One toggle, four platforms
Shopify built agentic storefronts around a single control point. Turn on Shopify Catalog, and your product data syndicates to ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Microsoft Copilot, and Gemini at once. Shopify activated this by default for eligible US merchants on March 11, 2026, which means a large share of stores are live without anyone on the team having opened the setting.
Default activation solves distribution. It doesn't solve readiness. A store with the toggle on can still underperform, with thin descriptions, missing identifiers, or stale inventory feeding the agents that surface it. This checklist walks through the setup in order: confirm the toggle, configure per-platform controls, then fix the data underneath.
Step 1: Confirm your eligibility
Agentic storefronts require:
- A published online store with at least one active product.
- No B2B-only product restrictions on your catalog. B2B-exclusive stores aren't supported.
- No products in a prohibited category. OpenAI excludes certain regulated and restricted product types regardless of how complete your data is.
Step 2: Turn on Shopify Catalog
Standard merchants
Go to Settings > Marketing > Shopify Catalog. Toggle it on if it isn't already. This is the master switch for syndication to all four AI platforms.
Plus merchants
Go to Settings > Sales channels > Agentic Storefronts instead. Plus stores get a dedicated sales channel with more granular controls than the standard toggle.
Decide on automatic management
Inside the Agentic Storefronts channel, you'll see "Allow Shopify to manage for me." Leave it on if you want Shopify to handle platform-level settings for you. Turn it off only if you plan to configure each platform yourself, since turning it off without finishing manual setup can take your whole catalog offline.
Step 3: Set per-platform checkout controls
Inside Settings > Sales Channels > Agentic Storefronts, each connected platform has its own checkout toggle. This matters because the platforms don't all work the same way.
Discovery-first, redirect to your checkout
OpenAI pivoted away from in-chat purchase in March 2026, after running Instant Checkout through the Agentic Commerce Protocol since late 2025. ChatGPT now focuses on product discovery and sends shoppers to your own checkout to complete the purchase. Confirm your storefront checkout is fast and mobile-ready, since that's where the conversion now happens.
In-chat purchase, opt-out by default
Copilot Checkout launched January 8, 2026, built on PayPal, with Shopify, Stripe, and Etsy as launch partners. Merchants were auto-enrolled with an opt-out window. If you haven't checked this setting since launch, confirm whether you're enrolled and whether that matches your intent.
Buy with Pro, separate setup
Perplexity's "Buy with Pro" runs through PayPal and supports thousands of merchants already, but it requires its own setup distinct from the core Shopify Catalog toggle. Don't assume turning on Shopify Catalog alone gets you into Perplexity's purchase flow.
Step 4: Fix your product data
The toggle gets your catalog into the pipeline. Data quality determines whether agents recommend you once you're there.
GTIN and brand on every SKU
These two fields let agents verify and match your product with confidence. Treat any product missing both as unfinished, not optional.
Material, color, size, use case
Shoppers query agents in natural language. "A breathable running shoe for wide feet" only matches a listing that has those attributes filled in, not just mentioned once in a paragraph of marketing copy.
Real-time price and inventory accuracy
Agents that recommend a product with the wrong price or a sold-out variant create a bad experience that gets traced back to your store. Confirm your sync runs in real time, not on a batch schedule.
JSON-LD Product and Offer schema
Add this to your product page template if your theme doesn't already include it. Offer schema with live price and availability gives any agent that crawls your site outside the feed the same confirmation the Shopify Catalog feed provides.
Step 5: Verify and monitor
Setup isn't done once you flip every toggle. Check your Agentic Storefronts sales channel for sync errors every week during the first month. Watch your analytics for referral sessions from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, and Copilot domains. A toggle with no traffic after several weeks signals a data quality gap, not a platform problem.
Set a recurring reminder: review GTIN, brand, and attribute completeness every time you add a new product line. Catalogs that pass this setup once and never revisit it tend to drift back into the same gaps within a few months.
Setup is the floor, not the ceiling
Getting the toggle on and the per-platform settings right puts you in the pipeline. It doesn't guarantee recommendation. Agents weigh data completeness, accuracy, and structure every time they answer a query, which means this checklist is a starting point you'll revisit, not a box you check once.
See where your setup still has gaps
The Structora ACR Score checks your catalog across Product Data Quality, AI Search Discoverability, Conversion Infrastructure, Ops Readiness, and Brand Consistency. Five minutes, no pitch.