Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) has begun testing a feature that allows shoppers in India to purchase products from Walmart (NYSE: WMT)-owned Flipkart directly through its Gemini assistant and AI Mode search interface.
The new capability presents users with a “Buy” button on select Flipkart product listings surfaced within Gemini and AI Mode, routing them to a Flipkart checkout flow without exiting the AI interface.
People familiar with the matter and an experience observed by TechCrunch confirmed the test, which remains limited to a small group of users and a narrow range of products.
The product selection currently covered by the test includes smartphones, electronics, and mobile accessories, with other users continuing to see standard Flipkart listings without any direct purchase option.
Google plans to expand the feature more broadly later in October, timed to coincide with India’s festive shopping season, one of the highest-traffic periods for the country’s e-commerce sector.
A Google spokesperson told TechCrunch the company is “always testing new features and experiences to help people discover and connect with businesses more easily,” and confirmed it regularly runs such experiments without providing further details.
The test is part of a broader push by Google to shift its AI services from product discovery toward enabling actual transactions, a race it is running alongside rivals including OpenAI.
Earlier in 2026, Google introduced the Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard designed to allow AI agents to interact with retailers across the full shopping journey, including checkout.
Google has since expanded UCP to include features such as allowing shoppers to transfer items to a retailer’s own site to complete a purchase, broadening the technology’s scope beyond a Google-hosted checkout experience.
The Flipkart integration observed by TechCrunch appears distinct from that Google-hosted checkout model, instead presenting a Flipkart-branded payment flow when a user taps the Buy button, though the underlying technology powering the test remains unclear.
Google holds a financial stake in Flipkart in addition to its technology partnership, having invested approximately $350 million in the e-commerce company in 2024 as part of a funding round led by Walmart.
In the experience reviewed by TechCrunch, Amazon product listings appeared alongside Flipkart results within the AI interface but did not carry the same direct purchase option, underscoring the selective nature of the current rollout.
India’s internet market, which counts more than one billion subscribers and ranks as the world’s second-largest, sees Flipkart and Amazon engage in intense competition that sharpens further during the annual festive sales period.
Flipkart did not respond to a request for comment on the testing program or its planned expansion timeline.
