This Shopify merchant received over 50 orders from ChatGPT. Is AI the future of retail?
- lastmansurfing
- Jan 5
- 1 min read
One day in May, Steven Hoel, a Los Angeles–based entrepreneur who runs a clothing brand for tall people, was reviewing incoming orders when something odd caught his eye.
The source of an order for a cotton tall T‑shirt was listed as ChatGPT on his Shopify dashboard, the Canadian e-commerce platform he uses to build and run his online store.
Hoel shrugged it off at the time. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago, when he checked again, that he realized the ChatGPT reference wasn’t an anomaly. Over the past six months, Shopify has attributed more than 50 orders to the generative artificial intelligence platform, which is believed to have brought customers to Hoel’s website.
ChatGPT has since become his sixth-largest source of referral traffic, with a conversion rate five times higher than the average across all traffic sources.
Read the full story | TORONTO STAR