Amazon and Walmart are charting vastly different courses when it comes to leveraging the power of AI chatbots like ChatGPT to reshape the way shoppers find products online.
According to Similarweb, a whopping 20% of website visitors who landed on Walmart.com by clicking a link from another site in August originated from ChatGPT, compared to a mere under 3% for Amazon. This stark contrast reveals two fundamentally different business models at play: one that seeks to protect its advertising engine and the other that welcomes new traffic with open arms.
Amazon, with its unparalleled marketplace dominance, has become a retail giant where 56% of consumers kick off their online product searches. The sheer scale of this behemoth makes it an indispensable platform for advertisers, who spent over $50 billion on ads in 2022. This ad revenue is not only crucial to Amazon's bottom line but also serves as the primary driver of its e-commerce business model.
By blocking AI chatbots from scraping its site for product data, Amazon aims to maintain its lucrative advertising engine and protect its dominance. After all, no company can easily replace tens of billions of dollars in high-margin ad revenue. This calculated risk assessment underscores Amazon's willingness to adapt β or at least, that's the narrative.
Walmart, on the other hand, is embracing a more open-door policy towards AI chatbots and online traffic. With e-commerce still accounting for less than 20% of its total revenue, Walmart is content with welcoming any traffic that comes its way, even if it starts elsewhere. This approach may be seen as an attempt to future-proof the brand by being more inclusive and adaptable.
As the retail landscape continues to evolve, one thing is clear: Amazon's resistance to AI-powered shoppers may signal a lack of willingness to adapt, while Walmart's openness could prove a winning strategy. Only time will tell if either approach will pay off or lead to a significant failure for these two retail giants.
According to Similarweb, a whopping 20% of website visitors who landed on Walmart.com by clicking a link from another site in August originated from ChatGPT, compared to a mere under 3% for Amazon. This stark contrast reveals two fundamentally different business models at play: one that seeks to protect its advertising engine and the other that welcomes new traffic with open arms.
Amazon, with its unparalleled marketplace dominance, has become a retail giant where 56% of consumers kick off their online product searches. The sheer scale of this behemoth makes it an indispensable platform for advertisers, who spent over $50 billion on ads in 2022. This ad revenue is not only crucial to Amazon's bottom line but also serves as the primary driver of its e-commerce business model.
By blocking AI chatbots from scraping its site for product data, Amazon aims to maintain its lucrative advertising engine and protect its dominance. After all, no company can easily replace tens of billions of dollars in high-margin ad revenue. This calculated risk assessment underscores Amazon's willingness to adapt β or at least, that's the narrative.
Walmart, on the other hand, is embracing a more open-door policy towards AI chatbots and online traffic. With e-commerce still accounting for less than 20% of its total revenue, Walmart is content with welcoming any traffic that comes its way, even if it starts elsewhere. This approach may be seen as an attempt to future-proof the brand by being more inclusive and adaptable.
As the retail landscape continues to evolve, one thing is clear: Amazon's resistance to AI-powered shoppers may signal a lack of willingness to adapt, while Walmart's openness could prove a winning strategy. Only time will tell if either approach will pay off or lead to a significant failure for these two retail giants.