Generative AI is transforming online shopping. Querying websites on behalf of customers, it is overhauling traditional sales funnels and SEO.
Web traffic from Generative AI has increased twofold every two months since September 2024. In the US, last year's holiday season saw this traffic amp up by 1,300 per cent compared to the same period a year before. Cyber Monday alone saw a 1,950% increase year on year.
What Does It Mean for Businesses?
This is important for businesses, as it signals a change in SEO practice. While everyone has been anticipating this, Generative AI is now becoming a main source of traffic to websites, as it compiles data on products, travel itineraries and leisure activities.
Businesses must now ensure they have a steadfast SEO strategy in place. Luckily, this can be checked using a free website analytics tool. Not only can it be used to track keywords and competitors, but it can also be employed to track sources. This allows businesses to see paths from Generative AI and adapt accordingly.
These findings were uncovered by Adobe, which studied the months between July 2024 to February 2025. They looked at over one trillion visits to shopping sites in the United States, which have been steadily increasing this year. In March, they numbered 212,900 and by June 6 had risen to 252,300.
Why Are Customers Using Generative AI?
Customers like using Generative AI for several reasons. Mainly, it helps them speed up the time it takes to get the information they need. Instead of sifting through websites and blogs, AI provides them with a personalised response immediately. Of those surveyed, only 8% believed that generative AI did not enhance their online shopping experience. After using it, 87% said that they would think about using it for more complex purchases and planning.
While growing, it is worth noting that it is still small in comparison to other channels. By no means should this now be a business's sole focus.
Organisations should also be aware that the same study showed that traffic from AI sources is 9% less likely to convert. At the moment, this signifies that this traffic is of slightly lower quality. It has improved, so it could be a case of watching how AI continues to personalise and see if it improves upon this.
More than half of those using it in the US said they did so to research products. Around 43% said they used it to find deals, with 35% looking for gifts and 33% using it to write shopping lists.
Does This All Come from ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is arguably the most famous of all generative AI products, a household name if you will. It is at the head of the pack, accounting for 79% of generative AI traffic.
By no means is this a given, however, and it has been losing and making up ground. Formerly, it held 87.5% of traffic before slipping to 77.6%. While there is no main competition, there are lots of others taking a smaller slice of the pie. Google leads this, with its share increasing from 5.4% to 8.0%. It was being beaten by Deepseek at 8.1%, but traffic from this has now pulled back.
OpenAI did announce earlier in the year that they had opened up a specific feature on ChatGPT solely for shopping enquiries. This may account for its volatility in the market share. It allows customers to set specific filters for products they want, including colours, brands, sizes and price. The AI then searches based on this. There have been similar responses from Google, all of which may have accounted for the increase in traffic.
Predictions of Increasing Traffic
Off the back of this survey, Adobe quickly predicted a surge in the use of Generative AI traffic for Amazon’s Prime Day event. This was for a 3,200% increase in traffic to its sites from these sources.
This follows many of these sites, including Amazon, which have implemented a generative AI shopping assistant on their sites themselves. Known as Rufus, Amazon's site's assistant helps answer questions and gleans information from product reviews.
One issue with this is that it makes traffic hard to trace for SEO purposes. This is because AI is looking at the site on a consumer's behalf. If that person does not visit the site, there is no knowledge of the path they have taken. Thus, this may impact future statistics and metrics, where most traffic comes from a ‘blank void’ that is filled only by generative AI sites.
All of this provides some big questions for SEO experts, and very few answers. Online marketing is transforming with AI; everyone has expected this. Yet what could appear is a distinct lack of information for digital marketers to study. AI could become a closed book to strategists for some time, only open through trial and error. Until then, it seems to be a case of optimising for generative AI searches and hoping for the best.
