The customer journey is being fundamentally redrawn. Instead of starting a new search, shoppers are turning to shopping agents in LLMs like ChatGPT and Gemini, or they're asking questions directly within marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart, where native shopping agents like Alexa for Shopping and Sparky make product recommendations.
But not all shopping agent activity is equal.
LLMs like ChatGPT can shape product discovery by answering shoppers' questions before they reach a marketplace. While LLMs are helpful for consideration, shoppers then have to find the best place to buy. This is why many shoppers are turning directly to marketplace shopping agents for help: it’s easier to make a purchase. By narrowing shoppers' search to the best offerings and providing a 1-click purchase option, these shopping agents accelerate purchasing decisions. On Amazon, shoppers who use Alexa for Shopping are 60% more likely to complete a purchase.
For CPG brands, that means the window between a shopper browsing and buying has shrunk. If their products aren't optimized for shopping agents, they're essentially invisible. Therefore, making products readable and informative to shopping agents through AEO is what puts brands on the shopping agents' shortlists.
While generative engine optimization (GEO) matters for visibility on LLMs, brands need to prioritize AEO now because it's a proven conversion driver that's already impacting billions of dollars in revenue. Shopping agents are ultimately determining which products shoppers see and buy, making them the gatekeepers to winning the sale.
AEO is the fastest path to sales
There's growing pressure across retail to optimize for AI or get left behind, but not all AI influences the customer journey in the same way.
In late 2025, OpenAI was testing in-chat checkout to see if shoppers would buy without leaving ChatGPT. But by early 2026, it pulled most of that effort back after finding that, while shoppers used ChatGPT to research products, they were far less likely to complete purchases in the chat. Retailers like Walmart reported that conversion rates were 3x lower when shoppers checked out directly within ChatGPT than when they were required to click through to a marketplace.
Then, when Amazon added Alexa for Shopping to its search bar in May, it reinforced that shoppers want to describe what they need, receive recommendations, and complete their purchase all on the marketplace.
Keeping these steps in one place removes friction from the buying journey. A shopper can ask Alexa for Shopping for a sensitive-skin laundry detergent under $20 and buy the recommended product in the same session, with no need to jump between LLM and marketplace. That single-session path from recommendation to purchase is why shopping agents in marketplaces are so effective at driving conversion, and why Walmart shoppers who use Sparky place orders about 35% larger than shoppers who don't.
How brands should optimize for AEO
Shoppers ask shopping agents for something specific, like a shampoo for color-treated hair or a low-sugar snack for a toddler's lunchbox, and the agent returns a different shortlist for each request. Brands can't predict which products will best match any given prompt, so every listing has to be ready.
Teams that optimize only their bestsellers compete for a fraction of those requests, and the agent picks a competitor for the rest. Brands get recommended by making each listing easy for the agent to match to a shopper's request. Here's how:
1. Complete the attributes the agent evaluates
Shopping agents match a shopper's described need to the structured fields on a listing, so a product missing a field like its ingredients or use case never qualifies for the recommendation. Brands that fill in every attribute a shopper might specify put the product in range of more requests.
2. Write for the questions shoppers ask
Shoppers describe a problem rather than a product, so a request for “a moisturizer to address my eczema” never explicitly names the product attributes that satisfy it. Instead, the shopping agent has to infer that the shopper is looking for products that are fragrance-free and formulated for sensitive skin. That interpretation depends on how the product is described.
Brands that state the problems their products solve, using language shoppers use, give the agent the context it needs to make a connection. Keyword-stuffed copy written for traditional search algorithms gives it less to work with.
3. Make sure your claims align with customer reviews
Shopping agents evaluate reviews to decide whether a product is a match for the request. The agent recommends more confidently when approval is high, and customers describe the same benefits the listing claims. When a listing claims a benefit the reviews don't support, the agent picks a competitor with stronger reviews instead.
4. Keep availability and price current across the catalog
The shopping agent recommends a product only if it's available and priced competitively. The agent skips any product out of stock or priced above competitors, and both signals recalculate throughout the day, so a listing that was recommendation-ready in the morning can lose the recommendation by afternoon.
Brands can’t keep thousands of listings current manually as those conditions update all day, so they use an AI content agent to refresh every listing across the entire catalog. The agent evaluates each listing the way a shopping agent does, fills in missing attributes, rewrites content to match the language shoppers use, and pulls ad spend from products that go out of stock. Team members approve each change before it publishes, so people set the strategy while the agent executes across the full catalog.
Brands optimizing for AEO are taking share
Brands that measure AEO and GEO the same way overpay for awareness and underinvest where the sale closes. The brands focused on driving sales and winning market share prioritize AEO, focusing on the shopping agents that influence purchasing decisions rather than simply driving discovery.
Shopper intent changes, the competitive marketplace shifts, and shopping agents continuously update what they recommend. Brands need to invest in a content agent developed for AEO to keep every listing current, ensuring they stay on the shortlist as more shoppers turn to shopping agents to determine what to purchase.
