GoKwik and PayU bring multi-brand D2C shopping to ChatGPT, launch AI-powered commerce experience

In July 2026, GoKwik and PayU partnered up to introduce what the companies describe as India’s first multi-brand direct-to-consumer (D2C) commerce experience integrated with ChatGPT, enabling consumers to discover, compare, and purchase products from multiple brands within a single AI-powered conversation. The platform has been made initially available with brands including Hyphen, Beardo, and Kilrr, with the company planning to extend the capability across hundreds of brands in its merchant ecosystem. This initiative marks a significant step towards agentic commerce, where artificial intelligence not only assists with product discovery but also facilitates end-to-end transactions within a conversational interface.

The transaction layer for the platform is powered by PayU, allowing users to complete purchases using UPI, credit and debit cards, net banking, and digital wallets without leaving the chat interface. Vineet Sethi, Chief Growth and Marketing Officer, PayU, said the next phase of digital commerce will be driven by conversational experiences where payments become an integral part of AI interactions rather than a separate process. He noted that integrating PayU’s payment infrastructure with GoKwik’s commerce platform enables consumers to move seamlessly from product discovery to transaction within a single interface while providing D2C brands with access to AI-native commerce.

GoKwik has stated that merchants already using its platform can become discoverable on ChatGPT without requiring any additional engineering effort, new integrations, or separate listing fees. Brands are able to retain ownership of their product catalogues, customer relationships, and conversion data while also gaining access to AI-powered discovery and commerce. The company has also planned a phased rollout across additional consumer categories with aims to expand the conversational shopping experience beyond ChatGPT to other AI platforms as adoption of AI-native commerce accelerates.

Impact on the ICT Market

The new and ever-changing e-commerce experience allows consumers to search for products using natural language prompts, compare recommendations, add items to a cart, complete checkout, and make payments, all without switching between multiple websites or applications. This particular platform is designed to address one of the biggest challenges facing the world’s rapidly growing D2C ecosystem, which is fragmented product discovery. While thousands of homegrown brands have established independent online storefronts, reaching new customers remains a challenge compared to marketplace-led commerce.

The platform has been built to support future AI-driven payment capabilities expected to emerge in India. The architecture is designed to integrate with upcoming agentic payment frameworks, including NPCI’s proposed UPI Circle and RuPay Agentic Payment capabilities, alongside agentic payment initiatives being developed by Visa and Mastercard. These capabilities are expected to enable AI agents to complete transactions on behalf of consumers while maintaining security and user authorization.

Impact on the Metaverse in the E-commerce Market

The global metaverse in the e-commerce market size accounted for USD 48.02 billion in 2024 and is predicted to increase from USD 66.61 billion in 2025 to approximately USD 1,151.12 billion by 2034, expanding at a CAGR of 37.39% from 2025 to 2035.

According to Precedence Research, the growing popularity of the metaverse in e-commerce is closely linked to the boom in virtual assets. As more people dive into virtual worlds, the idea of owning digital stuff using blockchain, like virtual land or special digital items represented by NFTs, has become popular. This ownership aspect adds extra value and uniqueness to virtual goods, sparking a big demand in the market.

The impact of social commerce is also creating significant opportunities in the metaverse for the e-commerce market. By integrating social features within virtual environments, users can now share experiences, product recommendations, and purchase decisions in real-time. This social interaction enhances the overall shopping experience, mimicking the social aspects of traditional brick-and-mortar stores. As a result, businesses in the metaverse have the chance to leverage user-generated content and word-of-mouth marketing, fostering a sense of community that drives engagement and sales.

Impact on the Digital Payment Market

The global digital payment market size is accounted for USD 170.24 billion in 2025, and is predicted to increase from USD 200.03 billion in 2026 to approximately USD 790.59 billion by 2035, expanding at a CAGR of 16.60% from 2026 to 2035.

According to Precedence Research, the digital payment market is continuously evolving, thanks to advances in blockchain, AI, and contactless transactions. Financial services are improving mobile across verticals with a focus on security. Both businesses and consumers are adopting cashless transactions at an unprecedented rate. The emergence of technologies such as biometric authentication and real-time payments has led to new opportunities for growth and convenience in transactions.

AI has brought remarkable changes in digital payments by checking fraud in real time, making use of biometrics instead of PIN codes or passwords, streamlining processes, creating tailor-made offers, and providing customer service through chatbots, forecasting consumers' spending habits, facilitating better credit evaluations, backing up buy-now-pay-later models, securing blockchain processes, and enabling quick, safe, and smooth transaction experiences over different platforms.

Expert Opinion

According to Chirag Taneja, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, GoKwik, the evolution of digital commerce is moving from traditional web-based experiences to conversational interfaces powered by AI.

He said that GoKwik is extending the same intelligent checkout infrastructure that powers merchants’ websites into ChatGPT, enabling brands to reach customers at the point where purchase decisions increasingly begin through AI-assisted conversations.