ChatGPT wants to be your personal online shopper.
A new “Instant Checkout” feature lets users make purchases on a product the AI-powered bot brings up in a chat, without having to navigate outside of the app, ChatGPT creator OpenAI said in a statement Monday.
For example, if you query ChatGPT for the “best mattress under $1,000,” or “gift for an avid reader,” it will suggest what it believes to be the most relevant products from across the internet. If a consumer wants to purchase one of ChatGPT’s recommendations, they can now do so within the chat, so long as the product supports Instant Checkout.
The new tool marks ChatGPT’s foray into so-called agentic commerce, with the app acting as the shopper’s agent. In other words, ChatGPT interacts with both the buyer and the seller, while the merchant processes payment and fulfills the order. Merchants pay ChatGPT a small fee on completed transactions, Open AI said.
“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,” OpenAI said in a statement Monday.
Currently, the AI company enables ChatGPT users to buy from U.S. Etsy sellers directly from within a chat. Through a partnership with Shopify, ChatGPT will soon bring consumers access to more than a million vendors with e-commerce retailer, such as cosmetic company Glossier, shapewear company SKIMS, shoemaker Steve Madden and more.
For now, the technology, which the company codeveloped with payment processor Stripe, only supports single-item purchases, OpenAI said.
Discovering products in AI conversations
Shopify on Monday said it has long aimed to allow merchants to sell to customers “anywhere AI conversations happen,” as more Americans rely on generative AI tools like ChatGPT to help them make decisions.
“Shopping is changing fast. People are discovering products in AI conversations, not just through search or ads,” Vanessa Lee, VP of product at Shopify, said in an article on the company’s website. “This will let our merchants show up naturally in those moments and give shoppers a way to buy without breaking their flow. It’s a really exciting shift for commerce.”
Shopify said it wants to position its merchants at the forefront of a sea change in how online commerce is conducted.
“We’re making sure our merchants thrive in the era of agentic commerce,” said Lee. “We’re helping everyone from indie brands to household names reach shoppers in entirely new ways.”
E-commerce giant Amazon is also wading into the world of agentic AI. Through its “Buy for Me” feature in the Amazon Shopping App, shoppers can purchase goods from vendors who don’t sell their products on Amazon.com without leaving the Amazon ecosystem.
“If a customer decides to proceed with a Buy for Me purchase, they tap on the Buy for Me button on the product detail page to request Amazon make the purchase from the brand retailer’s website on their behalf,” Amazon explains on its corporate website. “Customers are taken to an Amazon checkout page where they confirm order details, including preferred delivery address, applicable taxes and shipping fees, and payment method.”