- A new chatgpt shopping experience is launched for all users
- Early users have expressed dissatisfaction with the new recommendations
- Comparisons drawn to Corey Doctrows “Affiliation” concept
According to a new Reddit wire, some users are not happy with the new shopping features that are integrated into chatgpt and roll out now.
The new features make it easy to search for and buy consumer products online using chatgpts search function combined with its rich natural language.
Reddit -User ‘Kjfitz’, who started the thread, entitled it, “Enshittification has arrived” with reference to the notorious neologism, which is advanced by Cory Doctrow in a 2022 essay on Amazon, which is generally used to describe how commercial pressure causes the experience of using platforms such as Amazon, Google and Facebook to gradually dislike over time, as more. Monetization features are added.
“Enshittification” has arrived from R/Chatgpt
“I asked Chatgpt about the impact of the current tariffs on inventories in the next few months. It returned a long list of links to toiletries I might buy,” Kjfitz said. “I asked that why it did. It replied:
“From April 28, 2025, Openai introduced new shopping features to Chatgpt, which improved its options for giving product recommendations complete with pictures, reviews and direct purchase links. These features are available to all users, including them on free, plus and pro levels and even for users who are not logged in. For structures that are not structured.
“This update aims to offer a more personal and streamlined shopping experience directly in chatgpt -interface, giving users the opportunity to explore products across different categories such as fashion, beauty, electronics and home products. If you have any specific preferences or need tailor -made recommendations, you are welcome to tell me!”
Other Reddit users were quick to express their dissatisfaction with the new features. With reference to the announcement that “the recommendations are generated organically, without paid advertisements or commission-based incentives” User ‘Crystalline’ commented: “I give it less than six months before it changes.”
“Good God. Imagine the people who use chatgpt for mental health advice, and that begins to say” Do you know what will arrange your relationship with your children? Switch to Allstate, ”said Reddit user ‘Rosencranberry’.
A gradual deterioration
In 2024, Macquarie chose Dictionary, National Dictionary of Australia, “Anchoring” as the Word of the Year, which described it as “the gradual deterioration of a service or product created by a reduction in the quality of the provided service, especially of an online platform, and as a consequence of profit search.”
It should be noted that there are currently no paid ads or sponsored links associated with any of the shopping features in Chatgpt; However, there is nothing that stops being added in the future.
We are still in the early days of shopping features added to chatbots, and the AI search engine has already made some intervention to add shopping features, but this is the first time e-commerce features have been added to chatgpt search.
“We will continue to bring merchants along our travels, which we are quickly learning and itering,” said Openai, who comments on the launch of the new features yesterday.
