ChatGPT Shopping: when artificial intelligence becomes your new shopping assistant

For years, eCommerce has been in a constant process of optimization: faster stores, more segmented ads, more precise funnels, and automations that felt almost magical. But while eCommerce kept refining its machinery, consumer behavior began to change.

They no longer search for “women’s running shoes size 38” on Google. Now they ask:

“What comfortable shoes do you recommend for running in the morning when it’s cold?”

That small change changes everything.
Because what used to be a keyword-based search is now a conversational interaction powered by artificial intelligence.
And in this new paradigm, ChatGPT Shopping emerges.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• What is ChatGPT Shopping and why is everyone talking about it?

• Shopify + ChatGPT: the alliance redefining product discovery

• The invisible power behind: product catalogs and feeds

• Optimized feeds = smarter recommendations
• From classic SEO to “conversational SEO”

What is ChatGPT Shopping and why is everyone talking about it?

ChatGPT Shopping is OpenAI’s new commercial feature that turns ChatGPT (the popular conversational model) into a smart shopping assistant.
It’s not a marketplace or an integrated online store, but a real-time product recommendation ecosystem powered by connected brand catalogs through eCommerce platforms like Shopify.

The concept is simple yet powerful: users describe what they’re looking for, and ChatGPT responds with personalized suggestions of real products, along with images, descriptions, prices, and direct purchase links.

Imagine a conversation like this:

👤 User: “I want a gift for someone who works from home and loves design.”
🤖 ChatGPT: “You could consider a minimalist lamp with adjustable light, a Nordic-style ergonomic chair, or a silent mechanical keyboard. Here are some options from verified stores.”

What’s interesting is that these options don’t come from a traditional search engine, but from connected product catalogs updated in real time.

Why is ChatGPT being talked about as a shopping assistant now?

This isn't theoretical or something for the distant future: it's already happening. In November 2025, OpenAI launched the Shopping Research feature in ChatGPT just before Black Friday and the Christmas shopping season, positioning the assistant as a digital "personal shopper" capable of comparing products, analyzing reviews, and creating customized shopping guides for each user.

As the company itself explained, the experience is available to users registered on Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans, both on web and mobile, with almost unlimited use during the shopping season. ChatGPT analyzes product pages, reviews, and prices in real time and returns a personalized shopping guide with options, trade-offs, and direct links to stores to complete the purchase.

The key to this shift towards conversational commerce is the Shopping Research experience: when a user asks a question with purchase intent (“I need a TV for a very bright living room,” “I’m looking for gift ideas for a teenager who plays Switch”), ChatGPT activates a specific workflow that researches products, compares alternatives, and builds a kind of dynamic “buyer’s guide.” The user can refine the results with conversational filters (budget, brand, features, intended use) instead of dealing with 20 open browser tabs.

Shopify + ChatGPT: the alliance redefining product discovery

An optimized feed allows advertising platforms to make smarter decisions.
The result? More precise campaigns, higher CTRs, and better ROI.

Direct advantages:

• Greater visibility in catalog campaigns (Meta, Google, TikTok).
• More accurate segmentation based on purchase intent.
• Automatic updates when price or stock changes occur.
• More personalized creatives thanks to dynamic content tools.

Example: a brand can highlight different products depending on the time of day or the weather, automatically prioritizing the items with the highest likelihood of conversion.

The invisible power behind: product catalogs and feeds

Behind this technological leap lies a silent but essential foundation: the product catalogs.
They are the backbone of the entire advertising ecosystem and, now, of conversational commerce.

A product catalog (or product feed) is a structured database that contains all the information about the items a brand sells online:

• Name, category, and description
• Price, stock, and purchase URL
• Images, variants, and attributes (size, color, material, etc.)

Until now, catalogs were mainly used for:

• Dynamic campaigns on platforms like Meta or Google.
• Automated remarketing, showing viewed or similar products.
• Inventory integrations on marketplaces like Amazon or TikTok Shop.

But with ChatGPT Shopping, catalogs gain a new dimension: they become the language artificial intelligences use to understand what we sell.

How to get your products to appear

By default, ChatGPT uses data found on websites to generate its results.
Pages can be optimized following SEO standards (schema, sitemaps, structured metadata) to help the model correctly interpret the content.

However, the ChatGPT Merchant Program allows approved companies to directly provide a product feed, guaranteeing accurate, up-to-date data that is independent of search engines.

👉 Adsmurai Feeds allows you to send your product catalog to ChatGPT for clients who are part of the Merchant Program, ensuring:

• Consistent data across platforms.
• AI-optimized descriptions.
• Automatic price and stock updates.

💳 Completing Purchases Within ChatGPT

OpenAI has signed several strategic agreements so users can complete purchases directly from the chat. It's no longer just about discovering products, but about closing the sale seamlessly.

The first partners are Shopify, Walmart, and Etsy, and more platforms are expected to join soon.

The ultimate goal: for ChatGPT to function as a standalone sales channel, managed like any marketplace, with product feeds connected to internal inventory systems.

The timing is no coincidence: OpenAI rolled out Shopping Research just before Black Friday and the Christmas shopping season, and in parallel, it's activating Instant Checkout with select retailers, starting with Shopify, so that certain products can be purchased directly within the chat with a single confirmation step. The combination of research and checkout makes ChatGPT more than just an assistant: it's dangerously close to becoming a new sales channel in its own right.

🌐 Gemini: Google's Conversational Approach

Meanwhile, Gemini (Google) is moving in the same direction.

Products aren't displayed in static listings like on Google Shopping, but rather in contextualized conversational responses generated from the feed data.

How to get your products to appear on gemini

If your products meet Google Merchant Center's requirements to appear in free listings, they can be displayed in multiple environments:

• Search, Images, Lens, YouTube, Gemini, the Shopping tab, and your Business Profile.

Gemini uses the same data source as all of Google's AI: your Google Merchant Center.In other words, optimizing your feed and data structure remains essential for appearing in AI-generated results.

Completing Purchases in Gemini

Once Gemini recommends a product, it can offer direct links to relevant sites where customers can learn more or complete a purchase..

Copilot: Microsoft's Move Toward Assisted Commerce

Microsoft isn't lagging behind.
With the Copilot Merchant Program, brands can integrate their product catalogs into Copilot, optimizing their web content with the same SEO principles as ChatGPT (schema, sitemap, etc.).

How to Appear in Copilot

Companies can join the Merchant Program and connect their catalog directly to Microsoft, allowing their products to appear in AI-generated results.

Completing Purchases in Copilot

Like ChatGPT and Gemini, Copilot is already testing direct in-app purchases, eliminating intermediate steps and improving conversion rates.

Optimized feeds = smarter recommendations

Here’s where a key factor comes into play: feed quality. Unlike a traditional search engine, ChatGPT doesn’t rely on predefined tags or ad bids but on semantic understanding.

For example:

• If a product title says “Running shoes Adidas Ultraboost”, the AI can display it for queries like “comfortable shoes for training” or “footwear for long walks”.
  
  
• But if the feed is poorly structured or full of confusing terms (“Product SKU-2025 Blue”), ChatGPT won’t interpret it or display it correctly.

An optimized feed should:

• Use descriptive, natural titles understandable by both humans and AI.
• Include enriched descriptions with relevant attributes (use, benefits, materials).
• Maintain semantic consistency between categories, images, and prices.
• Avoid duplicates or information errors.

In this context, catalogs are no longer just a technical requirement but a strategic positioning tool in generative AI environments.

From classic SEO to “conversational SEO”

Until recently, brands focused their digital visibility on traditional SEO: optimizing pages to appear at the top of Google results.
Today, that territory expands into what we could call SEO for conversational AI.

It’s no longer just about appearing in a SERP, but about being understood and recommended by models like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity.

This requires a new approach:

• Structure data precisely (catalogs, schemas, tags).
• Write natural, non-automated descriptions.
• Enrich feeds with context of use and product differentiators.

The goal is no longer “to be found” but to be correctly interpreted by an AI.

A new user (and marketing) experience

ChatGPT Shopping doesn’t just change how products are discovered — it changes how brands and consumers connect.
Conversation replaces navigation.
Context replaces clicks.
And recommendation replaces banners.

This approach has clear advantages:

• Less ad noise: users receive helpful answers, not intrusive ads.
• Greater personalization: AI adapts recommendations to interests, weather, or lifestyle.
• More trust: the conversational tone humanizes interaction.
  
  

In the medium term, this could completely transform how brands create content — shifting from writing for search engines to writing for conversational models.

What’s next: intelligent feeds, generative AI, and predictive retail

What we’re seeing with ChatGPT Shopping is just the beginning of a structural change: the fusion of structured data, artificial intelligence, and digital commerce.

In the near future:

• Catalogs will be enriched by AI, generating coherent and dynamic descriptions.
• Feeds will connect in real time to pricing systems and demand prediction engines.
• And AI models will act as intelligent intermediaries between consumers and brands.
  
  

The result will be an ecosystem where users don’t have to search for products but express needs. And the brands that best structure, describe, and update their information will be the ones AI recommends first.

In summary

ChatGPT Shopping represents a new phase of eCommerce: more natural, more contextual, and more connected.
It’s no longer just about showcasing an attractive catalog, but about teaching how to properly optimize product data feeds.