OpenAI adds shopping features to ChatGPT Search

OpenAI is rolling out shopping features within ChatGPT Search, starting with fashion, beauty, home goods, and electronics categories. The shopping features will guide users to find the right product for their query or questions.

What is shopping in ChatGPT. ChatGPT will offer recommendations for products, show product images and product reviews that it thinks you might be interested in. Plus, ChatGPT will link directly to webpages where users can buy the products. These shopping results are not paid ads, nor does OpenAI make a commission on any sales.

The data comes from structured metadata from third-party websites and data feeds.

What it looks like. Here is a screenshot of the interface, where you can see a product grid, with pricing, descriptions, photos, retailers like Walmart and buy now buttons.

Availability. Shopping in ChatGPT is rolling out now across ChatGPT for ChatGPT Pro, Plus, and Free users, as well as logged-out users globally.

Wired interviewed OpenAI’s Adam Fry, who said:

“It’s not looking for specific signals that are in some algorithm,” says Fry. According to him, this will be a shopping experience that’s more personalized and conversational, rather than keyword-focused. “It’s trying to understand how people are reviewing this, how people are talking about this, what the pros and cons are,” says Fry. If you say that you prefer only buying black clothes from a specific retailer, then ChatGPT will supposedly store that information in its memory the next time you ask for advice about what shirt to buy, giving you recommendations that align with your tastes.

Why we care. As OpenAI goes deeper into competing in core search, with ChatGPT, and now adding shopping features to ChatGPT Search, you have to wonder, if more and more users will move from Google or other search engines, over to ChatGPT.

Knowing OpenAI uses structured data is a good thing, hopefully, your products can be found within this search service with little or no additional effort on your part.

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