OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attended an enterprise AI sales event held in Tokyo on February 3, 2025.
Kim Kyung Hoon | Reuters
OpenAI is rolling out a new shopping experience within ChatGPT to help users find and compare products after the instant checkout feature failed to catch on.
The company announced Tuesday that shoppers can now find the products they’re looking for by uploading images and product descriptions, including criteria such as budget, preferences and other constraints. ChatGPT provides more visual results that can be used to compare different products.
“Under the hood, we have improved speed, relevance, and product coverage, so our results are more up-to-date and more useful,” OpenAI said in a blog post.
This update comes after OpenAI pivoted away from instant checkout, allowing users to purchase select products from retailers including: Etsy, walmart and Shopify Directly within ChatGPT. OpenAI announced the feature last year, initially touting it as the “next step” in AI-enabled commerce.
Analysts previously told CNBC that OpenAI underestimated how difficult the transaction would be to materialize. They struggled to register merchants, view accurate data about their products, implement multi-item carts, connect loyalty memberships, and more.
“We found that the early versions of Instant Checkout did not offer the level of flexibility we wanted to provide, so we are focusing on product discovery while enabling merchants to create their own checkout experience,” OpenAI said in a recent post.
OpenAI said merchants will now be able to share their product feeds and promotions with the company, meaning their products will be “fully represented” within ChatGPT. retailer preferences targetSephora, nordstrom We already support OpenAI’s new product discovery experience.
OpenAI says merchants interested in deeper integration can also continue developing custom apps within ChatGPT. The company introduced the feature at its annual developer conference in October and began adding dedicated retail apps in 2018. instacartand Target last year.
By launching apps within chatbots, these businesses have more control over the customer experience and transaction process. Walmart on Tuesday introduced an in-app ChatGPT service that supports links, loyalty, and payments at Walmart, according to OpenAI.
Alongside the OpenAI announcement, Shopify announced Tuesday that it is “upgrading the shopping experience” on ChatGPT. This will allow Shopify merchants to connect their storefronts to their catalogs and “complete purchases via an in-app browser.”
Shopify is also rolling out a new service called Agentic Plan. This will allow the company’s non-storefront sellers to display their products through Shopify’s own tools in ChatGPT. google Gemini and other places.
— CNBC’s Annie Palmer contributed to this report
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