LLMs Are Your New Revenue Channel. Are You Visible Enough?

The Shift No Brand Can Ignore 

The way customers discover products is changing faster than most brands can keep up with. For years, we optimized Google rankings, paid for ads, and perfected SEO. But here’s the hard truth: your customers are starting to buy from AI answers, not just search results. 

Adobe Analytics found that traffic to U.S. retail websites from generative AI sources has jumped +1,200% since mid-2024. On Prime Day 2025 alone, AI-driven traffic spiked +3,300% . And visitors who come through AI search convert 4.4× better than those from traditional organic search. 

So, I’ll ask the question: is your brand even visible to AI? 

1. Why LLMs Already Drive Revenue

Generative AI isn’t just hype, it’s a functioning revenue channel. 

• Retail surge: Adobe confirms traffic from AI referrals has grown twelve-fold in a year. That’s not marginal; that’s exponential. 

• Event acceleration: During Prime Day 2025, AI traffic went from experimental to indispensable. It became a measurable driver of the record $24B in sales. 

• High conversion: Semrush data shows that when buyers land via ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity, they’re far more intent-driven, converting at 4.4× the rate of classic SEO. 

• B2B adoption: Forrester reports that 90% of B2B buyers already use generative AI in their procurement process, adopting it 3× faster than consumers. 

This isn’t the future, it’s the present. And ignoring it means leaving qualified, high-value buyers on the table. 

2. The New Gatekeepers: Less Clicks, More Answers

Search itself is being rewritten. Google’s AI Overviews already appear in 18% of searches. And when they do, only 8% of users click through to websites (vs. 15% when AIO isn’t present). That’s a tectonic shift: fewer clicks, more answers delivered inside the search engine itself. 

• Publishers lose traffic: Reuters and The Verge have reported lawsuits from major media companies citing huge declines in referrals and affiliate revenue. 

• SEO alone won’t save you: Gartner predicts traffic from traditional search engines will fall by 25% by 2026. 

If your growth strategy is still built only around “ranking first on Google,” you’re already behind. 

3. Marketplaces Are Moving First

Look at Amazon. Their AI shopping assistant, Rufus, isn’t just an experiment, it’s a business line. Internal forecasts project Rufus will contribute $700M in operating profit in 2025, not from ads, but from steering shopper decisions directly inside AI. 

The logic is simple: if AI owns discovery, it will also own conversion. And marketplaces are moving fast to monetize that moment. Brands that show up in Rufus or similar assistants will win revenue that never even makes it to a search bar. 

4. What Is AI Visibility, really?

At HatchEcom, we call this the AI Visibility Gap: the distance between where you rank in Google and whether you appear in AI-powered answers. AI Visibility isn’t about keywords. It’s about: 

• Context: does your brand appear naturally in conversations about your category? 

• Trust: do LLMs see you as a credible source worth citing? 

• Signals: is your content structured in ways that AI can parse, verify, and reuse? 

Edelman calls the discipline of optimizing for this Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Think of it as the evolution of SEO: ensuring your brand is surfaced, cited, and trusted inside AI responses. 

5. A Practical Playbook for GEO

So, what does it actually take to close the visibility gap? Here’s a simple framework any brand can start applying: 

1. Feed Primary Sources: LLMs prioritize reliable, first-party content. Publish data-driven articles, white papers, and FAQs that establish your expertise.
2. Structure for Machines: Schema markup, FAQs, and structured data aren’t optional anymore. They’re how AI systems decide what’s credible.
3. Monitor Share-of-Voice in AI: Semrush, Yext, and new GEO tools now let you track when and how often your brand appears in AI responses. Treat it like rank tracking in SEO.
4. Prioritize Verifiable Content: Citations are scarce (Gemini provides none in 92% of answers; Perplexity Sonar only cites 3–4 per query). Increase your odds by publishing verifiable, attributable content.
5. Balance GEO With Traditional SEO: This isn’t about replacing SEO but expanding it. The winning brands are already investing in both, ranking in Google while ensuring presence in AI.

6. The Risk of Doing Nothing

Let’s be blunt: if your brand isn’t visible in AI, it’s being replaced by someone else’s narrative. 

Competitors who invest in GEO today will shape how LLMs talk about your category tomorrow. And when AI assistants become the default interface for shopping, researching, or B2B buying, you’ll be invisible at the exact moment customers are making decisions. The cost of invisibility isn’t just lost traffic, it’s lost trust. 

Turning Visibility Into Impact 

I’ve worked with brands long enough to know one thing: you can’t afford to chase trends. You need to be in front of them. Generative AI has already redefined discovery. Customers are buying from AI answers. Marketplaces are monetizing AI assistants. And B2B buyers are rewriting procurement with AI at the center. 

So the question isn’t whether LLMs will matter for your revenue channel. They already do. The real question is: are you visible enough? 

At HatchEcom, we’re helping brands across ecommerce and retail answer that question with clarity, data, and strategy. Because in the AI era, visibility is revenue.