A feed is not another product description
OpenAI’s commerce guide describes sharing a structured product feed as the starting point for product discovery integration. The feed provides catalog records that ChatGPT can use to index products, understand attributes, and present current shopping information.
Source: OpenAI Commerce: get started.
A feed is designed for precise fields, not page layout. It may carry:
- stable item identity
- title and description
- destination URL
- images
- brand and identifiers
- price and availability
- variant attributes
The Shopify source still matters
For a Shopify merchant, the product record is often the operational source for title, description, variants, inventory, price, and images. Shopify Catalog or another integration may transform that data for an AI channel.
The store owner should ask:
- Which Shopify fields supply the feed?
- How often do price and stock update?
- Which market and currency does each record represent?
- How are variants separated?
- Where can rejected or ineligible records be seen?
Stable identity prevents catalog drift
An item_id should remain stable for the same purchasable item. GTIN and MPN can help identify products when legitimately assigned. A variant that changes item ID on every export can lose continuity.
The destination URL should resolve successfully to the intended public product. Redirecting every market to a generic homepage weakens the connection between the feed record and product evidence.
Source: OpenAI product feed specification.
Use a three-source reconciliation table
For one SKU, compare:
| Fact | Shopify admin | Public page | Feed record |
|---|---|---|---|
| item identity | SKU and variant | selected option | stable item_id |
| title | current | current | accurate and concise |
| price | CAD 89 | CAD 89 | CAD 89 |
| availability | available | add to cart works | in stock |
| URL | product handle | canonical URL | same destination |
Descriptions can be formatted differently, but the commercial facts must agree.
What not to do
Do not add invented keywords, fake identifiers, unsupported claims, or a dozen near-duplicate records. Do not assume feed acceptance guarantees a ChatGPT recommendation. Product eligibility and final selection remain platform decisions.
For broader context, read Webpages, product feeds and Shopify Catalog.
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