ChatGPT introduces shopping function in first e-commerce play
Your next personal shopper will be a robot
OpenAI has announced a new feature that will allow users of ChatGPT to purchase items within the chatbot’s interface, through a new ‘instant checkout’ feature.
From today, when a user asks the chatbot a question related to shopping, such as “what is the best 5G phone under $500?”, ChatGPT will show the “most relevant” products and add a ‘buy’ button. Order confirmation, shipping details, and payment are all completed within the same chat window, although this the actual transactions are handled by the merchants, using their existing systems.
“ChatGPT simply acts as the user’s AI agent—securely passing information between user and merchant, just like a digital personal shopper would”, the company explains.
Open AI stresses that all product results are “organic and unsponsored, ranked purely on relevance to the user.” ChatGPT will make its decision on which item it recommends, based on “factors like availability, price, quality, whether a merchant is the primary seller, and whether Instant Checkout is enabled.”
Initially, the e-commerce feature will only be available in the US, and will be powered by payment system Stripe. The company will expand into other regions “soon”.
The instant checkout feature is now available to Etsy sellers, with a network of over one million Shopify merchants to be added soon.
The brave new world, and how it will work
ChatGPT currently has 700 million weekly users, according to OpenAI, the majority of whom pay nothing for the privilege. The company is also open-sourcing the technology for its instant checkout — the agentic commerce protocol — “so that more merchants and developers can begin building their integrations.”
An announcement on the company’s website explains further: “This marks the next step in agentic commerce, where ChatGPT doesn’t just help you find what to buy, it also helps you buy it. For shoppers, it’s seamless: go from chat to checkout in just a few taps. For sellers, it’s a new way to reach hundreds of millions of people while keeping full control of their payments, systems, and customer relationships.”
Privacy issues are also quelled in the company’s announcement. Users “explicitly confirm each step before any action is taken”, payments are secure and only authorised for specific amounts, and data sharing is “minimal” and requires user permission.
OpenAI promises this “is just the beginning”, predicting a world where artificial intelligence “becomes a key interface for how people discover, decide, and buy”.
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