Powering product discovery in ChatGPT — ACP expanded for richer shopping
Key Points
- ACP extended for product discovery
- Visual browsing, image uploads, side-by-side comparisons
- Shopify integrated; Walmart in-ChatGPT app; multiple merchant paths
Summary
OpenAI has expanded the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) to enable richer, visual product discovery inside ChatGPT. Users can now browse products visually, upload images for matches, compare items side-by-side, and get up‑to‑date pricing, reviews, and features. The update improves speed, relevance, and product coverage and is rolling out to free, Go, Plus, and Pro users.
Key Points
- ACP now supports discovery: merchants can expose product feeds and promotions so catalogs appear directly in ChatGPT.
- Visual and comparison features: image-based matching, visual browsing, and side‑by‑side comparisons (price, reviews, features) reduce tab-hopping.
- Integration paths: supports multiple delivery routes including third‑party providers (examples: Salesforce, Stripe) and Shopify Catalog (Shopify merchants need no extra work).
- Merchant checkout: ChatGPT will prioritize discovery and allow merchants to use their own checkout flows; Instant Checkout initial version is being de-emphasized while native app options remain available.
- Platform adopters: Target, Sephora, Nordstrom, Lowe’s, Best Buy, The Home Depot, Wayfair, and Shopify Catalog integrated; Walmart launched an in‑ChatGPT app (web now; iOS/Android to follow).
- Future roadmap signals: personalization, local availability/ETAs, deeper native commerce experiences via ACP and ChatGPT apps.
Engineering considerations
- Product feeds: ensure feeds include price, availability, reviews, images, and promotions; expect ACP mapping requirements and freshness checks.
- Connectors: plan for delivery via third‑party integrations (Salesforce, Stripe) or direct ACP endpoints; test account linking and loyalty flows for app use cases.
- Checkout flow: if you’re a merchant, you can keep your existing checkout; for deeper integrations, consider building a ChatGPT app to support account linking, loyalty, and payments.
- Observability: monitor coverage, latency, and relevance metrics for discovery queries; prioritize image similarity quality and price/availability freshness.
Rollout
- Feature is rolling out this week to ChatGPT free, Go, Plus, and Pro users; expect iterative improvements based on merchant and user feedback.