Will AI recommend your products this holiday?

Good morning,

Holiday shoppers are starting to ask AI to find the right product instead of only searching Google or scrolling through marketplaces.

But being connected to ChatGPT, Gemini or Meta does not mean your products will be recommended.

If your product feed cannot clearly answer questions about price, colour, availability, delivery and returns, AI has fewer reasons to show it.

Today:
We show you how to prepare your product feed for holiday shoppers using AI, explain how to collect WhatsApp subscribers at checkout and unpack the ecommerce developments worth knowing.

A holiday shopper will not simply ask AI for “gift ideas.”

They will ask:

That question contains six buying conditions.

If your product data cannot answer them, AI has fewer reasons to include you in the shortlist.

Shopify can now make eligible merchants’ products available across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and Meta.

But being connected does not mean your catalogue is ready.

AI still needs to understand exactly what each product is, who it suits, what it costs and whether it is available.

The evidence is starting to support this shift.

A study of more than 43,000 products found that over 83% of products appearing in ChatGPT shopping carousels also appeared within Google’s top 40 organic Shopping results.

That suggests the product data you already send to Google may also influence whether you appear during AI-assisted shopping. It does not mean the feed is the only factor—or guarantee inclusion.

Most feeds were built to get listings approved.

Not to answer detailed shopping questions.

Common gaps include:

These gaps become expensive during the holidays. A shopper asking for “a gift under £50” needs an accurate price. Someone ordering close to Christmas needs confidence around delivery and returns.

If AI cannot confirm the condition, it may favour a product it understands better.

Go to Shopify Admin → Sales channels → Agentic.

There you can review which AI channels receive your products.

Then open Sources → Review how your product data is sent to Shopify Catalog for Agentic Channels.

Shopify’s Catalog Mapping tool shows the title, description and category being sent. You can choose a different source for each field, including a dedicated metafield, without changing the copy displayed on your store.

Do not rebuild the entire catalogue before the holiday rush.

For the 20 products most likely to be bought as gifts, check whether the feed clearly communicates:

OpenAI’s own feed specification includes fields for this information. These are not invented “AEO signals.” They are fields its commerce system is built to receive.

Write ten questions your customers might genuinely ask, such as:

Run them through ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot. Record whether your brand appears, whether the correct product is selected, whether the details are accurate and which competitors appear instead.

Do not treat one result as a ranking report. Recommendations vary by platform, user and search. Look for repeated gaps.

If AI repeatedly overlooks a product, the answer may not be another gift guide.

It may be a clearer title. A better category. A missing material. An incorrect variant. A return policy AI cannot find. Or a description that sounds attractive but says very little.

Holiday shoppers will give AI a list of requirements. Your product feed needs to give it the answers.

Home furniture brand Blu Dot blew up on CTV with help from Roku Ads Manager. Here’s how:

After a test campaign reached 211,000 households and achieved 1,010% ROAS, the brand went all in to promote its annual sales event. It removed age and income constraints to expand reach and shifted budget to custom audiences and retargeting, where intent was strongest.

The results speak for themselves. As Blu Dot increased their investment by 10x, ROAS jumped to 2,308% and more page-view conversions surpassed 50,000.

“For CTV campaigns, Roku has been a top performer,” said Claire Folkestad, Paid Media Strategist, Blu Dot. “Comping to our other platforms, we have seen really strong ROAS… and highly efficient CPMs, lower than any other CTV partner we've worked with.”

Using Roku Ads Manager, the campaign moved from a pilot to a permanent performance engine for the brand.

Learn more

Shopify now lets you collect WhatsApp marketing consent during checkout. That means you can grow your list when purchase intent is at its highest.

Customers who tick the box and complete checkout are saved with WhatsApp marketing consent. You can then reach them through Shopify Messaging or another compatible app.

Tell customers what they are signing up for. Your store remains responsible for following the marketing and privacy rules in every market where you sell.

Your action today: Enable the checkbox and complete one test checkout.

Read Shopify’s full setup guide →

ChatGPT is testing ads that open a conversation—not a website
Instead of sending shoppers to a landing page, the proposed format opens a conversation with the brand’s AI agent. Your product information may soon need to answer questions and close the sale without the shopper ever visiting your store.

Shopify is sharing eligible products with Meta’s AI by default
Meta now appears inside Shopify’s Agentic Storefronts. Open Sales channels → Agentic → Meta to check which products are available and whether the titles, descriptions, prices and stock information Meta receives are accurate.

Advertisers say Google revoked ad credits after they completed the required spend
One advertiser reportedly spent $3,200 expecting an equal credit, only to have it invalidated. Save the original offer and its terms—and never spend money you cannot afford to lose solely to unlock a promotional credit.

Campaign structure is downstream of the business. Before touching the ad account, know your blended MER, customer economics and new-customer CAC.

A rating without a source is still a claim. Put recognizable review-platform proof directly below the first buying section—and test whether trust moves before shoppers scroll.

The offer costs $89.28, but Fresh Clean Tees presents it as $14.88 per shirt.

That makes the price feel easier to accept while the six-pack increases the order value. The lesson: when an offer can be priced credibly in more than one way, lead with the smallest meaningful number.

Open yesterday’s abandoned checkouts.

Choose the highest-value cart with valid contact details and send the customer a personal message.

Do not begin with a discount. Ask whether something stopped them from completing the order and offer to help.

Why this works:

You may recover revenue today while discovering the real reason other customers are abandoning the same journey.

Your rep:

Report: “Cart Contacted”

One conversation. One chance to recover the sale and remove the reason it was lost.