As AI reshapes shopping, US retailers try to change how they're seen online

"Most of this holiday season's projected $253 billion in U.S. online sales will happen through ​website visits or standard online searches that favor companies that spend big on search engine ads. But chatbots like OpenAI 's ChatGPT or Google's Gemini have become ‌part of the mix, with shopper-facing tools that can give product descriptions, compare prices, or allow purchases directly within large-language models as U.S. consumers increasingly use AI for advice on the best ‌holiday stocking stuffers."

""We've seen brands that previously were putting out three or four new blog posts or articles a month, are now trying to do 100 or 200," said Brian Stempeck, chief executive at generative engine optimization platform Evertune.ai, which works with clients to make their websites discoverable by large language models. The company charges "around $3,000" per month to its clients, which include apparel and shoe companies, for its services, Stempeck said."

"Without the ability to ‌advertise in the largest generative AI tools, companies are trying new methods, like posting more frequently on branded blogs or writing about their products on Reddit. Big retailers are building websites that cannot be seen by shoppers, intended to be read solely by AI scrapers, ‍automated data extraction tools that scour the internet for information. The scrapers then feed information to platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini, which then offer suggestions on gifts, apparel and other holiday merchandise."

Most of the holiday season's projected $253 billion in U.S. online sales will occur through website visits or standard online searches that favor companies spending heavily on search ads. Chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini are increasingly used to give product descriptions, compare prices and enable purchases within large-language models. Brands are dramatically increasing content output to appear in AI responses, with some moving from a few blog posts per month to hundreds. Firms are creating AI-targeted websites and using platforms like Reddit to surface product information for automated web scrapers that feed generative AI recommendations.

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