The way we shop online is evolving at lightning speed - and AI is leading the charge. What once relied on keywords and static product listings is now shifting toward conversational discovery, where tools like Perplexity and Shopping GPT act as personal shopping assistants.
For consumers, this means more relevant results and faster, more personalized experiences. For retailers, it’s both a challenge and an opportunity: adapt your product data to be understood by AI, or risk being overlooked in this new era of ecommerce.
What matters now more than ever is providing rich, detailed, and structured product data that an AI agent can easily understand and trust.
That’s why we’re happy to announce that DataFeedWatch now supports product feeds for Perplexity and Shopping GPT. We’re excited to support the forward-thinking brands and early adopters of AI-driven shopping by equipping them with dedicated, fully optimized feeds for AI-shopping experiences.
In this article, we'll take a look at:
The way shoppers engage with search engines and find products online is shifting. Younger shoppers have overwhelmingly adopted the use of AI in some capacity, as reported by Inigo Gallo. 77% of this demographic have said they’ve used AI to search for finding good deals or comparing products. Gen Z currently makes the most online purchases of any demographic, so it’s worth paying attention to their consumer habits.
SEO and keywords aren’t dead, and likely never will be but a shift is coming to how products are being paired with users’ requests.
AI channels use what’s called semantic search to dig to the root of what a shopper is looking for. People are going from searching for products to discovering solutions. It used to be that consumers would only type in a few keywords to find a product they were looking for. But that’s not the case anymore.
Image courtesy of Ahrefs
Full-blown conversations are happening with AI, with users asking complex questions, and expecting highly relevant recommendations. This could be a huge opportunity for brands to get their products in front of buyers at the exact moment they’re looking for a solution.
For advertisers and merchants, this shift from keyword-based searches to intent-driven, AI-powered discovery is profound. Simply ranking for a specific keyword is becoming less important. This means a greater focus on data quality and a deeper understanding of how AI interprets and utilizes information to make decisions.
Shopping channels like Google have already mentioned that their plan is for their AI to make purchases on behalf of the consumer.
This brings us to a concept that’s beginning to turn into kind of a buzzword in the ecommerce community: agentic shopping.
In traditional ecommerce, the shopper acts as the "agent”. That means they are actively navigating websites, comparing products, and making decisions.
Agentic shopping flips this script. Here, the AI acts as the "agent" on behalf of the consumer. It tries to understand the user's needs, preferences (like budgets and things to look out for in reviews). Then it proactively searches, filters, and presents the best options.
For advertisers, this means your product feeds need to be impeccably optimized and rich with detail for the AI to "understand" and recommend them effectively.
This post is referring to a recent Digital Commerce 360 article that reported Adobe saw generative AI-powered shopping rise 4,700% in July. Adobe speculated that using AI tools helped shoppers be more informed and find the products more relevant to them.
Amy McCaughey gave a real life example of how agentic shopping can be used practically to save people time and effort.
Simply put, Perplexity is an AI-powered conversational answer engine. When you ask a question it synthesizes information from various sources and provides a direct, comprehensive answer. It also cites its sources so you can do further research.
Take this as an example:
Perplexity announced that they were experimenting with advertising back in November 2024. Their goal behind including ads on their platform was to stand apart from others. They only wanted to show ads to shoppers when it was highly relevant and provided solutions to their questions.
This means a user could tell Perplexity that they were going on a long flight and need a new pair of noise-cancelling headphones that are both highly rated and within their budget. They’d then get a curated answer with product recommendations. This would cut down the time needed to look at product reviews individually.
Ad formats they’re experimenting with include putting sponsored content under the related questions section that appears after a search.
Ads with images like the ones below have also appeared and can help shoppers easily decide between a few different products.
Perplexity also has a feature called “Snap to Shop” that lets users identify and purchase products using images by snapping a picture or uploading one. Then the AI instantly provides relevant product matches.
According to Perplexity, this feature is integrated with Shopify for merchants and offers a seamless shopping experience including detailed product information, AI-driven recommendations. For Pro subscribers, direct purchases with one-click checkout is possible.
As many shoppers are in the habit of checking online for better deals while shopping in physical stores, this feature can help your products be discovered and purchased.
Perplexity’s shopping feature is currently only available in the US. As of now, there is no official ETA for when it will expand to other countries.
For retailers who want to start advertising on Perplexity, it’s best to reach out to them directly to become included in their merchant program. Doing so could be worth the effort as the traffic you get from there should be highly relevant.
You can also use this sign-up form to let them know you’re interested.
Shopping GPT, on the other hand, is designed specifically for ecommerce. It’s an AI assistant that understands shopping intent and can help users find products, compare options, and even guide them through the purchase journey. It’s capable of understanding nuanced requests like "I need a durable backpack for my teenager who commutes by bike, but also likes to game after school."
As of now, Shopping GPT is an ad-free experience. The recommendations shown are not on a pay-per-click basis, but rather based on what products it deems to be the best match for the user. However, your current ads could play an important role in being shown, as that data could be scraped by OpenAI when looking for a specific product.
Since OpenAI uses Shopify and Bing as data sources, selling and advertising on those two spaces could help OpenAI access and understand your products on a deeper level. Hence, increasing your chances for exposure.
OpenAI gives this example where the user wants a home espresso machine that makes coffee on par with Italy.
There are two ways for your products to be featured on Shopping GPT. And OpenAI states that any merchant or retailer’s products are able to show in ChatGPT’s search:
To appear in ChatGPT search results, your website must allow OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT's web crawler, to access its content.
You might need to adjust your robots.txt file if it's currently blocking this bot. Websites that permit OAI-SearchBot can monitor traffic from ChatGPT using analytics tools like Google Analytics, as ChatGPT adds "utm_source=chatgpt.com" to referral URLs for easy tracking.
2. Sign up for their interest form
You can also sign up for OpenAI’s interest form. Then they’ll get in touch with you whenever there is an opening for you to submit your feed directly to OpenAI. You can find the form here.
This is where DataFeedWatch truly shines in your PPC toolkit. For AI channels like Perplexity and Shopping GPT (like for all shopping channels), the quality and richness of your product data feed are what’s important.
Because rather than you making sure your data fits certain requirements, you instead need to provide all the right information that helps the AI system know exactly what your product is and how it will help people searching for their next purchase.
To ensure your products stand out to AI-driven platforms like Perplexity and Shopping GPT, it’s essential to move beyond basic data requirements and fully embrace structured, enriched product data. The shift from keywords to search intent is becoming very real in this way. Of course, keywords are still important. But it’s about the bigger picture you are painting about your products.
A winning strategy begins with adding as many detailed attributes as possible to your product data.
Think specs like:
These additional layers of context help AI systems match your products with the right shoppers, boosting discoverability across marketplace, search, and recommendation engines.
Structured data fields are also key. When product titles, descriptions, and specifications are mapped to clear, consistent fields, rather than left buried in unstructured paragraphs, AI can easily identify and understand crucial information.
For instance, using schema markup or product feed fields like brand, size, color, and GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) allows AI platforms to confidently index, evaluate, and compare your items against competitors.
Now that DataFeedWatch has added integrations for Perplexity and Shopping GPT, you can easily create feeds that are ready for the future of AI-driven shopping.
Here's how:
Easily map and transform your existing product data to meet the unique requirements of Perplexity and Shopping GPT, ensuring every attribute is perfect. Pre-created feed templates will make setting up your data a breeze.
Add more detailed and keyword-rich descriptions that AI can easily interpret.
Some tips for creating product descriptions include:
Ensure your products are accurately categorized, which is crucial for AI understanding. Rather than broadly labeling a product as “Electronics” or “Furniture,” breaking it down to more specific categories (“Wireless Earbuds,” “Storage Dressers”) further enables AI to surface your listings in relevant, intent-driven queries.
Use custom labels for specific product lines or promotions that are perfect for AI-driven recommendations. You can segment your products into different categories like:
Keep your feeds fresh and accurate with automated daily updates, so the platform your advertising on always has the latest information.
This new era presents both a challenge and an immense opportunity. The brands that thrive will be those that embrace data enrichment and view AI not as a threat, but as a powerful new customer to win over.
As AI agents become more sophisticated, the line between a product listing and a conversation will blur, making data quality the ultimate competitive advantage. The future of retail belongs to those who prepare for it today.
Are your product feeds ready for the AI future? Creating feeds for Perplexity and Shopping GPT can be the first step.