OpenAI's plan to turn ChatGPT into an e-commerce platform like Amazon is not going smoothly. TechCrunch reported on March 24 that OpenAI has revised its strategy, scaling back ChatGPT's instant checkout feature and instead strengthening product discovery.
OpenAI last year introduced a "shopping assistant" feature in ChatGPT, allowing users to buy products directly through the chatbot. But as the instant checkout feature failed to gain as much traction as expected, OpenAI decided to step back from its existing approach.
In a blog post, OpenAI said the instant checkout feature did not provide enough flexibility. "Now we will let merchants use their own payment systems, and we will focus on product discovery," it said. Instead, shops are expected to adopt a method in which they create apps inside ChatGPT to direct consumers to their websites.
The move is part of a strategy to make ChatGPT a consumer information hub rather than a simple shopping platform. OpenAI has worked with fintech company Stripe to develop an Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP). It plans to use it to enable ChatGPT to provide product comparisons, price information and reviews.
Chi-gyu Hwang
delight@d-today.co.kr