The Traffic Drop That Likely Isn’t Hurting Your Bottom Line
How dropping traffic and impressions isn't translating to lower sales for many businesses
Many businesses are experiencing something peculiar: their website traffic is dropping, but their sales and conversions remain steady or even increase.
Why? Generally, AI results handle the tire-kickers and window shoppers.
You know, the people who are just browsing or looking for quick answers.
When people are ready to make a significant purchase decision, they dig past the AI summaries and visit websites to get the full story, read reviews, compare options, and ultimately buy.
Serious decisions require serious research, and that means visiting actual websites when it counts.
But wait, didn’t ChatGPT just launch Instant Checkout?
Yes, in the USA, ChatGPT users can now purchase products within the ChatGPT environment without visiting a website, which appears to complicate my previous explanation.
However, I did say significant purchase decisions would likely incentivize people to do more homework and visit websites.
Unfortunately, I think it’s fair to say that businesses that sell lower-cost items will see less traffic to their websites due to Instant Checkout. It’s my estimation that the less something costs, the less likely people are to do as much research, and they will be more open to checking out (pun intended) and following the AI’s suggestion.
In that case, those business owners will have to hope they have built the necessary authority to be in ChatGPT’s pick of vendors (I’ll cover that in another post).
Time will tell if enough people become comfortable relying on AI shopping assistance for higher ticket items. If they do, the future need for a company website will change faster than expected.