Perplexity Adds New AI Shopping Features For Users And Retailers

Recently, the leader of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) took on the leader of online search engines.

On October 31, 2024, OpenAI announced that it was entering the search engine space to compete with Google with its new initiative—ChatGPT Search.

The new feature was made available only to ChatGPT Plus and Team users to try, along with waitlisted users (where the waitlist was closed soon after launch). This means that the service was available only to paying customers for the most part.

This move didn’t come out of the blue, as OpenAI had revealed the product in late July 2024, when it was initially called SearchGPT.

At the same time, the move wasn’t unprompted (pun intended), as popular search engines, including Google’s Chrome (which may be forced to find a new owner soon) and Microsoft’s Bing, integrated generative AI capabilities into their search engines to deliver better results.

In the spirit of cross-innovation, and as the competition in the search engine space tightens, Perplexity announced it was bringing new features to enhance shopping experiences for users and retailers.

“Perplexity is now a one-stop solution where you can research and purchase products,” is how the company summarizes its new capabilities through a blog post and video published on its website.

These features will be available only for users residing in the United States initially, while the company plans to roll out the enhanced shopping experiences to new markets soon.

Shopping Features For Users

Building at the basics, when a user asks Perplexity a shopping-related question, they’ll still get their answers first, which will be accompanied by easy-to-read product cards with the most relevant items and important details.

As per the company, these recommendations will remain unbiased, unsponsored and tailored to individual user queries.

This shopping experience is powered by platform integrations, including Shopify, which will provide a vast repository of recent and relevant information on products. This comprises of products that sell and ship to the US.

In addition to text-based searches, users can leverage Perplexity’s Snap to Shop feature, which is a visual search tool that shows users products by using a photo of an item.

Perplexity’s new Buy with Pro feature offers a first-of-its kind AI commerce experience, where users can check-out directly from its website or app.

Here, users must have their shipping and billing information saved with Perplexity. This one-click checkout feature is available for US users only, applies to only select products from select merchants. Users also get free shipping sponsored by Perplexity as a thank-you for using Buy with Pro.

“You no longer have to scroll through countless product reviews. Perplexity gives you comparisons in clear, everyday language, so you can narrow down the best choices quickly and confidently,” reads the blog post.

Perplexity also revealed that it has plans to bring in more features and special offers to users soon.

Shopping Features For Retailers

When it comes to merchants, Perplexity introduced the free Perplexity Merchant Program to streamline the exchange of product information with large retailers.

By signing on, retailers can benefit by gaining increased chances of featuring as a “recommended product”.

As Perplexity promises to remain unbiased in its search results, this move will help retailers feature higher because the chatbot will gain access to more robust details, allowing the AI company to determine if the product is better suited to a user’s query.

Joining in will enable retailers to be a part of Perplexity’s Buy with Pro one-click checkout experiences.

Retailers will gain free API access to build their own Perplexity-powered search experiences, refined to reflect only their products.

Retailers will be provided with a custom dashboard to garner insights into search and shopping trends associated with their products.

What do you think of Perplexity’s new shopping features? Do you think Perplexity will be able to challenge Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and others in the search engine market?

Let us know in the comments below!