Walmart’s Own Website Outperforms ChatGPT Checkout by 3x
▼ Summary
– Walmart’s test of agentic commerce showed purchases completed directly inside ChatGPT converted at roughly one-third the rate of transactions on Walmart’s own site.
– The company found the in-chat transaction experience “unsatisfying” and is already pulling back from OpenAI’s Instant Checkout feature.
– OpenAI is phasing out Instant Checkout in favor of merchant-controlled checkout experiences, handing transactions back to the retailer.
– Walmart’s next step is to embed its own chatbot, Sparky, inside ChatGPT to let users complete purchases within Walmart’s own system.
– The key takeaway is that while product discovery may move into AI interfaces, conversion still happens best where brands control the experience.
A recent real-world test by Walmart reveals a significant gap in performance between AI-powered checkout and traditional e-commerce platforms. The retail giant found that purchases completed directly within the ChatGPT interface converted at only about one-third the rate of transactions where customers were directed to Walmart’s own website. This stark difference highlights a 66% drop in conversion rates when the final purchase step is moved into an AI chat environment, suggesting that for now, agentic commerce is not yet ready to replace established shopping flows.
The experiment, which made roughly 200,000 products available through OpenAI’s Instant Checkout feature, allowed users to buy items without ever leaving the ChatGPT interface. According to Walmart’s executive vice president of product and design, Daniel Danker, the performance of these in-chat transactions was notably poor. He characterized the customer experience as “unsatisfying,” a finding that has prompted the company to scale back its involvement with the feature.
This outcome aligns with a broader industry pivot. OpenAI itself has started phasing out its Instant Checkout system, shifting its strategy toward merchant-controlled checkout experiences. The new approach involves the AI model facilitating product discovery and then seamlessly handing off the transaction to the retailer’s own platform to complete the purchase. This acknowledges that while AI can be excellent for browsing and questions, the final, critical step of converting a sale still heavily relies on a trusted and familiar environment.
Walmart’s next steps reflect this strategic direction. Rather than processing payments within ChatGPT, the company plans to embed its own AI assistant, named Sparky, into the platform. This integration will enable users to log into their existing Walmart accounts, synchronize their shopping carts, and finalize their purchases entirely within Walmart’s secure ecosystem. A similar integration is reportedly in development for Google’s Gemini AI as well.
The core insight from this test is clear. While AI interfaces are becoming powerful tools for product discovery and customer interaction, the actual conversion—turning interest into a sale—still predominantly occurs in environments where brands maintain full control over the user experience. Shoppers appear to need the context, trust signals, and streamlined processes that a retailer’s own website provides at the crucial moment of checkout. For businesses, this means the near-term focus should be on using AI to enhance and guide the shopping journey, while ensuring the transaction itself happens on a proven, optimized, and owned platform.
(Source: MarTech)
