AI assistants are becoming shopping tools. Both ChatGPT and Perplexity have launched features that let users research, compare, and even buy products through conversation. If you run a Shopify store, here’s what you need to know.
What’s Actually Happening
Two major AI platforms now offer shopping experiences:
ChatGPT handles around 50 million shopping-related queries per day. Users describe what they’re looking for, ChatGPT asks clarifying questions, then pulls product data from across the web to create personalised recommendations.
Perplexity takes a different approach. Users can search for products conversationally, and Perplexity remembers their preferences to improve future suggestions. More significantly, Perplexity partnered with PayPal to allow in-app purchases—users can buy without leaving the app.
Both platforms want to become the starting point for shopping, sitting between “I need something” and “I’ll buy this.”
How ChatGPT Shopping Works
When someone asks ChatGPT for product help, the experience looks like this:
- User describes their need (“I need running shoes for flat feet under £150”)
- ChatGPT asks follow-up questions (preferred brands, terrain, cushioning)
- The system searches trusted sources for matching products
- Results appear as product cards with images, prices, and reviews
- User clicks through to the merchant’s website to purchase
ChatGPT uses a specialised model optimised for shopping tasks. It pulls information from the open web, including product specs, pricing, and reviews.
The key point: purchases still happen on your website. ChatGPT sends informed traffic to you. These visitors have already done their research and know what they want.
How Perplexity Shopping Works
Perplexity’s approach differs in one crucial way: checkout can happen inside the app.
- User searches conversationally (“best wireless earbuds for running”)
- Perplexity shows product options tailored to the query
- User can compare products within the interface
- For participating merchants, “Buy with Pro” enables in-app purchase
- PayPal processes the payment
Here’s what matters for merchants: you remain the merchant of record. You handle fulfilment, returns, and customer service. You keep the customer relationship. Perplexity and PayPal handle the transaction layer, but the order is yours.
This is currently available on desktop and web, with mobile apps launching soon.
What This Means for Shopify Stores
These platforms create a new type of customer journey. Instead of:
Google search → Click result → Browse site → Maybe buy
It becomes:
Ask AI → Get recommendation → Click to site → Buy
The visitor who lands on your product page via ChatGPT has already been pre-qualified. They know what they want. They’ve compared options. They’re further down the funnel.
Early data suggests these visitors behave differently—longer session times, lower bounce rates, more page views. Whether that translates to better conversion rates is still being studied (more on that in a separate article).
Can You Get Your Products Featured?
This is where things get frustrating. Unlike Google Shopping, there’s no merchant dashboard where you upload your product feed and set bids.
For ChatGPT:
- Products are discovered through web crawling
- Shopify stores with good SEO and structured data are more likely to appear
- There’s a Shopify integration, but details on merchant participation are limited
- No direct way to pay for placement (yet)
For Perplexity:
- Merchant partnerships determine which stores have “Buy with Pro” checkout
- Standard stores can still appear in search results as recommendations
- Contact Perplexity directly to enquire about partnership
The honest answer: you can’t directly control whether your products appear. You can improve your chances by ensuring your product data is accurate, your prices are competitive, and your site is crawlable.
How to Track AI Shopping Traffic
ChatGPT referral traffic shows up in Google Analytics 4. Look for:
- Referral source: chat.openai.com or similar
- Landing pages: Which products are people arriving at?
- Behaviour: How do these visitors compare to organic search?
Set up a custom segment to isolate AI referral traffic and track it separately.
Perplexity in-app purchases are trickier. If someone buys through the app, you’ll see the order in Shopify, but your analytics won’t show their browsing journey. The attribution gap is real.
For now, monitor what you can: referral traffic, branded search trends, and overall conversion patterns. If AI shopping grows, you’ll see the impact even if you can’t track every touchpoint perfectly.
Should You Care About This Now?
Let’s be realistic about scale.
ChatGPT’s 50 million daily shopping queries sounds impressive, but Google processes billions. AI shopping is growing fast—referral traffic is up significantly year-over-year—but it’s still a small fraction of total e-commerce.
What to do now:
- Monitor your referral traffic. Are you seeing visitors from AI sources? How do they behave?
- Ensure your product data is solid. Accurate titles, descriptions, prices, and images help AI tools understand what you sell.
- Don’t reorganise your strategy. This isn’t a reason to abandon SEO or paid ads. It’s an additional channel to watch.
What not to do:
- Pay for services promising “AI optimisation” with unclear methods
- Panic about a channel that’s still emerging
- Ignore it entirely—awareness matters
The Bigger Picture
AI shopping represents a shift in how people discover products. Instead of searching and clicking through results, they’re having conversations and receiving curated recommendations.
For merchants, this could mean higher-quality traffic (pre-researched, high-intent visitors) but less control over discovery. You can’t bid your way to the top of a ChatGPT recommendation the way you can with Google Shopping.
The platforms are still evolving. Features will change. Merchant tools will likely improve. The smartest move right now is to pay attention without overreacting.
ChatGPT shopping features are available on free and paid plans. Perplexity’s Buy with Pro is rolling out to participating merchants.
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