ChatGPT Bots to Soon Help Shoppers Online – Will This Change eCommerce Globally?

Would you trust a ChatGPT bot to help you shop?

Interestingly, a recent Tom’s Guide article stated that 27% of Americans use chatbots like ChatGPT instead of traditional search engines like Google. And most of you reading this will admit they’re guilty of doing that.

But we can see why the trend is happening. It’s so much easier to ask ChatGPT, which searches multiple search engines in seconds and gives you your answer, rather than searching the pages yourself. You can ask it for the top-rated games on the Royal Panda casino, and you instantly know it.

Now, it seems it’s not only going to be for asking questions; OpenAI’s ChatGPT is exploring the option of helping shoppers online using ‘bots’.

Read on to learn about the news and how it could affect global eCommerce.

ChatGPT Bots for Shopping

The announcement comes from Visa, who stated they’ve pushed a development update that will allow shoppers to buy things from their chatbots and agents by embedding the Visa payment network into them.

The development is ongoing, still only in the early testing stage. Visa has listed OpenAI (ChatGPT), Microsoft, Anthropic, Mistral, and Perplexity as the designated partners. It’s arguably the most revolutionary change in the previous few years of eCommerce and will dramatically change how we shop.

Since Visa made the announcement, Mastercard and PayPal also revealed similar plans. According to Visa, their service will allow consumers to input their payment information into a chatbot once and follow a natural conversation with a virtual ‘AI agent’ to buy products and services.

What Will ChatGPT Do?

Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and whatever other services that follow are one story. ChatGPT will partner with Visa, but it also has its own ideas.

OpenAI announced it would add a ChatGPT shopping feature to its services. The upcoming update means consumers can see prices and reviews easily using the platform and personalise product recommendations and provide links.

Essentially, it sounds like everything a consumer would want. What’s interesting is that this would put ChatGPT more in line with Google. You can ask ChatGPT questions, but you can’t see live prices and Google products to buy like you can with Google. This move by OpenAI essentially makes it more like a Google search engine, which currently still dominates 89% of searches.

What Do Consumers Want?

Consumers want personalisation. According to McKinsey & Co., 71% of consumers want personalised experiences, and 76% feel frustrated when they don’t get them. The same source says companies growing faster get 40% more revenue from personalisation.

eMarketer also states consumers want better and more seamless access across digital and physical channels, and what ChatGPT is trying to do will definitely achieve that.

Another key trend is consumers wanting inspiration for purchases and to shop as quickly as possible. Again, this new AI chatbot development is in line with exactly what consumers want.

How Will it Change Global eCommerce?

The eCommerce space has already had its fair share of shakeups, but this? This could be a full-blown earthquake.

Imagine this. You’re chatting to an AI that sounds like a human, asks follow-up questions, learns your style, remembers your favourite brands, and shows you only what you want. You don’t need to scroll through twenty listings anymore. You just ask, and it fetches.

That means fewer abandoned carts. Faster checkouts. More impulse buys. All with a friendly little assistant in your pocket who doesn’t sleep and never forgets.

And from a global perspective, this isn’t just about ease. It’s about access. Small sellers who couldn’t afford big ad budgets can now rely on AI discovery. Consumers in remote locations get smarter shopping help. Language barriers shrink. Search friction melts.

What you’ll see is a domino effect. Retailers will scramble to integrate AI. Platforms will be redesigned. Countries that once lagged in tech will leap ahead.

We’re standing at the edge of something massive. ChatGPT shopping bots aren’t just another flashy feature — they’re a whole new way to experience retail. Frictionless. Personal. Fast.

For now, it’s early days. But soon enough, you’ll be chatting with a bot to book holidays, buy clothes, order food, and maybe even negotiate prices.