Emerging Traffic Source: ChatGPT Sessions Across Shopify Stores

Data and Analytics
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Topic summary

Analytics platform Datma has tracked a significant growth pattern in ChatGPT-sourced traffic across hundreds of Shopify stores between January and September 2025. Sessions tagged with utm_source=chatgpt increased from nearly zero (0.0006% in January) to 0.1141% of total traffic by August—representing over 33,000 sessions out of 29+ million tracked.

Key Growth Indicators:

  • Monthly ChatGPT sessions grew from 115 (January) to 33,548 (August)
  • Percentage share increased roughly 190x over eight months
  • Pattern suggests AI assistants (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini) are becoming intermediaries in customer discovery

Emerging Implications:

  • Shoppers are directly asking AI tools for product suggestions rather than using traditional search/social channels
  • Success may soon depend on how well product data and content are understood by AI models
  • Raises questions about whether “AI optimization” will become necessary alongside SEO
  • Potential for a new analytics category dedicated to AI-driven referral traffic

The discussion invites merchants to share whether they’re observing similar AI-sourced traffic patterns and how they plan to adapt their content or marketing strategies as conversational AI becomes a discovery channel.

Summarized with AI on November 6. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
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Hi All

Over the past year, we’ve been tracking traffic patterns across hundreds of Shopify stores using Datma, our analytics platform built on top of Shopify’s data infrastructure. One particularly interesting trend has started to surface, and it’s worth a closer look.

Between January and September 2025, sessions tagged with utm_source=chatgpt have shown a remarkable rise, growing from almost zero visibility at the start of the year to a small but steadily increasing share of total traffic by late summer.

Here’s what the aggregated data looks like across a sample of stores we monitor:

Month ChatGPT Sessions Total Sessions % Share
Jan 2025 115 20,495,080 0.0006%
Feb 2025 341 17,947,353 0.0019%
Mar 2025 1,727 20,504,377 0.0084%
Apr 2025 5,280 22,422,817 0.0235%
May 2025 9,926 25,029,631 0.0397%
Jun 2025 16,382 25,446,637 0.0644%
Jul 2025 23,084 27,725,270 0.0833%
Aug 2025 33,548 29,392,545 0.1141%
Sep 2025 27,011 30,452,958 0.0887%

What does this mean?
Even though the absolute numbers are small, the growth rate is striking, from effectively nothing at the start of the year to over 0.1% of total tracked traffic by August. That may seem minor, but when viewed across tens of millions of sessions, it signals that ChatGPT and other AI assistants are beginning to act as meaningful traffic sources.

This trend likely reflects a few converging shifts:

  • The growing use of ChatGPT’s browsing and link-sharing capabilities.

  • Customers interacting with AI-based shopping assistants or GPT-based recommendation bots.

  • Shoppers asking AI tools directly for product suggestions, and ending up on store pages.

:light_bulb: Why it matters
For years, we’ve optimised for search (SEO), ads, and social discovery. But AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini are increasingly intermediating customer intent meaning the way people find your store could soon rely on how well your content and product data are understood by these models.

It raises some big questions:

  • How will merchants adapt if conversational AI becomes a discovery channel?

  • How Shopify stores are thinking about “AI optimization”, similar to SEO ensuring structured product data, clear brand signals, and sharable answers?

  • Will there be a new category of analytics dedicated to tracking AI-driven referral traffic?

At Datma, we’ll continue to monitor and share aggregated insights as this pattern evolves but I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Are you noticing any AI-sourced traffic (ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc.) in your own analytics?
Do you plan to adjust your marketing or content strategy for this shift?

Peter - Datma

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Hey Peter

Really interesting data you’ve got there! I’ve been monitoring a few stores myself and seeing a similar rise. Personally, I find myself using ChatGPT more than Google these days for everything — and I often click through the links it suggests — so I’m definitely contributing to that trend too!

Out of interest, have you looked much into LLMs.txt? It’s a new standard that works a bit like robots.txt, but specifically for large language models like ChatGPT and Perplexity. It tells AI crawlers what they can or can’t use from your site, and helps make sure your content is properly attributed when it’s referenced by these tools.

I actually built an app that handles all of this automatically for Shopify stores — it creates and updates your LLMs.txt file, adds the right crawler directives, and even lets you include your AI contact and licensing info. If you’re curious, you can check it out here:
autoLLMs on the Shopify App Store

Would love to hear your thoughts on how you see LLMs.txt fitting into this new “AI optimisation” space!

Ollie

3

Hey Peter @Peter_Datma

Great post—this is a fascinating development! I’ve noticed a growing trickle of utm_source=chatgpt sessions for some clients as well. The numbers are still small, but the upward trend is impossible to ignore, especially as more shoppers get comfortable using AI for discovery.

On Shopify, you can track these sources using the built-in reports (“Sessions by referrer” or “Sessions by source”—just filter for ChatGPT or custom UTM tags). For anyone wanting a deeper breakdown—like slicing by landing page, campaign, or comparing trends over time—the Mipler reports app can really help you dig in further and visualize this new channel’s growth.

It’s a good call-out that “AI Optimization” could become as important as SEO. Making sure your product data is structured, easy to parse, and shareable will likely become even more valuable as these AI-driven referrals keep climbing!

Has anyone tried tuning their content for AI readability yet? Would love to hear experiences.

4

This is becoming a game changer. As AI tools like ChatGPT become new shopping gateways, Shopify merchants need a strategy to stay discoverable, trustworthy, and conversion-ready in this AI-driven era. Some strategic actions that merchants can take -

Data Foundation

Make your store AI-readable — structured product data, schema markup, and clean feeds ensure AI tools understand what you sell.

Content Intelligence

Write conversational, question-based content so AI assistants can surface your products naturally in answers and recommendations.

Experience Layer

Integrate AI-powered shopping experiences and track AI-referral traffic to turn discovery into measurable conversions.

Growth & Insight

Build a feedback loop — analyze AI-sourced traffic, learn what queries drive sales, and continually optimize listings and content.

Would love to learn about real life examples from Merchants.