Australian retailers are taking the AI search fight to global eCommerce giant Amazon with the country’s two biggest supermarkets leading the charge, new analysis from brand, experience and performance agency, Jaywing, has revealed.
While Amazon leads in AI search responses for six of the major retail categories, in grocery and food, Woolworths comes top with 20 per cent of AI brand visibility, followed by Coles at 17 per cent, Amazon 13 per cent and Aldi in fourth with seven per cent.
Jaywing’s study analysed factors that influence which retailers and brands are surfaced in AI-generated answers, including intent, funnel stage, content format and brand presence across key retail categories including electronics; fashion and apparel; health and beauty; hobbies and recreational goods; home and living; and hobbies and recreational goods; books, stationary and multi-media.
Amazon topped the electronics category with 42 per cent, but there was a robust showing from Australian retailers with JB Hi-Fi (31 per cent) and Harvey Norman (22 per cent) holding strong positions in AI results.
In health and beauty large retailers such as Amazon (25 per cent), Chemist Warehouse (21 per cent), and Priceline (8 per cent) collectively account for over half of AI visibility in the category, while at the same time, specialist skincare brands like CeraVe (7 per cent) and The Ordinary (6.5 per cent) hold meaningful midtier presence, showing that clear positioning and authority can compete with scale.
Home and living remains competitive and fragmented with traditional retailers such as Harvey Norman (21 per cent) and Bunnings (17 per cent) maintaining strong AI visibility in search. Appliance brands such as DeLonghi and Breville, both at 5 per cent break into the top ten reflecting how product-led authority matters in the category.
Jaywing’s analysis also reveals how commercial retail search has already become inside AI environments. Nearly 70 per cent of AI retail queries show clear commercial or transactional intent, signalling many users are already in buying mode when they interact with tools built on large language models, such as ChatGPT and Google’s AI-driven results. More than half of searches occur during the mid-funnel consideration phase, when shoppers are comparing options and narrowing their shortlist.
Tom Geekie, CEO at Jaywing said the findings show retailers and brands are already competing for visibility inside AI platforms whether they realise it or not.
“AI search has already become a critical layer in how people discover products and consumers are asking complex questions and expecting direct recommendations, which means the AI engine effectively decides which brands enter the conversation,” he said.
“This is a fundamental shift from traditional search and no longer about ranking number one for a keyword, but about being one of the few sources an AI model chooses to cite and summarise.
“If a brand is not present in the sources AI trusts and references, it simply does not appear in the answer. That means losing visibility even when consumers are actively looking to buy. Retailers and brands investing in Generative Engine Optimisation will have a real opportunity to shape how AI systems describe, recommend and prioritise them.”
Jaywing’s ‘Retail Visibility in AI Search’ report was powered by search data from AI visibility and generative engine optimisation platform, Writesonic, with analysis and interpretation using a GEO framework, focussing on the search intent behind AI retail queries; funnel stage distribution; presence and use of AI shopping features; content formats cited in AI answers; most frequently cited domains and brand visibility across AI platforms. This enabled Jaywing to see not just who appears, but why.
