The rules of retail visibility have changed.
AI is already reshaping how shoppers discover, evaluate and decide. Visibility is moving upstream. Authority is becoming a performance signal. Product data is shaping what gets recommended. Retailers that strengthen their structured data, content credibility and measurement now will build compounding advantage. Those that wait will be forced to catch up in a more competitive, more expensive environment.
If it feels like everyone else has AI figured out, let me be clear: They do not. Most brands are still early. The disconnect is not between you and your competitors. It is between your organization and your customer.
January Digital recently surveyed retail and brand leaders to understand how organizations are approaching AI search and AI-driven commerce. Six in 10 said their AI visibility strategy is still in development, in early discussion or has not started. More than half are still piloting or planning AI commerce capabilities rather than operating them at scale. At the same time, 78% expect moderate or significant growth in AI-driven traffic over the next year, even though most currently see 20% or less of their traffic coming from AI search.
Retailers and brands are not late. But they are on the clock, because consumers are already outpacing them.
Consumers are Already Shopping with AI
The 2025 holiday season made this shift measurable at scale. AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail websites grew 805% year-over-year on Black Friday, according to Adobe. That growth comes off a relatively small base, but it signals something important: shoppers are increasingly comfortable using AI as part of their shopping journey.
What matters more is what happens after they arrive. Adobe also reported that shoppers landing on a retail site from an AI service were 38% more likely to convert than shoppers from non-AI sources, and that $3 billion in U.S. online sales were driven by AI and agents during Black Friday alone. These are not passive browsers. They tend to arrive more decided because evaluation and validation have already happened inside the AI experience.
AI is not just influencing discovery. It is influencing decisions.
The Funnel is Compressing into a Conversation
Retail marketing has long relied on a familiar structure: discovery leads to consideration, which leads to conversion. That structure still exists, but AI is compressing it in real time.
Instead of opening multiple tabs and comparing products across sites, a shopper can ask a single question, receive a synthesized answer, review options and move closer to purchase within one interaction. Discovery, evaluation and validation are happening inside the same environment.
The funnel is not disappearing. It is becoming a conversation.
For brands, this changes what winning looks like. Visibility is no longer only about rankings and traffic. It is about being included and accurately represented in the answer itself.
Search is Entering a Zero-Click Era
AI-powered summaries are reshaping search behavior. We are moving deeper into a zero-click reality, where many questions are answered directly within results pages or chat interfaces. A shopper can find what they need without ever clicking on that blue link or visiting a brand site.
When AI-generated overviews began rolling out more broadly, many retailers saw impressions rise while clicks declined. Consumers were still exposed to brands, but influence happened earlier, and in some cases without a visit at all.
This creates a structural measurement challenge. A brand can shape consideration inside an AI-generated answer without triggering a session that appears cleanly in analytics platforms. That does not mean brand sites stop mattering. It means performance cannot be evaluated solely through rankings and last-click conversion.
Retailers now need to optimize for inclusion, accuracy and authority inside AI-generated answers, not just traffic to their own sites. In this environment, you are winning conversations, not just clicks.
From Influencer to Expert
For years, brands have operated as influencers. Creative, positioning and storytelling have driven growth. That remains essential, particularly in apparel and luxury. But AI introduces a new requirement: Brands must also function as experts.
AI systems synthesize information. They reward clarity, consistent attributes, structured product data and claims supported by evidence. They pull from product feeds, site content, reviews, PR coverage and broader signals across the web.
Many retailers already have the raw materials for authority. Luxury brands have heritage and craftsmanship. Beauty brands have formulation and science-backed claims. Specialty retailers have category expertise that competitors cannot easily replicate.
The brands that perform strongest in AI-driven discovery will be the ones that explain clearly, provide specifics and substantiate what they say.
Third-party validation is also gaining renewed importance. Awards, reputable mentions and expert quotes contribute to the credibility ecosystem AI systems draw from. In an answer-driven world, authority becomes a performance lever.
The AI Era Brand Readiness Checklist
The strategic shift is significant, but the operational starting points are practical. Retailers do not need to rebuild their digital ecosystems. They need to strengthen the foundations AI systems rely on.
Here is a practical readiness checklist brands can begin executing now:
- Integrate AI into existing commerce platforms and product feeds to improve discoverability.
- Structure website content with factual, expert-driven answers and proof points that AI tools can synthesize confidently.
- Ensure data accuracy, because AI pulls from your site, reviews, PR and social signals. What gets fed is what shows up.
- Invest in measurement and metadata, including schema and product data, and confirm that structured markup matches what appears on the page.
- Pilot AI tools for content ideation and testing that free up strategic time rather than create incremental noise.
- Evaluate where your brand shows up today in platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Copilot and Gemini to establish a baseline.
- Create AI-specific segments in GA4 or Adobe to track visits from AI domains and commerce protocols as a proxy for answer engine and agent-assisted behavior.
- Treat your product catalog as a shared AI surface, optimizing titles, attributes, pricing, policies and FAQs for how they will appear across AI-driven buying environments.
If teams feel overwhelmed, start with two areas: product data and measurement. Those foundations determine how you are interpreted, how you are recommended and how you demonstrate impact.
A Narrow but Meaningful Window
AI-driven traffic remains modest for most retailers today. That is precisely why this moment matters. Brands have a window to test measurement approaches, refine structured data strategies and build cross-functional fluency before AI-mediated journeys represent a larger share of revenue.
The organizations that move fastest will treat AI as an operating model shift rather than a standalone initiative. This touches marketing, ecommerce, merchandising, analytics and creative. It requires shared literacy, clear guardrails for experimentation and a commitment to making AI fluency part of everyday workflows.
Retail has navigated platform revolutions before. Mobile changed behaviors. Social reshaped discovery. Marketplaces rewired price expectations. Privacy shifts forced measurement discipline. AI is broader than any one of those shifts because it touches discovery, credibility, content and commerce simultaneously.
The advantage will go to the brands that strengthen their foundations now, clarify where AI matters most for their business and move with intention. This is not a race to catch up. It is an opportunity to decide where to lead.
Sarah Engel is President of January Digital, the marketing leadership company and agency of record for brands including Carhartt, amika, Interstate Batteries and Steve Madden. She also serves as a Strategic Advisor to Shoptalk and Groceryshop and was recently named a 2026 ReThink Retail Top Retail Expert and to the Adweek 50, recognizing changemakers driving growth in marketing and technology. With over two decades of experience, Sarah’s experience includes leadership positions at Lilly Pulitzer and retail data platform DynamicAction (now Edited), and she has helped drive growth for brands such as Travelocity, Match and Chevrolet. Enge; serves on the advisory board of Rebel Nell, a jewelry company empowering marginalized women, and serves as President of the Board for LSH, a nonprofit, community-based organization committed to serving children, adults and families living in Philadelphia.
