Google is testing a Buy button on Flipkart listings inside Gemini and AI Mode in India

A shopper in India can now finish a purchase without ever leaving Google's AI answer. TechCrunch's Jagmeet Singh reported on 26 September that Google is running a limited test where selected Flipkart product listings inside Gemini and AI Mode carry a Buy button, taking the shopper into a Flipkart-branded checkout flow without leaving the AI interface. Two people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that a broader rollout is planned for October, ahead of India's festive shopping season.

What the test does

TechCrunch says the test covers select users and a small selection of products, including smartphones, electronics and mobile accessories. Other users continue to see the same Flipkart listings in Gemini and AI Mode with a normal link and no Buy button, so the AI surface itself decides who gets the direct-buy path. In the experience the reporter saw, listings from Amazon appeared alongside Flipkart products, and only the Flipkart listings offered the option to purchase inside the AI interface. Flipkart did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's request for comment.

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

The checkout stays on the retailer, for now

TechCrunch writes that the Buy button brings up a Flipkart-branded checkout flow, and that it is unclear what technology powers the test. Google has separately been building a Google-hosted purchase flow for its AI services, and TechCrunch says the Flipkart experience looks different from the flow the company demonstrated earlier this year. The report also states that Google has a financial relationship with Flipkart alongside its technology partnership with the retailer.

India is the setting for a reason. TechCrunch describes it as the world's second-largest internet market, with more than a billion internet subscribers, where Flipkart and Amazon compete fiercely and roll out their biggest sales during the festive season. Getting the direct-buy surface live before October is the point of the timing.

TechCrunch frames the test as part of a broader push by Google, and rivals including OpenAI, to move AI services from product discovery into transactions. For two years merchants have been asked to write pages that answer engines can quote. The question changing this quarter is a different one: whether the answer engine hands the visit to the merchant at all, or fulfils the purchase itself and shows the merchant name only on the receipt.

For an ecommerce team, that shifts what optimisation for AI search is aimed at. Structured product data, availability, price and returns policy still decide whether a listing shows up in the answer. Payment routing is a separate decision that belongs to whoever the AI surface has partnered with. A Flipkart listing and an Amazon listing side by side in Google's AI Mode carry different consequences today, because one of them ships the goods without a redirect and the other still requires a click out. When the wider rollout arrives in October, watch which merchants get the Buy button, and treat the answer as a signal about which partners the answer engine has chosen.

Source

Reporting: Google tests buying from Walmart-owned Flipkart through Gemini and AI Mode in India by Jagmeet Singh, TechCrunch, 26 September 2026.