Just yesterday (29th September 2025), Shopify and OpenAI dropped a pretty huge announcement: merchants will soon be able sell products directly through ChatGPT conversations. No links or redirects, just smooth, AI-powered commerce (shopify.com).

Why does this matter? Because shoppers are increasingly letting AI do the heavy lifting; researching, comparing, and even making purchases on their behalf. If your brand isn’t set up to show up in those conversations, you could be missing out, even if you have the best products out there.

Discovery is no longer just about being on Google or your own site. It’s about showing up in the right conversation, making it clear what you sell, why you’re different, and how easy it is to buy from you. Brands that sort this out now will be ahead of the pack as AI-driven commerce ramps up.

The state of play

Here’s what’s happening right now:

• AI agents are rewriting discovery: Customers don’t have to scroll through pages of search results. They tell AI exactly what they need, and get highly specific, actionable answers, often before they even land on your site.
• Agentic Commerce is emerging: This isn’t just recommendations anymore. AI agents can actually act on behalf of shoppers — looking across stores, weighing options, and even placing orders within limits set by the user (budget, style, shipping region, returns). Think of it as moving from pointing someone in the right direction, to walking the path for them.
• Conversations are happening outside your storefront: Buyers might not reach your site until they’re already ready to purchase. AI agents are reading reviews, Reddit threads, and other discussions to figure out who’s worth recommending. If your brand isn’t visible there, it could be left out.
• Luxury, value, and context are being disambiguated: If a user asks for “a luxury men’s shoe”, will AI categorise your brand as luxury? That depends on how well you’ve communicated the details that support that claim — things like origin, materials, craftsmanship, positioning.
• Shopify and OpenAI integration: With this new partnership, AI conversations can now include buying from your store directly. That makes clear, structured product data, good policies, and a strong brand story more important than ever.
• Platforms are responding: Shopify’s Knowledge Base and Storefront MCP apps let brands structure information specifically for AI agents, track which data is requested, and improve discovery in real time. Clear product descriptions, accurate policies, and structured data are now essential.

Shopify merchants will be able to sell directly in ChatGPT.

We’ve been working with @OpenAI for quite some time so people can search and buy products in chat, and it’s something we’ve had a hard time keeping quiet.

Rollout is coming very very soon. pic.twitter.com/11GWCy5DOo

— tobi lutke (@tobi) September 29, 2025

Why specificity matters

AI agents don’t skim. They read everything: your descriptions, reviews, and social chatter. They then extract the details that decide whether your product gets recommended.

For example, if your listing just says “leather boots”, but another brand says “hand-stitched boots, made in Northampton, using full-grain calf leather from Italy”, which one do you think the AI will pick for “luxury men’s boots made in Europe”?

The same goes for returns, shipping, and warranties. If that info isn’t clear, and the AI can’t confidently recommend you, you risk being left out.

What brands can do right now

Here’s what you can do to make sure your brand is discoverable and recommended:

1. Clean up your product data
   • Be specific: materials, origin, use case, certifications.
   • Add structured data (schema, tags, attributes).
   • Think beyond keywords — capture the detail people actually care about.
2. Optimise reviews for AI
   • Encourage detailed reviews that mention product attributes, not just “love it!”.
   • Use tools like Yotpo to extract and structure review insights so LLMs can parse them. As Tomer Tagrin, CEO of Yotpo, put it: no human will ever read through thousands of reviews, but an LLM will. Reviews are now raw material for metadata that shapes discovery.
3. Tell your brand story clearly
   • Don’t assume shoppers (or AI agents) know your heritage, values, or specialisms. Spell them out on your site.
   • Make your story both humanly engaging and machine-readable.
4. Leverage Shopify’s new tools
   • Knowledge Base App: Add FAQs and structured data that AI can pull from, without cluttering your product pages.
   • Storefront MCP: Connect AI assistants to your real-time store data, so customers who arrive from an AI conversation can continue that journey on-site.
5. Manage the wider conversation
   • Monitor what’s being said about you on forums, social channels, and review sites. LLMs are ingesting this, and it shapes the “summary” of your brand.
   • Where possible, participate: clarify, answer, and influence the narrative.
6. Think of this as a reset
   • Right now, the playing field is unusually level. Even the biggest brands are still working out how to serve AI agents well. Smaller, faster brands have a real chance to cut through.

The opportunity ahead

Shoppers who come to your site after an AI-led research journey are already further down the path — they know what they want and have weighed their options. If your products, policies, and brand story are easy for AI to discover and understand, they’re much more likely to convert.

The tech is still evolving, but one thing’s clear: successful product discovery in the age of AI comes down to clarity, detail, and being part of the right conversations. The good news? Those conversations are happening now, with or without your brand. The sooner you make sure you’re visible, the better positioned you’ll be as Agentic Commerce grows.

How Farrows can help

At Farrows, we sit at the intersection of creativity, brand strategy, and eCommerce. Our Shopify team helps brands make sure their products, reviews, and story are not just appealing to humans, but also easy for AI to discover and recommend.

From structuring your store and product data, setting up Knowledge Base and MCP tools, to crafting a brand story that stands out in AI conversations, we can help make sure your brand isn’t just in the discussion — it’s leading it.

If you want to make sure your brand is ready for the next wave of AI-driven discovery, get in touch.