3 Ways LLMs Are Reshaping the Shopping Journey
Gener8’s interconnected data feeds enable you to understand how LLMs are impacting the customer purchase journey
Large Language Models (LLMs) are rapidly changing how we shop. From solving frustrating purchase friction to acting as the starting point for exploration, and even influencing final choices mid-journey, AI is weaving itself into the entire customer experience.
At Gener8, using our interconnected datasets, we've zoomed in to show exactly how people are using tools like ChatGPT and what this new behaviour means for brands and customer experience.
Use 1: Simplifying Complex Purchases
This journey highlights how LLMs like ChatGPT are emerging as a vital friction solver in complex purchasing situations. When faced with the difficulty of locating a specific product (in this case, a maths textbook amidst various exam board requirements), the user turned to ChatGPT instead of continuing a frustrating site-to-site search.
The AI successfully navigated the complexity, acting as a crucial touchpoint that efficiently directed the user straight to the publisher, effectively simplifying a 'messy' buying process and preventing the user from abandoning the search. This demonstrates ChatGPT's power to streamline the path to purchase when traditional search methods fail.
Use 2: Becoming the New Shopping Launchpad
We're finding that AI is increasingly becoming the driver of exploration intent, often replacing traditional search. In one customer journey, for instance, a user chose ChatGPT as their launchpad for oversized hoodie recommendations instead of starting with Google.
This influence extends beyond a single item: ChatGPT facilitates both direct and incremental merchant sales. The shopper referred to Boohoo for a hoodie subsequently purchased bras in the same session, proving that the AI's initial recommendation can lead to a significant boost in the overall order value.
Use 3: Shaping your purchase choices
In this particular journey, ChatGPT played a new, critical role: it acted as a mid-journey influencer, likely by helping the user answer product-related questions. This behaviour is key because it shows that the AI is not just replacing search, it's becoming a new, essential stop in the purchase funnel.
When consumers turn to an LLM mid-purchase to validate choices, resolve doubts, or seek reassurance, brands must recognise a profound shift. Their messaging, product information, and reputation are now being filtered through this AI layer, which directly shapes the final conversion.
Leveraging Gener8’s interconnected panel for path to purchase analysis
At Gener8, we have a panel of 100k+ UK and 50k+ US users that share multiple datasets linked together through one user ID, which allows us to pinpoint the exact second a customer made a transaction, either through:
- eReceipts from our Purchase Intelligence feed, or
- Visit to the purchase confirmation page from the Consumer Browsing feed
From there we can look backwards in time, whether that is in minutes, hours or days and identify key touchpoints in the purchase journey, such as:
- Generic searches on search engines
- Visits to a review site mentioning the brand/ product
- Views of relevant videos on YouTube
- Visits to publisher pages mentioning the brand/ product
- Opening of relevant apps
- Use of GenAI platforms such as ChatGPT and Gemini
This allows us to gain deeper insights into customer purchasing journeys than ever before, especially since Gener8 is the only platform in the world that connects clickstream behaviour with eReceipt transactions.
This enables us to:
- Get a macro view of digital customer journeys. Assess the average user purchase journey in terms of pages visited, visits to the basket, and the time taken to complete a transaction from the first visit
- Quantify the value of off-site touchpoints. Identify off-site behaviour gaps, such as generic searches and GenAI use, and understand their impact on conversion.
- Benchmark against the industry and competitors. Compare your site’s performance with close competitors and the industry vertical as a whole, highlighting strategic areas for improvement.
- Zoom into individual customer journeys. Dive deep into unfiltered user journey paths to identify common trends and potential UX enhancements.
How can I access this data?
We utilised Gener8's Consumer Browsing and Purchase Intelligence datasets to deep dive into customer purchase journeys.
Gener8 Labs’ complete data and insights solution empowers media and marketing businesses to find actionable consumer and market insights, using our unique, consented, first party panel data sets that are all connected around one user ID.
Discover how you can power your decisions and gain a competitive edge from our behavioural truth set by contacting us today!
