How Edible Brands Is Navigating AI Traffic and Replatforming for the Agentic Era
The ecommerce landscape is shifting faster than most retailers can keep up with, and Edible Brands is one of the companies determined not to get left behind. As artificial intelligence platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity begin referring more and more shoppers to retail websites, forward-thinking brands are being forced to rethink everything — from their content architecture to their entire digital infrastructure. Edible Brands, ranked No. 182 in the Digital Commerce 360 Top 2000 Database of North America's largest online retailers by annual ecommerce sales, is among those taking the challenge seriously and making meaningful moves to prepare for what many are calling the agentic AI era.
AI Traffic Is Still Small — But Growing Exponentially
Right now, less than 10% of web traffic to Edible Brands' websites originates from AI platforms. That might sound insignificant at first glance, but Erica Randerson, the company's Chief Digital Officer, sees a much bigger picture forming on the horizon. Speaking with Digital Commerce 360, Randerson was candid about the trajectory she's observing.
"What we've noticed is, while the traffic we're getting from a ChatGPT or a Claude or Perplexity may still be a small percentage, it is growing at an exponential rate," Randerson explained. "And it's only going to continue. So we're really always looking for ways where we can tap into AI."
This kind of exponential growth curve is precisely the signal that separates proactive brands from reactive ones. History has shown time and again in digital commerce that the companies who wait until a new channel becomes dominant before investing in it often find themselves playing an expensive, frustrating game of catch-up. Randerson and the team at Edible Brands are clearly determined to avoid that scenario.
What Is Agentic AI — and Why Does It Matter for Ecommerce?
If you were attending a digital commerce conference in early 2025, you might have heard the term "agentic AI" thrown around without much clarity on what it actually means. Randerson recalled exactly that experience firsthand.
"The room was just trying to figure out: What does that mean?" she said. "We all were thrown this new buzzword and what are we even dealing with, much less how are we optimizing for it?"
Agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that can autonomously take actions on behalf of users — browsing the web, comparing products, making decisions, and even completing purchases without requiring the user to actively steer every step of the process. Rather than simply returning a list of links the way a traditional search engine does, an agentic AI might independently research the best bouquet of chocolate-dipped strawberries, determine which retailer offers the best combination of quality and delivery time, and guide a buyer directly to checkout.
For ecommerce brands, this is a fundamental shift in how discovery and conversion happen. It's no longer enough to rank well on Google. Brands need to be visible, trustworthy, and accurately represented in the datasets and reasoning pipelines that AI models use to make recommendations.
Edible Brands Is Making Significant Technology Investments
Recognizing these signals, Edible Brands is not standing still. Randerson confirmed that the company is making "significant investments" in its technology and data infrastructure to ensure it is well-positioned as agentic AI becomes more deeply embedded in everyday shopping behavior. Part of this involves replatforming — a substantial undertaking that signals just how seriously the brand is treating this transition.
Replatforming in ecommerce is never a small decision. It typically involves migrating an entire digital storefront, often including product catalogs, customer data, checkout systems, and integrations with third-party tools. The fact that Edible Brands is pursuing this as part of its AI readiness strategy underscores how fundamentally different the infrastructure requirements for agentic AI visibility are compared to traditional SEO or paid search.
To show up effectively in AI-generated recommendations, a brand needs clean, structured, machine-readable data. Product descriptions, pricing, availability, reviews, and brand authority signals all need to be presented in a way that AI systems can easily parse, verify, and trust. A legacy platform built for a different era of search simply may not be up to the task.
Redefining Omnichannel for the AI Age
One of the most compelling aspects of Edible Brands' approach is how the company is rethinking the very definition of omnichannel. Traditionally, omnichannel retail meant ensuring a consistent brand experience across physical stores, websites, mobile apps, and social media. Randerson is pushing that definition further.
She explained that Edible is actively working to ensure that "omnichannel doesn't just stop in the historical definition of the word." In other words, AI platforms — whether that's a conversational assistant, an autonomous shopping agent, or an AI-powered voice interface — need to be treated as legitimate channels in their own right, with dedicated strategies for how the brand appears and performs within them.
What Other Retailers Can Learn From Edible Brands' Playbook
Edible Brands' approach offers a useful blueprint for ecommerce businesses of any size. Consider these key takeaways:
- Monitor AI referral traffic now. Even if the numbers are small today, tracking where AI-driven visitors come from and how they behave gives you a baseline to measure exponential growth against.
- Invest in structured, clean data. AI systems rely on well-organized product and brand data. Audit your content for completeness, accuracy, and machine readability.
- Treat AI platforms as new channels. Just as you would develop a strategy for TikTok Shop or Google Shopping, develop an explicit strategy for how your brand is represented in AI-powered environments.
- Don't wait for dominance — act on the curve. The brands that invest when AI traffic is at 5–10% will be far better positioned than those who wait until it reaches 40–50%.
The Bottom Line
Edible Brands is doing something that every ecommerce retailer should take note of: it is reading early signals seriously and acting decisively before those signals become industry-wide emergencies. With AI-driven traffic growing at an exponential rate and agentic AI reshaping how consumers discover and purchase products online, the window for proactive investment is open right now. Randerson and her team are walking through that window with confidence — and the brands that follow their lead will be the ones best equipped to thrive in the next chapter of digital commerce.
Whether you sell gourmet gift boxes like Edible Brands or operate in an entirely different retail vertical, the lesson is the same: the AI era of ecommerce is not coming — it is already here. The question is whether your brand is building for it today or scrambling to catch up tomorrow.