The Rise of AI in Retail: ChatGPT's Impact

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1:00Chat GPT says that referrals to retail apps have increased 28 % year over year. I think this is really interesting, especially as we're coming right off of Black Friday, Cyber Monday. We're seeing there was a huge push this year of Chat GPT actually referring people to purchase things. And so it feels like this is an ever-evolving consumer trend. But today on the show, we're going to break down exactly how this happened, why we think the trend was at 28%, where we think it'll be in the future, as this continues to grow where we were in the past. I think this is gonna be something that is going to be impossible to ignore in the future for businesses, whatever your business is, service-based or product.

1:40It's gonna have to make a huge effort to focus on ChatGPT ranking inside of ChatGP, making sure that your business shows up in there because this is where people are moving away from Google to a large percentage of searches are going there, whether Google likes it or not. And Google has other things that they're trying to do to get more traffic or more searches and make it, you know, keep their revenue up. But in the meantime, ChatGPT is taking a huge chunk of the market. So we're going to cover that today. Before we get into that, I wanted to mention, Jamie and I actually recorded an entire video today breaking down how to get your business or service to rank and inside of ChatGPT.

2:13It's over on our school community where we release an exclusive video every single week for our Black Friday Cyber Monday deal is$19 a month. So if you want to get access to our library of over 60 videos, we have an amazing community, over 300 members. All of that is on our school community. And you can get that all for our Black Friday discount of$19 a month. Get that price. It's locked in. When we raise the price in the future, you won't have the price raised on you. So if you want to go check that out, there's a link in the description to our school community. Jamie, I guess, was this a shock to you to see that like 26 % of traffic was now, you know, retailers apps increased by 28 % year over year?

2:51No, actually, I feel like this year I found myself more and more using ChatGPT for searches on anything from shopping. You know, I think just as time goes on, it's going to be used more and more. The concern here is that this really at this point is mostly benefiting the big giants as far as Amazon and Walmart. It's not really doesn't seem to be benefiting the small guys yet, which is always a problem. People are concerned about monopolies and their business practice. And now Walmart and Amazon are just getting even more referrals from ChatGPT. So that's kind of the big concern here. It says that Amazon's share of ChatGPT referrals grew to 54%, up from 40%, 40.5 % in 2024.

3:36Yeah, I don't know. What are your thoughts on that, Jaden? Well, okay. So I think it's a fair point. I'd be curious to see what Google's traffic was. I feel like Google probably pushes a lot towards Amazon and Walmart, although they'll probably try to make them pay for it by putting ads in there. But what I will say is, yes, you know, like Amazon's chat GPT referrals are up 24 % from 40.5 % in 2024. So like we are up, you know, quite a bit. Walmart's share increased 2.7 % from last year. So it's now at 14.9%. So Walmart and Amazon definitely growing. Amazon is the big winner here. What I will say is despite this being like like a pretty big jump from 2024.

4:19I will just like bring out the caveat that like this is still a very small piece of the overall referral market. So Apptopia, who kind of does all of this research and brings together all the clicks and traffic that's going towards these different websites, they said that last year, ChatGPT's referral to all of these different e-commerce apps like Amazon, Walmart, all these different businesses, they were only 0.64 % of all ChatGPT sessions on Black Friday. And that only grew to 0.82 % this year. So I guess what I'm saying is if you think of all of the traffic, right, like ChatGPT has 600 million weekly active users, that is absolutely insane.

4:55That is a crazy number. And of all of those users, only 0.82 % that were, you know, of the usage on Black Friday was actually going towards products that people were buying towards these Amazon and Walmart and like these other products and stuff. So I will say if you've ever used ChatGPT, you'll know that like searching for products, Chachapi is going to usually refer you to one of these big retailers. That's just what happens. But it seems that people maybe they're going directly to Walmart directly to Amazon themselves, possibly there's Google in the mix. But I think a lot of times, if you're going to use one of the big retailers, you're probably going to go directly.

5:28If you're going to find like a smaller website, like I have a I know someone, for example, that loves like buying boutique dresses and like boutique everything. And everything that they find that that they purchase is from like Instagram ads or Instagram influencers. Those are kind of where the traffic is driven and how they, how they find out about it. I just can't imagine one of those people. Like I'm just thinking of this customer persona going to chat GPT and be like, find me the cutest, like boutique dresses for like Christmas for like my daughters. And like, I just, there's no way chat GPT is going to find this random little Etsy or like Shopify store that this influencer set up and like source their dresses from China.

6:05I got these custom cute designs and you know what I mean? So I think for the smaller stuff, it's still going to be driven by social and Instagram. And that is a lot of traffic is kind of this niche, small stuff. When it comes to big consumer electronics, headphones, laptops, you know, microphones, cables, like TVs, I think like, well, TV is probably more like Walmart, but you know what I mean? So I think the electronics is definitely going to be crushing it from from that. But it's it's still a very small percentage of what people are actually searching for. I actually have a funny story on that because I did was fell prey to the Black Friday marketing from Walmart.

6:39I bought a TV this year. I knew it. They got me. But I started off. I actually had I had bought one online from Best Buy. I was going to pick it up. But I decided to go to Walmart to get a stand or a wall mount because they're really cheap there. And while I was in Walmart, I saw the same TV, but it was a little bit more expensive. but it had Google TV instead of Fire TV, which I liked. So I quickly just snapped a picture and I uploaded both photos and I said, which one of these TVs is better? And obviously the one at Walmart was way better. It was the 2025 version had better. You posted this on your Instagram story?

7:16No, I didn't. No, no. Oh, you asked ChatGPT. I asked ChatGPT. Which TV is better? Because I don't know all the tech specs, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I knew it was a little bit more. I thought maybe it'd be a better value. and it was like, absolutely get the Google TV one from Walmart, it's way better. So it helped me make that purchase decision and it was like a hybrid between online shopping and in-store shopping. But I was glad I consulted ChatGPT. That's hilarious. So I guess that's another great point is when we're doing these analytics and they're saying like, look, only like 0.8 % of whatever searches on ChatGPT on Black Friday are actually going towards sales, you would not have been included in that.

7:59So I think that's another good caveat for people to think about is just because the sale isn't happening on a direct click from ChatGPT, consumers are asking about products and making purchasing decisions. But yeah, you went and bought it in person in the store, but you're still asking ChatGPT about a Black Friday sale. So I think that's another interesting point. You might go to amazon.com. Honestly, half the time, if I'm on ChatGPT, I probably say something like, what are the best headphones today for XYZ purpose, it would give me a list of them. I would look at the list. I'd read his little description of why I would probably go to the Amazon, even if they had a link.

8:33I don't know if I'd click the link because I just feel like all links are spam on the internet. I'd probably go to Amazon and copy and paste the name of that title in and go research that product and go to it. So I don't even think I myself would be clicking through that link. I think there's a lot of people that might make similar kind of like purchase decision workflows. They'll have it open there. You know, they're doing a lot of research, especially if it's something that costs thousands of dollars, like a really fancy laptop or TV or something like that. So that's very interesting. But I think there's actually a bigger lesson here that I just really want to outline, which is because, of course, this is the AI hustle school or this is AI hustle podcast where we talk about making money online.

9:12Amy went to Walmart, guys, to buy a mount. Walmart pulled the ultimate heist where they they get you in for like a small thing they know you need. And then they sell you a thousand dollar TV or, you know, hundreds of whatever hour of your TV costs. They get you in with like the small thing. Then you go buy the big thing. I think this is a really good lesson for business on like loss leader items. You know, stores put like the milk and eggs at the back and they make them super cheap. You go in for that, but you have to walk past all the chip aisles and all the food aisles on the way there. And you end up buying like more stuff.

9:41It's like Costco. I've never left Costco spending less than$300, I think, because I got to go eat the$5 chicken at the back or whatever. So anyway, this is a great business idea or great business lesson. Whatever you sell, whatever your service is, have a loss leader. Have something very small, cheap that people know they can always get for good value. And then you can hit them with the big packages and you bring them in that way. So anyways, love that. It's going to be interesting to see what happens next year with all of the online sales. It did say in this article that if you retail sites, if they are a referral from an AI chatbot, they're 38 % more likely to make a purchase.

10:17If you are using chatbots, feel more informed when they're making their decisions. Another business lesson, you need to figure out how to get your business or product ranked on OpenAI or on ChatGPT so that you can be recommended as a good product or service and make that internet money. I will just say one last thing is that Adobe also said that this week AI traffic to US retail sites which was measured by shoppers clicks on a link increased 805 % year over year on Black Friday. And those you mentioned who landed on those were retail sites from an AI chatbot 38 % more likely to make the purchase.

10:55So that is really big. Amazon also said that AI traffic to US retail sites on Cyber Monday increased the percent. So it seems like Amazon is showing bigger numbers than some of the other research firms we saw out there. Or sorry, Adobe. Adobe does have really great research tools. They have a bunch of firms that they partner with and that they use directly. They have pretty good numbers. So I think in all of the holiday shopping seasons so far, which is just November 1st to December 1st, AI traffic is up 760 % according to Adobe. So do not sleep on this. This is a massive trend. We'll keep you guys up to date as these numbers are only going to grow.

11:29Make sure that you're ranking your business in there. You could do that on AI Hustle School Community. We have a whole video about it. Link in the description. We'll catch you guys all in the next episode. What's going on, everyone? It's Bluff here, and we're driving through the States in the Bluffmobile, and the best thing that we can do is play our favorite casino-style games on SpinQuest. They have over 1 ,000 games, including live dealer blackjack and craps, with tons of slots and unlimited options. You can get a$30 coin pack for just $10 for new users. Sign up today. Go to SpinQuest.com right now.

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