ChatGPT Shopping Gets a Major Upgrade as OpenAI Rethinks Checkout

ChatGPT Shopping Gets a Major Upgrade as OpenAI Rethinks Checkout

On Monday, OpenAI updated ChatGPT shopping, and this time the change is easy to spot. As Product results are now more visual, the cards carry better detail, and users can compare items side by side without jumping across a stack of tabs. ChatGPT can also take an image and look for similar products, while OpenAI says the product data behind those results is fresher and faster. 

The company says the update is rolling out to all ChatGPT users this week.

In its March 24 post, the company said more people are starting their shopping in ChatGPT when they are still deciding what to buy. That is usually the worst part of shopping online. You search, open review pages, compare prices, forget what you liked, and start the whole thing again. OpenAI is building around that behavior. 

Also read:OpenAI Hires Meta Ad Veteran Dave Dugan as ChatGPT Ads Expand and the Company Pushes Its US Rollout Further  

Instant Checkout, a feature which let some users buy from Shopify merchants without leaving the chat, did not give merchants the flexibility it wanted. So merchants will use their own checkout experiences while OpenAI focuses its effort on product discovery inside ChatGPT.

Walmart is the clearest example of where this is headed. OpenAI says Walmart is introducing an in-ChatGPT app experience that takes users from discovery in ChatGPT into a Walmart environment with account linking, loyalty, and Walmart payments. And retailers including Target, Sephora, Nordstrom, Lowe’s, Best Buy, The Home Depot, and Wayfair are already connected for discovery, while Shopify product data already flows into ChatGPT through Shopify Catalog.

With this update ChatGPT helps users get from a vague idea to a shorter list. The store handles the sale. After months of bigger commerce talk, the plan now feels narrower and easier to understand.