AI Is Reshaping Ecommerce. Faster, Reliable Delivery is the Key to Staying Visible.
To stay in the game, retailers need structured product data, reliable fulfillment, and APIs that make their catalogs usable in AI-driven environments. Brands that get their data and delivery ready now are the ones AI will surface to shoppers first.
More shoppers are buying online products using AI than ever before. Consumers are skipping search engines and heading straight to AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google’s SGE, where they are getting product recs, reviews, and delivery estimates. Tools like visual search (e.g., Google Lens, Pinterest Lens) and voice assistants are also reshaping how consumers find products without a homepage visit.
- 45% of U.S. consumers used AI services in the past year, and 56% expect to use AI more over the next five years
- 58% of consumers are now experimenting with generative AI for product recommendations instead of search engines
- 53% of U.S. shoppers say they plan to use genAI when shopping online this year, up from 39% in prior usage
For brands, this changes how and where shoppers make decisions. If your product isn’t AI-ready, or if your delivery options can't compete, you lose visibility, and you might lose the sale.
To stay in the game, retailers need structured product data, reliable fulfillment, and APIs that make their catalogs usable in AI-driven environments. Brands that get their data and delivery ready now are the ones AI will surface to shoppers first.
What your customers see (and don’t)
Let’s say a shopper is looking for a birthday gift. They type into generative AI:
Instead of links, the shopper will get product cards—images, prices, reviews, delivery estimates. Increasingly, these tools are surfacing purchase-ready options, often with “Buy Now” buttons, reducing friction and shortening the path to checkout.
No homepage and no comparison shopping. Ask, see results, and buy.
This is how consumers are starting to shop. And for retailers, it creates a new kind of competition:
- AI shows two to three products, not a grid of ads. This limited result set raises the stakes for getting included.
- There’s no time to win them over later. Your product data has to do the work upfront.
- If your catalog isn’t structured or accessible, you’re invisible in the results.
When shopping happens inside a chat, your feed becomes your storefront. If it’s broken, incomplete or slow, you’re not even on the shelf.
Here’s what a consumer might see if they search for Zelda gifts:
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The new rules of getting found
So what should brands do to compete in this new landscape?
Many LLMs use structured feeds via APIs, but some tools also crawl websites or ingest content using plugins and browser tools.
When a shopper asks ChatGPT for a recommendation, it scans product data, looking for structured, up-to-date, and trustworthy information it can present instantly. If your catalog isn’t clean and complete, it’s less likely to be in the running.
These changes require a different playbook. Here’s how the old rules compare to what works now:
Visibility in AI-driven commerce requires showing up in the moment with complete, trusted data. Customers no longer see a landing page explaining what makes your product great. The information in your feed has to do the work.
Retailers who invest in that foundation now are the ones AI will choose to recommend.
How to show up and win in AI-driven commerce
Getting recommended by AI starts with the basics:
- Structure your product data. To prepare for AI-native shopping environments, brands should start structuring their catalogs for potential API-based integrations and make sure inventory, pricing, and descriptions are accurate.
- Make reviews work for you. AI tools use reviews to decide what’s credible. A strong volume of recent, trustworthy reviews can be the difference between showing up or getting skipped.
- Track new sources. If you’re still attributing AI-led sales to “direct,” you’re flying blind. Start tracking referral patterns tied to chatbot or LLM traffic so you know where the sale came from (and how to get more).
The differentiator is delivery
Let’s say your product shows up in an AI chat and the shopper clicks “Buy Now.”
What happens next?
If your delivery window says 5–7 days and the same product is available with next-day shipping on a marketplace, that conversion disappears, and you’ve lost the sale.
This is the gap most retailers miss. AI may win you the click, but delivery wins (or loses) the sale.
Owning delivery gives you leverage:
- Protect your margins: No more handing over 15–30% to marketplaces
- Build loyalty: Branded tracking, accurate ETAs, and smooth returns create trust and keep customers coming back
- Control brand experience: Every delivery is a touchpoint that reinforces your brand (or someone else’s)
- Increase retention: Fast, reliable delivery makes first-time buyers more likely to return
- Set expectations and beat them: Deliver what you promise, then overdeliver
Partner with Nash to own your delivery
Nash helps retailers deliver like the big players… without the overhead of building delivery infrastructure from scratch.
Nash connects you to a nationwide network of carriers, couriers, and specialized providers. Whether it’s a same-day local drop-off or a big and bulky regional shipment, Nash matches each order with the best-fit option based on speed, cost, your parameters, and customer promise.
And it’s fully automated.
- AI-powered routing: Every order is dynamically routed in real time based on location, capacity, and SLA
- Proactive issue resolution: Nash monitors every delivery and flags potential delays before they affect the customer
- Operational visibility: From dispatch to doorstep, you know what’s happening without managing it manually
- Built for scale: Whether you’re shipping 100 orders a day or 100,000, Nash adjusts with your business