Buy it in ChatGPT

Transcript

Stop Worrying About AI Taking Your Job—Start Using It to Remove Friction and Lift Conversions

AI was pitched as a productivity tool (and it absolutely is), but when you can do more, you inevitably do more. Output per hour has exploded. Like email killed the typing pool, AI is changing which tasks exist at all. That means more slop will flood the web—but great work will also scale. The difference is how you use the tools.

Don’t Fear AI—Outpace It

If you’re using AI to amplify your output and quality, your job isn’t going anywhere. The real question is how others in your market are using the same tools. That’s where the next shift is already underway.

The Big Shift: Apps Inside ChatGPT (and What It Means for Ecommerce)

At OpenAI’s recent DevDay, a standout announcement was the Apps SDK—a way for app developers to bring full app experiences inside ChatGPT. Early examples include Booking.com, Expedia, Spotify, with DoorDash and Uber announced. Practically, this means a conversation like “Order me a high-protein dinner that fits my macros” could morph into a DoorDash-style interface right inside ChatGPT: cart, checkout, done.

Here’s the boost for retailers: ecommerce sites are apps—we just don’t call them that. With the SDK, the road is opening for checkouts to live inside ChatGPT. That lines up with the recent Shopify + OpenAI announcement about checkout availability in ChatGPT. We’ve already started prototyping Shopify storefront experiences in ChatGPT and testing flows across internal sandboxes.

Why it matters: research and purchase journeys are collapsing into one surface—the chat. Friction is vanishing.

Research Has Moved (Even If Your Reporting Hasn’t)

We’ve shown search phrases falling off a cliff in Google as users switch to AI for research. Personally, I used to sit on dozens of open Google tabs. Lately? I’ll have one, and it’s often a checkout. The actual research happens elsewhere—Grok, ChatGPT, Gemini.

A personal example: after a recent “60-year tune-up,” I fed Grok my blood tests, doctor’s notes, even X-rays. Grok helped figure out the right supplements based on a genetic mutation (sadly, no superpowers). The one missing piece? “Buy now” from within the session. That’s exactly the friction the Apps SDK removes for shoppers: answer questions, make a choice, one click to cart—all in context.

Real Data: ChatGPT Traffic Can Out-Convert Social

This week we saw a Shopify store (think replacement engineering parts) where ChatGPT-attributed revenue overtook Facebook (paid + organic combined). Facebook’s conversion rate was sub-1%; ChatGPT’s conversion rate was 3.47%. It’s not the bulk of their revenue—organic and paid search still lead—but it’s a clear signal: AI-sourced visitors arrive with higher intent. For parts buyers who are solving a specific problem, the chat medium fits the job-to-be-done perfectly. Imagine the lift when checkout happens inside the conversation.

What Not to Do: Old SEO Spam Still Gets You Burned

A client recently heard a “hack” to rank in ChatGPT: hide content in white text on a white background. If you’ve been with us since the mid-2000s, you know that’s classic keyword-stuffing. It can still get you penalised by Google, and it won’t help you with LLMs anyway. Don’t do it.

What To Do Now: UX, Brand, and Buyer Research—But for AI

The fundamentals haven’t changed; the stakes have:

1. Double down on UX.Remove friction from discovery to decision. If a buyer can resolve their key objections inside a chat, your site must mirror that clarity: comparison tables, compatibility guides, “will this fit?” checks, shipping/returns clarity, and fast, forgiving forms.
2. Answer real questions—everywhere.The queries your sales and support teams field daily are the same prompts people give AI. Build content that resolves those questions succinctly: how-to selectors, part finders, configurators, troubleshooting trees, and intent-led FAQs.
3. Structure your knowledge.Old-school SEO still matters: internal links, crawlable specs, clean schemas, descriptive headings. You’re not just helping Google—you’re signposting the LLMs that ingest your brand.
4. Prep for in-chat checkout.Map the “last mile” UX today: cart logic, bundles, refills, subscriptions, warranty add-ons. When the checkout surface shifts to ChatGPT (or elsewhere), you’ll want those decisions and up-sells ready to inject.
5. Measure the new channels.Track AI-sourced traffic and revenue (where possible) and watch direct traffic for anomalies—scrapers are noisy right now. Update attribution models, name your experiments, and annotate everything so you can actually learn.

Google Isn’t Dead—But It’s Different

Google’s still the gorilla, even as AI Overviews and “AI mode” remix the SERP. In our experience, AI Overviews isn’t great yet as a search interface. Gemini the product is strong; the search implementation still feels like a mismatch. For deep research, we’re frequently in Grok or the latest ChatGPT experience (which has improved markedly of late). The practical takeaway: keep investing in search, but don’t treat Google as the only game in town. Your buyers don’t.

Action Plan for Ecommerce Teams (This Week)

• Identify the top 10 buyer questionsyour team answers. Turn each into a fast, visual solution: comparison, spec check, fitment, compatibility, delivery timing, returns, financing, setup, and “what to buy instead when X is unavailable.”
• Shorten your forms.We’ve seen bloated forms (even asking for street addresses too early) kill leads. Ask only what you need to qualify and quote; earn the rest later.
• Prototype a chat-assisted checkout.Even if you can’t deploy an in-ChatGPT checkout yet, design your cart logic and upsells as modular steps that can plug into any front end—web, chat, kiosk.
• Create AI-ready content chunks.Spec sheets, warranty clauses, install guides—publish them as tidy, linkable sections LLMs can reference cleanly.
• Audit direct trafficweekly for spikes and weirdness. Scraping is up. Don’t let it pollute your decision-making.

Where This Is Headed

Chat will be the surface where research, recommendation, and purchase converge. The winners will be the brands that make buying effortless when the buyer’s intent is at its peak—inside the conversation. UX and brand credibility are the multipliers; AI is the amplifier.

Final Thought (and a Note on Channels)

I’m seeing clients pick up meaningful traffic from TikTok; I haven’t launched there yet, but it’s on the radar. Meanwhile, keep the feedback coming—YouTube, X, LinkedIn, Facebook. And seriously: check your direct traffic.

Ready to Turn AI Research into Revenue?

If you want help turning buyer questions into high-converting UX, preparing your store for in-chat checkout, or tracking AI-sourced conversions properly, let’s talk. We’ll assess your AI-readiness, prioritise the UX fixes that move revenue, and roadmap your Apps SDK opportunities for Shopify. Like, share, and drop your questions—then let’s build the frictionless version of your store. Want to chat? Contact us at [email protected]

Jim

Jim’s been here for a while, you know who he is.