Contents
- What ChatGPT Shopping Can Really Do Today
- Numbers That Speak for Themselves
- The Numbers: A Study Brings the Hype Back Down to Earth
- Agentic Commerce Protocol: The Technical Foundation
- How to Improve Your Visibility in ChatGPT Shopping
- Where Optimization Ends and Manipulation Begins
- Conclusion: Stay calm, clean up your data
- Frequently Asked Questions About ChatGPT Shopping
A master carpenter from Ettlingen is looking for a new dust extraction system. He doesn’t ask Google—he asks ChatGPT. He receives three suggestions, a comparison of filter performance, and links to retailers. Your products don’t appear in the results. This scenario is currently on the minds of many marketing managers at small and medium-sized businesses.
Most importantly: ChatGPT Shopping is currently an advisory channel, not a sales channel. Anyone who plans to use this feature as a new revenue channel is out of touch with reality.
Still, it’s worth taking a closer look. For products that require an explanation, ChatGPT already delivers measurable added value. And the technical foundation—the Agentic Commerce Protocol—plays a key role in determining which products are even displayed. This article explains the features, the reliable metrics, and the levers you can actually pull.
Key Points at a Glance
- ChatGPT Shopping provides advice but does not make sales. OpenAI has discontinued its standalone Instant Checkout feature and is now relying on retailers to complete transactions.
- A study by the Frankfurt School involving 973 stores shows that traffic from language models accounts for less than 0.2 percent. However, conversion rates are rising.
- For complex products, the assistant provides real added value. For standard products, the benefit is minimal.
- The Agentic Commerce Protocol from OpenAI and Stripe handles the product feed, checkout, and payment. The merchant remains the customer's contractual partner.
- Their most important tools are accurate product data and unbiased comparison content. There are currently no sponsored shopping listings.
What ChatGPT Shopping Can Really Do Today
OpenAI is consolidating its shopping features on a dedicated page. The page’s tagline is: Discover products, compare options, get personalized recommendations. That sounds like marketing. But behind it are three clearly distinct components.
Shopping Research: Advice Instead of a List of Results
Shopping Research is at the heart of it all. Users describe their problem in everyday language. For example, they might ask for the quietest cordless vacuum cleaner for a small apartment. ChatGPT then searches multiple sources and uses that information to create a structured decision-making guide.
The result is quite different from a Google search results page. The assistant lists pros and cons, compares criteria, and asks for clarification when something is unclear. For your marketing, this means that it’s not the ranking that matters, but rather being mentioned in the body text.
Product cards with price and availability
For many queries, ChatGPT displays product cards with an image, price, and a link to a retailer. In Germany, prices are shown in euros. The data comes from product feeds and the open web. Not every product is included, and not every price is up to date.
Instant Checkout: The Backtrack That Hardly Anyone Talks About
In September 2025, OpenAI launched Instant Checkout in the U.S. Purchases were made directly within the chat—first on Etsy, and later with Shopify merchants. In the spring of 2026, there was a reversal. OpenAI is phasing out the standalone Instant Checkout experience in ChatGPT. Purchases will once again take place on the merchant’s website.
This correction sends a strong signal. The big leap toward agent-based payments simply came too soon. For German online stores, this means, in concrete terms, that there is currently no reason to rush to overhaul payment processes for AI agents. Visibility and data quality matter more right now than checkout technology.
Source: chatgpt.com, accessed in July 2026.
Numbers That Speak for Themselves
Before you decide on AI channels, you need to understand the scale of the market. The German e-commerce sector is growing again. Search behavior is shifting. Both are happening at the same time, but not at the same pace.
- In 2025, the German e-commerce sector generated 83.1 billion euros in gross sales of goods. That is 3.2 percent more than in the previous year. For 2026, bevh and EHI expect growth of 3.8 percent. (Source: bevh, press conference on January 22, 2026)
- 56 percent of all online retail sales take place on marketplaces. This amounts to 46.2 billion euros. This segment saw the strongest growth at 4.9 percent. (Source: bevh 2026)
- The average order value in 2025 was 146.19 euros, up from 144.12 euros the previous year. One in three customers places an order twice a week or more often. (Source: bevh 2026)
- 6.3 percent of online shoppers complete their entire shopping experience using AI. 91.7 percent have so far rejected shopping AI. (Source: representative survey commissioned by the bevh, 2026)
- 50 percent of Internet users use an AI chatbot at least occasionally instead of a traditional search engine. Among 16- to 29-year-olds, the figure is two-thirds. (Source: Bitkom Research, November 2025)
- 42 percent of users have already received incorrect answers from an AI. Only 57 percent double-check the results. (Source: Bitkom Research, November 2025)
Taken together, these figures paint a clear picture. The market is growing steadily, though not spectacularly. There is a noticeable shift in research toward AI systems. However, the final purchase is still firmly made through retailers and on marketplaces.
What This Means for SEO
Traditional SEO remains the foundation. Half of all users still rely primarily or exclusively on traditional methods. Only five percent use AI exclusively. Anyone who cuts their search engine optimization budget today is shifting it to a channel with a significantly smaller reach.
The 56 percent market share further shifts priorities. For many retailers, Amazon SEO pays off more in the short term than any AI optimization. So take an honest look at where your customers are actually shopping.
What this means for GEO
GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization. The goal is to be mentioned in AI responses, not to rank number one. This discipline does not replace SEO; rather, it builds upon it, because AI systems prefer to cite well-ranked and trustworthy sources.
That’s why it’s a two-for-one benefit. A clean structure, verified facts, and clear product data work on Google today and in any virtual assistant tomorrow. This work doesn’t go to waste if a single AI product is discontinued.
Note on Context: All figures cited are derived from industry association or market research surveys with sample sizes ranging from approximately 1,000 to 40,000 respondents. Experience shows that self-reported information about one’s own purchasing behavior differs from actual click data. Use these figures as a rough guide, not as a basis for planning down to the decimal place. And be wary of percentage figures whose source is a tool being sold.
A study brings the hype back down to earth
Professor Christian Schulze of the Frankfurt School conducted the analysis. He was assisted by Maximilian Kaiser of the University of Hamburg. The two analyzed ChatGPT’s organic traffic to e-commerce websites. The dataset includes 973 online stores with over $20 billion in revenue from August 2024 through July 2025.
The study's key findings:
One year after the launch of organic shopping links, traffic from language models accounts for less than 0.2 percent of total traffic. The conversion rate and revenue per session are higher than those from paid social but lower than those from all other established channels. However, conversion rates from ChatGPT are increasing over time.
Note from Paseo: We have deliberately cited a scientific study rather than figures from an agency. Many of the percentage figures circulating regarding AI visibility come from vendors who sell related tools. Whenever you encounter a statistic, first check who collected it and who stands to benefit from it.
Schulze takes a sober view of this. The results contradict the notion that ChatGPT has already revolutionized online shopping. The key is to look at the product category. For complex products, the assistant adds value because it structures information and makes it easier to compare alternatives. For standard products where the decision is straightforward, the benefit remains limited.
This is good news for small and medium-sized businesses in the region. Products that require an explanation are the rule here, not the exception. A manufacturer of test benches in Pforzheim stands to benefit more than a store selling cell phone cases. That is exactly where a sound strategy comes into play.
Source: Frankfurt School press release dated June 22, 2026, on idw-online.de. The study was published in Marketing Science.
Agentic Commerce Protocol: The Technical Foundation
An open standard underpins the purchasing functions. The Agentic Commerce Protocol, or ACP for short, was developed by OpenAI and Stripe and released in September 2025 under the Apache 2.0 license. It describes how an AI agent, a buyer, and a merchant jointly process a purchase.
Important for your internal discussion: OpenAI is not the merchant in this process. The store remains the contracting party, processes payments through its own payment service provider, and is responsible for shipping, returns, and customer support. The protocol consists of three workflows.
| Building block | What Happens | Your Adjustment Screw |
|---|---|---|
| Product Feed | The merchant provides a regularly updated feed in CSV or JSON format. It includes product IDs, descriptions, prices, inventory, media, and shipping options. | Very important. Data quality determines visibility. |
| Agentic Checkout | ChatGPT collects buyer and shipping information and calls the merchant's endpoints. The merchant verifies the information, calculates taxes, and either accepts or rejects the order. | Resources. Relevant only to authorized partners. |
| Delegated Payment | OpenAI generates a one-time payment token with a maximum amount and an expiration time. The merchant's payment service provider processes the transaction. | Minor. Currently, there is no urgency for action in the EU. |
The protocol is open. Even providers that don't use Stripe can use it. Microsoft Copilot and Google AI Mode now also rely on agent-based checkouts. However, a standard defined by two U.S. corporations remains a standard with a clear distribution of power. Whoever writes the specification sets the rules of the game.
Source: developers.openai.com/commerce, "Key Concepts" and "Best Practices" sections.
How to Improve Your Visibility in ChatGPT Shopping
You can't buy ChatGPT. There are currently no sponsored shopping results. However, you can still influence the selection through data and content. The following strategies come directly from the OpenAI documentation and our project work.
1. Keep product data accurate and complete
OpenAI recommends factual, concise product descriptions without promotional clichés. Required fields ensure that price and availability are displayed correctly. Optional fields such as categories, ratings, and high-quality media improve rankings and relevance. URLs must be valid and correctly encoded.
Here's a practical example: A garden equipment retailer often lists variants only as dropdown options. That's not enough for agents. Each purchasable variant needs its own ID, its own price, and its own images. Otherwise, the assistant will recommend the competitor whose data it understands.
2. Writing Content for Complex Purchasing Decisions
The study clearly shows where ChatGPT excels. Take advantage of that. Write comparison pages, decision-making guides, and honest use cases. Answer the question of who a product isn’t suitable for. These are exactly the kinds of passages that language models like to cite because they help people make decisions.
A mechanical engineering company in the Karlsruhe area has had good results with this approach. Instead of a data sheet page, they created a selection guide based on material, lot size, and cycle time. Since then, this page has been cited as a source in AI responses.
3. Check the technical foundation
No AI system will recommend a page it can’t read properly. Good on-page optimization therefore pays off twice: it helps with Google Search today and with any voice assistant tomorrow. Four areas are particularly important.
Structure:Buildeach page with a clear hierarchy. One H1 per page, followed by logically organized H2 and H3 headings. Descriptive URLs and a shallow click path help both people and machines. Structured data according to schema.org for products, offers, and reviews also provides clear, unambiguous facts rather than open-ended, interpretable text.
Content:Writecontent that fully answers a specific question, including on your most important product and category pages. A section that provides a clear answer is more likely to be cited than a superficial, broad overview. Keep product descriptions factual and up-to-date. Avoid thin pages that offer no added value of their own.
Site Speed:Fast loading times improve the user experience and search engine rankings. Optimize images, reduce unnecessary scripts, and use caching. Check your Core Web Vitals regularly. A score in the green zone isn’t a luxury—it’s a must.
Crawlability:TheOAI SearchBot must be allowed to crawl your pages. First, check your robots.txt file and the structure of your pages. A well-maintained XML sitemap, correct canonical tags, and working internal links ensure that important pages are found and correctly indexed. Fix broken redirects and error pages promptly.
4. Measure what can be measured
Create a segment in your analytics solution for referrers from chatgpt.com. Track sessions, time on site, and conversion rates separately from the rest of your traffic. Expect low numbers. The study cites less than 0.2 percent, and that figure is unlikely to change much in the short term.
Quality is more important than volume. Users from AI consulting often enter the customer journey late in the process. They have already made their choice. These sessions deserve their own KPIs.
Where Optimization Ends and Manipulation Begins
As soon as a channel shows promise for generating revenue, shortcuts start to appear. When it comes to language models, these shortcuts are shockingly cheap.
Researchers at Harvard University demonstrated this as early as 2024. Aounon Kumar and Himabindu Lakkaraju added what is known as a “strategic text sequence” to product pages. This carefully crafted text block consistently pushed products to the top of the model’s recommendations. The authors issue a clear warning about the implications for fair competition.
The practice has long since evolved. In June 2026, Golem reported on systematic manipulation of Reddit. Agencies flood forums with seemingly organic posts to sneak brand mentions into the language models’ sources. To do this, they use paid, real accounts or repurposed profiles with credible histories. In the subreddit r/Biohackers, moderators subsequently restricted entire topic areas.
Important Note
Our assessment—and it’s an uncomfortable one—is that these methods work in the short term. Nevertheless, they’re just backlink buying in a new guise. Platforms and models are learning from this, and the bill will come due later. In the healthcare sector, such campaigns also cause real harm. We don’t use them and actively advise our clients against them.
There is a legitimate core to this. Visibility on forums, industry portals, and review platforms really does matter. The difference lies in the intent. Contribute with genuine expertise under your real name. It takes longer, but the effects last longer.
Stay Calm, Clean Up Your Data
ChatGPT Shopping isn't going to transform e-commerce overnight. The figures from the Frankfurt School back this up. OpenAI itself has rolled back Instant Checkout because retailers and users weren't on board. Anyone trying to sell you an urgent AI-commerce transformation right now is mainly selling consulting services.
At the same time, it would be wrong to just sit back and wait. The groundwork is just like doing your homework well in SEO. Clean product data, honest comparison content, and crawlable pages make a difference today in Google Search and tomorrow in every voice assistant. This investment doesn’t go to waste.
One critical issue remains. A single U.S. corporation, in collaboration with a payment service provider, sets the standard for agency-based shopping. Under this model, a system determines which three providers a customer actually sees. This concentration is significantly more limited than a Google results page with ten listings. Therefore, continue to build out the channels you own. Newsletters, existing customers, and your own website remain your most secure foundation.
Our specific advice for the coming weeks: Continue with traditional SEO optimization for your online store. This will also help you with AI search. Optimize your product feed, export it, and review it as if you were a stranger. If any information is missing, your product will be omitted from the recommendations later on.
Questions and Answers on AI Shopping:
Is ChatGPT Shopping available in Germany?
You can use the advice and comparison features without restriction in Germany. Prices are displayed in euros, and ChatGPT provides links to German retailers. Purchases are always completed in the online store. There are currently no plans to include a standalone checkout process within ChatGPT.
Can I purchase spots on ChatGPT Shopping?
There are currently no sponsored placements in the shopping recommendations. At the same time, OpenAI is testing ad formats in ChatGPT. You should consider these two separately and keep an eye on how they develop.
What exactly is the Agentic Commerce Protocol?
The ACP is an open standard developed by OpenAI and Stripe. It governs how AI agents read product data, forward orders to merchants, and process payments using tokens. The merchant remains the customer's contractual partner.
How much revenue does ChatGPT Shopping generate today?
According to the Frankfurt School study, traffic generated by language models accounts for less than 0.2 percent of total traffic. However, conversion rates are rising. For products that require explanation, the contribution is higher than for standard products.
Do I need a product feed for OpenAI?
The official feed is currently available only to authorized partners. Nevertheless, it makes sense to have a clean, complete feed. You’re already using it for Google Shopping and price comparison sites, so you’ll be ready to go as soon as it’s made available to the public.
Will blocking AI crawlers hurt my ranking?
Your Google ranking will not be affected. However, you will forgo any mention in ChatGPT responses. You should make this decision deliberately and not leave it to the whims of an outdated robots.txt file.
Would you like to prepare your company for ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews today?
Paseo Marketing, based in Karlsruhe, provides honest, peer-to-peer consulting to German companies, small and medium-sized businesses, and B2B "hidden champions." We don't shy away from addressing uncomfortable issues and work with you to implement solutions. Request your free initial consultation now!
Alexander Keller
Chief Search Architect
kontakt@paseo-marketing.de
0721 – 911010
