AS AI RESHAPES SHOPPING, US RETAILERS TRY TO CHANGE HOW THEY'RE SEEN ONLINE

Summary from the TLDR Marketing newsletter

US retailers see AI agents as a new gateway for holiday shopping and are shifting tactics to appear in AI-driven recommendations. Companies are posting far more content and even creating invisible websites for AI scrapers because ChatGPT referrals to major retailers still account for less than 1% of traffic. Some brands are using influencers, awards, and voice assistant ads to increase the data that AI tools draw from, while others rely on Google's expanding AI shopping features to surface products. Amazon said shoppers using its Rufus agent are 60% more likely to buy products, which signals how valuable AI-guided traffic could become.