Walmart Partners With OpenAI, Cannot Hold Back the Tide

The momentum of OpenAI appears to be unstoppable at this point, with almost every partnership you can imagine being created.

We are witnessing the birth of a new scaled Internet giant, the likes of which we haven't seen since Google. In fact, we are mostly witnessing a Google replacement being born before our eyes.

And still I feel that Google is flat-footed in its response so far -- primarily due to the pace of OpenAI announcement.

What Walmart does say:

* You will be able to buy Walmart and Sams Club items in OpenAI Instant Checkout.

* Walmart will offer OpenAI certifications to its employees. This is a sneaky clever move.

What Walmart does not say:

* Will their marketplace items will be a part of OpenAI or will it be only 1P items. It actually doesn't say anything about the available selection.

* How will OpenAI deal with Sams Club membership? I can't even see the price of Sams Club items on their own website without signing in. OAuth?

What this means:

* If the scaled retail platforms will participate, there is really nothing stopping the tide. In other words, OpenAI is already the new (better) Google Product marketplace.

* OpenAI simply has a more aggressive vision:

1 - certifications and training to win over corporate American workers

2 - the world's largest catalog (already)

3 - a checkout experience that keeps the merchant in control rather than wrest control from brands

Simply, Google is facing an existential threat here, and I am not seeing enough fire and motion from Google's side yet to hold back the tide. Google results are clunky, and the Gemini tools are simply not as good or differentiated enough as the first-mover OpenAI.

Hiring Fidji Simo and Jonny Ive will turn out to be key roles to make the product experience better.

One last note, I still do feel the death of the typical merchant storefront is still largely exaggerated. Merchants need a home base, you need to a place to publish and display definitive information to both humans and robots, and the checkout remains one of the biggest functions of any platform. Which, I have to say, this validates a lot of Shopify's own investments in Shop Pay which has consumed many of their resources for years.

If you're an Enterprise merchant convinced that your front-end site does not matter, and you could implement Shop Pay in a month, is there a reason you wouldn't want to do this? Asking for a friend. I believe this is an uncomfortable question that Salesforce needs to answer, and quickly -- even if the platform is great, how does it get the sale?

Not saying it's your whole strategy, what could it hurt.