MELBOURNE, June 15 -- Soon, buying a drill from Bunnings will not require going to Bunnings, or even to its website. The hardware chain is about to let shoppers research a product, pick one and pay for it without ever leaving Google, by selling directly inside the search company's AI Mode.

Bunnings says it will be among the first Australian retailers to switch on shoppable listings in Google AI Mode, with the feature due to go live within a fortnight. The pitch is that a customer can describe what they need to Google's chatbot, get recommended products, and complete the purchase inside the AI conversation as it runs across Search, Chrome and the Google app. The storefront, in other words, moves into someone else's software.

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