Selling through ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode: what AI shopping agents mean for online stores in Oman

What is changing: from AI answers to AI checkout

Until recently an AI assistant could suggest products and link to the store, and the sale happened on the store's website. Agentic commerce moves the checkout into the chat. The shopper asks for a product, the assistant shows options from merchants' catalogues, and the shopper confirms the purchase without leaving ChatGPT, AI Mode or Gemini. Behind the screen, the assistant calls the store's systems to create the order, calculate delivery and tax, and pass a secure payment token.

Two open standards now define how this works. OpenAI publishes the Agentic Commerce Protocol for ChatGPT, and Google publishes the Universal Commerce Protocol for AI Mode in Google Search and Gemini. Both are built so that the merchant, not the AI company, owns the sale and the customer.

How ChatGPT Instant Checkout works

OpenAI says a merchant needs three flows to support Instant Checkout in ChatGPT (OpenAI):

• A product feed: a regularly refreshed CSV or JSON file with identifiers, descriptions, prices, stock, images and fulfilment options, so ChatGPT can show your products accurately. OpenAI recommends uploading a full snapshot at least once a day (OpenAI).
• Checkout endpoints: ChatGPT collects the buyer's details and calls your Agentic Checkout API to create and update the checkout session. Your system validates the order, works out delivery options and tax, and accepts or declines it.
• Delegated payment: OpenAI passes a one-time payment token, limited to a maximum amount and an expiry, to your payment service provider, which charges it like any other card payment. Stripe's Shared Payment Token was the first compatible implementation, with more providers to follow.

Who owns the order in ChatGPT

The store does. OpenAI's FAQ says the merchant selling the goods and taking the payment is the merchant of record, and customers see the merchant's name on their card statement. The merchant also handles refunds and chargebacks, and reports their status back to ChatGPT through order webhooks (OpenAI).

OpenAI also limits what can be sold. Its prohibited products policy excludes, among others, adult content, alcohol, nicotine, gambling, weapons, prescription-only medicines and unlicensed financial products (OpenAI). Pharmacies and some specialist retailers in Oman should check this list before planning for ChatGPT sales.

How Google's Universal Commerce Protocol works

Google describes UCP as an open standard that enables agentic actions in AI Mode in Google Search and Gemini, starting with direct buying (Google for Developers). It builds on Merchant Center: Google says your product feeds, brand assets, return policies and business contact information there must be complete and up to date (UCP FAQ).

• The store is the merchant of record and keeps its customer relationships and data. Your own terms and conditions cover the purchase, and the shopper accepts them during checkout.
• Payments: you do not need Google Pay on your own website, but your payment provider must be able to process Google's payment tokens.
• Stock and delivery: the store checks stock in real time and returns an out-of-stock error when needed, and it validates the shipping address, returning an error for addresses outside its delivery zones.
• Ranking: Google says choosing its native checkout integration does not change how your offers rank in product listings. UCP-integrated offers simply show a direct purchase option.
• Products show the Buy now button only when the product data carries the `native_commerce` checkout-eligibility attribute (Google for Developers).

Can an online store in Oman use these today?

Not yet. On OpenAI's side, onboarding product feeds is currently available to approved partners, who apply through chatgpt.com/merchants (OpenAI). Its feed reference says the standard upload currently targets the US, that the shared format represents the US, Canada and Mexico, and that other markets need OpenAI to confirm the countries and currencies for your integration (OpenAI).

On Google's side, the UCP integration hub in Merchant Center is gradually rolling out in the United States, with Australia and Canada to follow, and applies only to products sold within the US. Checkout is available to select merchants through an early access programme (Google for Developers). We checked both sets of documentation in October 2026 and will update this guide when Gulf countries are added.

What Omani stores can do now: get recommended by AI

Checkout inside the chat is the last step. Being found and recommended comes first, and that already works for stores in Oman. AI assistants that browse the web send shoppers to product pages they can read and trust.

• Allow OpenAI's search crawler. OpenAI says sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, and recommends allowing it in robots.txt (OpenAI). Check that your firewall or CDN does not block it either.
• List your catalogue in Google Merchant Center. Oman is a supported country, and Google lists Gemini among the places where free listings can appear (Merchant Center Help). Our guide to Google Merchant Center in Oman walks through the setup.
• Add Product structured data with price, currency (OMR) and availability in the page's initial HTML, as Google's merchant listing documentation describes.
• Write product titles and descriptions that answer real questions: size, material, compatibility, warranty and what is in the box, in Arabic and English.
• Publish clear delivery and return policies, with delivery times for Muscat and other governorates, and keep them consistent between the website, the feed and Merchant Center.
• Keep stock and prices accurate. An assistant that recommends an out-of-stock product or a wrong price loses the shopper's trust, and Google can disapprove mismatched products.

Prepare your store for agentic checkout

When these programmes open in the Gulf, the stores that join first will be the ones whose systems already behave like the protocols expect. The work is mostly in the back end:

Should Omani retailers worry about losing the customer?

Both OpenAI and Google say the merchant keeps the customer data and the relationship, and the order is yours to fulfil. What changes is where the shopper makes the decision. If the comparison happens inside an AI chat, the products with complete, consistent data and good reviews are the ones that get chosen. For stores that sell in Oman today, that means the same work that wins on Google: accurate catalogues, honest policies and product pages that answer questions. Read our guides to getting cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode in Oman and measuring AI search traffic in GA4 and Search Console.

How OGB Labs helps

We build ecommerce stores for Omani brands on Shopify, headless and fully custom stacks, with Arabic and English product data, Merchant Center feeds, Product structured data and order and payment APIs designed so that new sales channels, including AI assistants, can connect to them. If your catalogue is not showing in Google or ChatGPT, we audit the feed, crawl access and product pages and fix what is missing. See ecommerce development in Oman, read how to start an online store in Oman, run our free website check, or message us on WhatsApp at +968 7111 0727.