According to a study, more than one in two French people have already made a purchase using generative AI.

E-commerce is no longer just an alternative to physical stores, but is becoming, according to the latest study published by BNP Paribas Personal Finance, a practice firmly established in the daily lives of French people.

Entitled "SOFA Economics", this analysis describes a transformation that goes beyond a simple rise in online commerce, reshaping the place, the time, and now the interface of the purchasing process.

In this new landscape, the home emerges as the nerve center of transactions. But another player is emerging: generative artificial intelligence, which is beginning to capture a significant share of the purchasing journey…

Home is becoming the center of gravity of e-commerce

The figures speak for themselves: 72% of French people shop online at least once a month. Among them, 93% make their purchases from home, and even more striking, 40% say they shop directly from their sofa.

The study shows that 77% of consumers shop throughout the year, and no longer just during promotional periods. Thus, domestic commerce is no longer seasonal but becomes continuous, integrated into the interstices of daily life.

The smartphone plays a structuring role here, with 65% of SOFA consumers making their purchases via their smartphone, far ahead of laptops at 54% or desktops at 29%.

For e-commerce and IT departments, this evolution implies an adaptation of infrastructures, where display speed and the fluidity of conversion funnels directly influence conversion rates. Moreover, according to the report, 76% of consumers say they will abandon a purchase if the website is too slow, and 80% if the interface is deemed too complex.

54% of shoppers have already used generative AI

While Google remains dominant, with 94% of SOFA consumers having already made a purchase after a search on a search engine, a new conversational layer is gradually emerging.

Even more surprisingly, 54% of respondents say they have already made a purchase following a search via generative AI, and this proportion reaches 70% among the most digitally savvy users. With features like Instant Checkout on ChatGPT, or Google's new UCP protocol, AI is gradually becoming a gateway to commercial offerings. Where a traditional search engine provides a list of links, AI aggregates, synthesizes, and prioritizes them. This means that visibility then depends on the quality of the product feeds, the structuring of metadata, and the accessibility of catalogs via appropriate technical interfaces. The study also highlights an interesting discrepancy: 67% of consumers find the recommendations relevant, but only 45% report regularly making purchases based on these suggestions. Beyond the hype, algorithmic personalization is convincing, though not necessarily converting, where for businesses, the question is no longer just about being visible on the web, but about existing in the machine-generated responses. class="siecl-1c0d7c72ec4a44ef73a90bfecde2a965 siecl-appwiki-after-content" id="siecl-1c0d7c72ec4a44ef73a90bfecde2a965">