How AI referrals are impacting traffic at 4 online retailers

In early 2026, leading online retailers that had spoken with Digital Commerce 360 about traffic from artificial intelligence platforms shared a consistent metric: less than 2% of their website referrals had come from AI.

Now, in the final months of 2026, trends among leading retailers indicate that AI site traffic is generally accounting for about 5% of referrals.

In July alone, Digital Commerce 360 previously reported, AI-associated referral traffic to ecommerce sites rising by 62% year over year. In addition, shoppers referred by AI tools generated 53% more revenue per visit than other shoppers.

And findings based on AI Commerce Rankings data from Digital Commerce 360 and ReFiBuy offer a glimpse into which large language models (LLMs) account for the largest shares of AI traffic to online retailers from the Top 1000 Database. That market research tool ranks online retailers in North America by annual web sales.

Four online retailers — including one in the Top 1000 — have shared what trends they’ve noticed so far regarding AI traffic referrals, as of early September.

Impact of AI traffic referrals on retailers in late 2026

1. Bero

The percentage of traffic arriving to non-alcoholic beer brand Bero’s website through AI referrals is “definitely less than five,” according to Hyojin Park, senior director of ecommerce solutions and growth.

“I also think any session reporting, it’s not — at least it’s not yet — advanced to tell you exactly what’s coming from where in terms of AI,” Park said.

Instead, session reporting defaults to identifying what could be AI traffic.

“Whenever I go deep into the referral sources and different referral URLs and paths, once in a while I do see a ChatGPT or something like that, but it’s nothing significant,” Park shared.

She said that in Bero’s case, AI-referral traffic is “not really growing quickly,” which surprised her. The last times she checked, she said, it wasn’t exponential growth “like everything else AI.”

“But still, I know that it’s something that could change,” Park said. “Every three months, something is changing.”

2. Povison

“Traffic from AI platforms is becoming a meaningful new growth area, and it has expanded faster than we initially expected,” according to online furniture retailer Povison’s founder and CEO, Ayden Lin.

The retailer began this year to incorporate AI search and generative discovery into its broader ecommerce strategy, he explained.

He shared that AI-referred traffic currently accounts for about 5% of Povison’s total website traffic. It also continues to grow steadily. Based on the current trajectory, he said Povison expects its share of AI-referral traffic to reach about 10% by early 2027.

“These users tend to be highly informed and move through the decision process relatively quickly,” Lin said. “They actively look for detailed product information and compare options within a shorter period of time. They are especially interested in the combination of value and practical utility, and they have higher expectations for accurate recommendations and fast, responsive service.”

Ahead of the holidays, Povison is working to improve how frequently AI assistants recommend the retailer’s furniture.

3. La Joya Jewelry

Nishit Mehta, founder of La Joya Jewelry, said his retailer saw about 2% to 3% of referral traffic coming from AI sources at the beginning of the year. Since then, it has increased to about 5% or 6%.

“But what I found is that that traffic is very focused, and it converts much better than normal organic traffic or paid traffic,” Mehta told Digital Commerce 360. “I guess the thinking behind it is you’ve been told that this is a good company, so you’re more likely to believe it, and that’s why conversions are better.”

He added that conversion rates for users arriving from large language models (LLMs) are double-digits higher than those who are not arriving through AI referrals. As an example, he said, if La Joya Jewelry’s conversion rate is normally 3%, it rises to more than 13% for users arriving through AI channels.

However, they are not necessarily spending more. He said he hasn’t any trends indicating that users arriving from AI referrals spend more with the retailer than than their counterparts. Rather, the biggest trend is that they’ve done already their research.

La Joya Jewelry, which sells lab-grown diamonds, had to explain in 2024 and 2025 what made them different from natural diamonds. That has been a negligible part of the retailer’s traffic in 2026, according to Mehta.

“In jewelry, everyone has their own budget as to what they want to spend,” Mehta said. “They have it in their minds, so it’s never going to be — very rarely going to be — you want to buy three pieces of jewelry at the same time , unless it’s cheap jewelry, like 150, 200 bucks.”

4. Edible Brands

Erica Randerson, chief digital officer at Edible Brands, said the AI traffic “is still a small percentage of the pie.”

Less than 10% of Edible Brands’ website traffic comes from AI referrals, she told Digital Commerce 360. And of that chunk, ChatGPT accounts for about 95% of all AI-referral traffic to Edible Brands, she shared.

She added that AI traffic “seems to be a little more immune to” consumers seeking lower-priced goods. The average order value (AOV) from that traffic is $5.50 greater than the retailer’s site average.

The conversion rate from AI traffic referrals to Edible Brands’ website is strong, too, she said, at more than 5%.

“But I will say: That’s lower than our site average,” Randerson noted.

She explained that Edible’s conversion rate on its website is more than 10%. It benefits from being a gift-centered retailer.

“We have a high intent audience,” Randerson said. “They’re coming in knowing who they’re shopping for most of the time.”

Edible Brands is No. 182 in the Top 1000 Database. The market research tool tracks North America’s largest online retailers, ranking them by annual ecommerce sales and more.

Edible Brands is also No. 581 in Digital Commerce 360’s new AI Rankings. That set of rankings is available in the Top 1000 Pro with AI Database.

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