Is AI search draining traffic from online stores? At Growth Unlocked: The Summit, we put that question to Kyle Risley, Senior SEO Lead at Shopify, who has spent six years on SEO for Shopify merchants and 13 years in the field. His answer, backed by Shopify's own data, was more encouraging than the headlines suggest.
Here's Kyle’s take, and his recommendations for what merchants can do to become more visible in LLMs.
AI search is adding to ecommerce traffic, not eating it
The fear around zero-click search is centred around AI Overviews answering a shopper's question before they ever reach your store. For some publishers and informational sites, that has played out and many have seen sharp traffic drops. However, ecommerce is a different picture, and Kyle had the data to show it.
“When it comes to ecommerce, Shopify merchants are seeing 12% growth year over year in organic search as of Q2 2026. And then on top of that, AI traffic is growing nearly 200% year over year. It really does appear to be additive so far for ecommerce.”
AI isn't replacing organic search for stores, it's arriving alongside it, but it’s the quality of that new traffic that’s important.
“We're seeing way higher conversion rates from AI referrals, converting like 80% higher than SEO traffic, even when you're controlling for traffic landing on PDPs.”
The likely reason: a shopper who has researched a purchase inside an LLM arrives further along in their decision. By the time they reach your store, they're closer to buying, which makes showing up in AI search worth the effort twice over.
Tip #1: Get your product data right first
When asked what matters most for visibility, the conversation returned to one thing:
"Product data wins. Make sure it's complete, consistent and aligned across your product pages, Google Merchant Center and the Shopify Catalog, which gives AI agents a consistent way to understand your products. And log into Google Merchant Center! If there's missing data Google is asking for, addressing it can directly impact your visibility in shopping results."
The word doing the work is "consistent." The Shopify Catalog is a structured source of product information that channels and AI agents read. When your product pages, Merchant Center feed, and the Catalog disagree, you leave those systems guessing about what you actually sell. Aligning them is one of the strongest foundational moves you can make.
Tip #2: Log into Google Merchant Center
Kyle's product-data point came with a specific, often-skipped action attached.
"A lot of merchants have gaps in their product data that they haven't filled in, and Google Merchant Center will tell you that directly, and what things to fix."
It costs nothing and takes minutes, and many stores have gaps they've never looked at. For US merchants, there's a newer reason to log in beyond fixing those gaps.
“For merchants in the US, they've started sharing AI performance insights within Google Merchant Center. It's a little more advanced than the information in Google Search Console, including share of voice data along with query frequency and different query types.”
That's a level of visibility into AI-driven discovery that wasn't available until recently, and Kyle expects it to keep developing, so it's worth building the habit now.
Tip #3: Enrich your product pages with text
A recurring theme: AI models focus on text, not pictures. When a shopper types a prompt, the model turns it into a checklist of features and then goes looking for them in your copy.
“If you ask ChatGPT for a water bottle that works on a treadmill, they're going to convert that prompt into product features and specs. They'll care about the width because they want to make sure it fits in the cup holder. They'll look for extra grip because you might be sweaty. They'll look for a straw.”
The trap is assuming a detail is obvious, or that a photo makes it clear.
“They're not necessarily going to be doing image analysis on all those products. They'll be looking at the text. So it's really helpful to put it in the text.”
If you want a quick way to find what's missing, Kyle's free tip is to paste your product page URL into ChatGPT and ask what a prospective buyer would want to know that isn't already there. It's an instant content audit at no cost.
Tip #4: Reviews are still an underused lever
For a channel that every shopper consults before buying, reviews are surprisingly often left off the page entirely.
“I still frankly see stores that don't display reviews at all. Everyone on this call who buys something online looks at reviews, so why would you not do the same for your customers?”
Collecting and displaying them, with structured data, is the baseline. From there, summarizing reviews and making them searchable helps shoppers reach the insight faster. But for AI search specifically, how the reviews are rendered matters as much as whether you have them.
“Some of the AI crawlers do not appear to yet be rendering JavaScript. So you want to make sure that at least the markup is rendering server-side, if not the actual review content.”
In other words, reviews loaded by a client-side widget can be invisible to the systems you most want reading them. This is where a review app earns its place: if you collect with a partner like Judge.me, making reviews readable by AI shopping assistants is a toggle in the dashboard, which handles the server-side rendering Kyle described. Those reviews also feed the Shopify Catalog, since Shopify pulls review scores from select partners, Judge.me among them.
The takeaway
AI search isn't the threat to ecommerce the headlines suggest, it's an additional, high-converting channel. Plus, the work to show up and become visible is worth doing anyway: complete, consistent product data, product pages written in plain text, and reviews that both shoppers and AI systems can read.
For the full step-by-step version, see our guide to improving SEO on Shopify.
For more from the session this came from, including SEO experts from WPP Media and beyond, watch our Become Visible webinar.
Frequently asked questions
Is AI search reducing organic traffic for Shopify stores?
Not according to Shopify's data. In Q2, Shopify merchants saw 12% year-over-year growth in organic search, with AI referral traffic up nearly 200% and converting around 80% higher than standard SEO traffic. For ecommerce, AI search is proving additive.
What's the first thing a Shopify merchant should fix for AI visibility?
Product data. Make it complete, consistent, and aligned across your product pages, Google Merchant Center, and the Shopify Catalog. Logging into Google Merchant Center to fix the data Google flags as missing is a quick, free, high-impact first move.
Why do my product details need to be in text, not just images?
AI models convert a shopper's prompt into a list of features and specs, then scan the text on your pages for them. If a detail only appears in a photo, the model may not account for it. Spelling out specs, dimensions, and use cases in text makes your products easier to match and recommend.
Do my reviews need special setup to appear in AI search?
Some AI crawlers don't execute JavaScript, so review content and its structured data should render server-side to be readable. A review app like Judge.me can handle this, and its reviews also feed the Shopify Catalog that AI agents and channels read.
