"Find me a pair of trail running shoes under $150 that are good for wide feet and wet conditions."

More and more shoppers are typing questions like this into ChatGPT, Copilot, or Google's AI Mode instead of scrolling through endless pages of search results. Shopify reported this summer that AI-driven traffic to its stores grew about 8 times year-over-year in early 2026, with orders from AI searches up nearly 13 times.

So it's worth asking: when someone asks an AI assistant for a product recommendation or gift idea, will your products be included?

Here are some straightforward steps to give them the best chance.

First, what is GEO?

GEO stands for 'generative engine optimization'. Think of it as a cousin of SEO: making your website and product information easier for AI tools to understand, surface and recommend.

AI shopping assistants use information like your product titles, descriptions, images, prices, variants and availability to understand what you sell and match products to what someone is asking for.

The good news for Shopify store owners is that a lot of the technical work is already being handled for you. Shopify Catalog structures your product information so that AI platforms can read and use it, while AI tools may also discover your products through regular web crawling, search indexes, and other product feeds.

Your job is to make sure the information going into all of those places is really good.

1. Check that your AI channels are turned on

Shopify has a sales channel called Agentic Storefronts that connects eligible stores to AI shopping platforms including ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google's AI Mode and Gemini, and Meta.

For eligible stores, Agentic Storefronts is active by default, so you may already be in there without realizing it!

To check, go to Sales channels > Agentic in your Shopify admin. From there, you can see which AI platforms are available to your store, manage access and preview how your products appear in Shopify Catalog search.

A quick note for my fellow Canadians: availability varies by AI platform, and some shopping and checkout features are still rolling out by market. If you sell to US customers, you may already be eligible for more of these features, but Canadian merchants can still benefit from making their product data AI-ready now.

🔥 HOT TIP - Keep an eye on your orders and Agentic reporting. Shopify can show which AI channel or referrer drove a sale, so you'll be able to see when these channels start bringing in customers.

2. Write product info that answers real questions

Shoppers talk to AI assistants the way they'd talk to a friend, often combining a few different needs in one question:

"Find me trail running shoes under $150 that are good for wide feet and wet conditions."

"Find me a lightweight rain jacket under $200 that's good for walking the dog in wet weather."

"I need a small gift for my sister who's into hiking and lives in Vancouver."

"What's a vegan hot sauce gift set under $50 that ships quickly in Canada?"

To match those kinds of requests, AI needs details.

Go through your best sellers and make sure each one covers:

• What it is: a clear title that says exactly what the product is, like "Cedar & Pine Soy Candle, 8oz"
• Who it's for: "great for hikers, campers and anyone who loves a woodsy scent"
• What makes it special: hand-poured, small batch, made in BC, refillable, or whatever sets it apart
• The practical stuff: size, materials, ingredients, burn time, care instructions and other useful details

For BFCM, pay extra attention to gift-friendly details too. If your product is under $50, comes gift-wrapped, is made in Canada, works well as a stocking stuffer, ships quickly or is suited to a particular recipient, don't make shoppers, or AI, guess.

Put that information somewhere it naturally belongs.

Write your product information the way you'd describe the product to a customer in a physical store. Natural, specific details make it much easier to match your product to the right shopping query.

🔥 HOT TIP - Think about the questions you hear from customers all the time and make sure the answers are somewhere on your site. If people often ask whether something is gift-ready, dishwasher-safe, or suitable for sensitive skin, an AI shopper may want to know too.

3. Fill in your product category and details

Every Shopify product has a Category field in the product admin.

Pick the most specific category that accurately describes what you're selling. Once you select a category, Shopify can suggest additional fields that apply to that type of product, such as colour, material, scent, age group, or size.

These are called category metafields, and they're especially useful because they turn important product details into structured information rather than leaving everything buried inside a paragraph.

Think of it as helping Shopify tell the difference between "a shirt" and "a women's oversized navy cotton crewneck."

While you're there:

• Give your variants clear, descriptive names.
• Make sure your prices are accurate.
• Keep your inventory up to date.
• Fill in relevant category metafields wherever possible.
• Add descriptive alt text to your product images for accessibility and search.

Shopify Catalog specifically uses information such as titles, descriptions, images, categories, variants, options, prices, and inventory when structuring product information for AI channels.

🔥 HOT TIP - Shopify has a free agentic readiness tool that checks a product page for signals AI agents may use when evaluating products. Pop in one of your best sellers and see how it does!

4. Make your shipping, return and FAQ info easy to find

During the holidays, two questions come up over and over:

"Will it arrive in time?"

"Can they return it?"

AI assistants get asked these kinds of questions too, so make sure the answers are easy to find.

• Set up accurate shipping rates and delivery information.
• Fill out your refund, shipping and contact policies under Settings > Policies.
• Add your holiday shipping cutoff dates somewhere easy to spot.
• If you offer extended holiday returns, say so clearly.
• Make sure important details aren't buried inside long blocks of copy.

An FAQ page is especially useful here because it gives both people and machines clear questions with direct answers.

You'll sometimes hear this referred to as AEO, or answer engine optimization. While GEO is about improving how your brand appears in generative AI results more broadly, AEO focuses on making your content easy to use as a direct answer to a question.

In practical terms, that can be as simple as using a heading like "How long does shipping take?" followed by a short, specific answer instead of hiding your shipping timeline halfway through a paragraph. AEO and GEO overlap quite a bit, but FAQs are a great example of where the "answer engine" approach makes sense.

🔥 HOT TIP - Install Shopify's free Knowledge Base app. It lets you review and customize information AI shopping agents can use to answer questions about your brand, policies and store.

It won't make you rank higher in AI recommendations on its own, but it can help make the answers shoppers receive about your business more accurate.

5. Build some proof beyond your product page

Your Shopify product data isn't the only information AI tools may encounter.

Depending on the platform and the question, an AI assistant may also draw from search results, websites, and other sources around the web when deciding what information to include.

That's another good reason to keep collecting genuine customer reviews and earning mentions in places your customers already trust like gift guides, blogs, publications, and online communities.

Send a quick follow-up email to recent customers asking for an honest review, and encourage them to be specific.

"Smells amazing and burned for ages. I bought it for my mom and she loved it!" tells a shopper much more than: "Great candle!"

You can also reach out to bloggers, local publications, or other businesses putting together holiday gift guides.

None of this guarantees that an AI assistant will recommend your products, but it gives shoppers, search engines, and AI systems more context about your brand.

🔥 HOT TIP - Reply to your reviews, especially the not-so-glowing ones. A thoughtful response is valuable for the human being reading it too — which is reason enough to do it.

6. Test it yourself

Open ChatGPT, Copilot or Google's AI Mode and ask for something your store sells, the way a real shopper would.

Try a few different prompts:

• "What's a good gift for a coffee lover under $40?"
• "Where can I buy small-batch hot sauce made in Canada?"
• "Recommend a vegan skincare gift set."
• "I need a hostess gift under $50 that ships to Vancouver."

Does your store come up?

If it does, is the information accurate?

If a competitor appears instead, take a look at their product page. Is there information they've included that you haven't?

Don't panic if your store doesn't appear. AI results can vary based on the platform, shopper, location, and wording of the query, and being included in Shopify Catalog doesn't guarantee that a product will appear or rank for a particular search.

So don't read too much into one test. Try a few variations and look for patterns over time.

🔥 HOT TIP - Ask the AI directly about your brand too: "What do you know about [your store name]?". It's an easy way to spot outdated, incomplete or confusing information that might be worth cleaning up.

Start with your best sellers

You don't need to overhaul your whole catalog - start with your top 10 products: improve the information, fill in those missing attributes, check your policies, and make sure your Agentic channels are switched on.

The nice part? None of this is just for AI.

Clearer product information helps search engines understand what you sell, makes your site easier to shop, and gives your actual human customers more confidence too.