Adobe Analytics: GenAI Traffic to Retail Websites Doubles Every 2 Months

A growing number of consumers are finding their way to U.S. retail websites by clicking on links in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) chat interfaces, Adobe Analytics said Monday (March 17).

“While generative AI traffic remains modest compared to other channels, such as paid search or email, its growth has been notable — doubling every two months since September 2024,” Vivek Pandya, manager of Adobe Digital Insights, wrote in a Monday blog post.

Between July 2024 and February, retail sites saw a 1,200% increase in traffic from GenAI sources; travel, leisure and hospitality sites saw a 1,700% increase; and banking sites saw a 1,200% increase, according to the post.

Compared to consumers coming from other traffic sources, GenAI users who land on a retail website tend to stay 8% longer and browse 12% more pages, the post said.

However, GenAI users are 9% less likely than others to make a purchase, per the post.

The post noted that the “conversion gap” is narrowing, as that percentage was gauged at 43% in July 2024.

“The conversion gap reinforces that AI is being utilized during the research and consideration stage, in advance of when shoppers are ready to hit the buy button,” Pandya wrote in the post. “But the narrowing gap shows that consumers are also increasingly comfortable completing a transaction directly after an AI-powered chat experience.”

PYMNTS reported in December that retailers reported significant traffic growth from AI-powered searches, with GenAI tools like ChatGPT streamlining the shopping process by helping consumers find products and deals more efficiently.

As long ago as December 2023, 44% of consumers said they were open to using chatbots for product information before making purchase decisions, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence and AI-ID collaboration, “What Generative AI Has in Store for the Retail Industry.”

GenAI is transforming the fundamentals of commerce by providing help with recommendations, price comparisons and even purchases, Doriel Abrahams, head of risk, U.S. and principal technologist at Forter, told PYMNTS in an interview posted in February 2024.

“Travel is a great example,” Abrahams said. “As a shopper, you typically don’t have enough working power to literally go through every site and compare every flight — but AI can do that in just one click.”

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