If you’ve been anywhere on the internet over the past few years, you’ll have seen that ChatGPT is (seemingly) taking over.

Particularly on Linkedin, where it feels like everyone and their mum has 5 years experience despite it only being available for a few months.

Some think it’s exciting, some think it’s scary, but everyone agrees that it’s here to stay.

And, when used correctly, it can be an incredible tool for Shopify store owners to improve their marketing, drive more traffic, and increase their sales.

In this article, we’re going to look at exactly what ChatGPT is, 3 ways it can help drive more sales for your Shopify store, and what to keep in mind so you don’t run into any problems.

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What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence language model developed by a research company called OpenAI. The ‘GPT’ stands for Generative Pretrained Transformer (GTP is obviously much catchier).

It has a pre-scanned idea of the internet and, using an advanced algorithm, it searches that scan to build its responses back to you.

In fact, why am I trying to explain it to you? Here’s what ChatGPT had to say for itself:

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‍Me: Can you explain how you work?

‍ChatGPT: Certainly! I'm an AI language model based on OpenAI's GPT-3.5 architecture, known as ChatGPT. My purpose is to assist users in generating human-like text based on the prompts and questions they provide.

At a high level, here's how I work:

1. Training: I've been trained on a vast amount of text data from the internet, including books, articles, websites, and more. This diverse training data helps me learn grammar, facts, reasoning abilities, and even some aspects of world knowledge.

2. Architecture: GPT-3.5 is built upon a deep neural network that contains 175 billion parameters. These parameters allow me to capture complex patterns in the training data and generate coherent and contextually relevant responses.

3. Input and Output: When you provide a prompt or ask me a question, I analyze the input to understand its context, keywords, and meaning. I generate a response based on this analysis, attempting to provide relevant and helpful information.

4. Context and Conversation: I maintain context during a conversation by considering the entire interaction history. This helps me generate responses that take into account the ongoing discussion and previous questions or prompts.

5. Learning and Updates: While I'm not capable of learning or updating myself during a conversation with a user, OpenAI periodically updates and improves the underlying model based on new training data and techniques. These updates help enhance my performance and provide more accurate and informative responses over time.

6. Limitations: It's important to note that, despite my abilities, I am still an AI language model and have certain limitations. I don't have personal experiences, opinions, or consciousness. Additionally, I may occasionally produce incorrect or nonsensical answers, so it's always a good idea to verify information obtained from me with reliable sources.

That's a general overview of how I work! If you have any specific questions or need further clarification, feel free to ask.

Me: Thank you very much! Now, can you tell me a joke about yourself?

‍ChatGPT: You’re welcome! Why did the AI language model go on a diet? Because it had too many bytes!

Me: I’d stick to the day job…

ChatGPT: Haha, fair enough! I'll leave the comedy to the humans.

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So, there you have it. ChatGPT, explained by ChatGPT.

Used correctly, it can provide some incredible help for you and your Shopify store - especially if you’re limited with staff and resources.

Let’s take a look at how you can use ChatGPT to improve your Shopify store.

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How to Use ChatGPT for Your Shopify Store

1. Headlines & Hooks

The most obvious use for ChatGPT is for copywriting.

You can get it to write product descriptions, your about us page, or blogs to boost your SEO, but its most valuable copywriting use is for headlines and hooks.

Hooks are often single line messages that stand-out to your audience, gain their interest, and persuade them to take an action.

For example, ‘Learn the Secret to Incredible Sales’ or ‘Get Summer Ready with our Spring Sale’. Each grab the attention of the reader, convey a benefit, and persuade them to click through.

Getting the right hook can be difficult - and it’s even harder to evolve a hook once you’ve found something that works.

By providing context around your product, situation, and ideal customer, ChatGPT can provide a long list of potential headlines for you to then try on your landing pages, subject lines, and ads.

You can even be extra smart about it and get Canva to do the work of designing your ads for you.

1. Get ChatGPT to write the headlines you need
2. Copy the headlines across to a spreadsheet
3. Export the spreadsheet as a CSV file
4. Open up a file in Canva with your ad designs
5. Select ‘Apps’ on the left
6. Select ‘Bulk Create’ (you’ll then see the option to upload your CSV file)
7. Right click on where you want the text to go
8. Select ‘Connect Data’
9. Select ‘Connect Source’
10. Select your uploaded CSV file
11. Click ‘Generate’

Canva will now re-produce copies of your design, but with the text changed to each individual headline written in your doc.

Voila! You now have multiple new ad designs ready to go in under 10 minutes. Easy.

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2. Marketing Ideas

A less frequent use of ChatGPT for Shopify stores is to help generate marketing ideas.

If you often find yourself stuck with what to produce next or struggle with catchy ways to engage your audience, getting ChatGPT to help bust through that brain block can be incredibly effective.

The key is in the prompt.

You want to provide enough information so that ChatGPT understands its focus, but not so much that it focuses on the wrong thing.

Start by telling ChatGPT who you want it to act as. For example, let’s say we need some ideas to show off your products on social media.

> I need you to act as a social media marketing expert.

Next, specify what you need and what your goals are. For social, you’ll want to build engagement through likes, comments, and shares.

‍ > I need you to list 5 video concepts for social media that promote my product and generate likes, comments, and shares.

Now, provide some context around your product and your customers.

‍ > My brand sells handmade jewellery and my customers are 20-30 year old men from the UK.

Make sure to add any specifics you want from the videos themselves, such as a key date or theme.

‍ > The videos need to involve something to do with Halloween.

Finally, to make sure it understands what you need, get it to describe what you need it to do.

‍ > Before you send the video ideas, please tell me what I need you to do.

The full prompt would look like this:

I need you to act as a social media marketing expert. I need you to list 5 video concepts for social media that promote my product and generate likes, comments, and shares.

My brand sells handmade jewellery and my customers are 20-30 year old men from the UK. The videos need to involve something to do with Halloween.

‍Before you send the video ideas, please tell me what I need you to do.

And here’s how that conversation went with ChatGPT.

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You can learn more about the 3 steps to creating a successful content marketing strategy for your Shopify store here.

3. Customer Role-Plays

Lasty, you can use ChatGPT to act as your customer, providing insight into their needs, fears, pain points, and desires.

The concept works similar to the marketing ideas. You ask ChatGPT to act as your ideal customer, providing key information about who your ideal customer is, and then ask it questions to help guide your actions.

Obviously, there are limitations with this. ChatGPT isn’t a human being and so isn’t nearly as complex.

It’s also using a combination of the information you provide and a scan of the internet from 2021, which means its responses could be out of date or irrelevant.

However, it’s still extremely useful simply to get an idea of where you could look next. Whilst you shouldn’t take ChatGPT as gospel, you can use it to point you in the right direction.

(If you need help creating your ideal customer profile, we’ve got you covered)

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Limitations of ChatGPT

Seeing as ChatGPT introduced itself, I thought it was only right to ask it for its own limitations.

‍ChatGPT: While I strive to be as helpful as possible, it's important to be aware of my limitations. Here are a few:

1. Lack of personal experience: As an AI language model, I don't have personal experiences or subjective opinions. I rely solely on the information I've been trained on and the prompts you provide to generate responses.

2. Dependence on available data: My responses are based on the training data I've been provided, which predominantly consists of information available up until September 2021. I may not have access to the latest news, current events, or recent developments.

3. Possible factual errors: While I strive to provide accurate and up-to-date information, I can still generate incorrect or outdated responses. It's always a good idea to fact-check information obtained from me with reliable sources.

4. Sensitive or offensive content: I do not filter or censor information unless explicitly programmed to do so. Consequently, I may unintentionally generate responses that are biased, inappropriate, or offensive. If you encounter any such responses, please let me know, and I'll do my best to address the issue.

5. Understanding context and ambiguity: While I maintain some context from the current conversation, I may not always fully understand nuanced or ambiguous queries. Providing clear and specific questions or prompts can help me provide more accurate and relevant responses.

6. Ethical considerations: It's essential to use AI systems responsibly and ethically. I cannot perform tasks that involve illegal activities, provide medical, legal, or financial advice, or engage in harmful or malicious actions.

Thanks again, ChatGPT.

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Final Thoughts

ChatGPT isn’t perfect - and you can quickly run into issues if you take everything it says as gospel - but it is extremely useful when you know how to use it right. Especially if you’re a smaller business who doesn’t have a high level of resources to improve their Shopify store.

And it’s only going to get better.

Give it a go, test out different prompts, and find out where it can benefit your Shopify store. The more you get to grips with it, the more opportunities you’ll find for your business, and the easier your life should become.

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Are you looking to boost your Shopify sales even further in 2024? Consider building a mobile app for your Shopify store.