This week ChatGPT started selling ads built from Shopify product catalogs - the same product information its assistant already reads for free. The ads are new, aimed at US stores and getting rough early reviews. The bigger point sits underneath. Paid or not, what ChatGPT shows about your products comes from your product data, so that is still the place to put your effort first.
ChatGPT Ads now run off your Shopify catalog
Shopify President Harley Finkelstein announced on 16 September that ChatGPT Ads for Shopify are live, with Shopify as OpenAI's first commerce partner. OpenAI built the ChatGPT Ads app, and it is free to install. It sends your product list to ChatGPT, builds ads from your product information and reports results inside your Shopify admin. It also adds a small piece of tracking code so you can see which ads led to sales.
It is early days. When we checked, the app had 2.6 stars from 15 reviews, most of them one star. Every review we could see came from a US store. They mention products that won't sync, accounts that won't connect, and ads that can only target the whole of the US. We couldn't tell from the listing whether New Zealand stores can run campaigns yet.
For a NZ store there is nothing to do this week, unless you already sell into the US and want to try a small budget. The useful part is that ChatGPT now reads your Shopify product data for its ads as well as for its everyday answers. Clear titles, accurate product types and categories, and complete size and colour options help with both. If you do try the ads, keep that traffic separate from the visitors ChatGPT sends you for free in your reports. Otherwise you won't be able to tell which one is working.
AI shopping assistants can now look for products with video
A smaller change happened behind the scenes. Shopify's Catalog is the product list AI assistants search when they shop across Shopify stores. It can now include product videos and 3D models as well as photos, and an assistant can ask for only the products that have one. Shopify mentions uses like virtual try-on. It is still being tested and isn't switched on for everyone yet.
Keep two things in mind. This lets an assistant look for video, but we haven't seen any evidence that an AI assistant ranks products with video higher. Shopify also says that some Catalog details are filled in by its own AI, and they are only as good as the product information you give it.
If your product videos live only on YouTube or Vimeo, check how many of your products have a video attached in Shopify itself. That is the version assistants can now see. We wouldn't make new videos just for this, but we would make sure the videos you already have are attached to the right products.
AI uses your store for buying questions and official sources for advice
Semrush, a company that sells AI visibility tracking, published a short study on where AI assistants get their information when health or money is involved. It compared 22 consumer topics across ChatGPT, Google's AI Mode and AI Overviews, and Gemini, using US data checked against the UK. The full figures sit behind a sign-up form and the markets aren't ours, so take it as a general direction rather than hard numbers.
Here is what Semrush and an independent summary report. On high-stakes topics, every assistant leans on government and official sources. Store and brand websites get quoted when someone is choosing a product or provider, and much less when they want advice. Google's AI Overviews stick to a small set of trusted sites, while ChatGPT pulls from a much wider range.
If you sell supplements, skincare, baby products or anything close to health or money, expect official NZ sources to answer the "is this safe?" and "what should I do?" questions. Don't spend money trying to change that. Your product and collection pages are for the "which one should I buy?" questions, which is where a store makes its sales anyway. It is also why a single score for how often AI mentions you can hide a lot. Asking which assistant, and which kind of question, tells you more.
Also this week
The Shopify admin has a new look rolling out from 15 September. Search and notifications have moved into the side menu, and Sidekick, Shopify's built-in AI assistant, now opens as a floating chat window. Nothing about how your store works changes.
What we're watching
- Whether ChatGPT Ads opens to New Zealand stores, and whether the early sync problems settle. We'll treat this as unconfirmed until the app listing or Shopify's help pages say so.
- The full figures in Semrush's report, and whether an independent study finds the same split between advice and buying questions.
- Whether any AI assistant starts using the new video filter in answers people actually see.
If you're not sure how your product data looks to these assistants, an AI readiness audit is one way to find out.
Sources
- Harley Finkelstein (Shopify), post on X announcing ChatGPT Ads for Shopify, 16 Sep 2026 - https://x.com/harleyf/status/2100300851705450965
- OpenAI, ChatGPT Ads app listing and reviews, Shopify App Store, accessed 25 Sep 2026 - https://apps.shopify.com/chatgptads
- Shopify, "Filter Catalog search results by media type", developer changelog, 15 Sep 2026 - https://shopify.dev/changelog/filter-catalog-search-results-by-media-type
- Shopify, "About Catalogs", developer docs - https://shopify.dev/docs/agents/catalog
- Semrush, "Mini Study: Your Money or Your Life - AI Citation Patterns When Stakes Are Highest", September 2026 - https://ai-visibility-index.semrush.com/downloads/your-money-your-life
- Scalevise, "Semrush Study: AI Citations Vary by Query Stakes", 17 Sep 2026 - https://scalevise.com/resources/semrush-ai-search-citation-patterns-ymyl-queries/
- Shopify, "Prepare your app for the Shopify admin's new look", developer changelog, Sep 2026 - https://shopify.dev/changelog/prepare-your-app-for-the-shopify-admins-new-look
