Artificial Intelligence is changing the way people shop online, and ChatGPT is becoming a powerful channel for in-chat shopping experiences. For e-commerce brands, this presents a huge opportunity to connect with customers in a new, more interactive way. Preparing your business for this shift requires a few critical steps from merchant setup to product feed integration and checkout readiness.
1. Sign Up as a Merchant
The first step is registering your brand with OpenAI’s merchant program. Merchants can apply through chatgpt.com/merchants to have their products featured directly in ChatGPT search results.
Once approved, you gain access to in-chat shopping capabilities. Currently, the Instant Checkout feature is available only in the US, but wider rollouts are expected
2. Set Up Your Product Feed
To make your products discoverable inside ChatGPT, you need to provide a structured product feed. This feed includes all the essential details that OpenAI ingests and indexes for search, pricing, and availability.
Key attributes include:
- Basic product information
- Media (images and videos)
- Pricing, promotions, and availability
- Variants and fulfillment data
- Merchant details and return policies
- Reviews, compliance, and related products
This ensures that your products are displayed accurately and competitively when users search within ChatGPT .
3. Build Your Checkout Integration
For a seamless buying experience, brands must integrate with the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP). This allows ChatGPT to act as an AI shopping assistant, guiding customers through an embedded checkout flow.
The integration involves creating endpoints to:
- Create a checkout session
- Update or complete orders
- Handle cancellations
- Return rich order status
For merchants using platforms like Shopify or Etsy, this step is simplified as they are already eligible without further integration .
4. Enable Payments Securely
Payments can be processed using Delegated Payment Spec-compliant providers like Stripe or via direct integration with OpenAI. This ensures transactions remain secure while giving customers a frictionless payment journey .
5. Strengthen Brand Presence in ChatGPT
Visibility is key. Tools like Peekaboo’s AI Visibility Dashboard can help you track how your brand is showing up in ChatGPT and other AI-powered engines. This lets you measure your presence, identify gaps, and improve your AI-commerce performance .
The future of e-commerce is conversational. By preparing your brand for ChatGPT integration now, you’ll be better positioned to capture sales directly in-chat, reduce friction in the buying journey, and stay ahead of competitors.
From setting up your merchant account to building checkout integrations, each step ensures your brand is ready for the shift toward AI-driven shopping.
Published with insights from Peekaboo