Perplexity Shopping Assistant Puts a Spotlight on Shopify Stores

What Is Perplexity Shopping?

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The announcement about Perplexity’s new AI shopping assistant came earlier this week with a blog post:

“Perplexity is now a one-stop solution where you can research and purchase products. It marks a big leap forward in how we serve our users – empowering seamless native actions right from an answer. Shopping online just got 10x more easy and fun.”

When looking for a product, Perplexity now provides detailed answers in the form of product cards. These share key benefits and drawbacks in a visual, and easily digestible way – delivering important product information to consumers quickly. These product cards will also feature the option to purchase the item immediately.

I’ve broken down the key features of Perplexity Shopping below:

• AI-generated product cards – Get a quick glance at Perplexity’s product recommendations, with key features, such as “long battery,” or drawbacks, such as “limited features,” highlighted for you. Perplexity will also summarize product reviews from across the web so you can see what real people are saying ahead of purchase.
• Buy with Pro – Perplexity’s one-click buying option streamlines the checkout process and includes free shipping. The Buy with Pro button is currently only available for US Perplexity Pro users, but Perplexity has suggested it will roll out internationally soon.
• Snap to Shop – Take a picture of a product in person and find out how you can buy it, with key product details and comparisons delivered right to your mobile. This is a similar feature to the recent AI shopping update to Google Lens.

The new product cards are available to all users in the US, but shoppers will need to subscribe to the $20 per month Pro plan to access the Buy with Pro and Snap to Shop tools.

Aravind Srinivas, the co-founder and CEO of Perplexity, added on LinkedIn that the update marks a big change “as we transition from a research tool that provides answers to a platform supporting actions, commerce, and transactions.”

How Can Shopify Stores Reap the Benefits?

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Perplexity’s new shopping experience is powered by online merchants, including an integration with Shopify, which means US-based Shopify businesses could see the first signs of increasing sales through Perplexity.

Perplexity’s product cards will pull relevant product information directly from Shopify stores in order to present up-to-date recommendations.

But, it’s not just Shopify stores that can get in on the action. While Shopify merchants are automatically integrated with the platform, Perplexity is growing its list of featured businesses through the Perplexity Merchant Program. Large retailers can start selling through Perplexity by filling out a five-step form online.

The Perplexity Merchant Program is free to join, and it offers a ton of benefits to business owners, including additional payment integrations, “increased chances of being a “recommended product” because the products will be in our index,” and unique Perplexity-powered insights through a custom dashboard.

As I’ve already mentioned, Perplexity Shopping is currently only available in the US and for businesses that sell and ship to the US. International expansion is coming soon.