OpenAI's first crack at online shopping stumbled. It's preparing for the next wave
Summary
OpenAI's Instant Checkout feature, which let users buy products directly in ChatGPT, struggled with technical problems and is being replaced with dedicated retailer apps that redirect users to the retailers' own websites. The main issues were that onboarding merchants was difficult, the AI often had outdated or inaccurate product information (because it relied on web scraping, automatically collecting data from websites), and the overall shopping experience fell short of what users needed.
Solution / Mitigation
OpenAI is moving Instant Checkout to a new Apps format within ChatGPT where purchases can happen more seamlessly, and is prioritizing better search and product discovery features in the chatbot. The company is now working with retailers to create dedicated apps that reroute users to the retailer's own website to complete purchases, giving those companies more control of the customer experience and transaction process.
Classification
Affected Vendors
Related Issues
Original source: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/20/open-ai-agentic-shopping-etsy-shopify-walmart-amazon.html
First tracked: March 20, 2026 at 02:00 PM
Classified by LLM (prompt v3) · confidence: 75%