Is ChatGPT the new goldmine for a Shopify store ?

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

A merchant is exploring whether AI tools like ChatGPT, Bing Copilot, and Perplexity represent a new discovery channel for Shopify stores, similar to how Google SEO works. The concern centers on consumers asking AI direct product questions (e.g., “best waterproof speaker under $50”) and receiving answers without store links or clicks.

Key questions raised:

  • Are Shopify stores being recommended in AI responses?
  • Can merchants optimize for AI engines (“Generative Engine Optimization” or GEO)?
  • How can visibility and mentions be tracked and improved?

The original poster is considering building a tool to help merchants monitor AI mentions, track competitors, and boost visibility in large language models (LLMs).

Community responses:

  • One merchant reports using ChatGPT extensively for SEO and ad copy creation, seeing traffic/sales increases, and reorganizing their site for AI readability—though not yet seeing direct consumer referrals from AI mentions.
  • Another developer has created an app that generates automatic llms.txt files for Shopify stores, giving merchants control over what data AI bots can crawl.
  • Interest exists in finding methods to get stores linked or mentioned by AI when customers ask product questions.

The discussion remains exploratory, with merchants seeking practical optimization strategies.

Summarized with AI on October 24. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Hey folks :waving_hand:

I’ve been diving deep into how AI tools like ChatGPT, Bing Copilot, and Perplexity are starting to replace Google for product discovery.

More and more consumers are asking questions like “What’s the best waterproof speaker under $50?” and AI just gives them a direct answer. Often with no link or click involved.

That’s great for users, but what about us merchants?

-Are our stores being recommended in these answers?

-Can we optimize for these AI engines like we did with SEO?

-How can we track if we’re mentioned, and fix it if we’re not?

I’m currently exploring this shift (some call it Generative Engine Optimization or GEO) and thinking about building something to help Shopify merchants:

  • See if they’re being mentioned by AI

  • Track competitors

  • Understand how to boost visibility in LLMs

Before I go too far, I’d love to hear from you:

  • Have you seen any impact from AI tools on your traffic or discovery?

  • Are you doing anything already to optimize for AI (structured data, content, llms.txt, etc.)?

  • What would help you most here?

If you’re curious, already testing stuff, or just worried about how search is changing — I’d really appreciate your thoughts :folded_hands:

Thanks!

Antoine from zeroclick.app

2

As a merchant with a huge catalog of products, I freakin love GPT. It pretty much does everything for me, I don’t even know where to start. Have I noticed an increase in traffic and sales as a result from the SEO and ad copy GPT creates for me on an every day basis? Absolutely. Am I re-organizing my website so be more friendly and easily read by AI? You know it. Is my store getting increased conversions as a result of being mentioned in AI to consumers? Eh… I’m not quite there yet. But I hear about a lot of new and exciting ways this is being implemented, and I’d love to figure out hwo I could get more AI exposure for my store in the long term.

3

Hey AntoinePayre,

regards your point with LLM visibility. We have developed an app, which helps you to create an automatic llms.txt file for you Shopify store. You have the full control of the data types you want to show in the llms and also the availability to block llms bots to crawl your llms.txt.

Maybe this is already helping you a bit.

https://apps.shopify.com/ahoiapps-llms-txt

4

Hi there @AntoinePayre this is such a lovely initiative and I’d love to know what the current status report is on it. If merchants can find a hack for their stores to be directly or indirectly linked by AI when asked questions by potential customers, then that is definitely a big game changer in the market.