Google is testing a Buy button for Walmart-owned Flipkart inside Gemini and AI Mode for a subset of shoppers in India, while Amazon listings that appear alongside Flipkart products in the same results offer no way to complete a purchase.

Early trial covers smartphones and accessories

People familiar with the matter said tapping Buy takes users to a Flipkart checkout without leaving the AI interface. In this flow, product discovery and purchase happen in a single AI conversation rather than a handoff to a retailer's own app or website. The early trial covers a limited group of users and a short list of goods spanning smartphones, electronics, and mobile accessories. Other users continue to see standard Flipkart listings in Gemini and AI Mode with no buy option.

A Google spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company is "always testing new features and experiences to help people discover and connect with businesses more easily." The spokesperson added that Google regularly conducts experiments and had no further details.

The buy option is not yet showing for every retailer in Google's AI results. Amazon listings have popped up alongside Flipkart products, but there is no option to purchase them through the AI interface. Whether Amazon listings will gain a similar path remains an open question as the trial moves toward a wider rollout.

Wider rollout targeted ahead of festive shopping season

Google is aiming for a wider rollout later in October, ahead of India's festive shopping season, according to one person familiar with the plan. Flipkart and Amazon both run some of their biggest sales of the year during that window. India is the world's second-largest internet market, with more than a billion internet subscribers.

Google's commerce push and its Flipkart ties

In September, Google named Flipkart among the merchants it is working with on "agentic" shopping in India (Google). Earlier this year, the company introduced the Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard that allows AI agents to transact with retailers all the way through checkout. Google said shoppers would be able to buy eligible products in Gemini and AI Mode via a checkout hosted by Google.

The Flipkart trial looks different. The Buy button opens a Flipkart-branded checkout, and the technology behind it remains unclear. "If the checkout goes to Gemini, the merchant loses the last touch point," Richard Crone, chief executive of Crone Consulting, said in January, as Cryptopolitan reported. Where the checkout lives has become a central design question for agentic shopping: a Google-hosted flow keeps the transaction inside Gemini, while a merchant-branded flow like Flipkart's leaves the final step — and the customer's last interaction in the purchase — with the retailer.

Google acquired a minority stake in Flipkart in 2024, investing around $350 million in a Walmart-led funding round. In February, Google began enabling users to shop at Walmart, Wayfair, and Etsy through Search and Gemini, according to Cryptopolitan.

Vidhya Srinivasan, who leads Google's ads and commerce business, said the company is "reinventing what an ad is," describing the work as groundwork for "a future where all commercial experiences can be seamless and agentic."

In January, PayPal said it endorsed the protocol, as Cryptopolitan reported, giving the open standard early backing from a major payments company. How Google balances the two checkout models — and how many retailers ultimately join the buy flow — will be worth watching as the feature heads into its wider festive-season release.