Enter OpenAI’s Shopping, the new instant assistant offered inside ChatGPT.
Online shopping is supposed to make life easier. But let’s be honest: it often doesn’t (well, unless you have all the time in the world and don’t mind staring at the screen for hours…)
Here’s how it generally goes: you start looking for a pair of pants or a new printer or whatever it is you’ve decided you need. First you go to the websites you are familiar with. Amazon, etc. Then you check out the reviews, then if you want to be thorough, you go to third-party review sites. Then you do another search. Before you know it, you end up buried under a mountain of tabs, product pages, reviews, and contradictory opinions. Yeah, it can be overwhelming.
What’s OpenAI Shopping Assistant?
OpenAI has recently rolled out a built-in shopping experience inside ChatGPT. So, for example, you can simply ask, “What’s the best espresso machine under $500? To answer you, ChatGPT doesn’t just spit out generic results or show you the brands that pay it the most money. It gives you curated product picks, buying advice, and even links to purchase the items directly from the retailer. Including from well-known websites but also brands and websites you might have never heard of, such as a local seller or a niche store who specializes in exactly what you’re looking for.
With OpenAI Shopping Assistant, you can be super specific. Let’s say there are 3 distinct features you want in your espresso machine, plus you want it to be bright metallic red or matte green or whatever other color you fancy. ChatGPT helps you find it instantly.
The idea is to make shopping a lot more human (think: conversational), helpful, quick and personal than traditional search.
How does OpenAI Shopping Assistant work?
Unlike traditional shopping platforms that rely heavily on keywords or paid ad placements, ChatGPT takes a different route. First of all, it remembers your preferences. If you’ve told it you like minimalist designs or only wear V-necks, it keeps that in mind. So the next time you’re looking for a shirt, you’ll get recommendations that match your style, without having to start from scratch or repeat yourself.
It also pulls in reviews from across the web, such as editorial sites like WIRED or user forums like Reddit, and blends them into a conversational summary that actually makes sense.
Does OpenAI Shopping Assistant show sponsored results?
No. And this is in fact one of the biggest differences between OpenAI and Google Shopping. The results in ChatGPT are not paid placements. What you see is based on what the AI thinks is genuinely the most relevant and useful information for you, and not who paid the most for a top spot.
That said, affiliate revenue is still a big question mark. Traditionally, review sites earn a cut when someone clicks through their link and makes a purchase. OpenAI is reportedly exploring various models for how affiliate revenue could work in the future, but for now, the focus is purely on user experience.
So, how is the OpenAI Shopping user experience?
Pretty seamless. Imagine you’re shopping for pants for a summer wedding. You want to look nice but you also want to be super comfortable (you’ll be eating and drinking all night!) In the old days of traditional search, you’d be typing “linen wide-leg pants under $150” into a search bar and clicking through endless filters. With OpenAI Shopping, you just ask. In your own words. (You can try it).
“I’m looking for long, wide-leg linen pants in bright purple, with a drawstring waist. Under $150. Got anything?”
ChatGPT replies with a few great options, summarizes the pros and cons, and gives you links to compare prices or read deeper reviews.
Not to your liking? Or want to refine the search? Be more specific? Just say so: “I need these pants for a wedding. I like ARKET but the color is too dark. I need the color to be shiny. Can also be metallic.”
And ChatGPT tries again, this time armed with more information, giving you more fine-tuned results.
What Does OpenAI Shopping Mean for Brands?
OpenAI has made it clear that this is just the beginning. With AI agents like Operator (which can already click through websites for the user), and ongoing experiments in personalized recommendations, the future of shopping is here. And it’s moving fast. What’s more, OpenAI isn’t the only one making moves. Its competitors Perplexity and even Google are testing similar features, like “Researched with AI” summaries in Google Shopping.
This shift marks a fundamental change in how buyers interact with online information and products. Instead of digging through content, they have conversations. Instead of hunting for reviews, they get them summarized. Instead of getting lost in a sea of sameness, the AI helps surface what’s actually relevant to them.
Whether users are searching for purple wedding pants, planning a vacation, or picking out the perfect espresso machine, the way people shop is no longer the same. The question is: what does it take for brands to be the answer the user is looking for? Why should your solution or product show up in ChatGPT’s search results?
The answer is what we do at Limy – AI Search optimization.
Questions? Comments? Write to us at answers@limy.ai.
We’re not as fast as an AI search engine, but we’re working on it.