In OpenAI’s recent version update, ChatGPT has added support and optimization for shopping functions, which not only brings a new shopping experience to users, but may also have a profound impact on traditional e-commerce platforms, search engines, and the entire e-commerce ecosystem.
Unexpectedly, the end of AI is to bring goods.
In a recent version update, OpenAI added support and optimizations for shopping features (currently available to Plus, Pro, free, and non-logged-in users in all regions where ChatGPT is available).
01 Breakthrough experience upgrade
A. Product visualization
If a user asks under categories such as electronics, fashion, beauty, home, etc., ChatGPT will present a list of recommended products in the form of product cards.
B. Personalization of goods
ChatGPT enhances the relevance of products in recommended listings based on user historical preferences and context.
If a user has expressed dislike for a certain brand or color in a previous conversation, ChatGPT will fully consider this and automatically filter irrelevant options in product recommendations, greatly reducing user transaction friction costs and improving product matching efficiency.
Compared to traditional e-commerce platforms, ChatGPT’s recommendation accuracy reached 92% in testing, compared to Amazon’s recommendation system accuracy of 88% in 2024.
C. Price comparison of the whole network
As a user, you may no longer need to open 30 tabs or apps to compare prices and calculate carefully on major e-commerce platforms.
The product recommendations given by ChatGPT will also display various information including price, rating, delivery within a few days, free shipping, etc.
Not only that,The reason for recommendation will also aggregate information such as popular reviews related to the product from major content platforms.
Wow, it’s amazing.
D. Direct to purchase links
In the current version, ChatGPT does not yet support direct payments.
Clicking on the purchase link is to jump to the third-party product page to complete the transaction.
But who dares to vouch that OpenAI will not in the futureLaunch of ChatGPT Pay And realize the closed loop of transactions.
E. No ads
The official emphasizes that all product search results remain independent and objective, rather than advertising placement.
Don’t say it, don’t say it.
It has been verified, at least for now, as OpenAI itself emphasizes, it has really done it!
But don’t be too happy, Altman said that OpenAI will not rule out using affiliate sharing to earn commissions in the future in order to balance neutrality and commercialization. /Ponder?
02 Possible ecological subversion
A. E-commerce platform
The first thing to bear the brunt of is the e-commerce platform, where users no longer need to open 5 apps or 30 tabs to compare prices back and forth, greatly shortening the closed loop of demand from demand to decision-making to transaction.
What’s more, AI’s ability to personalize product recommendations based on user preferences and context, coupled with the ability to personalize product recommendations based on user preferences and context, coupled with the ability to personalize product recommendations based on user preferencesnatural languageChatGPT can be called a dimensionality reduction blow to traditional e-commerce platforms.
Teacher Pan Ran once gave a case and said:
I wanted to search for a black, non-stick polo shirt with pockets on Taobao, but I couldn’t find suitable results at all through the search of existing e-commerce platforms.
The most difficult thing here is how to accurately understand and deal with “Non-sticky cat hair』。
It has to know what material the product uses and what material is non-sticky cat hair, whether it is long cat hair or short cat hair.
This is very suitable for AI large models to handle, which is also the biggest weakness of the current e-commerce platform.
Do you think, when users are used to the efficient way of talking to AI, who will go back to the inefficient scenarios of the past?
However, Dawei has a question:
Will e-commerce platforms choose to actively cut off traffic?
Just like Alibaba did first.
The cause is TaobaoBe afraid of a single upstream traffic source, so take the initiative to cut off Baidu and third-party shopping guide websites.
Why don’t I sell the ads on my own platform to whom?
B. Search engines
The fire at the city gate affected the fish in the pond, and the search engine was not spared.
According to Google’s financial report, e-commerce advertising will generate $58 billion in 2024, and ChatGPT’s ad-free recommendations will completely change and reshape users’ online consumption habits.
As more and more users use AI to replace traditional search engines, search engines’ monopoly and bargaining power on traffic will suffer a heavy blow.
In fact, it is true.
Just last week, news reported:
Apple said that search volume in Safari fell for the first time in history in April, and Safari has Google Search by default, so the market fell 6%.
And the SEMRUSH data in the figure below shows:
Online services, education, entertainment media, and the technology Internet are all the most direct beneficiaries of ChatGPT diversion.
This is called: destroying you, but it has nothing to do with you.
C. GEO
Since ChatGPT directly displays products with comprehensive reviews across the network, there are smart people who will definitely find ways to generate AI habits and rank higher on the AI’s recommendation list.
Just like they do SEO for search engines in the web age.
Not to mention, there really is.
This technical term is called:Generative Engine Optimization（GEO）
GEO refers to optimizing existing content on a website to make it more suitable for being scanned by language learning models (LLMs) and used as a source, allowing more users to discover content in AI searches and click through to the website.
So, who can guarantee that the big clevers won’t make their “goods” appear higher on the ChatGPT product recommendation list by using GEO cleverly?
Or is it more appropriate to call it “advertising”?
The image below shows how GEO can make a pizzeria appear at the highest priority of AI answers, replacing the well-known Central Park in New York.
Gartner predicts that more than 33% of web content will be created for generative AI search in 2026.
D. Thousands of people and thousands of faces
At present, traditional e-commerce platforms push suitable products/advertisements to suitable users based on user portraits, realizing the so-called “thousands of people, thousands of faces”.
In my opinion,In essence, it is just ‘one of a thousand’.
Because when the same product appears in the recommended feed of thousands of users, you and I see the same product title, the same product image, and the same product details.
But you know, the same promotional copy or the same main selling point can’t impress and convert all potential users.
Why can’t AI generate 100,000 or even unlimited consumption scenarios, 100,000 or even unlimited professional images, and 100,000 or even infinite career images?Character attributes, 100,000 or even infinite subdivision geographical characteristics, etc.
These infinite elements are combined to generate an N*N infinite matrix
Different users at different times
Even if you see a recommendation or advertisement for the same product, it is
What about completely different product copy, completely different product images, completely different product titles, completely different product details?
Isn’t this the true meaning of “a thousand people, a thousand faces” or even “one person with ten thousand faces”?
E. The computing power demand market will be taller and stronger
Recently, a netizen asked OpenAI CEO Sam Altman:
“I’m curious how much more people will spend on electricity bills if people frequently say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ when interacting with models?”
Altman replied:Ten million dollars。
It is hard to imagine how much computing power it takes for AI to generate unlimited copy, images, and successfully match it to the right user.
I’m afraid it’s an astronomical number.
F. We won again?
There is such a huge demand for computing power in the market, coupled with the recent ban on the sale of NVIDIA chips by the United States to China (of course, the ban on the sale of NVIDIA chips by the United States to China is not the ultimate goal, the ultimate goal is to limit our rapidly developing AI capabilities).
This will bring unattainable opportunities to the domestic chip industry, forcing domestic chips to catch up faster.
Just like the past chip ban policy, DeepSeek, which can be called “SputnikMoment”, was born.
SputnikMoment：
Sputnik is the name of the world’s first artificial satellite launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, and behind this is the United States’ sense of crisis that it may be surpassed by China in key technology fields such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum computing, etc.
Let the storm come harder!
03 Imagine ChatGPT
Data shows that ChatGPT is active every week 2.3 billion, among them 30% The conversation involvesConsumption decisionsIf ChatGPT directs this part of the traffic to merchants and charges a 2% service fee, the business’s annual revenue will exceed $5 billion.
Will ChatGPT take advantage of the victory and continue to become bigger and stronger in the e-commerce track?
But obviously OpenAI is not interested in e-commerce, which also makes it planned:
Launched on social networks。
Yes, the reason is “data』。
After all, Musk has Twitter/X data, Meta has Facebook/Instgram data, even Google has Youtube data, and domestic Yuanbao also has WeChat exclusive data.
Altman is a big head.
Since you are not allowed to use it, then it is better to build your own social platform.
However, if OpenAI is an A-share company, the way it plays is much simpler and more direct.
“OpenAI will use the grasp to connect the potential energy of various departments, break through the user’s mind at the application level, cultivate user behavior habits, improve user experience, solve user pain points, align cognition, and thicken the ecology.
A. Build a mall
Will OpenAI personally launch the ChatGPT mall in the future?
Or do you realize ChatGPT self-operation for products?
Refer to the past routines and playing styles of Douyin and Kuaishou:
First of all, it supports users to open windows and release third-party links.
try to operate the small shop in the station again to achieve a closed loop of transactions.
Finally, all off-site links are strictly prohibited.
B. Push Payment
OpenAI will meet in the futureLaunch ChatGPT Pay toIs it possible to achieve a closed loop of commodity trading?
For example, Douyin’s past routines and playing styles:
C. Whole microloan
With the mall and payment, the next step is to launch a microloan business, which is called:
Open loans——— people will lend.
Family, are you surprised? Is the thorn irritating? Are you surprised?
—— Experience the dividing line ——
Finally, by the way, compare the present Yuanbao, Doubao, Tongyi Qianqian How to handle users’ product purchase requests (2025.5.10 version)
Ingots:
Three categories of high-end and cost-effective and specific model recommendations are given respectively (pay attention to time).
However, all links (whether it is Tmall or JD.com) indicate that the product cannot be found after clicking.
Who can tell me,Does this fall under the category of AI hallucinations?
Bean buns:
Only links to major platforms are given, and there are no specific model recommendations.
Tongyi Thousand Questions:
Specific models are given but no purchase links.
