — the most intense retail period on the country's e-commerce calendar.

Asked about the test, a Google spokesperson said the company is "always testing new features and experiences to help people discover and connect with businesses more easily," adding that Google regularly runs experiments and had no further details to share.

Why In-Chat Checkout Matters

The test reflects a shift in how the major AI companies see their shopping role. Google and rivals including OpenAI are racing to add commerce capabilities to their AI offerings, moving beyond answering shopping queries and recommending products toward playing a direct part in the purchase itself.

The stakes are straightforward: if the chat interface becomes the storefront, the company that controls the assistant controls the start of the buying journey — and the valuable commercial data that comes with it. For platforms built on advertising links, a completed in-chat purchase collapses the funnel that used to span a search results page, a merchant website, and several redirections in between.

For shoppers, the pitch is convenience — fewer taps, no app switching, and checkout forms that can be prefilled. For merchants, the open question is what they give up: visibility into their customer, control over the shopping experience, and the margin they currently pay other intermediaries. The Flipkart test keeps the transaction on the retailer's own checkout rails, which may prove to be the compromise that convinces big merchants to participate.

The Road From Discovery to Checkout

Google has been building toward this for months. Earlier this year it introduced the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard designed to let AI agents interact with retailers across the entire shopping journey, including checkout. At the time, Google said the technology would allow shoppers to buy eligible products through Gemini and AI Mode using a Google-hosted checkout experience, and the company has since expanded UCP with additional capabilities, including letting shoppers transfer their basket to a retailer's site to complete the purchase.

The Flipkart test seen by TechCrunch, however, appears different from that earlier demo. Instead of a Google-hosted flow, tapping the Buy button brings up a Flipkart-branded checkout, keeping the transaction squarely on the retailer's rails. It is not yet clear what technology is powering the test.

Earlier this month, Google confirmed that Flipkart was among the merchants partnering to bring what it calls agentic shopping experiences to consumers in India, but it had not disclosed details of the test or its rollout timeline until now.

A Strategic Test Bed for Agentic Commerce

India makes sense as the proving ground. Flipkart is one of the country's largest e-commerce platforms, Gemini's reach in India has grown rapidly, and the festive season provides a high-volume environment in which to measure whether shoppers will actually complete purchases without leaving an AI chat.

It also gives Google a live environment to test the plumbing it has been standardizing all year. How UCP behaves when a major retailer keeps its own checkout — rather than ceding the flow to Google — will shape how the protocol evolves, and whether other marketplaces follow Flipkart's lead or hold back.

For Flipkart's parent Walmart, the experiment offers a way to stay visible as AI assistants become a primary gateway to online shopping. For Google, every completed transaction inside Gemini helps answer the question that will define the next phase of search economics: can an AI assistant become not just the place where shopping starts, but where it finishes?

The company has not said when — or whether — the test will expand beyond India, beyond Flipkart, or beyond the handful of product categories now included.

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