Meet Your New Buyer: AI. Here’s How to Get Its Attention.

In 2025, consumer brands face a new reality. Discovery and purchase are shifting from search engines and marketplaces into AI chat. Investors are watching this closely as a signal of where the next wave of commerce innovation will happen, and agencies are already popping up to help brands prepare for this shift. This matters because consumers can now shop directly inside ChatGPT.

ChatGPT’s shopping feature via Axios

OpenAI’s Buy It in ChatGPT feature, launched in October 2025, lets users browse and purchase products from participating retailers without leaving the conversation. Shoppers can ask for recommendations, view product details, and check out instantly. The feature is live for ChatGPT Plus users in the U.S. and will expand globally, signaling the start of large-scale AI commerce where discovery and purchase happen in one flow.

That same month, Walmart announced a partnership with OpenAI to enable customers to shop directly through ChatGPT using its new Instant Checkout feature, rolling out later this year.

Shopify is reportedly building a similar integration that could give merchants a direct path to in-chat shopping. Brands shouldn’t wait. Whether you sell through a retailer or your own site, visibility depends on how well AI systems can read and interpret your data. Optimizing your website and product information now will help your brand stand out as conversational commerce takes off.

This moment feels a lot like the early days of social commerce. When Facebook introduced ads in 2007, the brands that experimented early gained a lasting edge. The same shift is happening now with AI-driven shopping, and forward-thinking consumer brands are already preparing. We created this guide to help Lunr Capital founders and other growing CPG brands navigate and capitalize on this next wave.

LLM Commerce Readiness Guide for Consumer Brands

As AI shopping becomes a mainstream channel, visibility will depend on how well systems understand your brand. Use this checklist to make your website, product data, and content easier for platforms like ChatGPT to find and surface.

1. Audit and Track Your AI Visibility

Start by checking how your brand appears in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini using prompts a shopper would try: “clean snack brands under $3,” “nut-free snacks for kids lunches,” or “best protein powder for travel.”

See if your brand shows up, how it’s described, and which competitors dominate results. Track it over time:

• Create a shared spreadsheet with 10–15 test prompts per product line.
• Re-run them monthly and note whether your brand appears, what language is used, and how the order changes.
• Highlight new mentions, missing products, or competitor phrasing that outperforms yours.

2. Clean and Standardize Your Product Data (This Is Important!)

LLMs reward structured data. Structured data means embedding machine-readable information on your site so AI systems know exactly what your product is.

How to check your product schema health:

1. Open any product page on your site (for example, Smash Foods’ Raspberry Chia Smash).
2. Copy the URL and paste it into the Schema.org Validator.
3. Click “Run Test” and look for “Product” in the results.
4. If you see 0 errors / 0 warnings, your page has valid structured data.
5. Expand the Product tab to see what fields are included.
6. You should see at least these fields:
   • name (product name)
   • description
   • sku
   • brand
   • price, priceCurrency, and availability (under offers)
   • aggregateRating (if reviews are live)

Screenshot your results and paste them into ChatGPT with a prompt like:

“Here’s my product schema output. What’s missing or could be improved for SEO and AI discovery?”

ChatGPT can tell you what fields to add or refine, such as nutrition, certifications, or FAQPage schema for food and wellness brands.

Smash Foods’ Raspberry Chia Smash passes validation with Product, Brand, Offers, and AggregateRating schema.
Adding optional NutritionInformation or FAQ markup would make it even more LLM-friendly

If your schema is set up correctly, you’ll often start to see rich results appear in Google, like product ratings, prices, and stock status showing directly in search results. That’s a nice bonus. It means Google is reading your structured data correctly, and the same information is being used by AI systems like ChatGPT and Gemini for product discovery.

How to check your rich results:

1. Go to Google’s Rich Results Test.
2. Paste your product page URL.
3. Click Test URL.
4. When the results load, scroll to the Preview section. If you see your product details such as price, rating, or availability, your structured data is working as intended.
   
   

Rich Results preview for Chia Smash Raspberry Jam

You don’t need rich results to show up for LLM visibility, but if they do, it’s confirmation that your product data is clean, consistent, and machine-readable, which is the foundation of AI commerce readiness.

3. Keep Feeds Fresh and Synced

AI systems rely on current, consistent data to decide which products to surface. If your pricing, inventory, or availability is outdated, search engines and LLMs may skip or deprioritize your listings.

How to keep your product data current:

• Start free. Use Shopify’s Google & YouTube Channel app to automatically sync product info with Google Merchant Center and YouTube Shopping.
• Update often. Refresh feeds weekly (daily if you run promotions) so pricing and availability stay accurate.
• Automate as you grow. Tools like Feedonomics or Salsify push standardized data to multiple marketplaces with less manual work.
• Clean house. Remove discontinued SKUs and mark sold-out items correctly to avoid confusing crawlers or customers.
• Spot-check listings. Search your top products on Google Shopping or marketplaces and confirm prices and stock match your site.

Side note: If you also sell on Amazon, connect your Shopify store using theShopify Marketplace Connect app. It keeps listings, inventory, and pricing synced automatically across both platforms, maintaining consistent product data for marketplaces and AI systems alike.

4. Build Authority Signals

AI models favor brands that appear credible across multiple sources.

• Make sure product pages link to verified reviews (Shopify apps like Judge.me or Yotpo pass structured review data).
• Add certification fields like “isOrganic,” “certification,” or “awards” in schema markup, not just as images.
  • Easiest way: Use a Shopify app that manages schema for you, like JSON-LD for SEO or Schema Plus. These apps automatically add fields like certifications or awards without touching code and update your structured data when product details change.
• Earn coverage in trade publications, affiliate review sites, or category roundups. These mentions create high-authority backlinks and context that LLMs and search engines use to understand your brand’s credibility, product quality, and relevance within a category.

5. Create Content That Matches Real Shopper Questions

Recent reporting in Beauty Independent highlighted that brands preparing for AI shopping are already refreshing PDPs to match how consumers ask questions in chat, since AI agents prioritize conversational formats when surfacing recommendations. LLMs index content that answers clear intent.

• Add short FAQs at the bottom of product or collection pages using natural shopper language, like “Is your protein bar gluten-free?” or “What’s the best way to store collagen powder?”
  • Example: Smash Foods has a strong FAQ page that answers common questions in plain language and links to related content such as recipes to build context around the product.
• Write category or how-to posts using conversational prompts your audience might type into ChatGPT.
• Use tools like AlsoAsked or AnswerThePublic to identify trending shopper questions.

6. Prepare for Paid Placement

OpenAI and Shopify are developing native ad products for ChatGPT.

• Audit your existing campaigns now—titles, descriptions, and UTM structure—so they’re clean and easily adapted for AI ad formats.
• Keep an eye on partner programs from Shopify, Instacart, and Walmart Connect, which will likely gain early access.

7. Make AI Readiness Part of Your Growth Strategy

Retail buyers and partners are starting to value digital visibility, so treat AI readiness as part of your overall marketing and sales strategy.

• Add a slide in your retail or investor deck showing sample ChatGPT or Perplexity results where your brand appears.
• Highlight clean data, verified claims, and structured reviews to show your brand is already discoverable in new channels.
• Assign a clear owner or agency partner to manage data accuracy, schema health, and visibility tracking.
• Schedule quarterly audits using schema testing tools and your visibility log.

AI optimization should be part of your marketing rhythm, alongside content, SEO, and paid media.

If you’re a consumer brand preparing to expand into retail and want non-dilutive financing that supports inventory growth and strategic execution, Lunr Capital offers tailored capital solutions and data-driven support to help you scale with confidence. Reach out to start the conversation.