Walmart Let ChatGPT Handle Checkout. It Converted 3x Worse Than the Website.

title: "Walmart Let ChatGPT Handle Checkout. It Converted 3x Worse Than the Website." published: false tags: ai, webdev, programming, discuss Walmart allowed customers to purchase items directly in ChatGPT. Conversion rates were three times lower than those on the regular website. That's not a rounding error. It's a company deeming a function "dissatisfactory" and discarding it. 200,000 Products. One Chat Window. Zero Carts. Beginning in November, Walmart placed 200,000 items in OpenAI's Instant Checkout. The concept was straightforward: ask ChatGPT for an item, purchase it within the chat interface. No opening new tabs. No navigating through the website. Just chat and check out. It failed. Walmart's EVP of product and design, Daniel Danker, shared the stats. In-chat orders converted at a third of the rate of customers who clicked through to Walmart.com. The Issue Wasn't the AI. It Was User Experience. Instant Checkout only supported single-item transactions. Request for shampoo, buy s