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Notes from the team.
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- Insight
Shopify just opened its catalog to any AI agent. Access is not your edge.
Every brand in the catalog got the same access on the same day. What decides the sale is what the agent can read about you when it checks the shopper’s rules.
Vishal Verma - Insight
Two gift candles. Same price. One gets the tap.
Since Oct 12, Google AI Mode shows Merchant Center promotions inside its Shopping ads. A brand with no promotion set up can lose on a badge, not on the product.
Vishal Verma - Insight
lululemon added context to its listings. Google’s AI Mode used it half the time.
Google says lululemon’s conversational attributes showed up in 50% of relevant AI Mode recommendations in testing. Here is what they are, all six, and how to add them.
Vishal Verma - Insight
Almost no DTC brand blocks ChatGPT. So getting in is not your edge.
We read the robots.txt and llms.txt of 75 well-known DTC brands. Nearly all of them let AI in. One block looks like an accident, and 37 of the 57 Shopify stores serve the same agent guide. Here is what we found.
Mantej Gill - Insight
Your star rating may be invisible to ChatGPT. We checked 48 DTC product pages.
21 of 48 product pages have no review rating in the raw page that ChatGPT’s and Claude’s crawlers read. On 5 of them the rating appears only after JavaScript runs. Price gets you on the list. Proof gets you picked.
Mantej Gill - Insight
AI agents can now buy from your store. Here is who, and since when.
Google, Shopify, Meta, Instinct and TikTok all moved this year. The agent no longer just recommends. It checks out. What changed, and what it means for your store this holiday.
Mantej Gill - Insight
AI agents can now read your “was” prices. Check them before Black Friday.
Since Oct 9, Shopify can hand your compare-at price to AI agents, and it is on by default for most stores. A “was” price left over from last year can now reach a shopper who is ready to buy.
Vishal Verma - Insight
The CAPTCHA that ate Christmas
Shoppers are sending AI agents to buy for them. Some of those agents are being turned away by bot checks built for scrapers. What happened, and what to check before Black Friday.
Vishal Verma - Insight
“Will it arrive by Christmas?” Make sure an AI agent can answer.
Agents now prepare checkout for shoppers. If your holiday cutoff lives only in a banner, an agent cannot read it, and may pick a store that says yes in its data.
Vishal Verma - Insight
Amex just built rails for AI shopping agents
A card network is getting ready for agents that buy. How its new framework works, and the question it leaves for brands.
Vishal Verma - Insight
65% of holiday shoppers will use AI. Indie brands can win.
Shopify’s 2026 holiday report says shoppers who use AI lean toward indie brands. What an agent needs before it can pick yours.
Vishal Verma - Insight
The 5-minute AI visibility check
Before holiday shoppers ask AI what to buy, ask it yourself. Five checks, what to type, and what to write down.
Vishal Verma - Insight
AI shoppers used to convert 38% worse. Now they convert 60% better.
In 16 months, shoppers who arrive from AI went from converting worse than other traffic to converting better. What changed, and why the decision now happens before the click.
Mantej Gill - Featured
I asked ChatGPT about my own store. It named 3 competitors.
A founder’s story many brands will recognise: missing from the shortlist, and described wrongly when AI did find them. What causes it, and the loop that fixes it.
Mantej Gill - Insight
What AI gets wrong about your brand, and who fixes it
AI is describing your brand to shoppers right now. Three mistakes to look for, and why a dashboard alone will not fix them.
Mantej Gill - Insight
The AI shopping numbers, 2026
Shoppers now ask AI before they buy. What the latest data says, and what it means for brands.
Mantej Gill - Featured
What changes when the buyer is an agent
Six things that change when AI agents shop for people, and what it means for brands.
Mantej Gill - Featured
The Checkout Wars: ChatGPT vs. Perplexity vs. Google
AI shopping assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google are no longer just recommending products. They are deciding what gets purchased through in-assistant checkout. Brands that win aren’t the loudest; they’re the ones whose catalog data is clean, complete, and transactable across all three platforms.
Vishal Verma - Featured
ACP vs UCP vs WebMCP: What Every Brand Needs to Know
Your team hits revenue targets, your paid search is efficient, your PDPs are polished. Yet a high-intent shopper asks an AI assistant for the best option in your category and your product is never mentioned. Not because your offer is weak. Because the assistant cannot confidently interpret your catalog data, so demand flows to a competitor instead.
Vishal Verma - Featured
The Era of AI Shopping: The 2026 Definition for Retailers
Last quarter looked fine on your dashboards. Pricing was competitive. Reviews were strong. Yet a competitor’s product keeps getting picked when shoppers ask an AI assistant what to buy. The reason: your product data is not clearly understood or trusted at the moment of AI-driven choice, so demand quietly leaks elsewhere.
Vishal Verma - Insight
How AI Shopping Assistants Actually Decide What to Recommend: The SKU-Level Truth
AI-driven referrals to E-commerce sites have grown 752% year over year. Yet many brands still optimize for rankings while missing the real gatekeeper: AI assistants that decide which specific SKUs get recommended.
Mantej Gill - Insight
SEO vs GEO: Why Traditional Search Optimization Isn’t Enough Anymore
SEO gets you ranked. GEO gets you recommended by AI. Modern retail brands need both to stay visible.
Mantej Gill - Insight
What Is AI Commerce? 2026 Guide for Retail Leaders
Something strange showed up in the data this summer. A mid-size electronics retailer we work with noticed a new traffic source in their analytics. Not Google. Not Instagram. Not TikTok. It was ChatGPT.
Mantej Gill
