San Mateo, Calif., Nov. 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — BrightEdge, the global leader in AI-driven organic search, content, and digital marketing automation, today released new findings from BrightEdge AI Market Pulse, the industry’s leading resource for measuring AI-driven discovery trends. The data confirms that the 2025 holiday season is already at a turning point for ecommerce with direct referrals from AI engines such as ChatGPT and Perplexity to leading ecommerce brands exploding by 752% year-over-year. Now a mainstream driver of shopping behavior, AI is fundamentally redefining how consumers research and discover products.
Key Findings in Different Types of Ecommerce
BrightEdge is the only platform that can show how AI features are showing up in major retail categories on both traditional search engines (like Google and Bing) and AI engines (like ChatGPT and Perplexity). This is because more than half of the Fortune 500 companies trust it. AI is becoming more widespread, especially in the discovery phase. This is a sign of a bigger change in how people shop and make judgments before they even visit a brand’s website. For instance, the number of AI results in Google search results has grown a lot year after year in certain ecommerce categories:
- Grocery: This category had the biggest change, with AI Overview presence going up by 900%. People are using AI to plan meals and keep their pantries organized, which is driving a lot of growth in the sales of common items.
- Furniture: AI is also helping people who can’t decide what to buy by making it easier to choose between expensive products like huge furniture. This has led to a 375% increase in AI use, as consumers use AI to set up complicated layouts and style packages before they buy.
- Electronics: AI search assistants are being used to compare complicated specs, and this category has grown by 257%. This proves that AI summaries are quite good at comparing features and analyzing reviews for big purchases.
- Apparel: The fashion industry saw a 104% increase in AI presence. This early rise shows that more and more people are relying on tailored styling and fit advice to make speedy buying decisions.
Jim Yu, CEO of BrightEdge, said, “Our most recent analysis shows that more and more people are using AI at different stages of the buying process.” “As AI gets better and more people trust it to help them pick out holiday gifts, the next steps, like helping with big purchases or even handling the whole order from start to finish, aren’t far behind.” This could be the first year that AI really changes the buying experience, from getting ideas to checking out.
Google is still the best place to shop online.
Even while this year’s growth has been huge, referrals from AI engines are still only a small part of the entire commerce environment. BrightEdge’s research shows that these kinds of referrals account up less than 1% of total organic ecommerce traffic right now. Google still sends 87.6% of all organic search traffic to ecommerce brand websites, on the other hand.
Optimize Once, Win Everywhere
With AI becoming a major source of referrals during the holiday season, marketers need to optimize their search results for both traditional and AI searches even more quickly. SEO is still the most important way to get traffic, but the best way to win at AI is to build on existing high-quality, authoritative content. Marketers need to keep using both traditional SEO and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) tactics as AI traffic grows and spreads across other platforms like Google’s AI Overviews, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Perplexity, and others.
Retailers can use technology like BrightEdge’s fully unified platform to control all part of the shopping trip, from AI assistants to search engines to on-site experiences. This increases discovery, conversions, and profitability.
For monthly updates on how the big search engines are competing, check out BrightEdge’s AI Market Pulse.
About BrightEdge
BrightEdge is the best company in the world at Enterprise SEO and AI-powered content performance. BrightEdge has been helping thousands of companies and digital marketers turn online potential into real business results for more than 18 years. This includes 57% of the Fortune 500. Its platform is the first of its kind in the market and combines the most complete search dataset with insights from traditional SEO, digital media, social media, and content with cutting-edge generative AI capabilities, such as its deep learning engine DataMind and AI Catalyst platform. BrightEdge is trusted by big businesses, mid-sized businesses, and top digital agencies. It continues to set the standard for innovation in search and AI, helping brands win by becoming a key part of the digital experience.