Open AI announces ChatGPT shopping research

For ecommerce brands, this is a clear signal: product discovery is moving inside AI conversations, and you now need an AI SEO strategy, not just Google rankings.

• ChatGPT Shopping Research turns queries into personalised buyer’s guides

• It pulls up-to-date data from retailers and reviews

• It works across categories like electronics, beauty, home and sports

• It’s available to all logged-in users on web and mobile

According to OpenAI’s own announcement, Shopping Research “asks smart questions, researches deeply across the internet, reviews quality sources, and builds a personalised buyer’s guide in minutes.”

What is ChatGPT Shopping Research and how does it work?

At a high level, ChatGPT Shopping Research is a specialised mode that helps you research products and make more confident purchase decisions.

Instead of just answering “What’s the best noise-cancelling headphone?”, ChatGPT:

1. Asks follow-up questions about your budget, preferences, and use cases

2. Visits retailers and review sites to gather up-to-date information

3. Returns a structured buyer’s guide that compares options side by side

OpenAI says the feature is available on both web and mobile for all logged-in users and is being rolled out globally as part of a broader e-commerce push.

Where Shopping Research appears inside ChatGPT

You can trigger Shopping Research in two ways:

• Type a shopping-related query (e.g. “Help me compare 4K TVs under $1,000”).

• Select the Shopping Research tool from the ChatGPT interface when available.

Once active, you’ll see a more visual, guided experience: cards for recommended products, clarifying questions, and the ability to mark items as “Not interested” or “More like this” to refine results over time.

What the buyer’s guide actually includes

A typical ChatGPT Shopping Research buyer’s guide will include:

• Shortlist of top products

• Key specs and differentiators

• Pricing and availability pulled from retailers

• Pros and cons based on reviews

• A final summary recommending which product is best for which type of buyer

In other words, ChatGPT is no longer just answering questions, but it’s acting as your personal shopping consultant.

Why ChatGPT Shopping Research matters for ecommerce brands

For ecommerce and DTC brands, this update isn’t just a nice feature. It’s a distribution shift.

For years, your product discovery strategy revolved around:

• Organic search (SEO)

• Paid search and social

• Marketplaces like Amazon

Now there’s a fourth front: AI-native shopping guides inside ChatGPT. When a user asks, “What’s the best vitamin C serum for sensitive skin?”, the buyer’s guide that appears is essentially a curated shelf, and your product either makes the list or it doesn’t.

According to reporting from CNBC and Search Engine Journal, OpenAI launched Shopping Research specifically to help users “quickly evaluate products” and “create personalised buyer’s guides” across categories like electronics, beauty, home and garden, and sports and outdoors.

If you’re an ecommerce brand, that means:

• A growing share of high-intent shoppers will never see a traditional SERP

• Your products will be pre-filtered by ChatGPT before users ever click through

• Being visible in these AI guides becomes as critical as ranking in Google

If you want to go deeper into how ChatGPT fits into the broader AI search landscape, you can also read Index Lab’s guide to the ChatGPT AI search ecosystem on our blog.

How ChatGPT Shopping Research changes AI SEO for products

From Index Lab’s perspective, Shopping Research crystallises a trend we’ve been tracking for a while: Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is becoming table stakes for ecommerce.

Traditional SEO asks:

“How do we rank this product page on Google for ‘best running shoes for flat feet’?”

AI SEO for Shopping Research asks something slightly different:

“How do we convince ChatGPT that our running shoes are among the most relevant, trusted answers when it builds a buyer’s guide?”

That distinction changes what you optimise for.

Traditional SEO vs ChatGPT Shopping Research

Here’s a simplified comparison:

When ChatGPT is building guides, it isn’t just “ranking pages”, but instead it is synthesising information from retailers, editorial sites, and brand content into a coherent recommendation. That’s why AI visibility and answer engine optimisation matter more than ever.

If you want a broader strategic view of where OpenAI is taking this ecosystem (including initiatives like “Instant Checkout” and agentic commerce), you can explore Index Lab’s analysis of the OpenAI roadmap in our related blog content.

Practical steps to get your products recommended by ChatGPT

So what can an ecommerce brand actually do today to increase its chances of being featured in ChatGPT Shopping Research guides?

1. Nail product data quality and structured information

ChatGPT is pulling information from retailers and trusted sites. That means your product data needs to be clean, complete, and machine-readable:

• Use rich, descriptive product titles and bullet points

• Ensure specs (sizes, materials, technical features) are consistent across channels

• Implement structured data (Product schema, offers, reviews) on your site

According to Search Engine Journal, the feature is designed to “research products across the web” and assemble guides, which makes structured, consistent information a key competitive advantage.

2. Strengthen your entity and brand presence

AI models don’t just look at one product page , they build a picture of your brand as an entity.

You can help by:

• Publishing in-depth buying guides and comparison pages on your own site

• Earning mentions and reviews on trusted editorial and niche sites

• Keeping brand information consistent (name, categories, positioning)

Over time, this entity work makes it more likely ChatGPT recognises your brand as a relevant, trustworthy option in a given category.

3. Dominate category-defining questions

Think in terms of questions, not just keywords:

• “Best mid-range mirrorless camera for travel”

• “Affordable mechanical keyboard for programmers”

• “Beginner-friendly espresso machine for small kitchens”

Create content, on your own site and via partners, that directly answers these questions with clear, structured comparisons. When ChatGPT goes hunting for sources to build a guide, your content should feel like a ready-made blueprint.

4. Treat AI SEO as a core growth channel

This is where Index Lab comes in. Our work on AI SEO and GEO focuses on:

• Mapping the questions and buyer journeys your brand must win

• Auditing how frequently, and in what context, ChatGPT currently mentions you

• Designing a roadmap of technical changes, content updates, and authority-building to improve your AI citation share

If you don’t want to guess your way through AI SEO, you can reach out to our team to explore a focused AI visibility audit for your product catalogue.

Limitations, counterarguments, and what brands should watch out for

Every new feature also brings trade-offs, and ChatGPT Shopping Research is no exception.

From early coverage and hands-on demos, a few themes are emerging:

• Speed and latency: Some users report that generating full buyer’s guides can feel slow compared with simply clicking to a retailer site, especially on heavier queries. This is expected — the model is crawling multiple sources, cross-checking details, and formatting a long response — but it can still frustrate impatient shoppers.

  
  

• Accuracy and pricing: OpenAI itself warns that availability and prices may occasionally be off and encourages users to verify details on retailer pages before purchasing.

  
  

• Source bias: Like any AI system, Shopping Research will tend to rely more on sites it deems trustworthy. If you’re not present on those sites, or your product feeds are incomplete, you may simply not appear in guides, even if your product is objectively strong.

  
  

• Opaque ranking logic: You won’t get a “position 1–10” report. Instead, you need new ways to measure how often your brand is recommended, in what context, and against which competitors.

These limitations don’t make the feature any less important. But they do mean ecommerce brands should approach it with healthy realism: AI shopping is powerful, but not magic, and you’ll need a structured visibility strategy, not blind faith.

Preparing your ecommerce brand for the next wave of AI shopping

ChatGPT Shopping Research is likely just the first step.

OpenAI has already outlined plans for Instant Checkout and deeper commerce integrations, allowing users to move from recommendation to purchase inside ChatGPT itself.

That suggests a near-future where:

• Shoppers start and finish their journey inside AI assistants

• Product feeds, structured data, and brand entities become core revenue infrastructure

• AI SEO and GEO move from “nice-to-have experiment” to board-level priority

For ecommerce brands, the playbook now looks something like this:

• Treat ChatGPT Shopping Research as a new shelf you must win

• Upgrade your product data, content, and structured markup so AI can trust and reuse it

• Monitor how often ChatGPT mentions your products vs. competitors

• Build a long-term AI visibility strategy that spans ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews

If you’d like hands-on help designing that roadmap, from technical AI SEO to content and measurement, you can contact Index Lab to discuss an AI visibility program tailored to your catalogue and markets.

Conclusion: Shopping Research is a wake-up call for AI SEO

OpenAI’s ChatGPT Shopping Research feature officially turns ChatGPT into a personal shopping researcher, capable of turning a vague product brief into a structured buyer’s guide powered by current data from retailers and review sites. For everyday users, that means fewer tabs, clearer choices, and more confidence at checkout.

For ecommerce brands, it’s something else: a wake-up call.

Product discovery is moving inside AI conversations. If you want your products to show up in those guides, and eventually in AI-native checkout flows, you can’t rely on traditional SEO alone. You need to think in terms of AI visibility, answer engine optimisation, and GEO.

Put simply: the brands that treat ChatGPT Shopping Research as a new growth channel, and invest early in AI SEO, will be the ones whose products shoppers actually see when they ask ChatGPT what to buy. If you’re ready to be one of them, Index Lab can help you build that edge and turn AI search into a reliable source of new revenue.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is ChatGPT Shopping Research replacing traditional product search?

No, at least not yet. Shoppers will still use Google, Amazon, and retailer sites. But ChatGPT Shopping Research adds a powerful “research layer” on top, where many high-intent queries may start. Think of it as a new channel that sits alongside search and marketplaces, not a complete replacement.

2. How can my ecommerce brand appear in ChatGPT’s buyer’s guides?

You can’t “submit” products directly to Shopping Research today, but you can optimise your presence so ChatGPT is more likely to select your brand:

• Improve product data quality and structured markup

• Publish high-quality comparison and buying-guide content

• Earn mentions and reviews on trusted editorial sites

An AI SEO partner like Index Lab can help you design and implement that roadmap.

3. Do I need a separate AI SEO strategy for ChatGPT vs. Google?

You don’t need a completely separate strategy, but you do need a different emphasis. Classic SEO still matters for Google, but AI SEO focuses on:

• Clean, structured product and brand data

• Strong entities and citation signals

• Content that directly answers buyer questions in a way AI can reuse

A good approach treats traditional SEO and AI SEO as two layers of the same visibility stack, optimised to work together rather than in isolation.