ChatGPT will now display product carousels with direct purchase links in response to queries that reveal purchase intent.
Is OpenAI out to kill Google? After integrating a Search feature that competes with the search engine, ChatGPT is now relying on a Shopping option, which directly suggests products with direct purchase links in response to a query. Here’s what you need to know about this latest attempt by OpenAI to grab a slice of Google’s pie, currently rolling out to Free, Plus, and Pro users worldwide.
Shopping directly through ChatGPT is now possible
According to OpenAI, “product research and purchasing is a recurring topic” among ChatGPT users. From now on, when a query “suggests a purchase intention,” the chatbot will provide a carousel of products in its responses, each enriched with information such as descriptions, prices according to distributors, customer reviews, but also direct purchase links. Exactly like what can be found during a Google search with a similar intention.
A product appears in the visual carousel when ChatGPT perceives it as relevant to the user’s intent. ChatGPT evaluates intent based on the user’s query and other available contextual elements, such as memories or personalized instructions.
OpenAI clarifies several things about this new feature: first, the company explains that the products and links offered are not advertisements, but rather “independently selected” organic search results. The merchant lists are generated based on “merchant and product metadata that we (OpenAI, editor’s note) receive from third-party providers,” and these are not reclassified. However, it is specified that ChatGPT can generate titles, descriptions, or labels “to make the results easier to read.”
E-retailers will be able to provide their product feeds
If, initially, the Shopping results displayed are not driven by any advertising efforts, could OpenAI not be tempted to generate some revenue from e-commerce giants, with sponsored ads, for example? Indeed, its CEO Sam Altman, who has been resistant to advertising on ChatGPT, is starting to change his mind. He told Stratechery that seeing OpenAI charge affiliate fees for purchases made via ChatGPT was a possibility, while rejecting the idea of selling priority placements in search results.
“Search has become one of our most popular and fastest-growing features, with over a billion web searches last week alone. We’ll continue to improve it based on real-world experiences,” said Adam Fry, product lead at ChatGPT Search.
However, the firm intends to develop this new feature and continue to tread on Google’s toes with its search tools. It is currently studying “ways allowing merchants to directly provide their product feeds” in order to offer more complete, precise and up-to-date sheets. A form is available to be notified of this possibility. As a reminder, in order to be indexed within the ChatGPT search, it is necessary to update your robots.txt file to authorize OAI-SearchBot, the OpenAI crawler.
