The zero-click shopper: How AI is reshaping the CPG path to purchase

CPG brands have long optimized for SEO, email, and influencer campaigns that drive traffic to brand.com and retailer product detail pages (PDPs). But there's a new behavior emerging – and it doesn’t involve clicking at all.

The rise of generative AI tools like ChatGPT has given consumers a new way to research, discover, and even decide what to buy, all without visiting a website. You’ve likely seen the headlines: Google’s own data shows that nearly two-thirds of searches don’t result in a click. AI overviews, TikTok reviews, and ChatGPT summaries are doing the heavy lifting before a shopper ever sees a PDP.

At Pear, we’re seeing this shift firsthand. Traffic from ChatGPT-based UTM sources is climbing steadily – from just 83 page loads in November 2024 to nearly 1,000 by June 2025. That’s a 12x increase in just seven months. And it's not just traffic: click-through rates to retailers from these AI-sourced sessions are matching (and sometimes beating) traditional search and social campaigns.

So what does this really look like? We chatted with ChatGPT to see first hand: 

First prompt: What’s the best beef jerky at Target?

Second prompt: I want a vegan-friendly sweet treat, what’s good at Target? ‍

So what does this mean for CPG marketers?

• Your brand needs to be answer-ready. AI tools don’t rank pages, they synthesize information. That means your product descriptions on retailer PDPs, FAQs, and reviews need to be structured and accurate everywhere.
  
  
• It’s not about clicks – it’s about presence. If a shopper sees your brand in a ChatGPT conversation and heads straight to Target or Instacart to buy it, you may never see a true click.
  
  
• Track differently. Attribution models will need to evolve. UTM traffic from ChatGPT is one signal, but so is a sudden spike in retailer conversions with no upstream clicks. Zero-click doesn’t mean zero impact.
  
  

We're watching this trend closely and believe it represents a fundamental shift in how shoppers discover CPG products.

Want to know if your brand is showing up in AI-powered product discovery? Let's chat – or better yet, ask ChatGPT about your product and see what comes up.