ChatGPT referrals to retailers’ apps increased 28% year-over-year, says report

Recent findings highlight a noteworthy rise in ChatGPT's role as a traffic driver for e-commerce platforms, particularly during the bustling Black Friday shopping weekend. An analysis conducted by Apptopia, a mobile app insights firm, reveals that referrals from ChatGPT to retailer applications surged by 28% year-over-year, covering the period from Thanksgiving to the following Sunday. Despite this impressive growth, the data indicates that ChatGPT's market share in the e-commerce sector remains relatively small. The report shows that major retailers like Amazon and Walmart continue to dominate this space. In fact, Amazon's share of ChatGPT referrals rose significantly from 40.5% in 2022 to an impressive 54% this year. Meanwhile, Walmart also saw a substantial increase, with its share climbing from 2.7% last year to 14.9% in 2023. The insights gathered by Apptopia were sourced from consumer activity on mobile devices, although it’s important to note that these figures are estimates rather than first-party data. The firm defines a referral session as any retail app interaction that follows a ChatGPT session within a 30-second window. Despite the substantial increase from the previous year, the overall impact of AI chatbots on e-commerce referrals remains limited. For context, ChatGPT referrals constituted just 0.64% of all sessions during Black Friday last year, rising to only 0.82% this time around. A referral session occurs when ChatGPT provides a shopping suggestion or when users click a link to a retailer’s app directly from their chat. Apptopia is not alone in exploring the effects of AI on e-commerce during the holiday rush. Adobe also released data indicating that AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites skyrocketed by 805% year-over-year on Black Friday, with users arriving via AI chatbots being 38% more likely to complete a purchase. Furthermore, Adobe reported a 670% increase in AI traffic to retail sites on Cyber Monday and a staggering 760% uptick in AI traffic throughout the holiday shopping season so far, from November 1 to December 1.