“Clickless Christmas” Is Coming. Let’s Make Sure Your Holiday Marketing Plan Is Ready.
I realize it’s August. You’re probably still applying sunscreen and navigating the eyewatering cost of school supplies. Everything is already pumpkin spiced for some reason. (When will it stopppp?!?!?!) AND if you work in retail or CPG, you know what else is happening right now: holiday planning.
Across CTP clients, we’ve begun planning a host of “typical Q4 tactics” (e.g. Black Friday promos, influencer partnerships, gift guides, etc.) … only this year, there’s one point we keep stressing: while your holiday media plan may start in October, your AI visibility plan absolutely cannot.
You see, 2026 represents an opportunity unlike years’ past to leverage “clickless shopping.” For years, the online shopping journey looked like this: Search → Click → Website → Evaluate → Buy. Now a shopper can ask ChatGPT, Gemini or another AI platform: What's the best hostess gift under $50? Or, what's gift for my tween that’s not “cringe”? Instead of ten blue links, shoppers get an answer. (Now, that shopper may eventually click somewhere to purchase, but an increasingly important part of discovery, consideration and evaluation has already happened.) That's “clickless shpping.”
The numbers prove it.
2024: Holiday season traffic from generative AI sources to U.S. retail websites increased 1,300% year over year, according to Adobe. (On Cyber Monday alone, it increased 1,950%.)
2025: Generative AI traffic to retail sites jumped another 693.4% year over year. More than one-third of shoppers surveyed by Adobe said they used AI assistants, and roughly half of those shoppers used them for holiday shopping. Salesforce reports that third-party AI search traffic from platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity doubled during the 2025 holiday season, and shoppers arriving through AI-powered search converted at nine times the rate of shoppers coming through social media referrals.
2026: Uhm, we gotta move on this. Add another year of consumer adoption to the staggering stats above and it’s clear that this holiday season is shaping up to be even more competitive. Being on the shelf or in that Insta post isn’t gonna do it this year; your brand needs “share of model”. And don’t be fooled by some SEO-in-a-trenchcoat offer. You cannot keyword your way there.
Winning on LLMs requires reputation building. If you haven’t already aligned on the fundamentals like clear positioning, consistent PDPs, driving third-party coverage, reviews and creating useful owned content, get a move on people! You can't throw some keywords onto a holiday landing page on October 15 and expect AI systems to suddenly understand why your product deserves to be recommended.
Have no fear; CTP has a gameplan for YOU, too.
Start with a baseline. Is your product information inconsistent? Are competitors earning more authoritative third-party mentions? Is your website missing useful explanatory content? Is AI misunderstanding something important about your brand? Connect those findings to the holiday work you're already doing. PR, influencer, owned content, retail partnerships and product pages all create signals that help humans and machines understand who you are.
To be clear, this isn’t another giant workstream. CTP can benchmark your brand against competitors now, identify where AI is getting your story wrong or leaving you out entirely, and give your team a practical roadmap before holiday campaigns hit the market.
ALSO! As you’re thinking about plans that will take you from this year to the next, I really, really want you to consider yourself, too. My pals at BWB are hosting The Movement from Within, a women's retreat experience from 9/30 to 10/4 in the Catskills in New York. (I’d be there with bells on if both of my kids’ birthdays didn’t fall on that weekend!) They’re offering “Four days of movement, reflection, connection, and rest in a beautiful setting. Space is intentionally limited, so if you've been craving a reset, this is it: https://wearebwb.com/retreat”
BWB Retreat Space
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Adobe Analytics: Traffic to U.S. Retail Websites from Generative AI Sources Jumps 1,200 Percent Open original source Adobe: Holiday Shopping Season Drove a Record $257.8 Billion Online with Consumers Embracing Generative AI Tools Open original source Holiday Season Rakes in Record $1.29T for Retailers, Salesforce Data Shows Open original source AI and Agents Present a $263B Holiday Opportunity for Retailers in 2025 Open original source Adobe Blog. Adobe Analytics: Traffic to U.S. Retail Websites from Generative AI Sources Jumps 1,200 Percent. Source Adobe Newsroom. Adobe: Holiday Shopping Season Drove a Record $257.8 Billion Online with Consumers Embracing Generative AI Tools. January 7, 2026.Source Salesforce News. Holiday Season Rakes in Record $1.29T for Retailers, Salesforce Data Shows. January 8, 2026.Source Salesforce Blog. AI and Agents Present a $263B Holiday Opportunity for Retailers in 2025. September 16, 2025.Source###
Abby Lovett, Founder & AI Visibility Advisor, CTP Visibility Advisors. Author of "Super Human: 8 'SMALL' Ways to Be Super at What You Do…and Human While You Do It."
