A quiet revolution is underway, impacting D2C startups. For over two decades, digital commerce was based on a simple business flow. Potential shoppers searched on Google, landed on a website and purchased stuff. This three-step flow has been the pillar for millions of businesses generating billions of dollars in income. Websites paid money to Google to drive clicks from potential buyers or invested millions in making their web pages ‘search engine-friendly’. Artificial intelligence just broke this pipeline.
Shoppers earlier searched for, say, “buy mens running shoes” on Google. Google would throw up links to those websites selling men’s running shoes that had optimised their pages better than their competition, while also showing sponsored links to websites that paid money per click to Google.
Now, thanks to AI, Google increasingly answers questions directly on the search page instead of sending users to websites. Product comparisons, buying advice, summaries and recommendations are now generated instantly through ‘AI overviews’. In many cases, users get what they need without ever clicking through to a brand’s site. This phenomenon is called the “zero-click internet”. Studies estimate that over half of Google searches end without a click to another website.
Such consumer behaviour is exploding. Millions of people worldwide now just ask ChatGPT whatever they want.
A simple query on ChatGPT, say, “purchase mens running shoes in India”, generates multiple listings, offers, prices, promotions, recommendations on where best to buy, and follow-up questions on what to look for while buying running shoes, while differentiating on buying parameters because of how men’s feet differ from women’s.
Soon, ChatGPT will also ask whether you would like it to order a pair on Amazon or Myntra if you share your feet size, and take you directly to the payment page, where you just enter your CVV or OTP and you are done.
This is a tsunami for D2C startups that have modelled their growth engines around search traffic, which hitherto used to be a predictable acquisition channel. Founders invested in SEO, created content, ranked for keywords and steadily grew traffic. AI is compressing that funnel and the consequence is already visible. Several e-commerce companies are reporting declining search traffic despite strong rankings.
So, what can D2C start-ups do to counter this massive behaviour change that is destroying their business models? We will discuss this in the next column.
Meanwhile, I am watching the fun from the sidelines and waiting for the day ChatGPT will go further and order running shoes for me without asking me for any payment details. Hopefully soon.
(The writer is a serial entrepreneur and best-selling author of the book ‘Failing to Succeed’; posts on X @vaitheek)
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Published on March 16, 2026