Google tests a Flipkart ‘Buy’ button inside Gemini and AI Mode

Google is testing a “Buy” button for Flipkart products inside Gemini and AI Mode in India, TechCrunch reported on September 26. Tapping it opens a Flipkart-branded checkout without leaving Google’s AI interface. The test is limited to some users and a small selection of products, including smartphones, electronics and mobile accessories.

Google did not confirm the details. A spokesperson told TechCrunch the company is “always testing new features and experiences to help people discover and connect with businesses more easily”. Flipkart did not immediately respond to TechCrunch.

The plan Google set out in January

This did not come out of nowhere. In January, Google launched the Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard meant to let AI agents deal with retailers across the whole shopping journey, from discovery and buying to after-sales support. Google said it was co-developed with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart, and listed Flipkart among more than 20 companies endorsing it. At the time, Google said the protocol would soon power checkout on eligible product listings in AI Mode and the Gemini app, starting with US retailers and with plans to expand globally.

Walmart owns Flipkart. So the India test brings together a retailer whose parent helped write the standard and what TechCrunch calls the world’s second-largest internet market, with more than a billion internet subscribers. The flow also looks different from the Google-hosted checkout the company showed earlier, TechCrunch notes: here the purchase runs through Flipkart’s own branded checkout.

Who gets the button

In the version TechCrunch saw, listings from rivals including Amazon appeared next to Flipkart products but did not offer a way to buy inside the AI interface.

That detail is the story. On a page of search results, every listing is one click from a store. In a chat answer, the product with a Buy button is the easy path, and everything else asks you to leave. Whoever gets the button gets the shortcut. That is our reading of how such interfaces tend to work; Google has not said how it will decide which listings get one.

Google also has a financial tie to Flipkart. It invested about $350 million in the company in 2024 as part of a funding round. Nothing in the reporting suggests the investment shaped the test, but keep it in mind when judging who got the button first.

Why the timing points to October

TechCrunch reports that Google plans to roll the experience out more broadly later in October, ahead of India’s festive shopping season. The categories in the test, phones and electronics, suggest Google is aiming at the season’s big-ticket purchases. If the rollout goes ahead, many Indian shoppers could get their first taste of buying through an AI assistant during the festive sales rather than in a quiet pilot.

What we still do not know

The reporting leaves the practical questions open. It does not say which payment methods the checkout supports, whether Google takes a fee on sales, what customer data passes between the two companies, or whether other Indian retailers will get the same button. Nor does it say whether the test runs on the Universal Commerce Protocol or on a separate arrangement between the two companies. Those answers will decide whether this is a convenience for shoppers or a new gatekeeping point for Indian e-commerce.

Watch for Google’s own announcement if the October rollout goes ahead, and for how Amazon responds if its listings stay without a button through the festive sales.