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OpenAI\u2019s plans to make ChatGPT into an e-commerce hub aren\u2019t exactly panning out\u2014at least, not yet. In an announcement<\/a> on Tuesday, the company revealed that it\u2019s pivoting away from a recently launched feature that let users buy items directly from the chatbot\u2019s interface.<\/p>\n OpenAI originally launched buying<\/a> capabilities in ChatGPT last year\u2014positioning itself as a \u201cshopping assistant\u201d that could connect consumers to relevant vendors. A feature called \u201cInstant Checkout\u201d launched in September<\/a> and encouraged users to talk with the chatbot about what they were looking to buy and, much like a traditional e-commerce site, add products to a checkout cart within ChatGPT itself. The items were purchased from the vendors themselves, but ChatGPT acted as a portal for those purchases.<\/p>\n Instant Checkout has not been a huge success, however, because, on Tuesday\u2014amidst other update announcements relevant to ChatGPT\u2019s shopping experience\u2014OpenAI said that it would be scaling back the feature.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve found that the initial version of Instant Checkout did not offer the level of flexibility that we aspire to provide, so we\u2019re allowing merchants to use their own checkout experiences while we focus our efforts on product discovery,\u201d the company explained in a blog post. OpenAI clarified to TechCrunch that merchants would still have the option of incorporating the feature for the time being through apps within ChatGPT. <\/p>\n An OpenAI spokesperson said that the company would be deprioritizing the development of Instant Checkout as a standalone feature and that, instead, it planned to prioritize the development of product discovery for consumers. OpenAI would continue to support a variety of checkout paths, including through merchants\u2019 own websites, they said.<\/p>\n The Information<\/a> and CNBC had previously reported<\/a> that OpenAI\u2019s new plan was for merchants to create their own apps within ChatGPT, which would then route users to checkout experiences at the merchants\u2019 respective websites. A source who spoke with The Information noted that ChatGPT users simply \u201cweren\u2019t using the chatbot to actually help them make purchases,\u201d and a study<\/a> from October that looked at referral traffic from ChatGPT found that e-commerce sites were not making much money from ChatGPT users.<\/p>\n Instead of transforming ChatGPT into a shopping portal, what OpenAI is doing now is crafting the chatbot into a centralized hub of consumer information. That way, online shoppers will see it as a kind of intermediary research tool that can help them decide what product to ultimately buy.<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA<\/span> This shopping experience is powered by its Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), which is its open standard for e-commerce, which the company developed in partnership with fintech giant Stripe. The protocol utilizes data provided by participating merchants.<\/p>\n Going forward, OpenAI said that ChatGPT would provide more detailed information about products\u2014showcasing side-by-side pictures, while also providing other comparative metrics for each item\u2014like prices, features, and reviews. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n