AI-Powered Shopping Takes Off Globally, But Data Integration Lags Behind
Salesforce released its 'Global Commerce Trends Report' this week, highlighting significant shifts in how global consumers discover and purchase products. According to the report, the use of AI assistants by shoppers worldwide has increased over 200% year on year.
The report surveyed 3,450 commerce professionals across 20 countries and 13 industries, including South Korea. It found that traffic arriving at global commerce sites via AI chat surged between 150% and 428% year on year across every quarter covered by the analysis.
Traditional search use fell 15%, while new channels such as AI assistants, social media AI tools, and delivery apps saw a 38% increase. The report also notes that consumers are increasingly gathering product information through AI conversations before visiting a brand's website.
South Korean companies are adapting to these changes, with 48% of domestic commerce firms feeding product data to AI search platforms and 44% creating or optimizing content for conversational and question-based search. However, Salesforce notes that data and system fragmentation remains a challenge, with 45% of respondents experiencing inconsistencies in pricing and promotions across channels.
Park Se-jin, president of Salesforce Korea, emphasized the importance of securing the consumer's first touchpoint through AI integration, saying 'AI is becoming the starting point for product discovery and purchase decisions.'