AI-driven search engine Perplexity is entering e-commerce. Monday, the company launched a new shopping feature for paid users in the United States, which provides shopping recommendations within Perplexity's search results as well as allows people to order items directly without visiting the retailer website.
Perplexity will now challenge Google and Amazon by hoping to get some share of shopping search results.

Visual cards with information on product details, pricing, and seller info; a short description, together with the pros and cons of the item in question; allow users access to more information through a click or tap on the card, including reviews and detailed key features.

Consumers can even save their address and credit card information in Perplexity so that they won't be asked for it while checking out. The company claims it determines taxes for the address you supply, so you can buy with one click. The company said Pro subscribers will get free shipping on items purchased through its one-click checkout system. For now, the search engine's recommendations are "unbiased" as there are no sponsored slots, Perplexity notes.

The new search experience is powered by the integrations with the sellers' websites, including Shopify. The latter unlocks information from all sellers using Shopify who ship items in the United States.

The feature also gives users the option to search by uploading a photograph of something they're looking for, along with their search. It is not unlike Google, which itself has offered various iterations of a product that lets you combine images and text in a search box.

Alongside the launch of its shopping tools, Perplexity is unveiling a merchant program.

If merchants sign up for this program, they are likely to be a recommended product since the company will have more information in its database. People can also use a one-click checkout to purchase items from the company's merchant partners, the company said.

Merchants will also gain unfettered API access to power search on their own websites, which could be the key to Perplexity someday taking market share in that space. The company said it's not taking an affiliate cut from user purchases at the moment. Plus, it clarified that the shopping feature is separate from its ads product, which was introduced last week.

Opportunity with AI search in shopping
Apart from Big Tech, venture capitalists also poured millions of dollars into startups like Daydream, Deft, and Remark, which aimed to create AI-powered shopping searches.

Earlier this year, Amazon launched AI assistant Rufus in the United States, expanding into other countries late last month. After Prime Day sales event in July, the company said that Rufus had "millions" of customers find what they were looking for. Google also spruced up its Shopping tab with AI in October for better search results.

Large language models in recent times have made the companies working in the e-commerce sector realize that it is possible to suggest better options as these models can parse user queries and match items from the catalog using organized and unorganized data.

The promise of this new wave of search is that e-commerce search has been bad for years, but now you can write long sentences to describe an item you need, and AI does the work for you.

These companies also bet on the premise that AI will help you discover an item quickly, and you won't need to spend a lot of time looking for something. But this premise comes with an implicit caveat: You should trust the limited search results that AI tools serve you. This will require these companies to ensure the removal of bias and preferential treatment before regulators step in.