How to sell your products on ChatGPT in 2026

Contents

This article is for anyone who wants to understand how ChatGPT, the AI that kicked off a new technological revolution in 2022, decides what to show when users ask it to recommend something to buy.

Right now, anyone managing online advertising, product catalogues, SEO or communications in general has to add yet another skill to the list: knowing how to optimise their products to appear in chat when a user wants to make a purchase.

Let us look at how this works and how it will change the world of e-commerce. Spoiler: the changes do not happen on your website, but somewhere else entirely.

The problem for e-commerce

83% of products appearing in ChatGPT carousels match the organic results on Google Shopping, according to the Peec AI study across more than 43,000 listings. 60% of those matches come from the top 10 positions. (1) The study was independently confirmed by Semrush, which ran 100 purchase searches on ChatGPT: the product at the top of the ChatGPT carousel appeared among the top 3 organic results on Google Shopping in 75% of cases, with identical title, retailer name and price. (2, 3)

On the Google side, the numbers keep growing. AI Overviews appeared on 14% of shopping queries in April 2026, a sharp rise from the 2.1% recorded in November 2025, according to an analysis by Visibility Labs. (4) And there is more: traffic coming from ChatGPT converts 31% better than non-branded organic traffic, based on an analysis of 94 e-commerce sites across the whole of 2025. (5)

In short, the guidelines for optimising a feed for paid campaigns are not the same as those needed to get noticed by an AI during a user's AI Search query.

If you are more interested in the technical side, we covered it in a previous article. (1) Here, let us focus on whether it is worth it and what you are missing to appear in AI-generated searches.

The field study

Agency Tinuiti (9) worked with a major e-commerce brand to build a product feed dedicated to organic free listings, with titles and descriptions built around real user search behaviour. Results after launch:

• +92% in revenue from free listings in the product test

• +83% in organic visibility

• +14% in add-to-cart rate

• 35,000 impressions with a 1.4% CTR, 55% higher than the paid feed CTR in the same period

What does all this mean? That the approach did not stop at describing the product and how it is used, but focused on when someone should buy it (for which occasion) and what problem it solves.

Context is the foundation of a well-targeted search result. Do not focus too much on the product itself. Focus on the context in which it is used.

To give you an idea of how far context can take you: in India in the early 2000s, farmers protecting their crops from pests were told they did not need a pesticide. They just needed Coca-Cola. (10)

Context makes all the difference, and the result tends to be more efficient once there is more information to work with.

What to optimise in the feed

Not all attributes carry the same weight, so let us focus on the ones most relevant to AI-generated searches.

Titles: Google prioritises feed titles when matching products to queries (what people actually type), and the official Merchant Center documentation (7) confirms that including relevant attributes improves search matching. In other words, having a high Quality Score does not mean having titles that reflect the language of a conversational search.

GTIN (global product codes): according to GS1 UK, products with a GTIN receive up to 40% more impressions than those without. Google itself states that providing the correct GTIN can lead to a conversion rate increase of up to 20%. (6) GTINs are also the primary signal Google uses to aggregate reviews from different sources.

Images: still the most common reason for disapproval on Merchant Center. Products with multiple images see significantly higher engagement rates.

product_highlight and product_detail: structured attributes that feed the filters in organic results and help AI systems understand the product's context, distinguishing it from a generic listing.

The next step: Agentic Storefronts

Google has launched the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard for agentic commerce that covers the entire purchasing journey, from product discovery to post-sale support. UCP was co-developed with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart, and has the backing of more than 20 partners including Mastercard, Visa, Stripe and Zalando. (7)

The mechanism is direct: the Merchant Center feed is the source AI agents draw from to find products. (11) Brands that adopt UCP can enable direct purchases inside AI Mode and Gemini, without the user ever leaving the Google interface. Those without an optimised feed simply do not show up.

Google is also introducing new Merchant Center attributes designed for conversational purchasing, such as product FAQs, use cases, compatible accessories and substitute products. The rollout will begin with a limited group of retailers.

Worth noting: 24% of consumers are already comfortable with the idea of an AI agent making purchases on their behalf. Among Gen Z consumers, that figure rises to 32%. (8)

An internal organisation problem

Staying updated and paying attention is the key to remaining competitive and not being swallowed by a market that is increasingly driven by automation and decreasingly by creativity or intuition.

If some of this feels too technical, you are not wrong. But consider that all the previous articles written with more than thirty sources were read by practically no one, because too much information all at once tends to go nowhere.

Here at Duobu, we want you to keep pace with the times and find your footing in a landscape of algorithms and searches that are becoming more automated and less human by the day.

We will skip the "it would be better if" or "things were better before." The algorithm revolution is underway, and those who update in time will earn a front-row seat. Everyone else risks getting cut out of the market entirely.

If you would like to talk it through, there is a link below for a chat, whether that is about the French Revolution or your Merchant Center feed. At this point, the difference between the two is increasingly unclear.

To be honest, we would much rather be tracking what Hello Kitty is up to. But if you need help with the feed, we are here.

Did you enjoy the article?

Let us know what you think – we’re always up for a chat, and if there’s a chance we could work together, we’d be delighted

Sourses

1. Duobu (2026) - ChatGPT uses Google Shopping (not Bing) to show you the products it sells https://duobu.eu/en/chatgpt-google-shopping

2. Search Engine Land / Peec AI (2026) - ChatGPT sources 83% of its carousel products from Google Shopping via shopping query fan-outs https://searchengineland.com/new-finding-chatgpt-sources-83-of-its-carousel-products-from-google-shopping-via-shopping-query-fan-outs-470723

3. Semrush Blog (2026) - ChatGPT Searches Google Shopping to Create its Recommendations https://www.semrush.com/blog/chatgpt-searches-google-shopping/

4. Search Engine Land / Visibility Labs (2026) - Google AI Overviews now appear on 14% of shopping queries https://searchengineland.com/google-ai-overviews-shopping-queries-report-471981

5. Search Engine Land / Visibility Labs (2026) - ChatGPT ecommerce traffic converts 31% higher than non-branded organic search https://searchengineland.com/chatgpt-vs-non-branded-organic-search-conversions-470321

6. GS1 UK - Do GTINs help improve search engine visibility? https://www.gs1uk.org/knowledge-hub/do-gtins-help-improve-search-engine-visibility

7. Google Blog (2026) - New tech and tools for retailers to succeed in an agentic shopping era https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/agentic-commerce-ai-tools-protocol-retailers-platforms/

8. Exposure Ninja (2026) - AI Search Statistics for 2026: CMO Cheatsheet https://exposureninja.com/blog/ai-search-statistics/

9. Search Engine Land (2026) - Why product feeds need an organic strategy for AI search https://searchengineland.com/product-feeds-organic-strategy-ai-search-473793

10. The Guardian (2004) - Things grow better with Coke https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/nov/02/india.johnvidal

11. Duobu (2026) - Guide to Agentic Storefronts: Selling from Shopify on ChatGPT https://duobu.eu/en/guide-agentic-storefronts-shopify-chatgpt

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