Walmart Inks OpenAI Instant Checkout Deal, Expands Collectibles Offering With Shortboxed & StockX
Walmart becomes latest marketplace to ink deal with OpenAI for ChatGPT Instant Checkout as collectibles get a boost from partnerships with StockX and Shortboxed.
First up, the company announced this week that it will be working with OpenAI to create "AI-first shopping experiences" both within ChatGPT and on the Walmart and Sam's Club sites.
Walmart
Walmart is ushering in the next generation of retail by combining its huge assortment, everyday low prices and delivery speed with the power of AI. Today, the company announced a new partnership with OpenAI that will start with allowing customers and members to soon shop Walmart through ChatGPT using Instant Checkout.
Whether planning meals, restocking household essentials, or finding something new, customers can simply chat and buy, and Walmart will handle the rest.
The press release went on to describe how Walmart is empowering employees with AI tools and the potential for AI to be directly integrated into the shopping experience through Sparky, the company's genAI assistant.
“For many years now, eCommerce shopping experiences have consisted of a search bar and a long list of item responses. That is about to change. There is a native AI experience coming that is multi-media, personalized and contextual. We are running towards that more enjoyable and convenient future with Sparky and through partnerships including this important step with OpenAI,” said Doug McMillon, President and CEO, Walmart Inc.
However, what the press release doesn't say is whether the products featured in ChatGPT with Instant Checkout enabled will include offerings from 3rd party merchants on Walmart Marketplace or if it will be reserved exclusively for 1st party products sold and shipped by Walmart and/or Sam's Club.
ChatGPT Instant Checkout was released last month with Shopify and Etsy being the first to announce their partnerships with OpenAI for this new feature.
Liz Morton
Instant Checkout is powered by the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) to enable shopping and checkout from within ChatGPT conversations, for a "small fee."
Meet your customers where they areConvert chats into sales: People already come to ChatGPT for product ideas. Now you can capture that demand at the source.Get discovered organically: Product results in ChatGPT are ranked by relevance. Merchants appear when their products match a shopper’s query. It’s free to be discovered, and you only pay a small fee when a purchase is made (and it’s refunded if you have a return).Stay in control of your systems and customer relationships: Instant Checkout is designed to connect, not disintermediate. You remain the merchant of record, with full control over orders, payments, fulfillment, and customer relationships.
ChatGPT already helps millions of people find what to buy. Now it can help them buy it too.
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) September 29, 2025
We’re introducing Instant Checkout in ChatGPT with @Etsy and @Shopify, and open-sourcing the Agentic Commerce Protocol that powers it, built with @Stripe, so more merchants and developers… pic.twitter.com/9miGZr1Yn7
OpenAI has not publicly disclosed what the "small fee" is and neither Shopify, Etsy, nor Walmart have explicitly said if they are footing the bill themselves for the fees or passing it on to merchants - though Etsy sellers say they believe any purchases they get from this integration will likely be attributed to Offsite Ads with applicable ad fees charged.
It's also possible that Walmart might choose a middle ground, making Instant Checkout in ChatGPT available for 1st party products and only a carefully selected number of 3rd party merchants and/or companies they have partnered with to help boost their efforts to take market share in critical categories like collectibles, trading cards, luxury handbags, and sneakers.
Liz Morton
For example, Walmart partnered with StockX to bring hot drops and coveted sneakers to the marketplace last year.
Liz Morton
And just in the last few months, they've expanded the StockX partnership to ensure that buyers looking to score Labubu collectibles can find them on Walmart.
After last year's successful turn at New York Comic Con highlighted how Walmart was looking to take a larger piece of the lucrative collectibles market pie (with help from some ex-eBay talent), this year's NYCC event served as the perfect time to launch a new partnership with comic book marketplace Shortboxed.
jake0
We’re excited to announce the launch of Shortboxed, one of the largest and most trusted comic book marketplaces in the industry.
With a catalog of more than 75,000 books from thousands of sellers—including top dealers and comic shops such as Reece’s Rare Comics, Harley Yee Rare Comics, Graham Crackers Comics, Worldwide Comics, Cape & Cowl Comics, and Heroes Comics—Shortboxed will feature a large portion of those on Walmart Marketplace making it easier than ever for fans to discover, buy, and sell comics they love.
Walmart Marketplace is the first marketplace where Shortboxed is bringing its collection to customers—expanding access to authentic, high-quality comics backed by the trust, convenience, and value both brands are known for.
Given the impressive growth in these categories that Walmart has reported in recent quarters, it will not be surprising if these items become a high priority for the company to enable for ChatGPT Instant Checkout.
