Compose descriptions of merchandise for posting to online storefront, auction sites, or other shopping Web sites.

“Compose descriptions of merchandise for posting to online storefront, auction sites, or other shopping Web sites.” is a core task performed by Online Merchants. Among the occupation's 34 rated tasks, workers place it 25th by importance (#10 most important). About 83% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Develop marketing or promotional materials. in Thinking Creatively

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E1. Direct exposure — a language model could plausibly cut the time to do this task by at least half.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 1.00. Automation potential label: T3.

How AI is actually used on this kind of task

The Anthropic Economic Index observes how people actually use AI on tasks like this one across millions of real conversations.

• 0.063% share of AI-use records mapped to this task
• 84% of that use is work-related
• Most common interaction: directive
• Average autonomy of the AI: 3.0 (1–5; higher = more autonomous)
• 98% of interactions still needed a human in the loop

Observed AI use describes people choosing to use AI as a tool on this kind of task today. It is augmentation and assistance, not a measure of jobs replaced.

Working with AI vs. handing it off

Of the AI conversations mapped to this task, the split between people working alongside AI and people delegating the task to it.

How people interact with AI on this task

Other tasks in this occupation

• Fill customer orders by packaging sold items and documentation for direct shipping or by transferring orders to manufacturers or third-party distributors. · importance 4.5
• Create, manage, or automate orders or invoices, using order management or invoicing software. · importance 4.5
• Receive and process payments from customers, using electronic transaction services. · importance 4.5
• Deliver e-mail confirmation of completed transactions and shipment. · importance 4.4
• Correspond with online customers via electronic mail, telephone, or other electronic messaging to address questions or complaints about products, policies, or shipping methods. · importance 4.4
• Design customer interface of online storefront, using web programming or e-commerce software. · importance 4.4
• Purchase new or used items from online or physical sources for resale via retail or auction Web site. · importance 4.4
• Determine and set product prices. · importance 4.3
• Calculate purchase subtotals, taxes, and shipping costs for submission to customers. · importance 4.3
• Compose images of products, using video or still cameras, lighting equipment, props, or photo or video editing software. · importance 4.2
• Upload digital media, such as photos, video, or scanned images to online storefront, auction sites, or other shopping Web sites. · importance 4.2
• Calculate revenue, sales, and expenses, using financial accounting or spreadsheet software. · importance 4.2
• Cancel orders based on customer requests or inventory or delivery problems. · importance 4.1
• Order or purchase merchandise to maintain optimal inventory levels. · importance 4.1

See all tasks on the Online Merchants page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-15734,
  title  = {Compose descriptions of merchandise for posting to online storefront, auction sites, or other shopping Web sites.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-15734}
}