ChatGPT is becoming a more significant source of traffic for online retailers. According to a new analysis, referrals from ChatGPT to retailer mobile apps increased by 28 percent year-over-year during the Black Friday shopping weekend. Sarah Perez reports for TechCrunch, citing data from the mobile insights firm Apptopia.
The report shows that this growth disproportionately benefits e-commerce giants. Amazon’s share of ChatGPT referrals reportedly grew to 54 percent this year, a significant increase from 40.5 percent in 2024. Walmart also saw its share rise from 2.7 percent to 14.9 percent.
Despite this rapid growth, AI-driven recommendations still represent a small fraction of the market. Apptopia notes that on Black Friday, only 0.82 percent of all ChatGPT sessions resulted in a referral to a retail app. This is a slight increase from 0.64 percent the previous year. For the analysis, a referral was defined as a user opening a retail app within 30 seconds of a ChatGPT session.
Separate data from Adobe further highlights the trend. The company found that traffic from AI tools to U.S. retail websites surged by 805 percent on Black Friday compared to last year. Adobe’s analysis also suggests that shoppers who arrive from an AI chatbot are 38 percent more likely to make a purchase.
