Fanatics Launches AI-Powered Shopping Feature
The new Shop the Look tool uses artificial intelligence to help customers navigate a vast inventory of sports merchandise.
Updated on Oct. 26, 2026 in Retail
Live Poll
Do you trust AI-powered tools to improve your online shopping experience?
Fanatics has introduced an AI-driven feature called Shop the Look, which provides shoppers with coordinated merchandise recommendations on product pages. Powered by OpenAI Codex, the tool is designed to simplify navigation across the company's extensive catalog.
Why it matters
The feature helps address the difficulty customers face when browsing over 1.5 million unique product SKUs. It replaces traditional, manual curation strategies that could not keep up with the company's high volume of product releases.
The new AI tool resulted in a 10 percent increase in views of recommended items. Fanatics operates on a massive scale, managing over 1.5 million unique product stock-keeping units and manufacturing 45 million items annually.
The players
Fanatics
This global sports platform provides merchandise, collectibles, and apparel to customers in more than 180 countries.
OpenAI
This artificial intelligence research organization created the Codex technology used by Fanatics to parse its product catalog.
The details
Fanatics utilizes OpenAI Codex to analyze team and style alignment, allowing the system to identify compatible merchandise in real time. This automated process overcomes the limitations of previous curation methods that struggled with the speed of new product drops.
Timeline
Fanatics launched the Shop the Look feature in October 2026.
The commerce business is projected to generate over $7 billion in revenue for the full year 2026.
Market Landscape
The adoption of OpenAI Codex represents a fundamental shift in how e-commerce platforms manage massive, diverse inventories. This move positions Fanatics to optimize the consumer shopping experience while outpacing competitors that rely on slower, manual curation models.
Shoppers can now find complementary items more easily, potentially reducing the time spent searching for matching team gear. This integration should streamline the browsing process for customers across the company's global markets.
The takeaway
Using AI for real-time product recommendations allows large-scale retailers to maintain a personalized experience despite managing millions of SKUs. Consumers benefit by seeing curated options that align with their specific team and style preferences during their shopping sessions.
Further reading
Learn more about the latest innovations in Retail.
Live Poll
Do you trust AI-powered tools to improve your online shopping experience?
