New data reveals the expanding influence of AI chatbots like ChatGPT in driving traffic to e-commerce platforms, particularly during peak shopping events. While this growth is significant, the overall market share for AI-driven referrals remains relatively small.
According to a recent analysis by mobile app insights provider Apptopia, ChatGPT referrals to retailer mobile apps saw a substantial 28% year-over-year increase during the Black Friday holiday shopping weekend, which spanned from Thanksgiving Day through Sunday.
However, this surge in AI-driven traffic appears to disproportionately benefit e-commerce giants rather than smaller retailers. Amazon and Walmart, for instance, captured the lion's share of these referrals. Amazon's percentage of ChatGPT referrals climbed to 54% this year, up from 40.5% in the previous year. Walmart also saw a significant boost, with its share rising from 2.7% last year to 14.9%.
Apptopia's findings are based on observed consumer activity from its U.S. panel of mobile devices. The firm notes that these figures are estimates, as they are not first-party data. For this analysis, a referral session was defined as a retail mobile app session that occurred within 30 seconds of a ChatGPT session.
Despite the notable year-over-year jump, the use of AI chatbots by consumers to discover e-commerce deals still represents a modest portion of the overall referral market. Apptopia reported that last year, ChatGPT referrals accounted for only 0.64% of all ChatGPT sessions on Black Friday. This figure, while growing, only reached 0.82% this year.
A referral session was counted when ChatGPT either suggested a shopping idea to the user or when the user clicked a direct link from their chat session that led them to a retail app.
Apptopia isn't the only firm tracking AI's impact on holiday shopping. Adobe also reported this week that AI traffic to U.S. retail sites—measured by shoppers clicking on links—skyrocketed by 805% year-over-year on Black Friday. Furthermore, consumers who arrived at a retail site via an AI chatbot were 38% more likely to complete a purchase.
Adobe's data also showed that AI traffic to U.S. retail sites on Cyber Monday increased by 670%. For the broader holiday shopping season, spanning from November 1 to December 1, AI traffic has seen an impressive 760% increase overall.
