E-commerce sites see low sales from ChatGPT traffic, new study finds

Digiday covers research by Maximilian Kaiser and Christian Schulze analyzing 12 months of data from 973 e-commerce sites, revealing that ChatGPT referral traffic converts worse than traditional marketing channels. The study shows ChatGPT accounts for less than 0.2% of total e-commerce traffic, with conversion rates currently underperforming organic search and affiliate links. However, the research identifies month-over-month improvements in conversion rates, suggesting potential for growth as AI-driven commerce evolves. The findings contradict widespread expectations of LLM superiority in driving e-commerce sales.