Razorpay bets on ChatGPT as an emerging shopping channel in India

A shopper asks ChatGPT what skincare product to buy. Instead of sending them to a search page, the assistant could surface a catalogue, open a storefront and begin checkout inside the same conversation. Razorpay is testing that model with around 50 brands and several ecommerce marketplaces, working with OpenAI and NPCI on the infrastructure behind it.

The bet follows a shift already visible at Nykaa. The beauty retailer says it has become the top beauty brand on ChatGPT and Gemini through “Answer Engine Optimization,” treating AI answer engines as a customer-acquisition channel alongside Google Search. Nykaa also plans to bring its Beauty and Fashion shopping experiences into ChatGPT through a broader OpenAI partnership.

Razorpay’s pitch is to make that move easier for merchants. Its ChatGPT Storefronts can auto-sync a Shopify catalogue and manage submission to OpenAI, instead of requiring a merchant to host its own MCP server and build a checkout flow from scratch—work the company describes as commonly taking eight-to-ten weeks. Razorpay says its approach can bring that process closer to half an hour.

The payment itself is designed to remain separate from the AI assistant. UPI Reserve Pay allows funds to be blocked for future debits to designated merchants, while UPI Circle delegates UPI authentication. Razorpay says ChatGPT does not receive customers’ payment credentials; authorisation still happens through the shopper’s own UPI account and applicable two-factor authentication requirements.

So what changes, concretely? A merchant could meet a customer where product research already happens and complete the sale without sending that customer to another app or website. Innovist is among the first brands live on Razorpay’s stack, but only for select users, and the company has not disclosed updated adoption numbers. Cashfree is also pursuing in-chat payments through Cashfree Here, so Razorpay’s early merchant relationships may matter as much as the underlying technology.

The unresolved question is trust. Cashfree CEO Akash Sinha says consumers will need to feel comfortable giving agents access to payments and data. Razorpay argues that its design keeps users in control of every transaction. The shopping conversation may be ready to move, but the final authorisation still belongs to the person holding the UPI account.