Microsoft collapsed the entire e-commerce journey into a single chat window. On January 8, they launched Copilot Checkout, and it works exactly like it sounds: a customer asks Copilot for a dinner party dress, compares three options, asks about sizing, and checks out. Total time: 60 seconds. No new tabs. No cart abandonment. 

This is live right now. Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Ashley Furniture, and Etsy sellers are already selling through it. If you’re on Shopify, you’re getting auto-enrolled whether you asked for it or not.

The conversion numbers explain why Microsoft moved this fast: 

Copilot-assisted shopping journeys convert 194% higher when intent is present. 

Sessions with Copilot led to 53% more purchases within 30 minutes compared to sessions without it.

Translation: when someone’s ready to buy, keeping them in the conversation instead of sending them through a traditional checkout flow dramatically increases the chance they actually complete the purchase.

What Copilot Checkout Changes for Brands

Here’s the old path: someone sees your ad on Instagram, googles your product, reads reviews on Reddit, opens six tabs to compare prices, gets distracted, abandons the cart, comes back two days later, maybe converts.

Here’s the new path: someone asks Copilot, “What’s a good gift for my mom who loves cooking?” Copilot suggests three products, answers follow-up questions about materials and shipping, and completes checkout. Done in 90 seconds.

The consideration phase just moved inside the AI. The customer still compared options and made a decision. They just did it conversationally instead of across platforms.

We wrote about this pattern a few months ago when we analyzed why 2026 was the breakthrough year for agentic shopping. 

The implication for CMOs is blunt: if you’re not visible when Copilot makes recommendations, you’re not in the running. By the time a customer would traditionally search for you, they’ve already bought from someone else.

You Keep the Customer (That’s the Whole Point)

The part that actually matters: you stay the merchant of record. Microsoft isn’t inserting itself between you and your customer. You own the transaction, the data, the relationship. Copilot is the checkout infrastructure. You’re still the retailer.

For Shopify merchants, there’s nothing to do. You’ll be automatically enrolled after an opt-out window. No application and no setup. Your products just start appearing in Copilot shopping experiences across Bing, Edge, and MSN.

For everyone else, Microsoft is onboarding through PayPal and Stripe via something called the Agentic Commerce Protocol. You can apply now.

The distribution play is obvious: as Copilot expands across Microsoft’s ecosystem, you expand with it. One integration, automatic reach.

Brand Agents: The Same Thing, But On Your Own Site

Microsoft also launched Brand Agents, an AI assistant that lives on your site and talks like your brand. A customer lands on your homepage and asks, “What’s a good housewarming gift?” The agent responds in your voice, asks clarifying questions, compares products, guides them through checkout.

The setup takes hours, not months. The agent learns your catalog, speaks in your tone, answers product questions, handles objections, suggests add-ons when it makes sense. 

Performance tracking runs through Microsoft Clarity, which is free. You get dashboards showing conversion lift, engagement time, average order value, agent-assisted versus organic sessions.

Discovery Became Recommendation

The strategic change isn’t that there’s a new place to sell. It’s that purchase decisions now form inside AI conversations, not after searches.

Traditional SEO worked because people knew what they wanted. They searched “winter coat waterproof men’s large” and you optimized to appear. The customer had intent. Your job was to be visible when they expressed it.

AI shopping works differently. People don’t know exactly what they want, they describe a situation and the AI figures it out. “What should I wear to a winter wedding in Vermont?” or “My nephew loves science experiments, what should I get him?”

The AI interprets the need, considers context, and recommends specific products. If you’re in that recommendation set, you’re competing. If you’re not, the customer never even learns you exist.

That’s the shift. Visibility used to mean showing up in search results. Now it means being recommended by the AI before anyone searches.

What to Do Right Now

• Get your catalog into Microsoft Merchant Center. It’s not required for Copilot Checkout, but product feeds inform organic Copilot recommendations. If you’re not there, you might not surface.
• If you’re on Shopify, you’re already in. After the opt-out window, your products go live in Copilot Checkout. Make sure your product data is structured for AI extraction: specs, comparisons, clear attributes. Think beyond marketing copy. 
• Check where you actually show up. Search your product category in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini. Do your products get recommended? How often? What do the models say about you? If you’re invisible, that’s your optimization problem.
• Structure product content for extraction. AI models pull data and they build the narrative. “800-fill down, water-resistant, rated to -20°F, 2-day shipping” performs. “Stay cozy this winter with our premium craftsmanship” doesn’t.
• Earn external signals. Reviews in Wirecutter, mentions on Reddit, coverage in media.. All of these influence how models weigh your authority. A product reviewed by a trusted third party gets recommended more than one that isn’t.

Every Platform Is Building This

Copilot Checkout isn’t a Microsoft experiment. Google is integrating Shopping. Amazon built Rufus. Meta is testing commerce inside WhatsApp. TikTok Shop already collapses content and transactions into one feed.

Every company with distribution is racing to eliminate the gap between “I’m curious” and “I’m buying.” The ones that make purchase feel like a natural part of conversation and not an interruption will win.

For brands, that means the old playbook is breaking. The 2026 strategy isn’t optimizing your site for search traffic. It’s optimizing your brand to be recommended across every surface where customers make decisions.