Back in faculty, my beloved LED star string lights from Ikea made my dorm room a complete vibe. When visitors left, these lights had been all they may speak about. However, Ikea stopped promoting these particular lights by the point mine died (for good).
I searched Google and Amazon for comparable lights for a few years earlier than letting them go, bummed that these lights I beloved can be only a blast from the previous.
My curiosity was sparked when OpenAI introduced new buying options for ChatGPT search on Monday. You can now search and examine product choices and buy gadgets by the ChatGPT search interface.
Could ChatGPT actually make my on-line buying expertise higher? Learn how the brand new buying options in ChatGPT search work and see how I used them to seek for my long-lost favourite lights.
Read extra: ChatGPT Search Improves Its Shopping Experience
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s dad or mum firm, in April filed a lawsuit towards OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in coaching and working its AI methods.)
Who can use ChatGPT’s new buying options?
Anyone can use the brand new buying leads to ChatGPT search. It does not matter whether or not you are a free or paid consumer. It will even work in case you’re not signed in to a ChatGPT account.
If you do occur to log in, ChatGPT search remembers your historical past, and the service will tailor your buying outcomes to create customized suggestions for you the extra you utilize it. But to check the hype, I did not use a login.
Read extra: ChatGPT Plus Is Free for College Students Right Now. Here’s What You Get
Shopping
We’re experimenting with making buying easier and quicker to search out, examine, and purchase merchandise in ChatGPT.
✅ Improved product outcomes
✅ Visual product particulars, pricing, and evaluations
✅ Direct hyperlinks to purchase
Product outcomes are chosen independently and aren’t adverts.… pic.twitter.com/PkZwsTxJUj— OpenAI (@OpenAI) April 28, 2025
How do the brand new ChatGPT buying options work?
When you enter a immediate into ChatGPT that appears to be associated to buying — akin to, “Where can I purchase Beats noise-canceling headphones?” or, “What are the top-rated robotic vacuums?” — you may even see built-in buying leads to ChatGPT’s response.
Along with product descriptions, pricing and hyperlinks to retailers for buy, ChatGPT can even present customized product picks, visible product data and product evaluations.
The buying options in ChatGPT are presently restricted to electronics, residence items, vogue and wonder merchandise, however OpenAI plans to broaden these buying queries into extra classes.
Product listings in ChatGPT search aren’t sponsored, and OpenAI doesn’t presently obtain any income from the merchandise folks purchase by ChatGPT.
Enlarge Image
How I examined ChatGPT’s new buying options
I began with a simple immediate to make issues easy and correct. I did not wish to give ChatGPT Search any room for hallucinations or the chance to let me down.
Here’s what I typed: “Find me an reasonably priced handheld vacuum that is light-weight.” I wasn’t ready for what occurred subsequent, however I used to be completely happy with it.
Enlarge Image
After a few seconds of scouring the web, ChatGPT offered me with buying choices such as you would get on Google and a curated listing of its prime picks with quick evaluations. Sources had been listed on the finish of the outcomes if I wished to do a deeper dive.
When you see one thing you want, when you click on on the product, ChatGPT gives you with the place to purchase it and a brief description. I used to be low-key impressed by this preliminary take a look at.
Finding my beloved LED star sting lights
Now that I knew what ChatGPT may do for buying outcomes, I needed to know if the brand new buying function may lastly discover these lights I’d been looking for.
I typed on this immediate: “Find me a string of LED star lights that change colours like those from Ikea years in the past.”
Cue the nostalgia!
The first choice in ChatGPT’s buying outcomes introduced again a rush of reminiscences. After a number of failed search makes an attempt on Google and Amazon, ChatGPT introduced it to me properly packaged.
I used to be so shocked that I did not even take into consideration tariffs, the worth or anything. I used to be ecstatic that OpenAI’s buying function not solely discovered what I had been looking for but additionally made the expertise straightforward.
I beloved not having to scroll by pages and pages of false results in discover what I wished. ChatGPT search gave me the end result I wished in a exact means. If you’ve a favourite product you simply cannot discover anyplace, you would possibly wish to attempt ChatGPT buying too.