Best ChatGPT prompt to buy your Holiday gifts
OpenAI launching partnerships with Etsy, Shopify and Stripe
Hi friends,
Some heavyweight moves this week. Instagram confirmed it’s now at 3B monthly users, OpenAI turned ChatGPT into a shopping channel, and AdAge is betting creators, not studios, will be Hollywood’s main producers by 2030.
We’re also looking at TikTok Shop one year in, through the lens of Simple Modern.
Let’s get into it.
(September 30th)
📱 Instagram hits 3B MAUs, bets on DMs and Reels
Meta confirms that the mother of Influencer marketing, Instagram now has 3 billion monthly active users (the total world population in 1960). New design tweaks put more weight on private messaging, recommendations, and short-form video, signaling its dual role: a place to connect with friends and a feed for algorithm-driven discovery. For creators and brands, if your strategy isn’t DM and Reels-first, you’re swimming against the tide.
🛒 OpenAI turns ChatGPT into a shopping channel
“Buy it in ChatGPT” is rolling out with Shopify, Etsy, and Stripe integrations. Suddenly, chat is a native commerce surface. The big question: where do creators slot in? As affiliates, shopping co-pilots, or brand concierges? It’s early days, but strategically, this move puts conversational AI right in the middle of the social commerce stack. My thoughts on this further down.
🎬 Why creators will lead production by 2030
AdAge argues the future of content belongs to creators, not traditional studios. With cheaper production tools, built-in audiences, and the ability to test and adapt in real time, creators are outpacing Hollywood in both speed and cultural relevance. The prediction: by 2030, more brands will treat creators as their main production partners, not Hollywood studios.
🧠 Brand Move of the Week
Simple Modern: One year with TikTok Shop
One year in, Simple Modern has sold 130,000 orders on TikTok Shop — and co-founder Bryan Porter just shared what’s really working on LinkedIn.
Three key takeaways:
New beats old. Fresh, seasonal, or niche products consistently outperform bestsellers. A Winnie the Pooh design went viral, while older SKUs barely moved. TikTok rewards novelty.
Followers ≠ sales. Despite 250M+ impressions, Simple Modern only added 25k followers. TikTok Shop can drive revenue without building big communities.
TikTok drives the halo. Viral clips lifted Amazon and DTC sales even more than Shop, sometimes permanently boosting Amazon rank.
@simplemodern 👻🎃 They’re baaaack 🎃👻 Harvest Collection 2025. Your spooky season starts NOW. #harvestcollection #simplemodern #new
Other insights: “affiliates in the 1k–50k range often outperform mega-creators; a quarter of sales come through product card discovery (with no affiliate cut); TikTok is increasingly prioritizing livestreams; and the biggest growth engine is brand-created content, which drives both sales and followers”.
🔭 Trend Watch
What does ChatGPT —> shopping actually look like?
…and do creators have a role to play?
OpenAI just flipped the switch on “Buy it in ChatGPT.” Etsy is live, Shopify’s million-plus merchants are next, and Stripe’s Agentic Commerce Protocol powers the checkout. Discovery and payment now happen in one conversational flow.
A test run showed how seamless it is (see video above): one query, one suggestion, one click —> checkout done. The bigger question is scale: will people trust ChatGPT with a $500 gadget or a $2,000 sofa? I think yes. If we trust it with mental health advice, why not purchases?
The big new acronym on all marketers radar is AIO (AI Optimization) which becomes the new SEO. If your product doesn’t appear in agent results, it doesn’t exist. Creators could influence that layer, not as a direct feed, but by shaping culture, trust, and the signals AI agents prioritize.
And longer term? I wouldn’t be surprised if ChatGPT makes shopping richer with creator testimonials, short-form videos, or even avatar-based feedback baked right into the chat.