New data indicate that ChatGPT is becoming a more significant source of referrals for e-commerce apps, despite its overall share remaining small.
According to a new analysis from mobile insights firm Apptopia, retail app sessions that occurred right after using ChatGPT increased by 28% during the Black Friday shopping weekend, from Thanksgiving through Sunday.
The rise in referrals, however, seems to benefit large retailers far more than smaller ones. This year, Amazon received 54% of all ChatGPT referrals, up from 40.5% last year. Walmart saw an even bigger jump, going from just 2.7% in 2024 to nearly 14.9% this year. These figures suggest that when people use AI chatbots to ask for shopping ideas, they often end up choosing the biggest online stores.
Even with this growth, ChatGPT’s role in holiday shopping remains minimal. Last year, only 0.64% of all ChatGPT sessions on Black Friday led to a retail app referral. This year, that number increased slightly to 0.82%. Apptopia’s data is based on observed behavior from U.S. mobile devices, so the numbers are estimates, not exact counts. The company considered it a referral session anytime a user opened a retail app within 30 seconds of using ChatGPT or clicked on a shopping link suggested in a chat.
Other firms are also tracking how AI is shaping online shopping this season. Adobe reported that AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail websites increased by a huge 805% on Black Friday. Shoppers who reached a site through an AI chatbot were also 38% more likely to make a purchase. On Cyber Monday, AI traffic grew by 670%, and from November 1 to December 1, overall AI-generated traffic rose by 760%.
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