The two doors into the carousel
The first one is already open for most UK brands. OpenAI’s help centre states that for merchants on Shopify, product data is already integrated into ChatGPT through Shopify Catalog and that no additional work is required from individual merchants. Shopify’s own documentation says the ChatGPT channel is active by default for eligible stores. Eligibility is four things. You sell to customers in the US, your products are eligible for Shopify Catalog, you have agreed the Shopify Agentic Storefronts Supplemental Terms of Service and you have a terms of service, a privacy policy and a return and refund policy completed in admin.
Shopify is explicit that your store can be based outside the United States, so a London brand shipping to US customers qualifies. The second door is a direct feed. OpenAI’s commerce documentation says onboarding product feeds in ChatGPT is currently available to approved partners and points merchants at an application form. If you have already applied you are on the waitlist. OpenAI says it supports common formats and integrations including SFTP, APIs and leading commerce platforms and feed providers, with a self-serve merchant portal planned.
What ChatGPT is actually choosing between
OpenAI publishes its selection logic, which almost no other assistant does. The help centre states that product results are selected independently by ChatGPT and are not ads, nor influenced by any OpenAI partnerships. When it decides what to surface it considers structured metadata from first-party and third-party providers such as price and product description, other third-party content, model responses generated before any new search results and OpenAI safety standards and product policies. When you then select a product and see a list of sellers, OpenAI says merchants are ranked on factors like availability, price, quality and whether they are the maker or primary seller of that item.
Read that last clause again, because it is the one a brand can win. You are the maker. The only reason a reseller outranks you on your own product is that their data is cleaner than yours. So the job is unglamorous. Correct brand field, a title a human would recognise, every image, honest availability, a price that matches the page and review aggregates that describe the same population as the rating. Thin data on your own SKU hands the sale to somebody who bought it from you wholesale.
Where the order actually lands
OpenAI’s merchant page is now direct about the destination. It says the company is moving away from a standalone Instant Checkout experience in ChatGPT and prioritising better shopping discovery and merchant-owned checkout experiences, with purchases completed on merchant-owned websites or apps. It also states there are no fees on purchases that start in ChatGPT. So what you are competing for is a qualified referral into a funnel you own. Being named in the answer is the Search half of the job. The half that produces revenue is everything after the click.
Which makes the post-click detail commercial. Shopify documents that ChatGPT buyers complete the purchase on your online store checkout, opened in a ChatGPT in-app browser or in a new tab on the web. Test that path yourself on a phone, because an in-app browser breaks consent banners, analytics and wallet buttons more often than anybody expects. Check too that the price in the carousel matches the page, since OpenAI says prices come from third-party providers and there may be a delay before updates are reflected. A shopper who sees one price in the answer and another at checkout does not buy. That reconciliation work sits in Commerce.