Is your store ready for AI shoppers?

More and more people are asking AI what to buy. If your website doesn't answer the questions they're asking, you won't show up in the answer.

How people are shopping through AI

Agents and assistants are starting to do the shopping for people. Someone opens ChatGPT, Claude or whatever assistant they use, and describes roughly what they want. The AI goes off, browses the internet and comes back with options.

Some agents are starting to make purchases on their own. But most of the time it looks more like this: "Show me the things you think are a good fit for what I told you." The person still makes the call.

Your website is the AI's database

When an AI shops, it uses your website like a database. It reads your pages, looks for the details that match what the shopper asked for, and decides whether you're a fit.

So if your site doesn't mention the things people are looking for, you won't come up.

Say you sell rain jackets. A shopper might ask for a jacket that works when it's really cold and also when it's damp, because they live in Seattle. If your site has an FAQ or a product description that says exactly that, the AI can find it. Add the price, the colors and the features, and you've made the recommendation easy.

The trick is to put yourself in your customer's shoes. What questions are they likely to ask? That's how the AI will be shopping for them.

What most founders get wrong

A lot of founders wonder whether to write for the product or for the brand. The answer is both.

The AI will find your product information. But people still make the final decision based on the brand. When an assistant serves up a few options, the shopper picks the one that speaks to them.

So write down why someone would choose you. Maybe you support a nonprofit. Maybe the way the product is made matters to a specific audience. Whatever your reason is, make sure it's on your website in plain words an AI can read. If it lives only in your head or in a pretty graphic, it doesn't exist to the AI.

What to do this month

1. Start with your audience. Who is your ideal customer?
2. Write down the questions they ask themselves before they go shopping.
3. Answer those questions on your site, in FAQs, product pages and blog articles.
4. Make sure the reasons to choose your brand are written down too, not just the product specs.

Hype, or does it matter now?

It's not hype. This is becoming more common every month.

I have a hard time seeing people let an agent buy everything for them without reviewing it first. That part probably won't happen. But using AI to do the searching? That's already here, and it's only going to grow. The stores that answer real questions clearly will be the ones that get recommended.