Gen AI comes for online checkout, seismic shift for internet shopping

In the world of online payments, the word in fashion today is friction, because companies attract customers with increasingly practical online payment options. Think of the online equivalent of a biometric hand wave: the less the stages involved, the more customers will buy, according to experts. For this purpose, the growing presence of a generative AI such as Chatgpt in the purchase ecosystem could then take a form which has a seismic impact on the economic model of the Internet retail.

Currently, a search for a large coat of London fog on Chatgpt will display a purchase option, but you must always click on the London Fog site to complete the transaction. But that could soon change.

Gen Ai Search Engine Perplexity already has an agreement with Paypal for this type of function, allowing online buyers to make purchases such as concert tickets and trips directly in the cat, with payments completed with Paypal or Venmo, and Paypal managing treatment, shipping, monitoring and invoicing.

The Financial Times reported last month that a The integrated payment system arrives at Chatgptwith partners such as ShopSo that users can finish the transaction within the platform. Traders will pay a commission in Openai. OPENAI and Shopify have not confirmed the plans. AI has already worked with Shopify on an AI assistant For Internet sales.

OPENAI has already deployed several features designed to improve purchases and other consumption experiences, and experts affirm that in one form or another, this general use of General AI in the future of retail should be expected, and companies must plan the consequences today.

“Allow customers to buy without leaving the cat will have a significant impact on the sales cycle,” said Elizabeth Perkins, professor of business administration and economics at Roanoke College. But she added that from the point of view of marketing, each time you consolidate or eliminate part of the purchase cycle, you bring your customer closer to spend money. “More time takes time. Customers get what they want more quickly, with less hassle, and honestly, with less chance of changing their mind,” said Perkins.

A threat to banks, Venmo, Paypal, Apple Pay?

Perikins says that payment interfaces like Venmo or Apple Pay could be disrupted. But Paul McAdam, main director of bank intelligence of JD Power, says that he thinks that if the cash capabilities of IAI will disturb the cash system, the big players will find a way to stay in the game.

“This is another competitor in search of a slice of pie. It will be fascinating to see how the banks react to this. There will be a shaking”, but he added: “Paypal, Apple and Google are quite well rooted, so I don’t think they go anywhere.

HAS ebayPayment for AI is not considered a threat, but as a sign of additional innovation in the industry.

“The AI turns out to speed up workflows and generate ideas. We think that real magic lies in the mixture of this speed and evolution with communities of trust, experts and exciting,” said Blair Ethington, vice-president of the categories of development of the company and the division of the experience of buyers.

Ethington says that Ebay will invest massively in an increased IA experience at the cash register which offers choices of hyper-personalized products in real time and advice set on the purchase preferences of each buyer. “In the end, we believe that our scale, our unique inventory and our community of confidence position us extremely well to prosper in the future of agent trade,” said Ethington.

Paypal highlighted its agreement with perplexity as a sign of its embrace of the Gen Ai function rather than considering it as a threat. “We associate ourselves with some of the greatest players in this space, such as perplexity, to offer personalized, secure and transparent payments and business experiences to our network of more than 400 million consumers and merchants worldwide,” said a Paypal spokesperson.

In one form or another, the online payment experience is ripe for change, according to Dee Waddell, World CEO of travel and transport industries at IBM. “Consumers are no longer satisfied with the status quo,” said Waddell, citing a recent IBM study This shows that 14% of consumers say they are satisfied with their electronic commerce experience. “They require transparent and hyper personalized experiences through each point of contact, and retailers must look at AI to meet these expectations,” said Waddell.

IBMRetail customers of the priority prioritize AI to provide a transparent experience throughout the customer journey. “I believe that we are at the dawn of a revolution, where generative AI platforms such as Chatgpt will act as” personal assistants “to rationalize the digital purchasing experience from the discovery of development products,” said Waddell.

Control the pre-sale of the future

The online shopping experience of the future could present a consumer at Chatgpt or at the Claude d’Anthropic to ask for gift ideas. Then Waddell says that, without ever leaving the cat, they will receive personalized recommendations, will easily confirm their payment method, check their shipping address and finish the purchase.

“In this new model, the AI personal assistant becomes the market. This means that retailers will have to solidify their ecosystem and their channel strategies,” said Waddell, adding that companies will have to associate with channel suppliers who wish to work with generative AI companies or go directly to the AI suppliers themselves. “It will be a key element to remain relevant and offer the integrated purchasing experiences that consumers demand,” said Waddell.

Alex Graf, co-founder and CEO of Digital Commerce Platform Spryker and author of “”The book of electronic commerce, “says it is the beginning of a seismic change in the way people will buy online. But he says that emphasis on the threat of payment processors is lacking the biggest disruptive result of change.

“We are witnessing a structural change in the chain of electronic commerce value, and Chatgpt is just at the center. More and more, said Graf, it will be Chatgpt and Claude who will guide the discovery, the choice of implementation and decision -making for customers.

“For e -commerce players who have relied on the surveillance time ” to keep users to navigate, like Amazon, Etsy or even Shopify Storefront, it is an existential threat,” said Graf.

“Users who previously started their research on electronic commerce platforms are now starting with AI.

“Amazon’s most profitable activity is not privileged or AWS, these are the retail media,” said Graf.

Amazon Invests massively in its own AI generating features for purchases and has made significant investments in the general’s companies of the General, notably Anthropic.

Graf says that when a Gen Ai like Chatgpt becomes the “new home page” of trade, he does not need to sell products directly.

“He just needs to have surveillance time, then monetize via paid internships, affiliate links and product recommendations, as is Amazon internally. This reduces the billions of potential retail media towards anyone who has this conversational layer,” said Graf.

Amazon’s advertising activity was a bright point in income during recent quarters.

Graf says that fintech players like Paypal or Zelle, the online payment application managed by a consortium of large banks, will be impacted, but indirectly. Once the Chatppt, or the agents of similar IA, the angle purchases from start to finish, there is less space for third -party payment tools.

“Integrated systems or native wallets can eat this pie of pie over time,” said Graf.

The ultimate winners, he says, will be those who will be able to monetize attention and intention, not only transactions.