Etsy launches native app in ChatGPT after previous integration fails to drive marketplace sales

Etsy launches its app within ChatGPT as it continues its AI push | TechCrunch

Etsy announced Tuesday the launch of its native app within ChatGPT, opening up a new way for shoppers to explore its catalog of over 100 million listings. The new experience is designed to move beyond the limitations of traditional keyword queries. Instead of typing something like "wooden coffee table," then scrolling and adjusting filters, users can now express what they're looking for in natural language. For instance, "Help me find a Mother's Day gift under $100 for my mom who loves gardening." Now live in beta, the feature allows users to tag @Etsy directly within a prompt. From there, the Etsy app in ChatGPT surfaces relevant product listings that users can browse, compare, and click through to Etsy for additional details or purchase. This isn't Etsy's first experiment inside ChatGPT. Back in September, Etsy became an early partner in ChatGPT's Instant Checkout integration, which let users buy products directly inside the chat interface. However, the initiative ended in March, suggesting it didn't perform as OpenAI had hoped. It was reported that Etsy didn't see a large volume of sales from the integration, leading Etsy to start building a native app within ChatGPT instead. Alongside this launch, Etsy also revealed it's testing a beta conversational search experience within its platform, specifically geared toward helping users find gifts. The gift assistant acts as a personal shopper, offering a guided, conversational way to discover ideas, narrow down preferences, and surface relevant products. This builds on Etsy's broader AI push, which includes an AI-powered discovery experience featuring curated collections and a suite of seller tools, including a tool that helps generate product titles and descriptions, as well as a writing assistant to help draft messages to buyers. In 2024, Etsy introduced a new "Designed" label to identify AI content, part of an effort to increase transparency as AI-generated artwork becomes more prevalent on the platform. The news of a ChatGPT integration comes a week after Etsy reported its Q1 2026 earnings, surpassing revenue expectations with $631 million, and marketplace gross merchandise sales were up 6% year over year. Notably, active buyers increased for the first time in two years to 86.6 million. Etsy also touted 5.6 million active sellers on the platform. In February, the company announced it was selling Depop to eBay for $1.2 billion in cash, a move aimed at doubling down on its core marketplace. Etsy joins a growing list of companies buildingnative apps within ChatGPT, including Angi, SeatGeek, Tubi, and Wix. Developers have been able to build apps within the chatbot since October.

Despite Previous Integration Failure, Etsy Launches Its App in ChatGPT

Expertise Health and wellness tech, meal kits, home and kitchen tech, food, mental health Etsy is known for its marketplace of handcrafted goods, but despite that human touch, the company wants its shoppers to adopt AI. On Tuesday, Etsy launched a beta version of its app in the OpenAI-owned ChatGPT. Once connected to the ChatGPT Etsy app, all you have to do is tag @Etsy and provide a prompt for it to generate results that can be compared or opened on the Etsy website. In an Etsy News blog post, Chief Product and Technology Officer Rafe Colburn wrote that the ChatGPT app "offers shoppers a deeper view into sellers' items" and can help when nuance matters. "At the same time, the Etsy app in ChatGPT is poised to give us earlier insight into the moments Etsy is relevant in a shopper's journey, opening the door to understanding how and when shoppers choose to use conversational search," Colburn wrote. In other words, while the ChatGPT Etsy app helps customers locate specific items, it also provides Etsy with information about when people choose to use both ChatGPT and Etsy while shopping. After connecting the Etsy app, I told @Etsy that I'm looking for a handmade birdhouse under $50. It responded with five listings showing the item name, price, seller name, rating and whether there's free shipping. There were also buttons above the listings I could click to filter by handmade, personalized, under $25 and free shipping. I found it interesting that I could filter by "handmade," even though that was a keyword in my prompt. When I selected the filter, only one result disappeared: a PDF for a DIY birdhouse. However, I received these same filter options with different prompts -- a birthday gift for a cat-loving friend and a Mother's Day gift under $100 -- so they seem to be there by default. One exception: For the Mother's Day gift under $100, the filter for "under $25" changed to "under $50," meaning it will increase as your budget increases. When I clicked "view details" under a listing, I was, as promised, taken to the item's page on Etsy. Under the ChatGPT results, it noted that some birdhouses are merely decorative and not functional for birds, and that shipping can push the total cost to over $50. It also listed the two results most practical for birds, along with their prices and shipping costs. To narrow down my options or find sturdy, weatherproof birdhouses, ChatGPT said I could tell it more about the birds I want to attract and whether I want a birdhouse for decoration or actual nesting. On the other hand, the Etsy website allows me to filter by physical items, those that ship from the US, different birdhouse materials and styles, specific bird species, features such as weatherproof and squirrel-proof and more. When ChatGPT launched Instant Checkout in September to allow people in the US to purchase products through ChatGPT, Etsy was the first partner. Six months later, in March, Modern Retail, a media brand covering the retail industry, reported that both OpenAI and its retail collaborators had pulled back on the feature. An Etsy spokesperson told Modern Retail that while the Instant Checkout integration did get potential buyers to see Etsy products and drove referral traffic, Etsy did not see "a large volume of sales." When asked why it launched the ChatGPT app after the previous Instant Checkout integration failed to drive sales, a representative for Etsy didn't immediately respond. As Etsy continues testing its ChatGPT beta app, it's using what it learns to design a similar conversational experience on Etsy. "It's still early, but we're iterating quickly and learning from real usage what's actually valuable to shoppers," Colburn wrote. In a photo shared within the blog post, an AI chatbot called Gifting Assistant is shown helping someone find a Mother's Day gift under $150. With this context, it would seem that Etsy's ChatGPT app is less about driving sales and more about the company figuring out how to design its own AI tools. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Etsy launches native shopping app inside ChatGPT

Etsy announced the launch of its native app within ChatGPT, allowing users to navigate its catalog of over 100 million listings using natural language queries instead of traditional keyword searches. This feature, now live in beta, lets users tag @Etsy in prompts to receive relevant product listings. The native app is a response to the company's previous partnership with ChatGPT, which included an Instant Checkout integration that ended in March due to low sales volume. Etsy pivoted to develop a standalone app after this initiative did not meet sales expectations. In addition to the ChatGPT integration, Etsy is testing a beta conversational search experience on its platform aimed at assisting users in gift-finding. This gift assistant functions like a personal shopper, providing a conversational approach to product discovery. This launch is part of Etsy's broader initiative into artificial intelligence, which also includes an AI-powered discovery system and seller tools that help in generating product titles and drafting messages. In 2024, Etsy implemented a "Designed" label to signify AI-generated content to enhance transparency. The announcement follows Etsy's Q1 2026 earnings report, where the company exceeded revenue expectations with $631 million. Marketplace gross merchandise sales increased by 6% year over year, and active buyers rose to 86.6 million, marking the first growth in two years. Etsy reported having 5.6 million active sellers on its platform. In February, Etsy disclosed the sale of Depop to eBay for $1.2 billion, focusing on its core marketplace. Etsy joins other companies like Angi, SeatGeek, Tubi, and Wix that are creating native apps within ChatGPT, a feature available to developers since October.

Etsy Pilots Conversational AI to Ignite Marketplace Sales | PYMNTS.com

The company said in a Tuesday (May 5) blog post that the Etsy app in ChatGPT is now live in beta and that it is testing a beta conversational search experience on Etsy. "Our approach will evolve based on what we learn," Etsy Chief Product and Technology Officer Rafe Colburn wrote in the post. "We're showing up in these channels to test, iterate and understand how to help sellers reach shoppers looking for the meaningful items they offer." The Etsy app in ChatGPT allows users to search and compare Etsy items directly in the conversation, according to the post. Users tag @Etsy, type a prompt, see relevant listings provided by the app, and click to go to Etsy and learn more. With this app in ChatGPT, users get relevant listings by typing prompts such as, "@Etsy Help me find a Mother's Day gift under $100 for my mom who loves gardening." Etsy learned from its experience as the first live integration partner for ChatGPT Instant Checkout that ChatGPT "works well as a discovery channel. Shoppers often chose to come to Etsy from their chats to learn more before making a purchase," Colburn wrote. The company's other project, the beta conversational search experience on Etsy, is still in its early stages, according to the post. This experience will be designed to help users find a gift. Colburn wrote in the post that large language models and conversational search are well suited to the challenge of helping shoppers find items among the millions listed by Etsy sellers. "It gives shoppers a way to say what they mean, whether they have something specific in mind or just a starting point," Colburn wrote. PYMNTS reported Wednesday (April 29) that Etsy is deploying AI to build a system that can surface the right product to the right buyer at the right moment. The company is also building into the agentic commerce channel through integrations with OpenAI, Microsoft and Google. Etsy described early agentic traffic as high intent but still a fraction of a percent of total visits.