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.