Shoppers coming to a retailer’s site from an AI source spend 53% more revenue per visit and have a 60% higher conversion rate than shoppers from a non-AI channel.
A shopper visiting a retailer’s website from an AI source like ChatGPT is more likely to browse longer, add items to their shopping cart and, best of all, convert, than the average shopper arriving from another traffic source, new data from Adobe finds.
Adobe’s estimates are based on an analysis of 1 trillion web visits to U.S. retailers and direct online transactions.
In July, shoppers from AI had a 60% higher conversion rate than shoppers visiting a site from another channel on average, according to the data. Adobe would not reveal conversion figures but, for example, a 60% difference could mean a retailer with an 8% conversion rate compared with a retailer with a 5% conversion rate. This is the 11th consecutive month that the conversion rate for AI traffic was higher than the average, according to Adobe’s data.
Beyond conversion rate, shoppers referred from AI generated 53% more revenue per visit than non-AI traffic in July 2026. One year ago, the inverse was true, and non-AI shoppers spent more per visit. This means that AI assistants are getting better at surfacing relevant products to higher-intent shoppers, according to Adobe.
Because shoppers may be doing more research with a generative AI platform, when they show up to a retailer’s site they are more engaged, said Vivek Pandya, Director of Adobe Digital Insights, in an emailed statement.
Shoppers referred from AI:
- Spent 59% more time on the retailer’s website in July 2026 compared with visitors from other channels.
- Browsed 22% more pages per visit than non-AI visitors.
- Were 34% less likely to bounce compared with non-AI traffic.
- Added items to their shopping cart at a 28% higher rate than non-AI traffic.
“These figures demonstrate the ongoing value AI provides in the ecommerce sector, reducing time required for shoppers to locate desired products or find relevant deals,” Pandya said.
In July 2026, visits to U.S. retail sites from AI sources increased 62% year over year. Since October 2024, when Adobe first started analyzing this, traffic to retailers from AI surged a whopping 1,219%. Adobe declined to share what percent of a retailer’s traffic comes from an AI source.
Can AI Read Your Website?
Adobe also found that, on average, large language models could only “read” 61% of a retailer’s website. Said another way, LLMs could not understand 39% of a retailer’s homepage to then later be sourced in chats.
Retailers that have spec-heavy content pages, such as an electronics retailer, scored high on AI citation readability. Retailers with editorial and education content also had high AI readability scores.
Here is Adobe’s AI visibility score for an entire retailer’s website — including homepage, product pages, blogs, FAQ and more — by category.
- Apparel: 76%
- Electronics: 70%
- Cosmetics: 68%
- Sporting Goods: 67%
- Furniture & Home: 64%
- General Merchandise: 63%
- Grocery: 59%
The category leaders — apparel, electronics and cosmetics — had higher AI visibility because they had more content pieces on their sites, such as corporate blogs and highlighted earned media coverage.
Adobe first launched this diagnostic tool “AI Content Visibility Checker” in April 2026 and found AI could read 75% of retail homepages. Once it expanded its analysis to more merchants, the readability dropped, meaning its initial subset had a higher readability than the overall retail market.
Adobe also conducted a consumer study of 5,000 U.S. consumers in July 2026 and found:
- 42% of consumers have used AI assistants for online shopping.
- 83% of those who use AI for shopping agree that AI assistants have improved their online shopping experience.
- 66% of consumers say they visit a brand’s website directly to verify an AI recommendation.
- 89% of consumers say they click on links or sources an AI assistant provides.
