Enabling users to search for items on Mercari and Mercari Shops using ChatGPT
Mercari, Inc. (“Mercari”) is pleased to announce that, as of July 24, 2023, it has started offering a plugin for OpenAI’s AI chatbot ChatGPT that integrates with Mercari to provide an item search function.
ChatGPT plugins are feature extension tools that allow external services to integrate with ChatGPT. Support for plugins was released by OpenAI in March 2023.* Up until now, item search on Mercari has primarily relied on keyword-based search and recommendations based on search history.
With the introduction of the ChatGPT plugin, users can now search for items on Mercari and Mercari Shops without having to use specific keywords. By inputting information such as intended use, characteristics, and price range of the desired item into ChatGPT, users can search for items through natural conversation.
■Usage Examples
– When you want to gather everything you need for a new hobby: “I’m going camping for the first time. What should I bring?”
– When you want to start studying for a certification exam: “Can you recommend a good English workbook?”
– When you want to find a gift: “What kind of gift would make a 5th-grade girl happy?”
Mercari established a team dedicated to generative AI and large language models (LLM) in May 2023 and has been working to enhance internal productivity and solve issues encountered by users of our products by applying these technologies. We will continue to explore the utilization of generative AI and LLM from various perspectives.
*As of July 24, 2023, OpenAI is currently only offering ChatGPT plugins to ChatGPT Plus (paid version) subscribers. For more details about ChatGPT plugins, please visit this link: https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt-plugins