Google has commenced trials allowing shoppers in India to purchase products from Walmart-owned Flipkart directly inside Gemini and Google’s AI Mode. This move marks a significant step for the search giant as it seeks to expand its artificial intelligence services from simple product discovery into full transaction capabilities.
Under the early test, select users who search for certain items are presented with a direct "Buy" button on Flipkart product listings appearing within Gemini and Google’s AI Mode. According to individuals familiar with the matter and demonstrations observed by TechCrunch, tapping this button initiates a Flipkart checkout flow without requiring the user to leave the AI interface.
The trial is currently limited in scope, rolling out only to a small group of users and restricted to a specific category of products. These include high-demand items such as smartphones, electronics, and mobile accessories, according to sources. Meanwhile, other users continue to see standard product listings from Flipkart within Gemini and AI Mode that lack the direct in-interface purchase option.
Sources indicate that Google plans to expand this experiential feature more broadly later in October, strategically timing the rollout ahead of India’s peak festive shopping season. The festive period traditionally marks one of the most lucrative times of the year for the retail and e-commerce sectors, characterized by heavy consumer spending and major promotional events.
This testing phase arrives as Google and its chief industry rivals, including OpenAI, aggressively integrate commerce capabilities into their respective conversational AI offerings. Technology companies are increasingly striving to move past their traditional roles of merely answering shopping queries and recommending items, aiming instead to capture value by playing a direct, frictionless role in online purchases.
When questioned regarding the Flipkart trials, a Google spokesperson told TechCrunch that the corporation is continually testing new features and experiences designed to help consumers discover and connect with businesses more effortlessly. The spokesperson emphasized that the company routinely runs experimental programs and currently has no further details or specific timelines to share publicly.
The initiative builds on Google’s broader technological push to enable transactional commerce directly through its various AI services. Earlier this year, the company introduced the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard engineered to allow autonomous AI agents to interact seamlessly with retailers across every stage of the shopping journey, including the final checkout. Google stated at the time that the underlying architecture would eventually allow shoppers to purchase eligible products through Gemini and AI Mode via a Google-hosted checkout experience. Since its initial announcement, Google has expanded UCP with supplementary capabilities, such as permitting shoppers to transfer selected items directly to a retailer’s native website to complete a transaction.
However, the Flipkart integration observed by TechCrunch diverges from the Google-hosted checkout experience previously demonstrated by the Gemini developer. Instead of a Google-managed interface, the current test invokes a distinct, Flipkart-branded checkout flow when a user engages the Buy button. At present, the exact proprietary technology powering this specific merchant-branded test remains undisclosed.
Earlier this month, Google publicly named Flipkart as one of the primary retail merchants partnering with the tech giant to introduce what it terms "agentic" shopping experiences to consumers across India. At the time of that announcement, however, Google stopped short of disclosing specific details regarding the live test or its impending rollout schedule.
Google shares a deeper corporate and financial relationship with Flipkart alongside its ongoing technological partnership. In May 2024, Google invested approximately $350 million into the Indian e-commerce giant as part of a substantial funding round led by Walmart, securing a minority equity stake in the company.
India stands as the world’s second-largest internet market, boasting well over a billion internet subscribers. Within this massive digital economy, Flipkart and Amazon engage in fierce, continuous competition for online consumers. That commercial rivalry invariably intensifies during the festive shopping season, when e-commerce platforms unleash their largest sales, discounts, and promotional campaigns of the entire year.
For now, the direct Buy option is not universally available across all retail merchants indexed or surfaced by Google’s AI services. In the experiences reviewed during the test, product listings from rival platforms—including Amazon—appeared alongside Flipkart results, but those competitor listings did not feature the capability to complete transactions directly within the conversational AI interface.
Flipkart did not immediately respond to electronic mail messages requesting formal comment on the ongoing integration tests.
