ChatGPT Search For Ecommerce: What You Need to Know

In case you missed it, yesterday OpenAI announced that the launch of ChatGPT Search. It officially integrates SearchGPT into ChatGPT, giving the platform powerful search engine-like capabilities.

Today, I started performing some different tests for different types of commerce searches. Here are some insights for retailers about how ChatGPT Search is showing results for their products:

1. Different Types Of Formats:

As of now, it looks like there are multiple formats that can get returned. One option is a vertical list of products + images:

The other is an image carousel at the top with a text list of products below.

After testing, it appears that the vertical products ended up showing a lot more. However, it’s clear there are multiple formats in which commerce products can appear.

2. Integration Of Images

Of course, ChatGPT Search shows a more image-heavy experience for commerce than traditional ChatGPT results. They generally highlight the products that it lists but aren’t pulled from the same places as the “Sources”.

3. Lack Of Product Details

At this point, there isn’t a lot of information about the products beyond the name, description and image. Currently, there’s no pricing, shipping, return or any other key information. I expect that to change as the model gets more sophisticated.

4. Heavy Reliance On Affiliate Sites

Many retailers will want to know how to get their products listed in the first page. Right now, the answer is to partner with affiliate sites. SearchGPT often pulls 2-3 affiliates pages, and lists products from there.

In this example, two articles from a single site basically rule the entire amount of products listed from ChatGPT Search:

If you’re product isn’t on that content, good chance it doesn’t get listed.

I’m sure we’ll see ChatGPT Search expand it’s functionality down the line to include more information directly within the interface. However, it’s reliance on affiliates makes that harder to do in the short term. They’ll need to figure out a way to pull real-time feeds/product data in order to get a much more robust experience.