Shopping with AI: Perplexity Pro

This week I am using Perplexity Pro to help me buy dish soap (and other items on my shopping list).

I work in the shopping space – more specifically, we’re building a shopping app – so I want to stay across what’s happening in AI shopping/agentic commerce space.

There’s a lot of noise, and it often feels like people don’t actually try the products they’re talking about. So I’m starting a new series, where I take what’s on my current shopping list (usually kept as a handwritten note on my desk, in my notes app, or, if I’m further into the shopping journey, narrowed down in my Carted list) and try out a new tool/agent as I shop.

Here is my current shopping list.

This list is a list of things that come to mind. Some items are more practical — like I’m running out of soap — others are bigger ticket items, like a coffee table (I’m thinking of something secondhand), and some are more emotional — a gift for a friend who recently lost her mother.

This week, I decided to give Perplexity a run for its money.

To keep it simple — as I know not all LLMs and agents have access to all products and real-time product data — I started my search with the generic items: Mrs. Meyer’s hand soap, dish liquid, Apple home pod and some Adidas sneakers.

Mrs Meyers’ product are something I’ve bought many times, so I know roughly what the price should be (I usually order it from Amazon). And the Adidas sneakers — well, I’ve already been through the search and discovery part of my shopping process. I’m just figuring out where to get them now. They seem either sold out, more expensive than buying directly from Adidas, or they’re shipping from overseas (which I’m not willing to risk, as it’ll cost me $$$ to return them back to the merchant if they are not right).

So, enter Perplexity.

This is the first screen I was shown as I clicked the shopping tab. Can’t say I was looking for BBQs, however it seemed to be an interesting choice of theirs to show this upfront given I have been a user for some time.

I then started on my 23-minute journey to look for items I wanted to buy. Spoiler alert, I didn’t buy anything.

I started on the shopping tab however once I started the search, it switched me to the answer tab. I started with the hand wash — Mrs. Meyer’s to be exact because I know I like it.

A whole lot of text appeared (that I didn’t read) and products appeared with the “Buy with Pro” tag. Of course, I was not yet a pro member, so I decided to upgrade.

Once I upgraded I came back, to realize that all “buy with pro” tags had disappeared.

I tried looking for the hand wash, dish liquid, and had a look for a Apple home pod mini — none had a “Buy with Pro” tag. Maybe it is only available to certain Pro users. I wasn’t sure. So I moved back to Incognito to see what stores it was on exactly.

In fact, it was still here but when I was logged in under my Pro account, it wasn’t.

…Ok, it’s the next day.. I went back to Perplexity and managed to place my first order.

The “Buy with Pro” button was there. And given I have such little time I tried for the Mrs. Meyer’s dish soap and picked the first one there, not the usual scent I buy.

I didn’t want to do a lot of digging, it said it was from Home Depot and was under $6 (before tax). I entered my usual info — address, card details etc and checked out.

Shortly after I received an order confirmation number with an order ID. There was nothing about shipping fees.

The odd thing that stood out and something I know is a large problem with universal commerce (now agentic commerce) is the product data, more specifically the imagery. I really wasn’t sure if I was getting one bottle or three bottles (as per the photo). My guess is it will be one (based on the price).

The order confirmation also stated an estimated delivery later in the day. It was already 2pm, and I would have been SHOCKED if it arrived same-day.

Two days later, the dish soap arrived — impressive. But it showed up with no box, no address label, no shipping email as they mentioned.

Just one bottle, dropped at my door. Not the three shown in the photo. And although the product was technically from Home Depot, I had a strange feeling it wasn’t actually fulfilled through them. Maybe it was routed through Perplexity’s internal ops team. Or possibly Firmly, the backend provider powering the experience. Either way, there was zero information included about how I’d return it, or who I’d contact if something went wrong.

Most consumers would have expected three bottles based on the image alone. Without clear product details, they’d be confused.

Luckily, at Carted we understand how hard it is to build personalization and great commerce experiences. We've gone through the process of pulling together messy, inconsistent data to make it shoppable. It's not easy. But consumers don’t care how hard it is. They care whether it works. And not all consumers are so forgiving.

What surprised me most was how little personalization there was. I’d searched for specific products across multiple sessions. And yet when I returned to the Shopping page, it still showed BBQs, outdoor furniture, and air purifiers. Nothing relevant to me. No sign it remembered anything I’d looked at the day before.

One product down, one order placed, one bottle received. Yes, it worked....but: For a product I already knew I wanted, the process was longer and more complicated than a quick search followed by checking out directly on the merchant's own website.

This is all still early. These tools are being built fast. However, this is exactly why I wanted to start this series. There’s a big difference between talking about agentic commerce and actually trying to shop with it. It is not just about checking out. There is a lot that comes before that step.

It will be interesting to see how it evolves, but I won't be rushing back for staples or repeat purchases yet.