The ChatGPT Shopping Revolution: What it Means for Your Google Shopping Ads

The e-commerce landscape is undergoing a seismic shift. OpenAI's ChatGPT in the last few months officially entered the shopping arena, offering a new, conversational way for users to discover and compare products. This isn't just another feature; it's a potential market shift that demands attention from every e-commerce retailer currently relying on Google Shopping Ads.

Traditionally, the buying journey often began with a Google search, leading users to product listings and merchant websites. ChatGPT's new shopping functionality, introduces an alternative: users can now search for, compare, and click through to purchase products directly within a conversational AI interface. A user would then receive a curated product recommendation with images, descriptions, reviews, and prices all within ChatGPT, bypassing traditional search results entirely.

The Potential Impact on Google Shopping Ads

This new paradigm presents both challenges and opportunities for advertisers. Here's how it might impact your Google Shopping Ads strategy:

• Decreased Click-Through Rates (CTRs) on Google Shopping Ads: If users are finding products directly within ChatGPT, the need to click on traditional Google Shopping Ads could diminish. Research already suggests a decline in mobile CTRs for e-commerce sites with the rise of AI-generated overviews.
• Shift in User Behaviour: A significant portion of the product discovery process could migrate to AI platforms. This "zero-click" behaviour means users get answers and suggestions directly from the AI, reducing traffic to your website from conventional search engines.
• New Competitive Space: Advertisers will need to adapt their strategies and potentially reallocate budgets to ensure visibility not just on Google, but also within AI-friendly environments like ChatGPT.
• Emphasis on Product Data Quality: ChatGPT and similar AI models prioritise factors like trustworthiness, customer reviews, delivery time, and return policies. This means the richness and accuracy of your product data, beyond just keywords, will become paramount.
• Reduced Visibility into Customer Research: With more users starting their product research in AI chatbots, gaining insights into their initial queries and decision-making processes might become more challenging for traditional analytics.

Getting Ahead: Strategies for E-commerce Retailers

While the landscape is evolving, e-commerce retailers can take proactive steps now to mitigate potential impacts and gain a competitive edge:

1. Optimise Product Data for AI Discovery (Generative Engine Optimisation - GEO):

   • Comprehensive & Structured Information: Ensure your product pages are rich in detail, using structured data markup (e.g., Schema.org for Product) to clearly communicate price, sizes, colours, stock, materials, and other attributes.
   • Context-Rich Descriptions: Go beyond keywords. Write detailed, natural-language product descriptions that answer common questions and provide valuable context. Think about how a human might describe the product to a friend.
   • High-Quality Visuals: Include multiple high-resolution images from various angles, and consider incorporating videos. AI can analyse visual attributes, so strong imagery is crucial.
   • FAQs and Q&As: Integrate dedicated FAQ sections on product pages. AI models are trained on conversational data, and readily available answers to common questions can increase your chances of being featured.

2. Harness the Power of Customer Reviews:

   • Encourage and Moderate Reviews: Actively prompt customers to leave reviews after purchase. AI systems heavily factor in customer ratings and reviews when recommending products.
   • Focus on Recency and Depth: ChatGPT's algorithms favour recent and detailed reviews. Encourage customers to elaborate on their experiences and specific product attributes (e.g., "size," "fit," "durability").
   • Showcase Verified Reviews: Authenticity builds trust. Highlight verified reviews to signal credibility to both users and AI.

3. Ensure AI Crawler Accessibility and Data Feeds:

   • Check Robots.txt: Make sure your robots.txt file does not block OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot. This crawler is essential for ChatGPT to discover and surface your products (this is easy to check, just search for https://your-domain.com/robots.txt adjusting domain, and look for any blocks of GPTBot or ChatGPT-User. If there isn't any, you're all good).
   • Register Interest with OpenAI: OpenAI is developing a direct product-feed system similar to Google Shopping. Sign up to be notified when merchant feed submissions open, giving you a direct line to list your products (we've linked to this at the bottom of the article).
   • Explore Microsoft Copilot Integration: Similarly, investigate and register for Microsoft's Copilot Merchant Program, as other AI platforms are also expanding their shopping capabilities.

4. Track and Analyse AI-Driven Traffic:

   • Monitor Referral Traffic: ChatGPT automatically includes the UTM parameter utm_source=chatgpt.com in referral URLs. Set up your analytics (e.g. Google Analytics 4) to track and analyse traffic and conversions originating from ChatGPT.
   • Identify "Dark Traffic": Be vigilant for increases in "direct/none" or "unassigned" traffic, especially to deep product pages or checkout. This could indicate traffic from AI systems that aren't yet fully tracked.

5. Embrace an Omnichannel, AI-First Mindset:

   • Beyond Google: Diversify your digital presence. While Google remains vital, consider how your brand can be discovered on other platforms where users are engaging with AI, such as social media, industry blogs, and podcasts.
   • Build Brand Authority: AI systems consider a brand's overall authority and positive sentiment across the web. Focus on building a strong brand narrative, fostering positive mentions, and securing coverage in reputable publications.
   • Test and Adapt: This is uncharted territory. Continuously test new strategies, monitor results, and be prepared to adapt your approach as AI shopping evolves. Early adopters who learn quickly will have a distinct advantage.

The emergence of shopping results in ChatGPT marks a significant evolution in how consumers discover and purchase products. While it may reshape the landscape for traditional Google Shopping Ads, it also presents new opportunities for e-commerce retailers who are proactive in optimising their product data, leveraging customer reviews, and embracing an AI-first approach to their digital strategy. The businesses that recognise this fundamental shift and adapt accordingly will be best positioned to thrive in the era of AI-powered commerce.

Our Final Thought

Keep the strategies in mind, keep your data clean, keep an eye on the product development from OpenAI. Whilst this potentially disrupts the market, Google vastly dominates in this area at the moment. They also have their own generative AI (Gemini), so there will very likely be a similar experience but within the Google ecosystem. That will likely be tapped into by utilising AI-first campaign types & features within Google Ads. At some point it is also likely OpenAI will adopt an advertising model so brands can pay to place - if/when that launches, RTN will be ready to help.

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading. Here's a little bonus: Get in early and sign up to OpenAI's Feed Submission Waitlist.