Target's ChatGPT App Isn't Good News

Ever seen bad news dressed up as good news? I have one for you.

Target just launched a ChatGPT shopping app that lets you browse, build multi-item carts, and check out—all inside a conversation. Ask for “family movie night” recommendations and get curated suggestions for blankets, snacks, and slippers. Add them to your cart, choose Drive Up or shipping, and you're done. No tab-switching, no search engine, no scrolling through reviews. OpenAI's Fidji Simo called it an example of “what the AI transformation looks like when it's done with ambition and speed.”

But here's the story behind the story: this isn't democratizing retail. It's a consolidation play with potentially pretty ugly consequences.

Sure, technically, anyone can build a ChatGPT app. Practically, the question is: are you in Target's catalog? Are you on Shopify or another platform with out-of-the-box LLM integrations? If not, you don't exist in conversational commerce.

And even if you make it through that gate, there's a second problem: nobody's choosing you anymore.

Mastercard's new holiday shopping report has a phrase that sounds innocent but it is terrifying: “algorithms over elves.” Over 40% of shoppers now use AI tools for holiday shopping, and among Gen Z and millennials, that number hits 60%. Half of them trust AI to deliver better gift recommendations than they'd find themselves. Many would let AI handle all their shopping if it meant avoiding stress.

Think about what that means. You spent years building brand preference, crafting positioning, investing in creative that connects emotionally with your audience. And now a 25-year-old asks ChatGPT to “help plan a movie night,” and the algorithm decides which products make the cut. Your brand equity—all that expensive, hard-won preference—gets filtered through criteria you can't see and don't control. You're not competing for attention anymore. You're competing to be algorithmically relevant.

This is the squeeze. Fewer places you need to be, but if you're not in them, you're gone. And even when you are, consumers aren't choosing you—the AI is.

Marketing is being compressed from both directions: consolidation at the platform level, algorithmization at the decision level. The shelf space got smaller, and the shopper stopped looking at the shelf anyway.

— Torsten & Peter

As with any digital ad campaign, the important thing is to reach streaming audiences who will convert. To that end, Roku’s self-service Ads Manager stands ready with powerful segmentation and targeting options. After all, you know your customers, and we know our streaming audience.

Worried it’s too late to spin up new Black Friday creative? With Roku Ads Manager, you can easily import and augment existing creative assets from your social channels. We also have AI-assisted upscaling, so every ad is primed for CTV.

Once you’ve done this, then you can easily set up A/B tests to flight different creative variants and Black Friday offers. If you’re a Shopify brand, you can even run shoppable ads directly on-screen so viewers can purchase with just a click of their Roku remote.

Bonus: we’re gifting you $5K in ad credits when you spend your first $5K on Roku Ads Manager. Just sign up and use code GET5K. Terms apply.

Use code GET5K now

We wouldn’t be marketers if there weren’t a Black Friday deal for you.

From today until EOD November 28 (Black Friday), we have a once-in-a-year offer.

The 50% off deal is available only to current subscribers and is live from today.

Go to this checkout page. The discount is already applied to the pricing.

Scroll down to the bottom of our emails (any).

If you are a free subscriber, you’ll see a paywall.

If you are a paid subscriber, you’ll see your access links.