ChatGPT checkout appears imminent as order tracking surfaces in the Mac app
ChatGPT is close to launching a native checkout capability, according to retail industry watchers. Several users say the newest ChatGPT Mac app build, now rolling out, includes an order flow, the kind of order-tracking feature a platform needs in place before it can process purchases.
The expectation is that OpenAI will not be alone for long. In the weeks leading into fourth-quarter selling, announcements are anticipated from the other six major assistant platforms: Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, Google's Gemini and AI Mode, Claude, Grok and Meta.
In research relevant to promotions, a study of more than 70,000 online orders over ten months offers clear guidance on coupon strategy: run store-wide deals as percentages off and reserve fixed-dollar coupons for individual products. Store-wide percentage deals lifted customer spending by 42 percent, with shoppers spending an average of 43.53 dollars more against 30.59 dollars with dollar-off coupons; basket sizes grew 56 percent, with 5.44 additional items versus 3.48; and retailer profitability jumped 50 percent because customers saved less on average, seven dollars versus 14, while buying far more. The psychology: percentage discounts feel larger than equivalent dollar amounts and create a no-upper-limit effect that encourages bigger baskets.
Amazon has quietly released a comprehensive Profit Analytics dashboard, offering detailed profitability views at SKU, ASIN and parent-ASIN level. It covers net proceeds, revenue, fulfillment and storage charges, selling fees, returns and ad spend across up to 500,000 listings, with summary and per-unit economics views and data lagging one to two days. One request has raised eyebrows: Amazon asks sellers to input off-platform ad spend from Google, Meta and TikTok, which experts see as data-collection overreach given Amazon's dual role as marketplace and competitor. Third-party tools offer similar analytics without the data sharing.
Amazon also launched Manage Your Returns, a unified returns platform for FBA and merchant-fulfilled sellers with three notable features: a replacement-parts program letting US sellers send a missing component instead of processing a full return, partial refunds for minor cosmetic issues while the customer keeps the product, and direct chat or phone troubleshooting, which early adopters say prevented 60 percent of potential returns.
The same policy update ends inventory commingling, the controversial practice of mixing identical products from different sellers in fulfillment centers. Brand owners will no longer need FBA stickers on products carrying manufacturer barcodes, a change expected to save sellers about 600 million dollars a year and, critically, to end suspensions caused by other sellers' counterfeit or problematic inventory, a complaint behind several high-profile account terminations.
In brief: Amazon opened its fulfillment services to Shein, Walmart and Shopify sellers, the world's largest Amazon seller raised 300 million dollars in an IPO, Prime Big Deal Days returned for October 7-8, and the average cash conversion cycle for an eight-figure e-commerce brand stands at 92.63 days.
