ChatGPT Revamps Shopping Features, Drops In-App Checkout

[MacRumors]

OpenAI is overhauling the shopping experience in its ChatGPT app by shifting the focus from in-app purchases to product discovery, after the company's Instant Checkout feature apparently failed to gain traction.

Launched in September, Instant Checkout let users buy items from retailers like Etsy, Walmart, and Shopify directly within ChatGPT. In a new product post, OpenAI now says it is deprioritizing the feature as a standalone offering, because it "did not offer the level of flexibility that we aspire to provide."

In place of it, ChatGPT is getting richer visual shopping tools, including side-by-side product comparisons, image-based search for finding similar items, and conversational result filtering.

OpenAI says the updates are powered by an expansion of its Agentic Commerce Protocol, which lets merchants feed product catalogs and promotions directly into ChatGPT. Retailers including Target, Sephora, Nordstrom, Best Buy, and The Home Depot are already on board.

Meanwhile, Walmart is launching a dedicated in-app ChatGPT experience that supports account linking, loyalty programs, and its own payment system. The updates are rolling out this week to all ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, and Pro users.

In related news, OpenAI yesterday said that it is ending support for its Sora AI video app just six months after it initially launched.

Article Link: ChatGPT Revamps Shopping Features, Drops In-App Checkout

 

[racerhomie]

Feels like the ‘Move fast and break things’ era of tech is back

 

[turbineseaplane]

People actually like and very much enjoy doing many types of shopping.

I'm not sure the premise of these technologies is onto something here.

And let's be honest...
Any company trying to automate away any part of the selection and comparison is trying to get you to not be able to truly price shop or avoid their paid partners.

i.e. They are doing it for them, not for us (the shoppers).

 

[555gallardo]

I can imagine a somewhat realistic scenario in which a user requested ChatGPT to purchase his 8-year old kid a miniature-sized Cybertruck for no more than $50.00 and the user instead received an actual truck with monthly payment plan for 8 years and a $50.00 upfront fee.

 

[everlast3434]

Yuck People still use ChatGPT?

 

[sw0rd]

cool and all but i'm just imagining you asking chatgpt to buy you something simple and it accidentally spends $5000. i don't know what the use case for this would be i've never had a time where i've wanted an ai to be who i have do my shopping for me, or even present me with my options for shopping

 

[applicious84]

Who's going to use Sora (while it's still there) to generate an image that shows how much of a disaster this will start off as?

 

[sw0rd]

Who's going to use Sora (while it's still there) to generate an image that shows how much of a disaster this will start off as?

i would but for an app that claims to be the future of video and stuff i've never used an app so unintuitive

 

[guuss]

Yuck People still use ChatGPT?

900 million weekly active users

 

[markyr17]

900 million weekly active users

So a couple of people

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Yuck People still use ChatGPT?

Unfortunally yes. I was chatting with a coworker yesterday who was showing me a logo him and his wife and come up with for their home business, and said they made it with ChatGPT. I asked if he tried any of the others, and he didn't even know there were other AI options. He couldn't name one.

..even though we get copilot shoved in our faces daily here.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Unfortunally yes. I was chatting with a coworker yesterday who was showing me a logo him and his wife and come up with for their home business, and said they made it with ChatGPT. I asked if he tried any of the others, and he didn't even know there were other AI options. He couldn't name one.

..even though we get copilot shoved in our faces daily here.

Someone should study exactly what Microsoft marketing does so they can learn to do the exact opposite. Microsoft manages to make everything it touches, no matter how useful, a total marketing failure.

And yeah ChatGPT is to the point now where for me personally it's basically ruined by its pivot to mass appeal. It's nowhere as good as it used to be and it's far more annoying with things like this.

No wonder Claude is gaining traction, for now.

 

[turbineseaplane]

No wonder Claude is gaining traction, for now.

Check back in a couple months. I’m sure they’re gonna find a way to ruin whatever they have going.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Check back in a couple months. I’m sure they’re gonna find a way to ruin whatever they have going.

Yep. Lately I use Kagi to use them all via API and it seems to work much better that way.

 

[svish]

Good to hear this. Will try it out once it is available in my region and more retailers are added.

 

[Sinfonist]

It's not obvious to me how this is better than Google or Amazon? I tend to use those for product research to find a product that fits my needs then find a retailer that I like (good price, reliable, has in stock, fast delivery or local outlet).