Choose your route into AI shopping: activate, buy, extend or build.

A verdict for every AI shopping route, on your own catalog and traffic: switch it on, buy it, extend what you have, build it, or leave it alone.

Start with an AI shopping review How it works

Route verdictsAs of October 2026

ChatGPT via ShopifyOn for eligible US stores · buyers use your checkoutActiveDo first
Copilot checkoutSingle items onlyTestValidate first
Perplexity checkoutNo merchant route confirmedNoneDefer
AI visibility retainerReports mentions only—Not recommended

One line per route, with a verdict and the reason. Leaving a route alone is a valid result.

Sound familiar?

Every week a platform announces another way to sell through AI, and nobody can say which are open to you.
A vendor, an agency and your platform each recommend their own.
The cheapest answer might be a better product page, and nobody is paid to say so.

Distribution is getting cheap or free, so the costly mistakes are building what a native route already does and paying a retainer to report mentions.

What changes.

TodayWith the engine

Announcements: Chased as newsChecked against your account: announced, accepted, allowed to check out
Choices: Made by whoever pitched lastActivate, buy, extend or build, each with a reason
Cost: The licenseBuild, run and specialist time, against contribution
Reporting: Mentions and screenshotsAnswers checked, referrals counted, a holdout where it counts

How it works. 5 steps, 4 stages.

AI2
Rules and automation2
Your team1
Approval

1List
1. AI
  List every route and what it needs
  Reads each platform’s current documentation for eligibility, checkout limits and fees, and dates what it found.
  - Shopify
  - ChatGPT
  - Merchant Center
  - Microsoft Copilot
  - Perplexity
2. Rules and automation
  Check your account against each
  Your store, region, catalog and checkout are tested against every route. Announced, accepted and allowed to check out are recorded separately.
2Test
1. AI
  Run a small test on the real catalog
  Audits answers and runs sample baskets on the routes worth trying.
3Decide
1. Your teamApproval
  Give each route a verdict
  Do first, validate first, defer or not recommended, with the evidence that would change the call.
4Revisit
1. Rules and automation
  Re-check when routes change
  A platform change re-runs the affected checks and flags what moved.

New announcements re-check the verdicts

What you get. Real work, every week.

Activate, buy, extend or build

Job	Start with	Build when
Be found in ChatGPT	Shopify’s native route	Variants need custom mapping
Help shoppers choose	Your helpdesk or search vendor	You need your own decision logic
Pick compatible parts	An existing configurator	The rules are yours alone
Business reorders	Salesforce or Shopify B2B tools	Accounts span ERP, portal and inbox

Start with what you can switch on. Build only where the native tool stops.

Does a retainer pay back?Illustrative

Five hundred AI visits earn about $500 a month.

Visits: 500 a month, attributed
Orders: 4% convert, so 20 orders
Incremental: Half would have bought anyway: 10
Contribution: 10 orders × $50 = $500 a month
A $3,000 retainer: Needs about 3,000 visits at these rates

The arithmetic that keeps a small channel honest. Illustrative figures, with your own referrals in their place.

How you’ll know it’s working.

Routes with a verdict and an owner
Every route is switched on, tested, deferred or left alone on purpose.
Right answers on the routes you keep
Accuracy checked on each one, not assumed from a feed being accepted.
Contribution against full cost, by route
Referrals and orders, net of fees, build and support.

Baselines agreed before we build.

Works with what you have.

Commerce

Shopify

Search & AI

ChatGPT
Merchant Center
Microsoft Copilot
Perplexity
Search Console

We configure first: Shopify’s Catalog syndication and Knowledge Base, and Merchant Center, are free or close to it as of October 2026. We check which your account can use before suggesting anything else.
We build when: Complex mappings, exclusions or a distinctive buying experience justify more than a native route, and a test has shown demand.

What a first build includes.

Built in your accounts, around your team. Scope, fee and baseline agreed before we start.

1Design
2Build

Start with a review Scope this build

We build

A route register, with eligibility checked and dated
A verdict for every route, with the evidence behind it
A short test on the routes worth trying
A plan for what to activate, buy, extend or build

We start from

Store, region and checkout details
Catalog and current feeds
Referral and order data by source

From your team

Owner: Head of ecommerce
Involves: Ecommerce
Growth
Finance
Engineering

Questions teams ask.

Is AI traffic big enough to matter?

Similarweb puts direct AI referrals at 0.4% of ecommerce visits in its measured population, while Adobe’s July 2026 data show stronger conversion among AI-referred visitors on a different denominator. We size it on your own referrals.

Will you recommend building something?

Only when a native route or a vendor’s product can’t do the job. An improved product page, a quiz or ordinary search is often the least expensive complete answer, and we’ll say so.

Who owns it once it’s running?

You do. It’s built in your accounts, documented, with training for the people who run it. Ownership usually sits with your head of ecommerce. We can keep running it with you, or step back.

How do we start?

Usually with an AI shopping review: two to four weeks, a fixed fee credited to the build, and a plan that’s yours. If the job is already clear, we can scope the build directly.