Edible Brands and the Rise of AI-Driven Ecommerce Traffic
The ecommerce landscape is shifting faster than most retailers can track, and Edible Brands is one company paying close attention. As artificial intelligence platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity become increasingly common starting points for consumer searches and shopping decisions, forward-thinking brands are asking a critical question: how do we show up where our customers are going next?
According to Erica Randerson, Chief Digital Officer of Edible Brands, less than 10% of web traffic to the company's websites currently originates from AI platforms. That number might seem modest, but it's the trajectory behind it that has the company making significant moves. Randerson describes that traffic as growing at an "exponential rate" — and she and her team are determined to be ready for what comes next.
What Is Agentic AI and Why Does It Matter for Retailers?
To understand why Edible Brands is investing so heavily in its technology and data infrastructure, it helps to understand what "agentic AI" actually means in a retail context. Unlike traditional search engines, which return a list of links for users to sift through, agentic AI systems can take actions on behalf of users — researching products, comparing options, and even completing purchases, all with minimal human input.
Randerson recalls attending a conference in early 2025 where agentic AI was a hot topic — but mostly a confusing one. "The room was just trying to figure out: What does that mean?" she recalled. "We all were thrown this new buzzword and what are we even dealing with, much less how are we optimizing for it?"
That uncertainty is not unusual. Agentic AI represents a genuinely new mode of commerce, one that doesn't fit neatly into existing frameworks for SEO, paid media, or even omnichannel retail. For brands like Edible, the challenge is not just understanding the technology but building the infrastructure to benefit from it before competitors do.
Edible Brands' Strategic Response: Replatforming and Infrastructure Investment
Rather than waiting for agentic AI to become mainstream before acting, Edible Brands is making proactive investments now. Randerson confirmed that the company is committing significant resources to its technology and data infrastructure, signaling a belief that the signals are already strong enough to warrant action.
A key part of this strategy involves replatforming — moving to a more flexible and modern ecommerce foundation that can accommodate the data structures and API integrations that AI platforms need to surface product information accurately. When an AI agent is tasked with finding the perfect gift basket or edible arrangement, it needs clean, structured, and accessible data to work with. Brands that have invested in that kind of back-end clarity will have a natural advantage over those that haven't.
This kind of technical foundation is increasingly becoming a competitive differentiator in ecommerce. Structured data, robust product feeds, and fast, accessible web architecture are no longer just nice-to-haves for SEO — they are essential for ensuring visibility in AI-generated responses and recommendations.
Rethinking Omnichannel in the Age of AI
One of the more thought-provoking aspects of Edible Brands' approach is how it is redefining what "omnichannel" means for a modern retailer. Traditionally, omnichannel referred to a seamless experience across physical stores, websites, mobile apps, and social platforms. Randerson is pushing that definition further.
"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," she told Digital Commerce 360. "And it's only going to continue. So we're really always looking for ways where we can tap into AI."
For Edible, ensuring that "omnichannel doesn't just stop in the historical definition of the word" means treating AI platforms as legitimate and important customer touchpoints — not as a curiosity or a side project. If a customer is asking an AI assistant for gift recommendations and Edible Brands doesn't appear in the response, that's a missed sale, plain and simple.
How Brands Can Optimize for AI Platform Visibility
The question of how to optimize for agentic AI platforms is still being worked out across the industry, but several principles are emerging that brands like Edible Brands are leaning into.
- Structured data and schema markup: AI systems rely on well-organized, machine-readable data. Implementing comprehensive schema markup helps AI platforms understand what a brand sells, where it operates, and what makes its products unique.
- High-quality, authoritative content: AI platforms tend to surface brands and products that are well-documented across the web. Investing in detailed product descriptions, customer reviews, and informational content builds the kind of authority that AI systems recognize.
- API accessibility: As agentic AI systems become more sophisticated, they will increasingly pull real-time product data directly via APIs. Brands that make their catalogs accessible through clean, well-documented APIs will be better positioned to appear in AI-driven commerce flows.
- Brand consistency across platforms: Consistent NAP (name, address, phone number) data, unified product naming, and coherent brand messaging across all digital touchpoints help AI systems recognize and confidently recommend a brand.
- Monitor AI referral traffic: Even if the percentage is small today, tracking where AI-driven traffic comes from and how those visitors behave provides valuable data for refining strategy over time.
The Bigger Picture: AI as a Commerce Channel
Edible Brands' story is a useful case study for any retailer navigating the transition to an AI-influenced ecommerce environment. The company is No. 182 in Digital Commerce 360's Top 2000 Database, which ranks North America's largest online retailers by annual ecommerce sales — making its strategic decisions worth watching closely.
What Randerson and her team seem to understand clearly is that the window for early-mover advantage in AI-optimized commerce is open right now, but it won't stay open indefinitely. The brands that invest in the right infrastructure, content, and data strategies today will be the ones that appear naturally and prominently when a customer asks an AI assistant "where can I order edible arrangements for a birthday?" tomorrow.
AI-driven traffic may represent a small slice of the pie for most retailers at this moment. But as Edible Brands is demonstrating, the smart move is to build for where that slice is heading — not where it is today. In a landscape defined by rapid technological change, preparation is the most powerful strategy of all.