ChatGPT referrals to retailers' apps increased 28% year-over-year, says report | TechCrunch

"According to a new analysis by mobile app insights provider Apptopia, ChatGPT referrals to retailer mobile apps increased 28% year-over-year over the Black Friday holiday shopping weekend, running from Thanksgiving Day on Thursday through Sunday. However, the use of ChatGPT may not be benefiting smaller retailers as much as it's helping to further entrench the e-commerce giants, Amazon and Walmart. This year, Amazon's share of ChatGPT referrals grew to 54%, up from 40.5% in 2024."

"The data was collected by Apptopia's U.S. panel, which is based on observed consumer activity on mobile devices. As it's not first-party data, its figures are only estimates. For this analysis, the firm defined a referral session as a retail mobile app session that directly followed (within 30 seconds) a ChatGPT session. Despite the big jump from 2024, consumers' use of AI chatbots to find e-commerce deals is still a small sliver of the overall referral market, Apptopia noted."

"Apptopia isn't the only firm digging into how AI is impacting e-commerce during the busy holiday shopping season. Adobe also reported this week that AI traffic to U.S. retail sites (measured by shoppers clicking on a link) increased by 805% year-over-year on Black Friday, and those who landed on a retail site from an AI chatbot were 38% more likely to make a purchase. In addition, Adobe said that AI traffic to U.S. retail sites on Cyber Monday increased by 670%."

ChatGPT referrals to retailer mobile apps increased 28% year-over-year over the Black Friday weekend. Amazon's share of ChatGPT referrals rose to 54% from 40.5% in 2024, while Walmart's share jumped from 2.7% to 14.9%. Apptopia collected the data from a U.S. mobile panel based on observed consumer activity and characterized its figures as estimates rather than first-party data. A referral session was defined as a retail app session that began within 30 seconds of a ChatGPT session. ChatGPT-driven referrals remained a small portion of sessions, rising from 0.64% to 0.82% year-over-year. Adobe reported large AI traffic increases and higher conversion likelihood.

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