How Consumer Brands Can Optimize for Product Discovery in ChatGPT

Generative AI has quickly gone from a curiosity to a daily utility for millions of consumers, and ecommerce is starting to feel the impact. Shoppers are no longer limited to traditional search engines or marketplace listings. Instead, they’re turning to conversational tools like ChatGPT to ask for product recommendations in plain language: “best gifts for new moms,” “top-rated noise-canceling headphones under $200,” or “eco-friendly kitchen essentials.”

Until now, these AI-powered shopping experiences have largely stopped at discovery. ChatGPT could recommend products and link to merchant sites, but the actual transaction happened elsewhere.

That’s poised to change.

Recent signals point to a deeper integration between ChatGPT and Shopify, including the ability to surface product cards with pricing, ratings, and images, and to send users directly to Shopify’s checkout from within the chat experience. 

This marks a major step forward, moving ChatGPT from product discovery to a full-funnel shopping platform.

If these capabilities roll out as expected, it could transform how consumers discover, evaluate, and purchase products, all without ever visiting a traditional ecommerce site or search engine.

In this article, we’ll explore what this shift means for consumer brands, what brands can already do to prepare, and the risks of waiting too long to adapt.

How ChatGPT Surfaces Products Today

While the headlines about ChatGPT’s ecommerce ambitions are heating up, the reality is that ChatGPT has already been surfacing product recommendations for months. Consumer brands don’t have to wait for future integrations to start capturing visibility in AI-driven shopping journeys.

Here’s what’s already happening behind the scenes when consumers use ChatGPT to ask for product recommendations:

• Pulls Data from Public Web Sources: ChatGPT uses Bing search and publicly available structured data, like schema markup on product pages, to gather product information. This means your existing web content and product feed play a key role in whether or not you show up.
• Ranks Based on Relevance, Not Ads: Unlike traditional marketplaces or search engines that prioritize paid listings, ChatGPT ranks results based on metadata quality, semantic relevance to the query, and signals like customer reviews. There’s no pay-to-play model (at least not yet).
• Displays Product Summaries with Merchant Links: ChatGPT generates summarized product cards featuring descriptions, prices, and links to merchant websites. From there, users are encouraged to click through to learn more or make a purchase off-platform.

What Brands Can Do to Show Up in These Results Today

While you can’t pay to rank in ChatGPT’s product recommendations today, you can improve your chances of being surfaced by making sure your product information is accessible, structured, and AI-friendly.

Here are some key actions consumer brands should take right now to boost visibility:

Open the Door to OAI-SearchBot

For your products to even have a chance of being recommended by ChatGPT, OpenAI first has to be able to find and read your website content. This happens through a tool called OAI-SearchBot, which works similarly to how Google uses web crawlers to index your pages for search results.

If your robots.txt file (a file on your site that controls what bots can access) blocks this crawler—intentionally or not—your product pages won’t show up in ChatGPT’s discovery results.

To make sure your content is eligible:

1. Check your robots.txt file to ensure it allows access to OAI-SearchBot.
2. If it’s currently blocked, update it to allow access so OpenAI can read and index your product information.

This is the first step to even be in the running when ChatGPT surfaces product recommendations.

Strengthen Structured Product Data

Once OpenAI’s crawler reaches your site, the next step is making sure it can easily understand your product details. This is where structured data comes in.

Structured data is extra information added to your product pages, written in a machine-readable format like JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data). This markup helps AI systems like ChatGPT, Google, and Bing quickly identify key product details, such as:

• Product title
• Description
• Price
• Availability (In stock, Out of stock)
• Product category
• Brand
• Customer reviews
• Images
• GTIN/UPC/SKU

The more complete and accurate this data is, the better your products can show up in AI-powered product carousels, search results, and shopping recommendations.

How to do it:

1. Add schema.org Product Markup in JSON-LD format to your product pages.
2. Use Google’s Rich Results Test to validate that your schema is implemented correctly.
3. Go beyond just the basics and include all relevant fields to provide the richest context possible.

This makes it much easier for ChatGPT to confidently recommend your products to users based on what they’re actually searching for.

Write for Real, Conversational Search Queries

While structured product data provides the technical details ChatGPT needs to identify your products, the language on your product pages still plays a critical role in matching real customer intent.

AI-powered shopping assistants like ChatGPT are trained to understand natural, conversational language, the kind that people actually use when asking questions or describing what they’re looking for. 

That means robotic or overly technical product copy won’t perform as well in ChatGPT queries.

Instead of writing strictly for keywords or product specs, focus on phrases that reflect how real people search. For example:

• Instead of: “Model X200 Wireless Over-Ear Headphones with 40mm Drivers”
• Try: “Best budget wireless headphones with great sound under $100”

Or:

• Instead of: “Organic Aloe Vera Skin Cream for Dermal Application”
• Try: “Soothing aloe vera moisturizer for sensitive skin”

Scan customer reviews, FAQs, and social media comments to find the exact language your customers use to describe their needs, problems, and preferences. Incorporate those phrases into your product titles, descriptions, and FAQs to improve ChatGPT’s ability to match your product to high-intent shoppers.

The goal is to combine detailed product data with customer-friendly language, helping ChatGPT both identify your products and recognize when they’re the perfect match for real-world shopping queries.

Leverage Reviews and User-Generated Content

ChatGPT pulls signals from real customer feedback to shape product recommendations. This makes reviews and UGC critical for improving your visibility.

Go beyond just collecting reviews on your site. Build your presence on platforms like Google, Amazon, Reddit, and industry-specific forums to strengthen your digital footprint.

Highlight customer language in your product descriptions and surface review snippets on your PDPs. Promote user-generated photos, videos, and testimonials across your marketing channels.

Authentic customer feedback helps ChatGPT understand what makes your product valuable, boosting both trust and discoverability in conversational search.

Why This New Shopify Integration Changes the Game

ChatGPT has already started to open the door to brand interactions through plugins and API integrations.

Companies like Instacart, OpenTable, and Klarna have launched official plugins that let users build grocery lists, book reservations, or compare prices, all without leaving the chat.

However, even with these early integrations, the final purchase or action still happens off-platform, requiring the user to click out to complete the transaction.

That’s what makes the signals of a Shopify integration such a major shift.

Recently, researchers and industry watchers have identified new code in ChatGPT’s public web bundle pointing to direct checkout capabilities. These include elements like:

• “buy_now” buttons
• “shopify_checkout_url” fields
• Price, shipping, and product-offer metadata

These elements strongly suggest that OpenAI and Shopify are preparing for native checkout capabilities inside ChatGPT, a functionality that does not exist yet, but appears to be in active development.

This is a turning point for ecommerce and consumer brands, suggesting it could transform ChatGPT from a helpful product discovery tool into a fully functional shopping channel.

This marks a bigger strategic move for OpenAI—one that could turn ChatGPT into more than just a recommendation engine. It positions ChatGPT as a potential new kind of marketplace, where discovery and purchase happen seamlessly in one conversational flow.

With this shift, consumer brands should soon expect:

• AI-Powered Chat as the New Storefront: Instead of sending users to Google, Amazon, or brand websites, ChatGPT could become the place where shoppers discover, compare, and buy all without leaving the chat.
• Frictionless, In-Chat Checkout: Shopify’s checkout integration hints at a future where transactions happen instantly inside ChatGPT, reducing steps and boosting conversion.
• Rising Consumer Expectations: As shoppers get used to AI-powered recommendations and one-click purchasing, brands will be under pressure to deliver the same level of convenience and personalization.
• Monetization Is Likely Coming: While ChatGPT doesn’t currently offer paid placements or take commissions, experts widely expect monetization to follow, much like Google and Amazon’s shift toward pay-to-play visibility. Recent reporting from Reuters confirms that recommendations today are independent, but the long-term model is still evolving.

If these signals turn into fully deployed features, brands that adapt early may gain a significant first-mover advantage in this new AI-powered commerce landscape.

What Consumer Brands Should Do Next

While there are already steps brands can take to improve their current visibility in AI-powered search, this new phase requires a more strategic, future-ready approach. Here’s how ecommerce and digital teams can prepare for what’s coming next.

Make Sure You’re Set Up to Take Advantage

Right now, the only confirmed signals of in-chat checkout point to Shopify. That means if you’re not already running a Shopify store—or at least testing Shopify as a sales channel—you could be left on the sidelines when this rolls out.

If you haven’t already, consider adding Shopify to your channel mix—even if it’s not your primary ecommerce platform today. Being connected to Shopify could be the easiest way to gain early access to native transactions inside ChatGPT when this feature goes live.

Make Your Store AI-Ready Today

Whether you’re new to Shopify or well established, the next step is making sure your product data and content are fully optimized for AI-powered discovery—both for today’s search experiences and tomorrow’s in-chat checkout.

To fully position your Shopify store for success as this integration rolls out, focus on these key actions:

• Open Access for OAI-SearchBot: Ensure your Shopify store’s robots.txt file allows OpenAI to crawl and index your product pages.
• Strengthen Your Product Feed with Shopify Tools: Leverage Shopify’s structured data defaults or apps like JSON-LD for SEO to validate schema markup (titles, prices, availability, and reviews).
• Sync Your Product Feed to Google Merchant Center: Use Shopify’s Google & YouTube Channel app to expand your structured data footprint, boosting your visibility in AI-powered results sourced via Bing.
• Write Conversational Product Copy: Optimize titles and descriptions with natural, customer-friendly language that reflects how people actually search.
• Maximize Reviews and UGC with Shopify Apps: Use tools like Yotpo to collect and display customer reviews, photos, and videos across your store.
• Activate Dynamic Checkout Options: Enable Shop Pay and other one-click checkout buttons on your product pages to align with future in-chat purchasing flows.
• Enable Shopify Payments: Offer multiple payment methods natively to ensure a seamless checkout experience, both on-site and potentially in-chat.
• Organize Products with Shopify Tags and Collections: Consistently use Shopify’s Product Types, Tags, and Collections to improve product data clarity for ChatGPT and search engines.
• Enrich Product Pages with Meta Fields: Add extra attributes like materials, sizing, and certifications using Shopify’s Meta Fields to help AI generate richer product summaries.
• Keep Inventory Synced Across All Channels: Ensure your Shopify inventory stays accurate across connected sales channels to boost your chances of surfacing in real-time product recommendations.

By aligning your Shopify store with these best practices now, you’ll be ready to show up in AI-powered discovery and capitalize on emerging direct-purchase features inside ChatGPT.

Expand Your Search Strategy Beyond Google

While Google remains dominant in traditional search, ChatGPT pulls heavily from Bing’s index to generate product recommendations today. Brands that focus solely on Google may miss opportunities in AI-powered discovery.

Here’s how to strengthen your Bing presence now:

• Review Your Bing Webmaster Tools Setup: Ensure your Shopify store is verified in Bing Webmaster Tools, just like you (hopefully) have it set up in Google Search Console.
• Optimize for Bing’s Search Guideline: Bing favors clear, structured content and schema markup. Align your SEO efforts with Bing’s documentation, not just Google’s.
• Monitor Bing Search Performance: Track impressions, clicks, and rankings in Bing Webmaster Tools to understand how your store performs in Microsoft’s ecosystem.

Being well-optimized for Bing increases the chances that your products will surface in ChatGPT shopping results, especially as this channel continues to evolve beyond simple search into full-funnel commerce.

Prepare for Personalization at Scale

With features like AI memory and context-aware conversations on the horizon, brands need to start building their personalization muscle today to stay competitive tomorrow. AI-powered shopping assistants like ChatGPT are quickly moving beyond one-off product suggestions toward ongoing, personalized shopping journeys that remember preferences, past interactions, and purchase history.

Here’s how to get ahead:

• Strengthen First-Party Data and CRM Strategies: Focus on collecting and organizing customer data, from preferences and behaviors to purchase history and loyalty signals. This data is essential for powering the kinds of personalized recommendations and tailored experiences ChatGPT shoppers will soon expect.
• Experiment with Tailored Messaging and Offers: Start testing segmented campaigns across your owned channels, such as email, SMS, and on-site messaging. Learn what resonates with different customer groups based on their behaviors, interests, and purchase intent. These learnings can later inform your strategy for AI-powered personalization.
• Unify Your Personalization Across Channels: Ensure that your customer insights power experiences across every channel, your website, email, SMS, paid media, and emerging AI assistants like ChatGPT. The more connected your data and messaging are across these environments, the more you can deliver seamless, individualized experiences at scale, no matter where your customer interacts with your brand.

Personalization at scale is essential as AI-driven shopping experiences evolve. Brands that start preparing now will be better positioned to meet customer expectations and stand out in this next wave of ecommerce.

Develop a Testing & Measurement Framework to Optimize Personalization at Scale

AI-powered commerce is still in its early stages, but brands that start tracking performance now will gain the insights needed to personalize more effectively as the channel matures.

Here’s how to build a measurement foundation that supports smarter, scalable personalization:

• Tag and Track your ChatGPT Traffic: Add UTM parameters like utm_source=chatgpt.com to your Shopify links so you can measure how AI-driven discovery impacts clicks and conversions across campaigns and product pages.
• Gather Direct Customer Feedback: Add AI platforms (e.g., ChatGPT, Perplexity) to your post-purchase attribution surveys to understand which customers are discovering you through these emerging channels.
• Benchmark AI Against Other Channels: Build reporting views that compare AI-attributed performance to other key channels, like paid search, social, or marketplaces, so you can refine messaging and optimize spend based on what drives the best customer outcomes.

Starting small with measurable experiments today helps you scale what works and build a competitive edge as ChatGPT commerce grows.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

AI-driven product discovery is evolving fast. While it’s exciting to experiment with new features, it’s just as important to avoid these missteps that could quietly undermine your visibility and performance:

• Skipping AI-Specific SEO: ChatGPT doesn’t rank results based on paid placements or traditional keyword strategies. Structured data, conversational relevance, and customer trust signals matter most.
• Neglecting Product Data Quality: Incomplete, outdated, or inconsistent product information makes it harder for ChatGPT to recommend your brand. Clean, structured, and complete data is non-negotiable.
• Ignoring Cross-Channel Consistency: ChatGPT pulls signals from your entire online presence, not just your website. Inconsistent messaging, pricing, or product details across channels can confuse both ChatGPT and customers.
• Not Tracking AI Traffic and Performance: Most brands aren’t measuring AI-driven impact yet. Start now by adding UTM parameters and gathering post-purchase attribution insights to understand where ChatGPT fits in your funnel.

As with any emerging channel, the brands that win in AI-powered commerce won’t just be the ones who experiment early—but the ones who optimize with purpose, measure impact, and avoid the easy mistakes that can cost them visibility when it matters most.

A New Era of Commerce Is Taking Shape

For years, digital commerce has been shaped by familiar playbooks: Google search, paid ads, marketplaces like Amazon. But the rise of AI-powered shopping assistants like ChatGPT is opening an entirely new front in the battle for customer attention, intent, and purchase.

This isn’t some distant trend. It’s already happening.

Consumers are shifting how they discover products, and Shopify is positioning itself at the center of this new buying experience. Brands that take action now (getting their stores AI-ready, optimizing for visibility, and preparing for seamless in-chat transactions) stand to gain a first-mover advantage.

The brands that hesitate risk losing ground not just in search rankings, but in the conversations where buying decisions are already being made.

You don’t have to wait for a formal rollout to start preparing. The future of product discovery is already shifting to AI-powered conversations.

So the real question isn’t if this shift is coming, but whether your brand will be ready to win when it does.

About the Author: As the Director, Marketing at adQuadrant, Nick Grant leverages more than 20 years of experience working across a variety of tech verticals. Nick grew up in California and earned his BS in Business with a concentration in Entrepreneurship. After college, he relocated to Seattle to pursue his passion for startups, where he worked at various dot-coms before co-founding a successful visual strategy agency in 2010. Now back in California, Nick spends his time hiking around San Luis Obispo County with his wife and son, honing his talent as a concert photographer, and perfecting his handstand skills.