Hey friend,
How are you? I hope you’re doing well.
The gist:
It’s a story that was bound to happen. The e-commerce space is hitting up to take advantage of the AI wave. Last week, Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, struck a deal with OpenAI to enable its shoppers to make purchases directly through the chatbot. Etsy and Shopify announced similar deals with ChatGPT. Amazon is working on its AI solution, and currently blocks access to any external chatbots on its website. OpenAI is reporting that only 2% of conversations on ChatGPT focus on shopping; there is still a huge runway to exploit. This is the same story with SEO evolving into GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), which in essence steals traffic from search engines. Following the same narrative, people conduct their searches and shopping directly through chatbots, eliminating the need to visit search engines or retailer websites. That means a significant loss of ad revenue and direct purchase value. For routine grocery shopping, the assumption is people would still buy directly from retailers’ websites. Yet, for more complex products, there is a clear need for more robust AI tools. If you have questions, let’s connect — I’m happy to share more insights.
Find out why this story is important, and what you can do to calibrate your business around it.