Happy Birthday AI For Ecommerce Newsletter!

Today is a very very special day, at least for me.

Exactly 2 years ago, on the 1st of August 2023, I published the first ever issue of the AI For Ecommerce newsletter.

At that point, I think there were a total of 6 subscribers (I’m fairly sure two of which were my husband and my mum. Thanks fam! + 4 more believing folks).

Now 730 days later, we are a community of more than 40,000 readers, growing by nearly 2,000 subscribers every month.

I’ve written more than 310 issues to-date.

I know that for you guys, these are just numbers.

But for me, this is a very proud moment.

Building this community and writing this newsletter 3x week for the last 2 years has been a labour of love and also a personal challenge of not giving up, even when I thought people don’t really want it/need it/care about it.

But every time I started doubting, you guys kept showing up, reading and occasionally getting in touch to let me know that you find value in it.

So I keep writing.

Thank you so much to Gabby and all the other people who help me make this happen every week.

And to you dearest reader! I wouldn’t be writing if it weren’t for you.

ChatGPT Is Your New Best Friend (If You Know How to Ask Nicely)

Okay, confession time: I've been spending way too much time asking ChatGPT to recommend products just to see which brands it picks. My search history now looks like someone with the world's most eclectic shopping addiction—"best coffee grinders under $200," "sustainable yoga mats for beginners," "noise-canceling headphones for people who hate their open office."

But here's the thing that got me genuinely obsessed (my friends have started timing how quickly I can pivot any conversation to "but did you hear what ChatGPT recommended?"): this thing is basically becoming Amazon's biggest competitor, and most sellers have no idea it's happening.

The "Wait, That's Not How Google Works" Moment

Here's what blew my mind when I started tracking this stuff: only 11% of brands that get recommended by ChatGPT also show up in Perplexity recommendations. Eleven percent! That's like discovering that being popular on Instagram tells you absolutely nothing about your TikTok success.

Recent analysis of tens of thousands of AI responses shows the differences between platforms are wild. ChatGPT might consistently recommend your coffee brand when people ask about "best pour-over coffee for beginners," while Perplexity completely ignores you and suggests three completely different brands.

This matters because we're all still thinking like it's 2019, where you optimize for Google and call it a day. But ChatGPT doesn't care about your backlink profile or your keyword density—it's playing by completely different rules that most of us haven't figured out yet.

Why Reddit Became Your Secret Weapon (And You Didn't Even Know)

Remember when Reddit was just where people went to argue about movies and share cat photos? Well, plot twist: it's now the single most influential platform for ChatGPT recommendations, accounting for about 6% of all citations.

Which means that random thread where someone genuinely recommended your product because it solved their specific problem? That's worth more for AI discoverability than most of your SEO efforts combined.

But—and this is important—ChatGPT can apparently smell promotional BS from a mile away. I've tested this extensively (because I have no life), and obvious marketing attempts get ignored while authentic recommendations from actual users get cited constantly.

This creates a fascinating challenge: how do you encourage genuine mentions without being the company that shows up in threads being like "Have you tried OUR amazing product?" (Please don't be that company.)

The Specificity Game Is Everything

Here's something that took way too long to figure out: ChatGPT doesn't want to know about your "best running shoes." It wants to know about your "why maximum cushioning running shoes reduce injury risk for heel-strike runners over 40."

Months of tracking which content gets cited most often reveals a clear pattern: hyper-specific, deeply researched content wins every time. Generic product pages and broad category overviews might as well not exist in ChatGPT's world.

This completely flips traditional content strategy on its head. Instead of trying to rank for high-volume keywords like "best coffee maker," you're better off creating the definitive guide to "why single-serve coffee makers with thermal carafes are perfect for remote workers who drink 2-3 cups throughout the morning."

It sounds more limiting, but here's the counterintuitive part: when someone asks ChatGPT about coffee makers for any use case remotely related to yours, your hyper-specific content becomes the authoritative source it references.

The Visual Content Problem Nobody Talks About

This one genuinely surprised everyone: all those beautiful comparison charts and infographics we've been creating? ChatGPT mostly can't see them.

Analysis of which content formats get cited most often shows that text-based comparisons absolutely dominate. That gorgeous product comparison infographic you spent weeks perfecting might get completely overlooked, while a simple text table comparing the same products gets referenced constantly.

For those of us who've built entire content strategies around visual assets, this is both frustrating and liberating. Frustrating because it means rethinking how we present information, but liberating because creating comprehensive text-based comparisons is often faster and more cost-effective than complex visual designs.

The Attribution Nightmare (Or: How We're All Flying Blind)

Here's something that's been keeping marketing teams up at night: traditional analytics are basically useless for measuring ChatGPT's influence on your business.

Think about it—when someone asks ChatGPT for product recommendations, gets your brand name, then buys your product three days later by searching on Amazon, how would you even know that ChatGPT drove that sale? Spoiler alert: you wouldn't.

Experimentation with different tracking approaches shows the most effective method so far is embarrassingly simple: actually asking customers how they heard about us. Revolutionary, I know.

But seriously, adding "How did you first hear about this product?" to your checkout flow or customer surveys often reveals significant AI-influenced purchases that would otherwise remain invisible. It's not perfect, but it's better than assuming ChatGPT isn't influencing your sales just because you can't see it in Google Analytics.

The Platform Volatility Rollercoaster

Fair warning: optimizing for ChatGPT recommendations is like trying to hit a moving target while blindfolded. Recent analysis shows brands going from getting recommended constantly to completely disappearing from responses within a single month.

This happens because ChatGPT's underlying models get updated regularly, new content constantly enters the system, and the whole thing is influenced by trending topics and recent conversations. It's simultaneously more dynamic and less predictable than traditional SEO.

The brands that maintain consistent visibility are the ones treating this as an ongoing conversation rather than a set-it-and-forget-it optimization project. They're regularly monitoring their mention patterns, updating content based on what's working, and staying engaged in the communities where their customers seek advice.

What This Actually Means for Your Business

As someone who's spent years helping businesses navigate digital marketing shifts, ChatGPT recommendations represent potentially the biggest change in customer discovery since Google displaced Yellow Pages.

The opportunity is massive because most brands aren't paying attention yet. While everyone's still focused on traditional SEO metrics, a relatively small investment in ChatGPT optimization can yield outsized visibility advantages.

But—and this is crucial—the window for early adopter benefits is closing fast. Every month, more brands figure out that AI recommendations matter, and the competition for mindshare intensifies.

The Bottom Line for Sellers

ChatGPT isn't just another marketing channel—it's a fundamental shift in how customers discover and evaluate products. The brands that recognize this early and build authentic authority in AI recommendation systems will have a significant competitive advantage.

The best approach? Start by understanding how your brand currently appears in AI responses, then focus on creating genuinely helpful, hyper-specific content while building authentic relationships in communities where your customers seek advice.

The robots might be getting better at recommending products, but they're still relying on human-created content and genuine community recommendations to make those decisions. That's our opportunity—at least for now.

• OpenAI’s new CEO of Applications has a clear mission to make AI tools accessible, empowering more people with knowledge, health, creativity, time, and economic freedom through everyday AI.

• Higgsfield’s Image Reference Tool lets you skip the prompt and turn any web image into an AI-generated visual using your character, directly from a browser extension.

• Content is entering the AI auction era where publishers compete not with cash but with freshness, accuracy, and authority to win a spot in AI-generated responses.

• Fascinating research from Pew on Google’s AI summaries and how they affect CTRs.

• The Canva + Claude mix you weren’t expecting but you needed!

  

• ChatGPT relies heavily on Google Search snippets 

• Samsung is expanding its AI stack holding talks with OpenAI and Perplexity to power the Galaxy S26 as it aims to go beyond Google Gemini and lead the AI mobile race.

• The 2025 festive season marketing guide by Pinterest has arrived and you’ll need to rethink your media mix.

🎨 Artbox - A library of high-quality visuals for your next project.

✏️ Anyword AI - Instantly analyze every piece of content you've ever published, so you know which messaging works best on your website, socials, and email channels.

🧾 Krik - Daily bookkeeping for the modern business owner. Minimize your audit risk, and only pay when you save.

📲 Gallileo - Generate mobile and desktop user interface designs faster with AI.

👨‍💼 Spinach.io* -The AI Project Manager that runs meetings, shares notes, and manages tasks in your existing tools.

🔄 BypassGPT - A tool to rewrite AI-generated content for SEO and undetectable by AI detectors.

😍It was great, all I needed

🙂Good, not great

🙄It sucked