Google is quietly testing something that could reshape how Indians shop online: buying a product without ever leaving Gemini or Google’s AI Mode in Search. According to TechCrunch, select users in India are now seeing a “Buy” button appear directly on certain Flipkart product listings inside these AI tools—one tap sends them straight into a Flipkart-branded checkout flow; no separate app or browser tab is required.
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How the Test Works
The pilot currently covers a limited set of categories—smartphones, electronics, and mobile accessories—and only a subset of users and products qualify. Everyone else browsing Flipkart listings through Gemini or AI Mode still sees standard product information without a purchase option. Interestingly, Amazon products also show up in these AI shopping results, but without any equivalent “Buy” button, underlining Flipkart’s currently privileged position in the test—unsurprising given Google holds a minority stake in Flipkart following a $350 million investment made back in 2024.
Notably, tapping “Buy” triggers a Flipkart-branded checkout rather than the Universal Commerce Protocol checkout flow Google has previously demonstrated, and TechCrunch reports the exact technology stitching the experience together isn’t entirely clear yet. When asked for comment, Google offered only a general line about “always testing new features and experiences to help people discover and connect with businesses more easily.” Flipkart did not respond to requests for comment.
| Detail | What We Know |
|---|---|
| Feature | “Buy” button on select Flipkart listings in Gemini & AI Mode |
| Categories in test | Smartphones, electronics, mobile accessories |
| Checkout flow | Flipkart-branded checkout (not Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol) |
| Amazon listings | Shown, but no direct “Buy” button |
| Wider rollout | Expected around October 2026, timed with festive sales |
| Google’s Flipkart stake | $350 million minority investment (2024) |
Timed for Festive Season
Google reportedly plans to expand this feature more broadly by October — timed squarely with India’s festive shopping season, when platforms like Flipkart and Amazon see their single biggest surge in sales all year. If Google rolls this out at scale during that window, it would put AI-mediated checkout in front of the exact audience and moment when Indian e-commerce spending peaks.
Why This Could Hurt Affiliate and Deal Websites
For publishers and deal-tracking websites across India, this test is worth watching closely. A huge share of tech and shopping content — sale roundups, “best deals” listicles, price-comparison posts — exists specifically to route readers to a retailer’s checkout page through an affiliate link, earning a small commission on completed purchases. If Google’s AI Mode and Gemini can identify a product a user wants and check them out directly on Flipkart in a single tap, that entire referral step gets skipped entirely.
In practice, this means fewer readers clicking through from search results or AI chat to an affiliate site’s outbound link, and fewer of those clicks converting into a tracked, commissionable sale. Over the next few years, as Google expands this kind of in-AI checkout beyond the current pilot categories, affiliate-driven publishers may need to lean more heavily on original reporting, reviews, and audience loyalty rather than pure deal-aggregation traffic, since the AI layer itself is increasingly positioned to close the purchase loop before a user ever reaches a publisher’s link.
Whether this test expands broadly in October, and how far Google pushes AI-native checkout beyond Flipkart, remains to be seen. For more on how AI is reshaping shopping and search, check out TechnoSports’ Google coverage.
