Best Buy opens up gift-buying and discover through ChatGPT ahead of holidays
Best Buy integrated ChatGPT as a native shopping channel for holiday 2026, enabling product discovery and purchase completion without leaving the AI interface. Sellers on Best Buy's marketplace (now ~1M products, 5,000+ brands) gain passive visibility through AI-driven gift recommendations.
This is early evidence of AI platforms becoming independent retail channels, bypassing traditional search and PDP entirely — a structural shift that threatens brand visibility for sellers who don't adapt product content for conversational AI discovery.
AI-native checkout is becoming a real distribution layer — brands not optimized for conversational search (clear use cases, structured product data, strong review signals) will be invisible when ChatGPT surfaces gift recommendations. Amazon and Walmart sellers should treat this as a preview: if OpenAI is building commerce integrations with Best Buy, similar deals with larger platforms are likely next.
Operational Impact
This story may require teams to revisit workflows, monitoring, or platform assumptions.
Bottom Line
ChatGPT as a checkout layer signals AI commerce is real — optimize listings for it now.
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Analyst Intelligence
Research or editorial analysis that adds market context beyond the official announcement.
Impact Level
low
ChatGPT as a checkout layer signals AI commerce is real — optimize listings for it now.
Key Stat / Trigger
$1.3B projected Best Buy marketplace GMV for fiscal year
Focus on the operational implication, not just the headline.
Full Coverage
Best Buy is bringing ChatGPT into its holiday shopping strategy, giving customers another way to find gifts and buy products without leaving the AI platform. In a Sept. 14 blog post, Best Buy noted that shoppers can “find gift ideas and shop Best Buy products through ChatGPT,” including completing purchases directly in the chat interface.
The company listed ChatGPT among its broader plans for the upcoming holiday season, which also include an expanded online marketplace, faster fulfillment and new in-store technology experiences. Best Buy had already disclosed its commerce integration with OpenAI in August. Best Buy ranks No. 8 in the Top 1000 Database.
The market research tool tracks North America’s largest online retailers by their annual ecommerce sales. Best Buy is also No. 200 in Digital Commerce 360’s AI Rankings. That set of rankings is available in the Top 1000 Pro with AI Database.
Best Buy builds out AI shopping Jason Bonfig, Best Buy’s chief customer, product and fulfillment officer and incoming CEO, disclosed the OpenAI integration during the retailer’s fiscal Q2 earnings call on Aug. 27.
“We view this as an important step in expanding our digital ecosystem and positioning Best Buy at the forefront of emerging AI-enabled commerce experiences,” he said. Bonfig said Best Buy continues to work with OpenAI and other AI companies “to make sure we are showing up in the places where our customers look for technology and advice.”
Meanwhile, Best Buy has been building AI shopping capabilities of its own. In August, the company began rolling out Ask Blue, its conversational AI shopping and support assistant. Ask Blue can compare products, identify differences, check fit or compatibility and answer common support questions, Bonfig said.
The assistant draws on product information, customer reviews, availability and pricing. It can also direct shoppers to self-service resources or a live support specialist. The effort builds on Best Buy’s 2024 partnership with Google Cloud and Accenture to develop generative AI tools for customers and employees.
Meanwhile, Bonfig is set to succeed Corie Barry as CEO effective Nov. 1. Barry has led Best Buy since June 2019. Best Buy expands its online holiday assortment ChatGPT arrives as ecommerce already accounts for about a third of Best Buy’s domestic business. U. S. online sales rose 5. 1% year over year to $3. 0 billion in fiscal Q2. Ecommerce accounted for 33.
1% of domestic revenue, up from 32. 8% a year earlier. Best Buy is also entering the holidays with a larger online marketplace. The retailer launched its U. S. marketplace in August 2025, more than doubling its online product assortment at the time.
A year later, Best Buy says shoppers can find nearly 1 million products from more than 5,000 brands on BestBuy. com, with international sellers now part of the marketplace. During Q2, the marketplace generated about $300 million in gross merchandise volume. Best Buy expects marketplace GMV to reach $1. 3 billion for the full fiscal year, Bonfig said.
The retailer is also launching its online Gifting Center earlier than in previous years. Along with gift guides and recommendations, it includes a tool that generates gift ideas based on factors such as recipient, interests and price range. Best Buy is emphasizing faster fulfillment as well.
Bonfig said it now offers next-day delivery in nearly every metro market, compared to fewer than half of those locations in Q1. Best Buy adds holiday experiences in stores The retailer is also pairing its digital investments with new experiences across its physical footprint. As of Aug. 1, Best Buy operated 926 physical stories in the U. S.
, as well as 142 Canadian stores. In June, Best Buy began rolling out Meta Lab @ Best Buy experiences to more than 50 of its U. S. stores. The 900-square-foot spaces include interactive demos, smart mirrors and personalized fittings for Meta AI glasses and Quest virtual reality headsets. Best Buy highlighted Meta Lab again in its holiday plans.
Select stores will also add dedicated Google in-store experiences in October, the company said, giving shoppers another way to explore its product lineup. The focus on stores comes as retailers expect physical locations to play a sizable role during the holidays. More than half of U. S.
retail leaders expect their stores to generate the highest volume of holiday orders this year, according to a Narvar and eTail Insights survey cited by eMarketer. Looking to the second half of its fiscal year, Bonfig said Best Buy expects continued sales growth in phones, TVs and emerging product categories.
The retailer also expects major-appliance sales trends to continue and demand for Grand Theft Auto VI to benefit gaming sales in Q4. Computing growth, however, is expected to slow as Best Buy laps two years of gains and a particularly strong third quarter last year, when sales benefited from the end of support for Windows 10, Bonfig said. Do
Audit your product titles and descriptions for conversational search compatibility now — ChatGPT surfaces products based on natural language fit, not keyword density; if your listings read like SEO strings, rewrite them for how people ask questions.
If you sell consumer electronics or adjacent categories, evaluate Best Buy's marketplace as a Q4 channel — $1.3B GMV projected for the fiscal year with international sellers now accepted.
Original Source
This briefing is based on reporting from Digital Commerce 360. Use the original post for full primary-source context.
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