Walmart said conversion rates for purchases made directly inside ChatGPT were three times lower than when users clicked through to its website.
Why we care. This suggests agentic commerce isn’t ready to replace traditional shopping. Sending users to owned environments still drives higher conversion rates.
The details. Starting in November, Walmart offered about 200,000 products through OpenAI’s Instant Checkout. Users could complete purchases inside ChatGPT without visiting Walmart’s site.
- Daniel Danker, Walmart’s EVP of product and design, said those in-chat purchases converted at one-third the rate of click-out transactions.
- He called the experience “unsatisfying” and confirmed Walmart is moving away from it.
Goodbye, Instant Checkout. Instant Checkout was designed to let users complete purchases directly inside ChatGPT without visiting a retailer’s website. However, earlier this month, OpenAI confirmed it was phasing out Instant Checkout in favor of app-based checkout handled by merchants.
What’s changing. Walmart will embed its own chatbot, Sparky, inside ChatGPT. Users will log into Walmart, sync carts across platforms, and complete purchases within Walmart’s system.
- A similar integration is coming to Google Gemini next month.
The WIRED report. Why Walmart and OpenAI Are Shaking Up Their Agentic Shopping Deal (subscription required)
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