E-commerce marketing
Getting your products
into AI answers.
AI shopping tools recommend products from what they can read: your product feed, your product pages and what other sites say about you. Google's AI Mode and Gemini now have a checkout that lets shoppers buy without leaving Google, open in early access to selected merchants in the US, Canada and Australia. ChatGPT went the other way, moving purchases back to merchants' own sites in 2026. Either way, the work is the same: clean product data, pages AI tools can read, and a reputation they can find.
Written by Dan Picken, a marketer who checks the sources. Last checked 2 November 2026.What AI tools
actually read.
When someone asks 'best linen sheets for hot sleepers', the AI tool doesn't browse your shop. It reads structured product data, product pages and what other sites say, then picks products that fit the question.
For Google, that's mostly your Merchant Center feed and your pages. For ChatGPT, it depends on its search crawler being allowed in: OpenAI's documentation says blocking OAI-SearchBot keeps a site out of ChatGPT's search answers. Specs written only in images, prices that don't match and missing GTINs all make your products harder to recommend.
AI shopping readiness
Can AI tools
recommend your products?
Ten checks on what Google's AI Mode, ChatGPT and other AI tools actually read when someone asks what to buy. Tick what's true for your store.
Your score
0 / 10
Fix first
Google's checkout
in AI Mode.
Google's checkout lets shoppers buy inside AI Mode or the Gemini app, paying with Google Pay, while you stay the seller of record. It runs on an open standard called the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP).
Australia was the first market in Asia-Pacific: Google launched UCP here in June 2026 with retailers including Adore Beauty, Bunnings, Kogan Group, Petbarn and THE ICONIC, and said single-item checkout in Search, AI Mode and Gemini is set to roll out. For now it's early access for selected merchants. Google's steps are an interest form, a technical set-up, and a new product attribute in your feed that marks which listings can show the Buy button.
ChatGPT: discover there,
buy on your site.
ChatGPT launched Instant Checkout on 29 September 2025, then moved purchases back to merchants' own sites and apps in early 2026. Forrester estimated that only about 30 Shopify merchants had gone live before the change.
So for now ChatGPT is a discovery channel. People research there, then click through to buy. That makes your product page do more work: it has to confirm what ChatGPT said, quickly, and make buying easy.
Is it worth
the effort yet?
Check your own numbers before deciding how much to invest: for many stores, AI tools still send a small share of visits next to Google Search and Shopping. But the work that helps AI, a clean feed, clear product pages, reviews and mentions, also helps Shopping ads and SEO. There's little to lose by doing it now.
Measure it so you're not guessing. A GA4 report for visits from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai and gemini.google.com shows whether it's growing for you. Treat it as a floor: since October 2026 many ChatGPT clicks have been reported arriving with no tag or referrer, so they land in Direct. Ask new enquiries where they found you too. For the wider picture of how AI picks businesses, see how ChatGPT decides who to recommend.
What I see most often
What keeps stores
out of AI answers.
- 1
AI crawlers blocked without anyone knowing
A hosting or security setting blocks them by default, and nobody checked.
- 2
The feed and the site disagree
Different prices or stock in Merchant Center and on the page. Products get disapproved, or simply left out.
- 3
Specs only in a picture
The size chart is an image. AI tools can't read it, so they can't answer the question that would have recommended you.
- 4
Nobody else talks about the store
No reviews elsewhere, no gift guides, no press. AI tools have nothing to go on beyond the store's own claims.
The honest bit. Nobody can guarantee your products get recommended by an AI tool, and anyone selling 'AI rankings' is guessing. What you can control is whether the tools can read you, and whether there's a good reason to pick you.
Questions
people ask.
How do I get my products recommended by ChatGPT?
Make sure ChatGPT's search crawler isn't blocked, keep product pages clear and specific, and earn reviews and mentions on other sites. Blocking OpenAI's search crawler, OAI-SearchBot keeps your pages out of ChatGPT's answers.
Can Australians buy products inside Google AI Mode?
It's on the way. Google launched the standard behind it in Australia in June 2026 and said checkout is set to roll out, starting with selected merchants in early access.
Can shoppers still buy inside ChatGPT?
Not in the way it launched. OpenAI moved purchases back to merchants' own sites and apps in early 2026, so ChatGPT now sends shoppers to you to buy.
Does AI shopping replace Google Shopping ads?
Not yet. Check GA4: for many stores, Shopping and Search still bring far more visits. The work that helps AI tools, like a clean feed and clear product pages, helps those channels too.
Related
Keep
going.
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- 2I go through it and write up the 3 biggest fixes.
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