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 […] The post How AI referrals are impacting traffic at 4 online retailers appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.
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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. News Ecommerce Trends: Which AI sources are sending referral traffic to online retailers?
Brian Warmoth | Sep 3, 2026
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This briefing is based on reporting from Digital Commerce 360. Use the original post for full primary-source context.
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