Coles and Woolworths Are Beating Amazon in AI Search Visibility. That Should Worry Every Other Retailer.

Woolworths owns 20% of AI search visibility in the Australian grocery category. Coles holds 17%. Amazon sits third at 13%, with Aldi fourth at 7%.

The data comes from Jaywing's latest analysis of how AI platforms surface brand recommendations when consumers ask product and shopping questions. In grocery and food, the two Australian supermarket giants are outperforming the global e-commerce leader in the channel that is increasingly replacing traditional search.

That is not the full picture. Amazon dominates across six of the major retail categories analysed, including electronics where it leads with 42% visibility. JB Hi-Fi holds 31% and Harvey Norman sits at 22% in that category. But in the categories that matter most to everyday Australian shoppers, local retailers have built genuine authority.

The mechanism behind AI search visibility is different from traditional SEO. AI models draw on structured product data, brand authority signals, review ecosystems and content depth. Woolworths and Coles have invested heavily in all four. Their product catalogues are deeply structured. Their loyalty programs generate first-party data that feeds personalisation. Their content marketing, recipe databases and health information pages create the kind of topical authority that AI models reward.

Amazon's strength in electronics and general merchandise comes from a different set of signals: massive review volume, comparison content and marketplace breadth. Where Amazon lacks in Australia is local specificity. AI models answering questions about weekly grocery shopping, meal planning or local product availability will naturally favour the retailers that have built content around those queries for years.

The retail media angle is equally significant. Woolworths' media unit Cartology and Coles' equivalent Coles 360 are approaching a combined $1 billion in advertising revenue. That revenue depends on foot traffic, both physical and digital. If AI search sends more grocery queries toward Woolworths and Coles, their retail media businesses become more valuable, creating a flywheel effect.

AI search is not a future channel. It is a current one. When consumers ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot where to buy something, the brands that appear in the answer capture consideration without paying for a click. For Australian retailers, this data confirms that local investment in content, product data and brand authority translates directly into AI visibility.

For mid-market retailers and D2C brands, the message is different. If you are not investing in structured product data and topical content authority, you are invisible in the channel that is growing fastest.

The retailers who built for SEO over the past decade are now reaping the rewards in AI search. The window for everyone else to catch up is narrowing.