Notes on being found
Shoppers have started asking assistants what to buy, and those assistants can only recommend what they can read. Plain writing on making a store legible to them — and to Google, which hasn't gone anywhere.
- September 16, 2026
Can Google Search Console show whether ChatGPT and Perplexity can find your Shopify products?
No. Google Search Console shows how your store appears in Google Search, including Google’s own AI features. It does not report whether ChatGPT or Perplexity can find or use your products.
Read → - September 15, 2026
Should Shopify merchants use their main store domain for cold outreach?
Usually, no. Your store domain carries receipts, password resets, and support replies, so cold outreach should not share its sender reputation.
Read → - September 14, 2026
Should Shopify recommendations personalize for anonymous visitors, or wait for customer data?
Don’t wait for a visitor to log in or buy before showing useful recommendations. Start with the product and the session, then use customer history when you have it.
Read → - September 12, 2026
Do Shopify stores need a cookie banner if their analytics don’t use cookies?
Not always. Whether you need consent depends on more than cookies: how your analytics work, what they collect, where visitors are, and whether an exemption applies.
Read → - September 11, 2026
Should Shopify product recommendations optimize for conversion rate or average order value?
Neither metric is enough on its own. The better question is whether recommendations create more revenue per visit without pushing shoppers toward the wrong products.
Read → - September 10, 2026
Should Shopify merchants use the same customer segments for email and SMS?
Use the same customer facts to decide who a campaign is for. Then make separate email and SMS segments, with each channel’s own consent and engagement rules.
Read → - September 9, 2026
Does your Shopify store need an llms.txt file, or is good product data enough?
Shopify now creates AI discovery files for your store. For most merchants, the work that matters is keeping product data complete, current, and easy for systems to read.
Read → - September 8, 2026
Can ChatGPT tell what makes your Shopify products different?
Your product page may make sense to someone who knows your store. An AI assistant needs the same facts stated clearly, in places it can read and match to a shopper’s question.
Read → - September 7, 2026
Should Shopify apps have permission to edit your theme?
Usually, no. Most apps can add what they need through app blocks or app embeds, leaving your theme files alone and giving you control in the theme editor.
Read → - September 6, 2026
Should Shopify product recommendations appear on the product page, in the cart, or both?
Product pages and carts answer different shopper questions. The useful choice is usually not one placement or the other, but giving each one a distinct job and measuring whether it helps.
Read → - September 4, 2026
Does your Shopify store scroll sideways on mobile, and how do you find the cause?
Sideways scrolling on a phone usually means one part of the page is wider than the screen. Here’s how to find it before hiding the problem with CSS.
Read → - September 2, 2026
Should Shopify merchants suppress recent buyers from promotional email and SMS?
Usually, yes. If someone has just bought the offer you are promoting, remove them from that campaign and its follow-up messages before they see another reminder.
Read → - August 31, 2026
Should Shopify merchants add product schema when their theme already has it?
Usually, no. First check what your live product pages already output, then fix gaps instead of adding a second copy of the same product data.
Read → - August 30, 2026
Should Shopify merchants rely on /products.json to show their full catalogue to AI tools?
No. `/products.json` can be useful for a quick public read of your store, but it is not Shopify’s authoritative catalogue feed for AI channels. Check that your eligible products are in Shopify Catalog, then treat public files as supporting context.
Read → - August 29, 2026
Should your Shopify store send the same promotion by email and SMS?
Yes, send the same offer across both channels. But don’t send the same message at the same time: email can explain the sale, while SMS gives a short, useful reason to act later.
Read → - August 29, 2026
Should abandoned-cart SMS follow email, or replace it?
For most stores, email and SMS should do different jobs in the same recovery flow. Start with email, then use one careful SMS for people who can receive it and still have not ordered.
Read → - August 29, 2026
Should your Shopify welcome flow ask for an SMS opt-in before offering a discount?
Usually, no. Give the email offer when someone joins your email list, then invite them to opt into SMS separately if it makes sense for your store.
Read → - August 28, 2026
Do AI product recommendations work if you can’t measure them against a holdout?
They may generate sales. But without a holdout group, you can’t tell whether those sales happened because of the recommendations or would have happened anyway.
Read → - August 26, 2026
UCP, plainly: the protocol that lets AI assistants buy from your store
The Universal Commerce Protocol, launched by Google and Shopify in January, is how AI assistants complete purchases instead of just recommending products. What it is, how discovery works, and the ten-second check to see where your store stands.
Read → - August 21, 2026
See your store the way ChatGPT sees it — free
We built a scanner that reads your storefront the way an AI assistant does: public URLs only, no install, no signup. Here's what it checks, what it found on real stores, and why the outside view is the honest one.
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