Why Your Website Matters More Than Ever in the Age of AI Shopping Assistants (ChatGPT Tribute)

The Assistant works in a remarkably simple yet powerful way: you describe what you’re looking for — your preferences, needs, and constraints — all in plain language. In response, ChatGPT offers a curated selection of products, along with reasoning behind the suggestions, prices and recommended stores to buy from. It’s free, accessible to anyone, and users can further refine the results by adjusting their preferences or asking follow-up questions.

The experience feels like suddenly having access to an expert who knows everything about every product and where to get it at the best price. The convenience is obvious and is likely to drive widespread adoption.

As if that weren’t enough, there are rumors that ChatGPT will soon introduce a deep integration with Shopify. This would include automatic transfer of product data from Shopify stores, along with seamless purchasing through Shopify’s Shop Pay checkout, which removes much of the typical checkout friction since Shopify already has your payment and shipping information.

Naturally, merchants are now asking an important question: what can we do to increase the chances of our products appearing in ChatGPT’s recommendations? In other words, how can businesses optimize for AI-driven search?

Since ChatGPT leads the field in terms of user base, this article focuses on answering that question specifically for the ChatGPT platform. Our insights are based on extensive hands-on research, official ChatGPT documentation, and core e-commerce and technical fundamentals. As new information becomes available, we will update this article to keep it current.

That’s enough of an introduction. Let’s dive into how the Assistant works and what merchants can do today to start optimizing for ChatGPT.

It all comes down to convenience, and to the growing number of shoppers who will turn to ChatGPT for product discovery and for finding the best places to buy. It is also about the imperfect nature of how product research is currently done through traditional search engines.

Sometimes, we just want simple answers. In a world full of complex decisions, the ability to ask a question in plain language only adds to the appeal.

Adoption of AI chat is growing rapidly, with ChatGPT being a clear leader even before the Shopping Assistant was introduced.

Other conversational AIs have either already added similar functionality, or undoubtedly will do so in the near future. Among them are Google Gemini (approximately 350 million monthly active users), Claude AI (around 18.9 million), and Perplexity AI (about 15 million). They are all part of this rapidly evolving space.

*Usage numbers are approximate and sourced from publicly available data. Sources can be shared upon request.

To understand how merchants can optimize for ChatGPT, it’s important to look at how the Shopping Assistant actually works. That includes how it identifies the best products to recommend and how it chooses which stores to suggest.

Based on ChatGPT’s documentation and real-world testing, the process can be summarized as follows:

1.It uses data from third-party providers.

2.It searches the web and pulls in information from websites.

3.It relies on its LLM core (a trained machine learning model) to analyze the user’s query and review data found online or from external sources, in order to generate tailored product recommendations.

The LLM core is the part most users are already familiar with—it powers the default ChatGPT experience. But the real questions are: who provides the third-party data, and how exactly does ChatGPT perform its web searches?

It is evident that ChatGPT does search the web. When asked for product recommendations, it clearly states that it is searching the web (see the full user journey with screenshots below).

ChatGPT has a Bot, which allows it to access and analyze web content:

Like search engines, ChatGPT uses a web crawler called OAI-SearchBot to find, access, and surface information in ChatGPT search. For your site to be discoverable in ChatGPT, make sure you aren’t blocking OAI-SearchBot. If necessary, you may need to update your robots.txt file, to ensure OAI-SearchBot has access.

However, as far as we know, ChatGPT has never developed its own search engine — a proprietary algorithm paired with an up-to-date index of all publicly crawlable webpages.

Building such an engine is both technically challenging and expensive. But why reinvent the wheel when it can leverage Microsoft Bing? Microsoft, a major investor in OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT), can theoretically provide access to its search engine. In fact, this is exactly what happened:

ChatGPT relies on Bing to find relevant web pages on the internet.

To provide relevant responses to your questions, ChatGPT search sometimes partners with other search providers.

And the only third-party search provider they mention is Bing:

For more information about how third-party search providers may further process search queries, please refer to: Bing (Microsoft’s privacy policy)

Based on that information, we can assume that when searching, ChatGPT uses Bing’s search engine to find relevant websites. It then opens those pages with its Bot and processes the content using the LLM.

Finally, let’s ask ChatGPT directly which search engines it uses:

📍 Speaking of third-party data providers for the Shopping Assistant mentioned earlier, ChatGPT’s official documentation refers back to its web search capabilities, which are powered by Bing (as explained above).

Structured metadata from third-party providers (e.g., price, product description) and other third-party content (e.g., reviews). Learn more.

The “Learn more” link points to the article mentioned above about how ChatGPT performs web searches.

It is safe to assume that Bing Shopping data is also accessible to ChatGPT, and that this is where it gets information such as:

Structured metadata from third-party providers (e.g., price, product description)

Soon, merchants will be able to provide their product feeds directly to ChatGPT.

Step 1. ChatGPT analyzes your request.

Even at this step the Chat reaches to the web.

Step 2. The Chat asks clarification questions, because the request was broad, unlike the previous examples.

When clicked on, the “sources” reveal the web resources ChatGPT used to compile the questions. These sources are listed in a widget to the left of the main chat window. They are often articles related to the topic. In our case, those are guides on how to choose the best laptop.

Step 3: Now the Chat looks for products to recommend based on the answers we gave to its earlier questions.

Those questions were asked to better understand our needs. ChatGPT often provides information about the web sources it used (highlighted in yellow in the screenshot below). If we open those sources, as we did in the previous step, we’ll see the full list of websites it referenced to generate the recommendations. Most of these are articles on how to choose the best laptop, and many of them include specific product suggestions.

Some of these articles are:

https://www.windowscentral.com/best-laptop-32gb-ram

https://www.wired.com/review/asus-vivobook-pro-15-2025

https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/best-laptops-1

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lenovo-IdeaPad-3i-15-Intel-Core-i7-1255U-16GB-RAM-512-GB-SSD-Arctic-Grey-Windows-11-Home-82RK017QUS/5527026637

https://forums.whatthetech.com/index.php?showtopic=132616

https://www.pcworld.com/article/436674/best-pc-laptops.html

https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/best-affordable-windows-laptops-123000512.html

https://www.wired.com/gallery/best-laptops/

https://www.wired.com/gallery/best-laptops/

https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/comments/1idybxt/which_laptop_should_i_buy_in_2025/

Step 4: Next, ChatGPT looks for the best places to buy the products it has selected.

Note: If there are no sufficiently informative articles that recommend specific top products in a given niche, ChatGPT will turn to commercial websites instead. For example, when searching for specific tires, where there are few detailed recommendation articles, the sources reveal that it primarily used e-commerce sites.

IN SUMMARY: The Shopping Assistant is an LLM-based system that can search the web and use product data feeds. It heavily relies on Microsoft Bing’s capabilities and services. As a result, it is not surprising that the articles it uses for product recommendations come from well-established, reputable sources rather than unknown blogs. Similarly, the shops it recommends are also well-known and trustworthy. In other words, these are the same results you would typically find at the top of the search engine results page if you ran a Bing or Google search on the same topic.

With that understanding, we can now move on to the next and most important topic, which is…

In other words, what a business can do to increase the likelihood that its products are recommended by ChatGPT, ideally more often than those of its competitors?

The answers below are based on what we know so far about how ChatGPT’s Shopping Assistant works, along with our team’s general e-commerce and technical experience:

🌐 Product and Brand Exposure Through Articles

It is vitally important to have your products and brand featured in both onsite content (your own website) and offsite content (such as online magazines or blogs), especially in articles that present you as a good solution to a specific problem. Articles focused on topics like “best,” “top,” or “how to” are frequently used by ChatGPT when recommending products.

These types of posts are valuable because they directly address common user queries and decision-making needs. To be effective, these articles should be full-length, well-written, and provide comprehensive coverage of the topic. They should appear on reputable websites that rank highly in search results for relevant topics. Content should be written for human readers, which also makes it well-suited for large language models like ChatGPT.

So how is this different from SEO, you may ask? Exactly.

🔍 Bing SEO Optimization

Since ChatGPT relies on Bing Search, it is important to optimize your own website and ensure that your products are featured on external sites that are well-optimized for Bing. The good news is that while Bing SEO differs slightly from Google’s, much of the work you have already done or plan to do for Google will also apply to Bing. So, it is not an entirely new or complex task.

🛍️ Submit Your Product Feed to Bing Shopping

Submitting your products to Bing is free and can be done through Microsoft Merchant Center. You should also list your business in Bing Places for Business. This is important because ChatGPT uses product and other data feeds from Bing.

🎩 Optimize Your Product Pages (PDPs)

It’s easy to understand why it’s important to have well-structured, information-rich product detail pages. They serve both ChatGPT’s crawling bot and real users who land on your site.

Remember, you are not only optimizing for a large language model. Your human visitors are also unlikely to browse your site deeply, so each product page needs to do the heavy lifting.

Here are key elements to include:

• High-quality images (these may also appear as thumbnails in ChatGPT)
• Clear, accurate pricing
• Well-written product descriptions
• Explain when, where, and by whom the product is best used, based on common customer needs.
• Transparent delivery terms and shipping costs, if possible
• User-generated content such as reviews or ratings
• Clear on-page structure using headers, meta tags, bullet points, and lists
• Product Schema Markup
• Details on availability, sizing, colors, and other options
• A clearly stated return policy

Additionally, since it is likely that potential shoppers will not explore the rest of your website in depth, it is smart to do the following:

• Provide clear information about your brand, physical store locations (if any), and other trust-building details.
• Include upsell and cross-sell options directly on product detail pages (PDPs), as this becomes even more important.

Most of what is mentioned above falls under basic website hygiene and best practices, which ideally should already be in place.

Tip: ChatGPT automatically includes the UTM parameter utm_source=chatgpt.com, which you can use to track traffic in analytics tools such as Google Analytics.

⭐ User Generated Content

Customer reviews and ratings are believed to be one of the factors ChatGPT uses when recommending products. They help determine product relevance and highlight specific characteristics, such as whether an item fits true to size, is durable, well-made, or matches the expected color.

In some cases, ChatGPT may also display star ratings and review counts. These can be pulled from various sources and may be aggregated into an overall rating

🤖 Accessible to Robots

ChatGPT uses a web crawler called OAI-SearchBot to access website content. To ensure your site is discoverable in ChatGPT, make sure you are not blocking OAI-SearchBot. If needed, update your robots.txt file and Web Application Firewall (WAF) settings to allow access.

🔗 Ensure All Pages on Your Website Are Easily Accessible

If a page cannot be accessed by clicking through a clear series of links or buttons, there is a good chance ChatGPT’s bot will have trouble discovering it.

🗂️ Product Data Feed

ChatGPT will soon offer a way for merchants to provide product feeds directly, helping ensure more accurate and up-to-date listings. It is recommended to complete the interest form, which can be found at this link, so the ChatGPT team can notify you as soon as submissions open.

💳 Effortless Checkout

The importance of having an easy, clear, and trustworthy checkout experience cannot be overstated, especially one that avoids surprising customers with unexpected charges, shipping conditions, or other last-minute changes.

Imagine a buyer sees one price or shipping offer in ChatGPT, but encounters something different at checkout. With an abundance of other offers, it becomes even easier for them to abandon the purchase and look for another seller.

🪙 Competitive Prices

Price matters just as much as before, possibly even more, now that ChatGPT uses this information to determine which products and sellers to show. It can also help users find a lower price.

🌐 Being Available on Amazon Helps

Results from Amazon almost always appear on the first page of search engine results, which means Amazon listings are often shown by ChatGPT as well. This doesn’t mean every brand must have an Amazon store, but it’s something to consider due to the many potential benefits.

Optimization for ChatGPT is important, but where should you start? One of the best ways is to simply ask ChatGPT how it perceives your products, your website, and under what conditions it would or wouldn’t recommend them. Most importantly, ask why, and what you can do to improve.

We’ve spent countless hours exploring ChatGPT to understand how it works, and we’ve put together a practical guide on how to query it about your online store. We invested that time so you don’t have to.

It has been rumored that ChatGPT will soon roll out a tight integration with Shopify. This means that Shopify-based stores will have their product data automatically transferred to ChatGPT in a structured format. Users will be able to purchase products with fewer clicks and minimal effort, thanks to Shopify’s Shop Pay checkout, which many shoppers already know and trust.

Here is what this will likely look like (credit to blendcommerce.com for the image):

This would undoubtedly provide a certain advantage to Shopify-based stores, as it increases trust in the seller and simplifies the purchase process by reducing the number of steps.

But does this amount to an ultimate advantage? And does it mean that every business should consider migrating to Shopify now? In our opinion, the answer is no. ChatGPT cannot realistically ignore products sold on other platforms. In fact, there is a wider variety of products available outside of Shopify than on it. Neglecting those would undermine the very idea of a universal Shopping Assistant. That’s exactly why ChatGPT is going to introduced the option for any merchant to submit product feeds, as mentioned earlier.

It’s also unrealistic to assume that every buyer will simply click a “Buy Now” button in the chat without checking the seller first, especially while this Shopping Assistant concept is still relatively new. At least for now, both Shopify and non-Shopify stores are in a fairly equal position when it comes to competing for visibility and conversions.

ChatGPT has introduced a new way many of us will soon be discovering products and deciding where to buy them. It’s convenient, it’s a more natural way of shopping, and it’s likely to become the preferred method for many consumers. Merchants who do not optimize for ChatGPT risk losing significant traffic in the near future.

From a marketing and technical perspective, however, this shift is more of an evolution than a revolution. The fundamentals still matter: strong search engine rankings, quality on-site and off-site content, brand trust, and fast, well-designed e-commerce websites all continue to play a critical role.

Will ChatGPT fully replace Google in the near future? Probably not. It still has a long way to go. The current shopping recommendations it provides are far from perfect. At its core, ChatGPT is still a word prediction machine learning model, enhanced with some helpful tools layered on top.

But ChatGPT will get better, probably faster than most of us expect, and it may eventually surpass Google’s search service altogether. Can Google steal the spotlight with its own AI integrated into Search? Probably not. People go to Google to search for web pages, not to ask for advice in a conversational way. And let’s be honest, chatting is often more enjoyable and convenient than Googling.

It’s important to start optimizing now. In the end, well-optimized e-commerce websites are the ones that sell more.