By Gabriela Barkho * January 15, 2025 *
Ivy Liu This story Original published by Modern Retail, a sister site.
According to Kelly Donohue, marketing and design director at Viv, the brand’s traffic increased by 400% in July last year.
Donohue, after some digging, discovered that the increase in traffic was primarily driven by Google Gemini’s ChatGPT recommendations for nontoxic period care. A study published in the scientific journal Environment International at the time revealed that the increase in traffic was primarily due to Google Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT search recommendations for non-toxic period care. The article found that many popular tampons brands contain heavy metals such as lead and arsenic. Many people asked the AI assistants questions about toxins and searched for sustainable period products. This led them to Viv’s blog.
Many of the people directed to Viv’s blog by ChatGPT actually bought products. These recommendations resulted in a 436% increase in sales. Viv is one of a growing list of digitally native brands that appear in AI-based results.
Data-and-intelligence provider Spins has been tracking the ways AI tools have already changed how people search for products and solutions. This month, Spins The report highlights the shift in people searching for products via TikTok and AI Assistants like ChatGPT. While advertising tools are Brands that have built a large database of content and are able to leverage the rise of generative AI-powered search appear to be in a good position to benefit. Donohue stated that including as much information about the brand as possible in as many places seemed to help Viv break through on ChatGPT, and other AI powered search platforms. This provided AI search engines with context, transparency, and education.
In July last year, the brand shifted its marketing to emphasize Viv products’ safety in all forms of communication, including SMS, email and social media. She believes that some of the blog posts she believes helped to catch customers’ attention last summer were posted on Facebook. Like Lead & Arsenic In Tampons? Here’s Why Vi is Your Safest Choice of Tampons”, published immediately after the study on tampons became public. Donohue added, “This was also the top converting article of 2024.” She said that detailed and data-driven content is important to get picked up by AI tools. Donohue cited Viv’s website and social media content, which go into granular detail about period product manufacturing processes, ingredient safety, and product testing. She said that these AI tools were scraping content and looking for more than keywords. “They are looking for a cohesive answer that they can give people that includes context and sources, as well as background.”
This effort has led to increased traffic in the months that have followed. Donohue stated that Google’s AI recommendations helped them sell out six months worth of tampons in just three weeks.
Spins Chief Product Officer Dan Buckstaff told Modern Retail the rise of ChatGPT as a product discovery tool is forcing brands to consider how to adapt to these changes in search behaviors. Buckstaff said that, “Similar 15 years ago, when we questioned how SEO worked. We’re now left with the question of how brands can benefit in AI environments.” “Especially at the current state, where three different AI solutions may have three different answers to the same posed question.” He said that robust messaging, whether it’s on the packaging of a product or shared via social media and influencers, can help a product to shine in all discovery formats.
Similarly the adaptive apparel brand Joe & Bella saw an influx of customers from ChatGPT to its website in recent months. The brand sells clothing that makes dressing easier for people with physical ailments such as Parkinson’s and older adults. During the holiday season, a few of these ChatGPT-derived website visitors made purchases from Joe & Bella.
“I really don’t know how or what they typed or asked ChatGPT in order to find us over the holidays,” said Joe & Bella co-founder and CEO Jimmy Zollo. Zollo hypothesized that the blog and the SEO keywords that the brand invests in are likely to blame. Brand search ads include keywords such as “adaptive clothing,” to name just one example.
Joe & Bella plans to continue investing in content that focuses on the technology of its products and related SEO keywords, which can be picked up easily by AI chatbots. “It was cool and unexpected, however we need to understand how to optimize these searches moving forward.”
This is a question on the minds of many executives for months to follow. The trend of shoppers, particularly Gen Z, searching for products in places other than Google is not slowing down. Now, brand executives want to know how they can continue to drive traffic and harness it.
Donohue stated that “these searches are top-of-mind for us right now, and we can make a big difference in how people find us using AI tools” by the way they write their blogs and create content on their website.
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