The Future of Search Is Conversational: Why ChatGPT Product Discovery Matters for Your Brand

Artificial intelligence is reshaping how we shop, and conversational AI is leading the charge. From personalized recommendations to smart assistants, shoppers now expect real-time, intelligent interactions across every touchpoint.

Enter ChatGPT Product Discovery: a groundbreaking new way to find products through natural dialogue. Instead of sifting through static listings or typing in rigid search terms, customers can describe what they’re looking for in plain language, and ChatGPT responds with curated, relevant results.

What makes this different? These product listings aren’t paid placements or traditional ads. Instead, ChatGPT surfaces products organically by crawling structured, publicly available data from ecommerce websites. This shift makes high-quality product data more important than ever.

For businesses on BigCommerce, ensuring this data is accurate, optimized, and discoverable is simple, thanks to Feedonomics. Together, BigCommerce and Feedonomics provide a merchant-ready foundation for AI discovery across ChatGPT and beyond.

The final word

What is ChatGPT product discovery?

ChatGPT Product Discovery is a new way for shoppers to find products using natural language. Rather than relying on exact keywords or filters, customers can describe what they want in a conversational prompt, and ChatGPT returns product results that match.

Unlike traditional search engines or shopping platforms, these product recommendations are not ads. They don’t depend on bidding strategies or paid placements. Instead, ChatGPT surfaces products organically by crawling publicly available, structured data from ecommerce websites.

This approach makes accurate and well-structured product data essential. Clean titles, descriptions, pricing, availability, reviews, and other details help ChatGPT understand and match products to shopper queries.

BigCommerce brands can rely on Feedonomics to power these data feeds. With automated product feed management and channel optimization, Feedonomics ensures your product information is complete, up to date, and ready to be discovered, across ChatGPT and beyond.

Why ChatGPT Discovery matters for merchants

Today’s shoppers expect more than just search results. They expect smart, personalized answers that match their intent. ChatGPT Discovery delivers on that expectation, transforming product search into a tailored, conversational experience.

For brands, the benefits are clear:

• Free organic visibility: Unlike Google Shopping ads or marketplace listings, ChatGPT product results don’t require ad spend.

• High-intent traffic: Shoppers using ChatGPT are often asking detailed, product-specific questions, meaning they’re already close to making a purchase.

• Early adopter advantage: Optimizing for ChatGPT now gives brands a head start while the space is still emerging.

• Improved customer experience: Conversational discovery feels more like a personal shopper than a traditional search bar, helping customers find the right fit faster.

To unlock these benefits, brands need accurate, up-to-date product data. Poor or incomplete data can lead to missed opportunities and lower visibility. With Feedonomics, BigCommerce brands can ensure their product feeds are fully optimized, minimizing errors and maximizing discoverability in ChatGPT and other AI-powered experiences.

How to Optimize for ChatGPT product discovery

As conversational AI becomes a new entry point for product discovery, brands need to take proactive steps to ensure their products are visible, relevant, and accurate. Unlike paid placements, ChatGPT results depend on the quality of your site’s structured data and how easily it can be crawled and interpreted.

To maximize your visibility in ChatGPT, follow these key best practices:

• Crawl access: Update your robots.txt file to allow OAI-SearchBot to crawl your site.

• Product schema: Implement JSON-LD markup to structure key product details like name, brand, description, price, availability, reviews, and images.

• Fresh data: Keep product information up to date. Feedonomics automates updates to prevent errors and inconsistencies across channels.

• OpenAI registration: Join OpenAI’s Product Discovery Program to increase the visibility of your catalog in ChatGPT and other AI tools.

• Contextual content: Add supporting content like FAQs, product guides, and comparison pages to help ChatGPT understand your offerings.

• Performance tracking: Use UTM parameters (e.g., utm_source=chatgpt.com) to monitor ChatGPT-driven traffic and measure conversions.

Ensure crawl access.

For your products to appear in ChatGPT, your website must be crawlable by OpenAI’s bot. Without crawl access, ChatGPT can’t read your site’s content or structured data.

To allow this, update your robots.txt file with the following lines:

• User-agent: OAI-SearchBot  

• Allow: /

This grants OpenAI permission to access your site and index product data for discovery. If you’re using a headless setup or multiple storefronts, make sure each domain includes this configuration.

Implement product schema.

Structured data helps ChatGPT understand your product catalog and surface relevant results. Use JSON-LD schema markup on your product pages to provide key product details in a machine-readable format.

Include the following attributes in your markup:

• Name, brand, and description: Clearly identify each product with a concise name, associated brand, and a meaningful product description.

• Price and availability: Show current pricing and stock status so customers see accurate and timely information.

• Ratings and reviews: Add aggregate ratings and review counts to highlight social proof.

• Product images: Include high-quality images to give shoppers a clear view of your product offerings.

Accurate schema ensures your data is both crawlable and contextually rich — two essentials for visibility in ChatGPT Product Discovery.

Keep data fresh.

ChatGPT surfaces products based on the most current information available. Outdated pricing, inventory levels, or product details can lead to missed opportunities or frustrated customers.

To stay visible and relevant, regularly update your product catalog across all channels. Feedonomics can automate this process by syncing pricing, stock status, and product attributes to ensure consistency and accuracy wherever your products appear.

Reliable data isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s a requirement for success in AI-driven discovery.

Register with OpenAI programs.

To boost visibility in ChatGPT Product Discovery, brands can participate in OpenAI’s Product Discovery Program. This initiative allows OpenAI to better understand and integrate your product catalog directly into its search experiences.

When available, merchants may also be able to register product feeds directly with OpenAI to further enhance indexing and visibility.

Taking part in these programs positions your brand for early access, improved discoverability, and deeper integration with emerging AI commerce tools.

Build contextual content.

Beyond structured data, context matters. Creating helpful, relevant content around your products helps ChatGPT understand the who, what, and why behind what you sell.

Focus on building content that answers real customer questions, such as:

• FAQs: Address common concerns about product use, sizing, compatibility, shipping, and returns.

• Buying guides: Help customers choose between similar products with side-by-side comparisons and use-case recommendations.

• How-to content: Explain how to get the most value from your products through tutorials, maintenance tips, or styling ideas.

This kind of content provides rich semantic signals that enhance product discoverability in ChatGPT. It also improves the overall shopping experience by delivering answers before a customer even clicks.

Track and analyze performance.

Understanding how ChatGPT impacts your traffic and sales is key to optimizing for it long-term. By adding UTM parameters to product URLs, you can track visits and conversions originating from ChatGPT.

For example, use a tag like utm_source=chatgpt.com to identify and measure referral traffic in your analytics platform. Combine this with performance metrics such as bounce rate, session duration, and conversion rate to get a clear picture of ChatGPT's impact.

This data helps you fine-tune your strategy, prioritize high-performing products, and make informed decisions about content and feed optimization.

ChatGPT vs traditional search and ads

As marketing channels evolve, brands are balancing paid performance with organic opportunities. ChatGPT Product Discovery introduces a new kind of organic reach — one that’s conversational, context-aware, and deeply personalized.

Here’s how it compares to traditional channels:

Unlike Google Shopping or Shopify’s on-site search, which rely on keyword matching and filters, ChatGPT surfaces product listings at no cost. Shoppers describe what they want in their own words, and ChatGPT delivers results based on structured data, not paid placement.

Rather than replacing traditional search and ads, ChatGPT complements them. Paid channels still offer scale, but conversational AI adds trust-building, customer-first experiences that drive conversions.

With Feedonomics, brands can manage both paid and organic product data from a single source of truth, ensuring consistency, accuracy, and performance across every channel.

How BigCommerce and Feedonomics supports AI product discovery

AI integrations.

BigCommerce is built to help brands stay ahead of ecommerce innovation, and that includes seamless integration with AI-driven tools like ChatGPT. Through its open architecture and flexible APIs, BigCommerce enables businesses to connect their storefronts with emerging AI applications for product discovery, personalization, customer service, and beyond.

Feedonomics enhances this ecosystem by feeding accurate, structured product data into AI platforms at scale. Whether you’re syncing with ChatGPT, voice search, or future AI shopping tools, the integration is made possible through clean data pipelines and powerful automation.

Together, BigCommerce and Feedonomics offer a scalable foundation for embracing AI, not as a bolt-on feature, but as a core part of your digital strategy.

Accurate and optimized product data.

In the world of AI-driven discovery, your product data is your storefront. ChatGPT and similar tools rely on structured, machine-readable information to understand what you sell and when to show it.

That’s why data quality isn’t optional, it’s foundational.

With BigCommerce and Feedonomics, brands can ensure their product feeds are complete, consistent, and continually updated. Feedonomics automates the process of transforming raw product data into optimized, channel-ready feeds that meet the standards of AI platforms like ChatGPT.

From clean titles and descriptions to accurate pricing, availability, and reviews, every detail matters. The better your data, the more discoverable your products become, across ChatGPT, AI search experiences, and traditional engines alike.

Future-proof scalability.

As AI continues to reshape ecommerce, brands need a platform and infrastructure that can adapt quickly. BigCommerce offers the flexibility and scalability to support growth, not just today, but as shopping behavior and technology evolve.

Its flexibility allows for rapid integration with new tools, including emerging AI solutions. Whether you're expanding into new channels, adopting headless commerce, or experimenting with personalized shopping experiences, BigCommerce provides the agility to scale without compromise.

Feedonomics adds another layer of future-readiness by streamlining product data management across every touchpoint. As AI-powered discovery becomes more prominent, Feedonomics ensures your product information is always optimized, regardless of how many SKUs, storefronts, or markets you manage.

Together, BigCommerce and Feedonomics help you stay competitive in an AI-driven future, without rebuilding your tech stack from scratch.

The final word

ChatGPT Product Discovery represents a major shift in how customers search and shop online. It’s no longer about typing the right keyword, it’s about having a conversation. For brands, this means new opportunities to connect with high-intent shoppers organically, without relying solely on paid ads.

But discovery through AI depends on one thing above all: data. Clean, structured, and up-to-date product information is what powers visibility in ChatGPT and future AI experiences.

With BigCommerce and Feedonomics, brands get the tools they need to compete in this new landscape. From scalable ecommerce infrastructure to automated feed optimization, you’re equipped to deliver accurate data, enable conversational discovery, and grow across every channel that comes next.

The future of product search is conversational. Make sure your products are ready to be found.

FAQs about ChatGPT product discovery

How does ChatGPT decide which products to recommend first?

ChatGPT recommends products based on relevance, not paid placement. It analyzes the shopper’s query and matches it to structured, publicly available product data from ecommerce websites.

• Factors that influence product visibility include:

• How clearly the product is described using schema markup

• The completeness of the data (e.g., price, availability, reviews)

• How closely the product aligns with the user’s intent

• The overall structure and accessibility of your website for crawling

Products that are accurately described, well-structured, and contextually relevant are more likely to be recommended first.

Can product reviews or ratings influence discovery in ChatGPT?

Yes, product reviews and ratings can play a role in ChatGPT’s product recommendations. When included in structured data (via schema markup), customer feedback provides valuable signals about product quality and trustworthiness.

ChatGPT may use this data to better match products to user intent, especially when shoppers ask for “top-rated” or “best-reviewed” items. Including accurate review counts and average star ratings in your product schema helps ensure your listings are fully represented in AI-powered discovery.

Does ChatGPT product discovery work for both B2C and B2B merchants?

Yes, ChatGPT Product Discovery can support both B2C and B2B use cases, as long as the product data is publicly available and properly structured.

For B2C brands, this means surfacing consumer-facing products with rich, crawlable content. For B2B brands, the opportunity lies in enabling discovery of wholesale products, bulk pricing, and industry-specific solutions.

With BigCommerce B2B Edition and Feedonomics, businesses can publish structured data tailored to their customer segments while ensuring accuracy across catalogs. Whether you're selling to individuals or business buyers, ChatGPT can help connect your products to high-intent shoppers through natural, conversational search.

Will optimizing for ChatGPT also improve my SEO elsewhere?

Yes, many of the same optimizations that help your products appear in ChatGPT, such as structured data, fresh content, and clear product descriptions, also support GEO and broader SEO performance.

By implementing JSON-LD schema, maintaining accurate product information, and building helpful content like FAQs and guides, you're improving how search engines like Google understand and rank your pages. These efforts enhance your visibility not just in ChatGPT, but across traditional search results, voice assistants, and shopping platforms.

In short, optimizing for ChatGPT is not a separate effort, it’s part of a future-ready SEO strategy.

Can I control which products ChatGPT surfaces from my catalog?

To some extent, yes. While you can't directly choose which products ChatGPT shows, you can influence discovery by controlling the data you make publicly available.

By using structured schema markup and keeping product information up to date, you guide ChatGPT toward the most relevant listings. You can also use your robots.txt file to allow or restrict crawl access to certain pages.

Feedonomics gives you even more control by helping you manage which products are included in your feeds, how they're formatted, and where they're distributed. This ensures that the right products are eligible for discovery, not just in ChatGPT, but across all your digital channels.

What challenges might merchants face with AI-driven discovery?

AI-driven discovery opens new opportunities, but it also comes with challenges that brands need to be prepared for:

• Data accuracy: Incomplete or outdated product information can hurt visibility and lead to poor customer experiences.

• Lack of control: You can’t pay to boost listings or directly control what ChatGPT surfaces, which means quality data and SEO matter more than ever.

• Technical readiness: Implementing schema markup and maintaining crawlability may require coordination across marketing and development teams.

• Content gaps: Without contextual content like FAQs or guides, your products may not align with conversational search queries.

With BigCommerce and Feedonomics, these challenges become manageable. Together, they provide the tools and automation needed to deliver clean data, ensure discoverability, and stay competitive in AI-powered environments.

How often should merchants update their product data for ChatGPT?

Product data should be updated as often as your inventory, pricing, or product details change. For most brands, this means daily, or even multiple times per day, to ensure accuracy across all channels, including ChatGPT.

Because ChatGPT relies on real-time or recently crawled data, outdated information can lead to missed opportunities or incorrect listings. Automated feed management with Feedonomics ensures your product data stays fresh and synchronized across your storefront and AI discovery platforms.

Staying up to date isn’t just about accuracy, it’s about staying competitive.

Are there privacy or compliance concerns with AI product discovery?

Yes, as with any digital technology, privacy and compliance should be considered when optimizing for AI discovery. ChatGPT surfaces only publicly available data, so sensitive or customer-specific information is not included in product recommendations.

However, it’s still important to ensure that:

• Your site complies with data protection regulations such as GDPR or CCPA.

• Structured data does not expose restricted or private product details.

• You review what content is accessible to crawlers through your robots.txt file.

BigCommerce offers built-in tools to help with compliance, and Feedonomics ensures that only the data you approve is distributed through your product feeds. Together, they help you balance discoverability with security and privacy best practices.

How can smaller merchants compete with enterprise brands in ChatGPT?

ChatGPT levels the playing field by focusing on data quality, not ad budgets. Since product recommendations are based on structured, crawlable content, not paid placements, smaller brands can compete effectively by optimizing their product data and content.

Here’s how smaller merchants can stand out:

• Use schema markup: Ensure product pages are structured and easy for ChatGPT to understand.

• Keep data fresh: Regular updates to pricing, inventory, and descriptions increase accuracy and visibility.

• Invest in helpful content: Build strong product descriptions, FAQs, and guides to provide context and match conversational queries.

• Leverage automation: Tools like Feedonomics make it easier to manage and optimize product feeds without a large team.

With the right foundation, smaller merchants can appear alongside enterprise brands in AI-driven search, based entirely on relevance and product quality.

What should ecommerce brands include in their AI discovery strategy beyond ChatGPT?

ChatGPT Product Discovery is a powerful new feature, but it’s only one part of a broader shift toward conversational commerce. Ecommerce brands should prepare for discovery across multiple AI platforms, including tools like Perplexity, Google Search enhancements, and even AI-powered features on Amazon, each using its own algorithm to interpret shopper intent.

To stay ahead, focus on:

• Structuring your product data with clear product titles and metadata

• Using a flexible ecommerce platform like BigCommerce

• Syncing accurate feeds via plugins or tools like Feedonomics

• Tracking performance with Google Analytics to measure impact across channels

• Enhancing customer engagement with chatbots and other AI-driven interfaces

A forward-looking strategy blends generative AI, real-time analytics, and scalable infrastructure, giving brands a competitive edge across both established and emerging touchpoints.

How can brands measure the impact of AI discovery tools like ChatGPT?

As more shoppers engage with AI platforms, ecommerce brands need reliable ways to track and optimize performance. Start by adding UTM parameters (such as utm_source=chatgpt.com) to your product links to measure traffic and conversions from ChatGPT in Google Analytics.

Feedonomics helps ensure consistent metadata and product feed quality, so performance metrics aren’t skewed by outdated or mismatched content. Brands using plugins or chatbots can also analyze engagement data to refine product suggestions and content strategy.

The goal isn’t just visibility, it’s clarity. With the right analytics, ecommerce brands can better understand how tools like ChatGPT, Amazon, or even Perplexity contribute to conversion and growth.