The way shoppers find products online is changing — fast. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT are no longer just a curiosity. For a growing share of consumers, they’re a serious alternative to Google, Amazon search, or social platforms when deciding what to buy. For Shopify merchants, this shift isn’t just interesting — it’s a new sales channel in the making. If your products aren’t optimized for AI-driven discovery, you could be invisible to a growing segment of your market.
How Many Shoppers Are Already Using ChatGPT to Find Products?
Fresh data shows adoption is moving beyond early adopters:
- 39% of U.S. consumers have already used generative AI for online shopping, and 53% plan to this year (Adobe Analytics).
- 54% of shoppers under 50 say they would use AI tools for product research (Attest).
- Among frequent buyers (purchasing more than once a week), 66% regularly use AI assistants like ChatGPT for shopping decisions (Yotpo).
Do People Really Choose ChatGPT Over Google?
While Google still rules search, many shoppers are blending AI into their buying process:
- 77% of U.S. ChatGPT users treat it as a search engine, and 1 in 4 prefer it over Google for finding information (Adobe Express Survey).
- In Spain, 90% of young people say AI has changed how they search, and 52.5% trust AI more than influencers for purchase recommendations (Appinio/LLYC).
Google vs. ChatGPT — The Reality Check
- Google: ~14 billion searches per day (2024)
- ChatGPT: ~37.5 million queries per day — about 373× smaller.
That means AI search is growing fast, but we’re still early. For Shopify merchants, this is the perfect time to get ahead before the space becomes as competitive as Google SEO.
Why This Matters for Your Shopify Store
AI-driven traffic is not only growing — it’s high quality:
- Visitors from generative AI sources show 8% more engagement, 12% more page views, and a 23% lower bounce rate compared to traditional traffic (Adobe).
- The conversion gap between AI-sourced traffic and traditional traffic shrank from 43% lower in mid-2024 to just 9% lower in early 2025 — meaning AI shoppers are now nearly as ready to buy as Google shoppers.
Action Plan for Shopify Merchants
To tap into this growing opportunity, you should:
- Optimize Your Store for AI Search Make your product descriptions clear, structured, and keyword-rich for conversational queries. Think “If I asked ChatGPT to recommend a product like mine, what would it need to see?”
- Use an AI Search Optimization Tool Tools like LLMs.txt Optimizer help ensure ChatGPT and other AI assistants can easily read and understand your store’s content.
- Track How You Appear in AI Results Regularly run product searches in ChatGPT and Perplexity to see how your brand is recommended — then refine your content to improve positioning.
- Educate Your Team Treat AI visibility like SEO in 2008 — an emerging advantage that will soon be a necessity.
Bottom Line
Your Shopify store’s next big source of customers may not come from Google Ads or Instagram — it could be from AI assistants like ChatGPT recommending your products directly to shoppers.
Merchants who act now will:
- Own top spots in AI-powered shopping results
- Enjoy higher-quality traffic with lower bounce rates
- Be ahead of competitors still relying solely on Google
The AI search era is here. The question is — will your products be part of it?