OpenAI wants businesses to do more than appear in ChatGPT answers. It is giving them a way to speak directly with potential customers.
OpenAI launched Businesses in ChatGPT in beta on Nov. 10, allowing eligible companies to claim profiles, update business information, and view engagement insights. Business Agents, which answer customer questions, are initially available to eligible US ecommerce and online service businesses.
Turning those interactions into actual purchases, however, could be a bigger challenge.
Letting companies update profiles and track interest
Business owners and authorized representatives can claim an existing profile through Business Hub, using verification methods such as a company email or website domain. Once a claim is approved, representatives must complete a separate identity check through Persona before publishing changes.
Verified companies can then manage different parts of their ChatGPT presence.
- Business information. Update company descriptions and policies so customers can access more accurate information about their offerings.
- Product catalogs. Supply retail feeds containing prices and availability, which ChatGPT may use when answering shopping-related questions.
- Customer insights. Review how often company websites appear in responses, how frequently users click through, and which topics attract interest. Reports contain aggregated information without exposing individual conversations.
Business Agents can answer questions but cannot complete purchases
Customers who encounter a company in a ChatGPT response can open its profile and speak with its Business Agent. According to OpenAI, shoppers can ask about products, compare options, or learn about available services directly through the assistant.
Businesses can customize their agents with instructions and reference material to guide responses. Under the company policy, agents must identify themselves as company representatives, with conversations labeled separately from ordinary ChatGPT answers. Brands can also sponsor their assistants or use them as destinations for advertisements inside ChatGPT.
Agents cannot complete purchases, arrange bookings, or check existing orders. Shoppers must finish transactions through the merchant's website, even after researching products with ChatGPT.
What eWeek found: ChatGPT accounted for 0.07% of sampled orders
Approximately seven out of every 10,000 orders in Aimerce’s September 2026 research were attributed to ChatGPT. An eWeek calculation puts the share at 0.0687%, based on 13,246 ChatGPT-attributed orders out of 19,278,605 between May 19 and Sept. 16.
The research covers Shopify merchants using Aimerce, rather than retail as a whole. Its last-click attribution excludes purchases influenced by ChatGPT but completed through another route. The findings also predate Business Agents and do not measure their effectiveness.
Separate research from Adobe found that AI-referred shoppers performed better than other visitors to US retail websites in Sept. 2026.
Retail performance metric | AI-referred traffic compared with other visitors |
| Purchase conversion rate | 90% higher |
| Revenue per visit | 83% higher |
Note: Adobe's findings encompass multiple AI platforms and do not measure ChatGPT alone.
OpenAI previously attempted a more direct shopping experience through Instant Checkout, introduced last year to let eligible customers purchase products without leaving the chatbot. In a Mar. 2026 update, the company acknowledged that its initial checkout experience lacked the flexibility merchants wanted and refocused on product discovery through retailers' existing checkout systems.
What businesses should check before expanding
For businesses, the opportunity is to answer questions while customers are considering a purchase. Evaluating that opportunity requires checking both the quality of the agent’s answers and what happens after customers reach the website.
Claiming a profile does not guarantee greater visibility or control over ChatGPT’s independent recommendations. Business Hub provides aggregate engagement insights, but businesses do not receive individual customer conversations, including chats with their agents.
Before expanding a pilot, businesses should:
- Establish a baseline. Record ChatGPT-referred visits, completed purchases, and revenue per visit before launch.
- Check attribution. Aimerce found that 81.8% of ChatGPT-referred pageviews lacked an HTTP referrer. Check available referral and URL-tagging signals together rather than relying on the referrer alone.
- Test customer questions. Check answers about prices, availability, delivery, and returns against current business information.
- Assign an owner. Make someone responsible for updating source material and retesting answers when products or policies change.
Compare results over a defined period and account for promotions, advertising, and seasonal demand before crediting the agent with additional sales. The business case depends on whether those outcomes justify the effort required to maintain accurate answers.
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