OpenAI just dropped the bomb right before the holidays. They launched Shopping Research in ChatGPT. It’s not a simple search; it’s a full-on, personalized buyer’s guide tool. Available to literally everyone who is logged in—Free, Go, Plus, Pro. And here’s the kicker: they’re offering nearly unlimited usage through the holidays. They want to break the market now.
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The Technical Jump: Why This Works
This isn’t a regular bot. Users describe what they need—”quietest stick vacuum for a tiny apartment”—and the AI starts asking clarifying questions about budget and preferences. It’s a conversation.
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The Model: It runs on a specialized GPT-5 mini variant, post-trained specifically for shopping.
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The Accuracy: OpenAI’s internal tests show it hits 52% product accuracy on complex, multi-constraint queries, compared to just 37% for the standard ChatGPT Search. X was the old, clumsy search. And then Y followed: a tool that actually gets the specs right more often.
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The Data: It pulls price, reviews, specs, and images from across the web. You guide it in real-time by saying “Not interested” or “More like this.” It’s learning on the fly.
The Market Impact
This is a massive threat. It handles the crucial “which one should I buy?” decision inside the chat window.
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For Shoppers: It pulls the whole comparison journey into one place. Less tab-sifting, faster decisions. It performs best in electronics, beauty, home goods—the detail-heavy categories.
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For Retailers: This raises the stakes. Visibility may now depend on how well your product pages are set up for OpenAI’s system (they have an “allowlisting” process). That traditional search click for product discovery? It might be gone.
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Privacy Check: User chats are never shared with retailers. Results are organic, based on publicly available sites, or nothing.
The tool isn’t perfect; OpenAI warns users to double-check price and availability on merchant sites. But they aren’t stopping here. The plan is to add direct purchasing via Instant Checkout later on. This is a long game. It’s ongoing.
Also read:Lost Birth Certificate? Simple Steps to Get a New One
