Guides

How to get found when buyers ask AI what to buy.

Plain-language guides to AI discovery for Etsy, Shopify and Amazon sellers, how AI shopping assistants actually pick products, why they skip some shops, and exactly what to fix. No jargon, no guru energy. We believe a great small shop deserves a place in the answer just as much as a big brand, today, and in the agentic marketplace that's coming. Read these to do it yourself; if you'd rather have it done for you, that's what Beacon is for.

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Free, for goodNo jargonWritten for sellers, not marketers
Out of the whole street, one gets named
what should I buy? a shopper asks the AI answers ★ named YOUR STORE the one it names what should I buy? a shopper asks the AI answers ★ named YOUR STORE the one it names

Swipe the diagram to see all of it →

Shopping is moving from a page of links to a single answer. When a buyer asks, the AI lights up one shop out of the whole street. These guides are about being that shop, whatever your size.

The 30-second version
How AI decides what to recommend
A shopper asks. The engine reads facts, not pages.
A buyer asks
"Best handmade gift for a gardener?"
It fans out
One question becomes many sub-searches.
It reads sources
Only the pages & signals it can parse and trust.
Confidence wins
It shortlists the products it's sure about.
You're named
…or you're invisible. In an answer, there's no page two.
Every guide below is really about one thing: being readable and trusted enough to make that shortlist.
Where Beacon comes inReading these will teach you the work. Beacon just does it for you, it builds and publishes the AI-ready version of your store, then shows you where you're getting named.
The guides

Start with the mechanics. Then fix your shop.

Eight focused reads. The first explains the whole game; the rest go deep on the parts you can actually control.

01
Start here · the pillar

What is AEO? Answer Engine Optimization explained

The whole game in one read: what AEO is, how it differs from SEO and GEO, how engines choose, and why marketplace listings underperform.

Read the guide → 02
The blocker

Why doesn't AI recommend my shop?

The handful of reasons AI skips a store, in plain terms, and how to tell which one is yours.

Read the guide → 03
Compare

AEO vs. GEO vs. SEO

Three acronyms, one goal. What each optimizes, where they overlap, and why you need SEO and an answer layer.

Read the guide → 04
Checklist

The AI-readiness checklist for sellers

The working checklist: titles, attributes, identifiers, use-case language, schema, trust signals. DIY steps vs. the infrastructure part.

Read the guide → 05
Marketplace

Etsy & AI search: the seller's guide

What you can control on Etsy, what you can't, and the smartest way around the parts you can't.

Read the guide → 06
Platform

Shopify & ChatGPT Shopping

Feeds, schema, unblocking AI crawlers, and why "connected to ChatGPT" doesn't mean "chosen by ChatGPT."

Read the guide → 07
What's next

Agentic commerce: getting ready for AI shopping agents

What AI agents that research and buy will expect from your store, and how to be ready before they arrive.

Read the guide → 08
Reference

AEO & AI-visibility glossary

Every term in one place: AEO, GEO, agent-readiness, structured data, corroboration, citations, and more.

Open the glossary →
Not sure where to start?

A five-minute path from "what is this" to "here's my fix list." Follow it in order, or jump to whatever's biting you.

1
Understand it
Read What is AEO?, the whole picture.
2
Diagnose it
Find out why AI skips your shop.
3
Fix it
Work the readiness checklist, free.
4
Or skip it
Let Beacon do the work for you.
The words, quickly

Four terms you'll see everywhere.

AEO
Answer Engine Optimization. Making your products citable inside AI-generated answers.
Citation
An AI answer naming or sourcing your brand or product, the unit of AEO success.
Corroboration
Other credible sources describing you the same way, so you're not your only voice.
Agentic commerce
Shopping done by AI agents on a buyer's behalf, they need operable, not just visible, catalogs.
Two ways to get there

Do it yourself, or let us do it.

The guides give away the whole method, for free. Beacon is for when you would rather spend that time actually running your shop.

On your own

Follow the guides

Everything you need is here, no gate, no catch.
  1. Learn how AI picks products.
  2. Edit your titles, facts & trust pages.
  3. Keep it current as your catalog changes.
Free · your time
With Beacon

We build it for you

Same outcome, none of the busywork, your store never changes.
  1. Paste your store link.
  2. We build & publish your AI-ready pages.
  3. You watch where AI names you, we keep it fresh.
Free to start · for good

Reading is step zero. Seeing your own store is step one.

Paste your link. We'll show you what AI can and can't see about your store today, free, live in minutes, no card.

Make my store AI-ready, free →

Start free, no card, and it stays free. Read the guides first if you'd rather.