Retailers Adapt E-Commerce Platforms for AI Shopping Tools While Prioritizing Customer Data Retention

As consumers increasingly use generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini to research products and compare prices, retailers like Walmart and Ulta Beauty are optimizing their e-commerce platforms to rank highly in chatbot searches. However, brands are actively resisting ceding customer data to these external AI platforms. Retailers are prioritizing direct customer relationships and on-site transactions to retain valuable browsing and purchase data, while working to unify their internal AI systems to prevent data fragmentation.

Unified AI decisioning layers

• ▪A mature AI-powered shopping experience operates as a single decisioning layer that reads a unified customer profile to act consistently across search, messaging, and merchandising.
• ▪Connecting discovery, messaging, and checkout in real time through a unified AI model drives gains in conversion rates and average order value for retailers.

Customer data fragmentation

• ▪Stitching together disconnected AI point solutions for search, messaging, and email creates identity fragmentation because each tool maintains its own separate customer data slice.
• ▪Data fragmentation across multiple AI vendors forces marketing operations teams to spend resources maintaining data pipelines rather than building campaigns.

Retailer data retention strategies

• ▪Retailers prefer customers to complete transactions on their own websites to collect data on browsing habits, basket sizes, and past purchases to drive future sales.
• ▪The wedding-planning platform The Knot is optimizing its website for ChatGPT results while encouraging couples to book venues and invitations directly on its own platform.
• ▪Retailers including Walmart, Ulta Beauty, and Wayfair are updating their websites to rank highly in chatbot searches while resisting efforts to cede customer data to AI platforms.

Consumer AI shopping behavior

• ▪Juniper Research projects that shoppers will spend $8 billion in 2026 after being directed to retail sites by AI agents like Anthropic's Claude and Google's Gemini.
• ▪Among retail AI users surveyed by PYMNTS, 38% used AI to compare prices and 36% to find deals, while only 19% used it to complete a purchase.
• ▪A PYMNTS Intelligence report found that 21% of shoppers participating in Amazon Prime Day or Walmart Deals used an AI chatbot, rising to 35% among Generation Z.

Chatbot traffic conversion rates

• ▪Ulta Beauty reports seeing double the conversion and intent from shoppers who find its products through Google's Gemini and OpenAI's ChatGPT.
• ▪Adobe Analytics reported that visitors referred to retail sites by AI services generated 41% higher revenue per visit than shoppers arriving through traditional channels.

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