ASKUL Adds ChatGPT Product Search

ASKUL said on November 5 that its business shopping service, ASKUL, now works with ChatGPT plugins, enabling users to search for and select products through conversation. Users can describe what they want to buy, then search, compare, and choose from suggested ASKUL products.

ChatGPT plugins let people use external service apps within a conversation. They can narrow down options based on requirements even if they do not know a product’s formal name or know the intended use but not which product is suitable. To buy, users follow a link to the product’s purchase page.

Users select “ASKUL” from ChatGPT’s “Plugins” section. They must approve the plugin connection the first time; after that, they can search for products in conversation by including “@ASKUL” in a message.

ASKUL said that in business-to-business transactions, the person using a product and the person ordering it are often different. Buyers select products based on broad requests from work sites, and comparing several options can take time. The company described the feature as an effort to address issues that conventional search interfaces cannot fully handle and to make customers’ purchasing work more efficient. The article names ASKUL’s Shinichi Sekine and gives the announcement time as 1:34 p.m.

ASKUL said on November 5 that its business shopping service, ASKUL, now works with ChatGPT plugins, enabling users to search for and select products through conversation. Users can describe what they want to buy, then search, compare, and choose from suggested ASKUL products.

ChatGPT plugins let people use external service apps within a conversation. They can narrow down options based on requirements even if they do not know a product’s formal name or know the intended use but not which product is suitable. To buy, users follow a link to the product’s purchase page.

Users select “ASKUL” from ChatGPT’s “Plugins” section. They must approve the plugin connection the first time; after that, they can search for products in conversation by including “@ASKUL” in a message.

ASKUL said that in business-to-business transactions, the person using a product and the person ordering it are often different. Buyers select products based on broad requests from work sites, and comparing several options can take time. The company described the feature as an effort to address issues that conventional search interfaces cannot fully handle and to make customers’ purchasing work more efficient. The article names ASKUL’s Shinichi Sekine and gives the announcement time as 1:34 p.m.