HomeOpenAI's bid to turn ChatGPT into an Amazon-like platform stalls
OpenAI’s ambition to turn ChatGPT into an e-commerce hub hasn’t quite materialized — at least not yet. In a Tuesday announcement, the company said it’s stepping away from a recently launched feature that allowed users to purchase items directly through the chatbot interface.
OpenAI first introduced shopping capabilities in ChatGPT last year, positioning it as a “shopping assistant” that could connect consumers with relevant vendors. A feature called “Instant Checkout” launched in September, encouraging users to discuss their purchase needs with the chatbot and, much like a traditional e-commerce site, add products to a shopping cart within ChatGPT. While the items were purchased from vendors, ChatGPT served as a portal for those transactions.
However, Instant Checkout hasn’t seen major success. “We’ve found that the initial version of Instant Checkout did not offer the level of flexibility we aspire to provide, so we’re allowing merchants to use their own checkout experiences while we focus our efforts on product discovery,” the company explained in its blog post. OpenAI clarified to TechCrunch that merchants could still choose to incorporate the feature through apps within ChatGPT for now.
An OpenAI spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company would deprioritize developing Instant Checkout as a standalone feature and instead prioritize product discovery for consumers. The company will continue to support various checkout paths, including through merchants’ own websites.
The Information and CNBC previously reported that OpenAI’s new plan involved merchants creating their own apps within ChatGPT, which would then route users to checkout experiences on the merchants’ respective websites. A source who spoke with The Information noted that ChatGPT users simply “weren’t using the chatbot to actually help them make purchases,” and an October study examining referral traffic from ChatGPT found that e-commerce sites weren’t generating significant revenue from ChatGPT users.
Instead of turning ChatGPT into a shopping portal, OpenAI is now shaping it into a centralized hub for consumer information. This way, online shoppers will see it as an intermediary research tool that helps them decide which product to ultimately buy.
This shopping experience is powered by the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), an open standard for e-commerce that OpenAI developed in partnership with fintech giant Stripe. The protocol uses data provided by participating merchants.
Going forward, OpenAI said ChatGPT will provide more detailed product information — displaying side-by-side pictures and offering comparative metrics for each item, such as prices, features, and reviews.
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OpenAI’s ambition to turn ChatGPT into an e-commerce hub hasn’t quite materialized — at least not yet. In a Tuesday announcement, the company said it’s stepping away from a recently launched feature that allowed users to purchase items directly through the chatbot interface.
OpenAI first introduced shopping capabilities in ChatGPT last year, positioning it as a “shopping assistant” that could connect consumers with relevant vendors. A feature called “Instant Checkout” launched in September, encouraging users to discuss their purchase needs with the chatbot and, much like a traditional e-commerce site, add products to a shopping cart within ChatGPT. While the items were purchased from vendors, ChatGPT served as a portal for those transactions.
However, Instant Checkout hasn’t seen major success. “We’ve found that the initial version of Instant Checkout did not offer the level of flexibility we aspire to provide, so we’re allowing merchants to use their own checkout experiences while we focus our efforts on product discovery,” the company explained in its blog post. OpenAI clarified to TechCrunch that merchants could still choose to incorporate the feature through apps within ChatGPT for now.
An OpenAI spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company would deprioritize developing Instant Checkout as a standalone feature and instead prioritize product discovery for consumers. The company will continue to support various checkout paths, including through merchants’ own websites.
The Information and CNBC previously reported that OpenAI’s new plan involved merchants creating their own apps within ChatGPT, which would then route users to checkout experiences on the merchants’ respective websites. A source who spoke with The Information noted that ChatGPT users simply “weren’t using the chatbot to actually help them make purchases,” and an October study examining referral traffic from ChatGPT found that e-commerce sites weren’t generating significant revenue from ChatGPT users.
Instead of turning ChatGPT into a shopping portal, OpenAI is now shaping it into a centralized hub for consumer information. This way, online shoppers will see it as an intermediary research tool that helps them decide which product to ultimately buy.
This shopping experience is powered by the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), an open standard for e-commerce that OpenAI developed in partnership with fintech giant Stripe. The protocol uses data provided by participating merchants.
Going forward, OpenAI said ChatGPT will provide more detailed product information — displaying side-by-side pictures and offering comparative metrics for each item, such as prices, features, and reviews.
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