Retailers face major disruption (and opportunity) as ChatGPT announces direct AI shopping
ChatGPT’s new shopping feature, currently live in the is rewriting the rules of retail, letting users browse and buy products directly through AI – no Google, no ads. This shift puts brands at risk of vanishing from the customer journey unless they act fast.
Below, Open Partners reveals how retailers can stay ahead with immediate and long-term actions to boost visibility, outpace competitors, and win in the new era of AI-driven shopping.
Alistair Hague
Alistair leads Organic & AI SEO at Open Partners, with 27 years of web development and search optimisation experience.
Retailers that rely on traditional organic search (like Google) to drive traffic, brand awareness, and sales are now facing another major disruption. OpenAI has launched a new shopping feature in ChatGPT that allows users to discover and buy products directly within the AI — completely bypassing search engines and the highly competitive paid ad space.
This feature has already rolled out in multiple markets including the United States, Canada, and parts of Europe, and is due to launch across the UK in 2025 — with exponential growth expected from there.
Unlike Google Shopping or paid ads, these product listings aren’t influenced by media spend. They’re algorithmically selected based on user intent, relevance, past searches, preferences, and budget. This creates a highly personalised shopping experience that’s curated by AI — not marketing budgets — giving well-prepared brands a major advantage.
Within the context of retail, this shifts control from search engines to AI platforms, changing how (and if) products get seen. With 50% of Google’s organic traffic projected to be lost to AI by 2028 (Gartner, 2024), and 80% of users already using AI for a significant portion of their queries, the traditional playbook for search visibility is rapidly becoming obsolete.
Brands that fail to adapt risk vanishing from the customer journey altogether, while those who move fast can seize a powerful new channel before the competition catches up.
Why This Should Be Setting Off Alarm Bells for All Retailers
There is no question about it – retailers must actively be working on an AI-centric marketing strategy if they are to survive this new world of organic search and commerce.
But as with all major changes in the marketing world – and particularly in the AI space – this comes with both risk and opportunity.
Fast Movers Can Leapfrog Competitors and Cut Marketing Costs
The shift to AI search is a major opportunity for retailers to boost ROI and future-proof their brands. A strong AI-driven SEO strategy can:
- Get products seen as users move away from Google
- Reduce dependence on paid ads and lower acquisition costs
- Protect against long-term loss of visibility due to AI disruption
- Help brands outpace slower competitors — even market leaders
While others fight for ad space on Google, fast adopters can appear directly in ChatGPT with persuasive product messaging — at no media cost.
Clearer Marketing Performance and Smarter Investment Decisions
GA4’s tracking challenges have made measuring ROI more difficult. ChatGPT solves this by tagging all outbound links with UTM parameters, giving retailers accurate visibility into what’s driving clicks and conversions — and making it easier to justify and optimise spend.
A New Engine for Brand Building and Market Share
This feature also helps shape brand image by surfacing products in a trusted, AI-driven environment. When paired with strong PR and SEO, it boosts visibility, brand perception, and consumer trust through personalised, non-intrusive recommendations — accelerating awareness and loyalty at scale.
Slow Adopters Will Fall Behind — Non-Adopters Risk Irrelevance
Earlier this quarter, Open Partners highlighted the growing risk AI search poses to retailers dependent on organic traffic. This new ChatGPT shopping feature amplifies that threat — it’s another clear signal that AI is disrupting traditional marketing, and even top-performing brands can lose ground to faster-moving competitors.
This feature is rolling out globally across all user tiers — including Free and anonymous users — accelerating the shift from traditional to AI-driven shopping. Retailers that delay will quickly lose relevance with their audiences.
Inaction Puts Brand Reputation at Risk
ChatGPT is designed to be helpful and impartial, showing users a full picture of brands — including negative sentiment from social media, reviews, or press. Without a clear AI-focused SEO and PR strategy, retailers risk losing control of their brand narrative and being replaced by competitors with stronger reputations.
Getting Started – Immediate and Long Term
Immediate Actions
As a starting point, retailers must urgently optimise their product feeds and data so they are discoverable by ChatGPT.
The faster this is implemented, the sooner retailers can capitalise on this new channel and protect themselves against the immediate revenue losses.
Longer Term Actions
To unlock the full potential of AI-driven marketing — from compounding performance gains to increased ROI and brand visibility — retailers need a robust, multi-channel strategy built around AI search (and now, things like ChatGPT shopping).
The strategy must consider how traditional marketing signals are interpreted by large language models and how these shifts will impact marketing priorities and focus areas, as well as things like resource and budget allocation (e.g. migrating from paid ads to organic AI discovery channels like ChatGPT Shopping.)
To provide context on what this shift can mean in measurable terms, here are some of the performance outcomes associated with AI-driven strategies across SEO and PR:
63% higher ROI reported by companies using AI for SEO (MarketingProfs)
72% average revenue uplift within 4–6 months of adopting AI-powered SEO tactics (Deloitte Digital)
45% increase in organic traffic and 38% improvement in conversion rates for e-commerce businesses using AI-driven SEO (Statista)
Up to 400% increase in LLM ranking potential through strategic PR efforts (PRWeek AI Influence Report)
27% increase in paid ad CTRs for brands featured in trusted media sources, as consumers perceive them as more credible and relevant (Agility PR Solutions).
Navigating the Transition to An AI-Centric Marketing Strategy
Undoubtedly, the shift is worth it, and the longer retailers wait, the bigger the losses. But while many in-house marketing teams can cover the basics, implementing this kind of strategy at speed and scale is a different challenge that in-house teams may struggle with.
That’s not a failing – the space is evolving so fast that tech-forward agencies developing their own solutions – not platforms -are leading innovation. This is a necessity to keep their clients ahead of the game.
Developing effective AI-first tools requires deep SEO, data, and technical expertise across multiple channels. We’re one of the few agencies that has invested early and built proprietary solutions to meet this need.
As part of that work, we’ve developed AIDE and SCALE. AIDE rapidly trains algorithms to boost visibility in AI search, while SCALE enhances brand authority for large language model visibility through strategic PR.
These tools are already helping our retail clients lead in this new era of AI-driven commerce, positioning them to stay ahead as consumer discovery rapidly evolves.
Over time, it is likely that solutions will surface to support brands in this migration to AI search and beyond, but this is an arms race, and by that time, fast actors will already be ahead.
Get in touch
For an agency partner that can deliver on your brand’s growth ambitions with built-in AI readiness, contact us below.
Alternatively, you can book a direct meeting with our team here.
