OpenAI is charging premium fees, such as a 4% take rate on Shopify sales and ad CPMs three times higher than Meta's. This signals a value-based strategy, betting that high-intent AI users will deliver superior conversion rates that justify the hefty premium over established digital platforms.

Large brands like Target are using ChatGPT apps as high-intent lead generators rather than for full-funnel transactions. The app helps users build a shopping cart within the chat interface and then hands them off to the main website to complete the purchase. This reduces integration complexity while capturing high-value users.

For OpenAI's commerce features to succeed, it's not enough to build one-click checkout. They must fundamentally retrain hundreds of millions of users to trust a new purchasing workflow inside a chatbot, breaking deeply ingrained habits of searching on ChatGPT then buying on Google or Amazon.

Unlike Meta or Google, OpenAI's early ad offering for ChatGPT will not provide detailed attribution data or conversion tracking. Advertisers will only receive high-level metrics like impressions and clicks, a significant step back from the granular performance measurement they are accustomed to.

While a 4% fee seems reasonable for new customer acquisition, it becomes a burden if users who discovered a product organically then use ChatGPT for checkout convenience. This dynamic forces merchants to pay OpenAI for customers they didn't acquire through the platform.

OpenAI's 4% fee for in-app purchases creates a risk for merchants. If consumers start using ChatGPT as their primary purchasing interface, it could intercept sales that originated from a brand's own marketing. A customer might see a product elsewhere, then buy it via ChatGPT, imposing a new tax on an otherwise organic conversion.

OpenAI's partnership with Stripe to enable in-app purchases transforms ChatGPT from an information tool into a transactional platform. This creates a frictionless sales channel for e-commerce brands, directly challenging Google's established search-to-purchase business model.

Instead of traditional cost-per-click models, ChatGPT could pioneer a "verified outcome" system where advertisers pay only upon a completed transaction and user satisfaction. This would inherently favor advertisers with superior products that lead to actual conversions, improving ad quality and relevance for all users.

While large retailers will adopt Google's in-app AI checkout, smaller D2C brands face a tough choice. Participating means ceding control of branding and the customer relationship, but sitting out risks becoming invisible as shopper behavior shifts to AI-native purchasing, making it difficult to catch up later.