Shownotes
Stripe believes the traditional online checkout page is on its way out as AI agents and agentic commerce begin to reshape how consumers shop.
Michael Prendergast, Ken Davidson, Ben Miller, and Chris Walton discuss what happens when the purchasing process becomes increasingly machine-led, from eliminating friction and clicks to completely rethinking promotions, pricing, and how retailers compete for transactions.
The big question: Are retailers ready for a world where machines may increasingly shop for consumers?
▶️ Watch the full Fast Five episode here: https://youtu.be/NXUUmuwrX2Q
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy
Transcripts
Okay, headline number four.
Speaker A:A top Stripe executive recently said that the traditional online checkout page is on its way out, arguing agentic AI would increasingly let shoppers and eventually AI agents themselves buy directly from a product page instead of filling out a checkout form.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Stripe's President of Technology and business Will Gabriel said on a podcast that shoppers should be able to just buy it from a product display page, predicting that even a minimalistic version of agentic Commerce would mark the end of the conventional checkout process.
Speaker A:Stripe has already rolled out its instant checkout feature inside ChatGPT, helped develop the Agentic commerce protocol with OpenAI, and also recently brought Agentic purchasing to Google's Gemini.
Speaker A:Gabriel pointed the existing quick pay tools like Stripe's Own Link and Shopify's Shop Pay as early groundwork, whilst acknowledging agentic commerce hasn't yet had, as he called it, its breakout moment.
Speaker A:Michael, I'm going to come to you first on this one.
Speaker A:Stripe is apparently betting that machines will purchase from machines.
Speaker A:As somebody who advises retailers about where retail technology spend actually pays off.
Speaker A:Is a gen tic checkout something retailers should be building towards now or is it years away from being a real sales channel?
Speaker B:So, so three answers.
Speaker B:Number one, I totally agree.
Speaker B:I think checkout is dead already.
Speaker B:I think Amazon revolutionized it and the Buy now feature is ubiquitous and I find myself getting hyper annoyed when I actually have to go through the checkout process on Amazon versus Buy Now.
Speaker B:So I think yes, he's absolutely correct from a strategic standpoint.
Speaker B:The second piece is when we've advised dtc, either segments or companies and when I've run them as either operator or as an interim CEO.
Speaker B:One of the things we always talk about is number of clicks to purchase and really trying to create as least amount of friction as possible.
Speaker B:So eliminating a checkout process in the click process is something that absolutely will go away.
Speaker B:Now the third thing is quite interesting and provocative in that will machines be inserted into that process from an AI agentic standpoint and do it for us?
Speaker B:I think yes.
Speaker B:I think companies should be getting ahead of it for sure.
Speaker B:I just wonder what the balance is of customer preferences of actual shopping versus turning over everything to an AI agentic model where I potentially prompt what my likes and needs are and then the AI agentic model figures it out for me.
Speaker B:I don't know how that's going to work out.
Speaker B:I don't think that individuals will fully turn the purchasing process over to AI.
Speaker B:I think they'll want some interaction with it.
Speaker B:But for all those Things.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Companies should be getting ahead of it.
Speaker B:And I do agree.
Speaker B:I think the checkout is dead.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I think.
Speaker A:Ken, let me bring you in at this point.
Speaker A:Really interesting points from Michael.
Speaker A:What's your take on this one?
Speaker C:Yeah, 100, a thousand percent on this one.
Speaker C:If you just fast forward five or ten years, a couple of points.
Speaker C:So one is, you know, even this fall, the.
Speaker C:I don't know if you guys have kept up on it, but this, you know, the Siri coming to the iPhone coming in the fall is actually apparently quite good.
Speaker C:And you can start to interact and say, hey, what was that code?
Speaker C:Chris, you know, texted me, you know, a year ago to get into the door.
Speaker C:And it.
Speaker C:And it actually worked.
Speaker C:Well, fast forward that five or 10 years.
Speaker C:We'll all be talking to our personal assistants on an ongoing basis, whether you think that's, you know, scary or not.
Speaker C:And so just imagine the shopping process then.
Speaker C:So, for example, now I already go to chat, GPT or cloud and say, hey, you know, what's the best?
Speaker C:You know, I need a new suitcase.
Speaker C:What's the best suitcase?
Speaker C:So these three are the top rated.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:It's, you know, no additional step to say, okay, would you like me to buy it for you?
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:Well, it comes, you know, it's available these three places.
Speaker C:This is the best price.
Speaker C:These are the reviews.
Speaker C:You can have it tomorrow from this place.
Speaker C:And you just say, okay, you know, if it's Amazon or Walmart or Target, just.
Speaker C:Just buy it for me.
Speaker C:Whoever's got the best price.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:And so it just completely collapses the entire purchase process.
Speaker C:And you could even imagine getting to a state where, you know, in some cases, you know, it wouldn't even ask you.
Speaker C:Now, to Michael's point, will that apply equally by every category?
Speaker C:Absolutely not.
Speaker C:So I think, you know, to take the easy one, you know, grocery is sort of a different beast entirely, especially with fresh produce and stuff like that.
Speaker C:So let's leave that off the table.
Speaker C:But for things that are sort of easily researchable, reasonably low in price, I think you'll get.
Speaker C:You'll very quickly get to, you know, a fully automated world within a couple of years here.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:I mean, it must be conference season coming around if we're talking about these stories.
Speaker A:So, Chris, come on, where are you?
Speaker A:Are you on the agent E. Commerce hype train on this story?
Speaker D:Oh, I think the stripe executive is exactly right.
Speaker D:I mean, I thought it was kind of funny, like when Michael was saying, like, kind of, are we already kind of there?
Speaker D:You know, like, you know, like with Amazon or even Apple Pay, like the checkout experience is pretty frictionless already.
Speaker D:I think where I just am curious about and excited to see what happens is like conceptualizing what that actually means for us with all these new tools in terms of how do I still have control within the flow, the click process that Michael was describing, that's the big question for me.
Speaker D:But a hundred percent it's coming.
Speaker D:I think we're probably all in resolute agreement on this one.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I really like that.
Speaker A:I think we're all echoing about the fact that there hasn't been this robot to robot, machine to machine breakthrough moment yet.
Speaker A:If all agent E Commerce gives us is more people have a buy now button, then we've failed to grasp the potential of the technology.
Speaker A:It's about doing something bigger to help customers in their lives more easily.
Speaker A:And I think that's absolutely what we're hinting towards.
Speaker D:That's a great way to put it, Ben.
Speaker D:And that's kind of why I included this headline because I just thought it was just an interesting way for us to all think about the future.
Speaker D:Yeah, Ken, last word.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Just to give one specific example too, how it impacts retailers, think of what it has to do to your promotional strategy then.
Speaker C:Because if the customer isn't always choosing the outlet, the retailer itself and just says, I want that suitcase, who's got the best price?
Speaker C:How do you.
Speaker C:And we've been advising some of our clients already on how do you integrate your promo and your promo strategy and flow and deal flow such that you don't unknowingly get on the offside of being left out of all these transactions that are going to be increasingly machine led.
Speaker D:Yeah, I just did a speech on that at the National Confectioners association too, Ken, where I compared a basket of Amazon vs Walmart and Albertsons and you don't want to be Albertsons in the world of generative AI and agentic AI doing the shopping for you.
Speaker D:Let's just put it that way.