OpenAI opened a new storefront inside ChatGPT on Tuesday. In a beta called Businesses in ChatGPT, owners can claim their business's profile, upload a product feed with prices and stock or connect a Shopify store, and see how often ChatGPT mentions them. Eligible US online shops and online service companies can also publish a Business Agent: a chatbot, built from information the business supplies, that answers shopper questions about its products and policies in a separate, labeled chat. ChatGPT reaches 1.2 billion people a week, Techstrong.ai reports(opens in a new tab), and claiming a profile and publishing an agent are free at launch.
For a small seller, the return is a new place to be found at no cost. Shoppers already ask ChatGPT what to buy. Until now, apart from Shopify stores whose catalogs already synced, a business had no direct way inside ChatGPT to correct what it said about its prices, stock or return policy. Now it can, and the agent can answer the follow-up question at the moment a shopper is deciding.
The limits matter as much as the offer. OpenAI says a claimed profile does not guarantee better placement or more sales; ChatGPT keeps choosing what to recommend. Free is for now: OpenAI's monetization team has left room to charge later, and businesses can already make their agent the landing page for a paid ChatGPT ad. Getting in takes work, too: whoever manages the profile has to pass an identity check through Persona, a verification service, before they can publish changes, connect a product feed, see the dashboard or create an agent.
The biggest gap is what you get to see. The dashboard shows website clicks, mentions and recurring topics over rolling 28-day windows, and only once enough shoppers engage to clear a privacy threshold. OpenAI says it does not share shoppers' conversations, or Business Agent chats, with businesses. So an agent will speak in your name about prices, shipping and refunds, and you will not read what it said. A wrong answer reaches you later as a complaint or a refund request.
If you sell online in the US, do three things this week. First, ask ChatGPT five questions a real customer would ask about your products, and note every wrong price, discontinued item or misstated policy; that list is what claiming the profile should fix. Second, before you publish an agent, write its guidelines to cover what it must never promise: discounts, delivery dates, refunds outside your policy. Third, since you will not see its chats, add ChatGPT as an option in your "how did you hear about us" question at checkout, and compare those orders with the dashboard's clicks after 28 days.
Action items
OpenAI opened a new storefront inside ChatGPT on Tuesday. In a beta called Businesses in ChatGPT, owners can claim their business's profile, upload a product feed with prices and stock or connect a Shopify store, and see how often ChatGPT mentions them. Eligible US online shops and online service companies can also publish a Business Agent: a chatbot, built from information the business supplies, that answers shopper questions about its products and policies in a separate, labeled chat. ChatGPT reaches 1.2 billion people a week, Techstrong.ai reports, and claiming a profile and publishing an agent are free at launch.
For a small seller, the return is a new place to be found at no cost. Shoppers already ask ChatGPT what to buy. Until now, apart from Shopify stores whose catalogs already synced, a business had no direct way inside ChatGPT to correct what it said about its prices, stock or return policy. Now it can, and the agent can answer the follow-up question at the moment a shopper is deciding.
The limits matter as much as the offer. OpenAI says a claimed profile does not guarantee better placement or more sales; ChatGPT keeps choosing what to recommend. Free is for now: OpenAI's monetization team has left room to charge later, and businesses can already make their agent the landing page for a paid ChatGPT ad. Getting in takes work, too: whoever manages the profile has to pass an identity check through Persona, a verification service, before they can publish changes, connect a product feed, see the dashboard or create an agent.
The biggest gap is what you get to see. The dashboard shows website clicks, mentions and recurring topics over rolling 28-day windows, and only once enough shoppers engage to clear a privacy threshold. OpenAI says it does not share shoppers' conversations, or Business Agent chats, with businesses. So an agent will speak in your name about prices, shipping and refunds, and you will not read what it said. A wrong answer reaches you later as a complaint or a refund request.
If you sell online in the US, do three things this week. First, ask ChatGPT five questions a real customer would ask about your products, and note every wrong price, discontinued item or misstated policy; that list is what claiming the profile should fix. Second, before you publish an agent, write its guidelines to cover what it must never promise: discounts, delivery dates, refunds outside your policy. Third, since you will not see its chats, add ChatGPT as an option in your "how did you hear about us" question at checkout, and compare those orders with the dashboard's clicks after 28 days.
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