As AI agents begin making purchasing decisions for consumers, a quiet revolution is underway, and ownership of the customer relationship is up for grabs. AI agents like ChatGPT and Perplexity are becoming shopping intermediaries that decide which products to show, which brands to trust, and ultimately who wins the sale.
In this month’s newsletter, you’ll learn what this shift means for brands, how data portability and entity optimization are becoming the new battlegrounds, and what merchants can do to stay in control. Plus some industry-relevant news and about our 15th anniversary.
Let’s dive in.
In this issue:
- The Age of Agentic Commerce: Who Really Owns Your Customers?
- Multi-site Innovation on Shopify
- Why Your SEO Tools Say Traffic Dropped
- SEO Developments You Should Know
- eCommerce News
- Shopify New Features You Should Know
- Prompt Toolbox: Evaluate Your Store Like a Pro (Expert-Sourced)
- 15 Years in the Making of Shero
- Latest Insights from the Shero Blog
- Closing thoughts
Who Really Owns Your Customers in Agentic Commerce?
What just happened in AI-led shopping
At the end of last month, OpenAI announced Instant Checkout inside ChatGPT, which is co-developed with Stripe. The feature is currently live in the United States with Etsy and is slated to be available with Shopify next.
OpenAI calls this an open standard: the Agentic Commerce Protocol or ACP. They state that merchants remain the merchant of record, data sharing is minimal, and merchants pay a small fee for each completed purchase.
On the surface, it sounds straightforward.
Independent reporting backs this up. Reuters confirmed the fee model and the near-term scope, including multi-item carts and regional rollout. Axios reported the same timing and highlighted Stripe’s role beneath the “protocol” label.
Google is pursuing a parallel track with its Agent Payments Protocol or AP2. Instead of shopping results, AP2 focuses on normalizing agent-initiated payments across cards, wallets, and processors.
Different angle, same direction: agents transact on behalf of users, and the stack is being standardized.
Now that the rollout is clear, let us define what agentic commerce actually means.
What is Agentic Commerce?
Agentic Commerce (ACP) flips the script on online shopping. Instead of you clicking through a site or adding items to a cart, an AI agent takes the request, finds options, compares them, and completes the purchase. The agent not only recommends, but also decides and executes.
Think of it as moving from “show me options” to “just handle it for me.” A shopper can say, “find me a durable gym bag under $100 that ships this week,” and the agent will scan catalogs, filter based on policies and reviews, and check out on their behalf. In B2B, an AI agent could reorder inventory when stock runs low, evaluate suppliers, or manage recurring contracts with little to no human touch.
The core traits are autonomy, speed, and context. AI agents rely on structured product data, customer history, and real-time signals to act more like digital proxies than search assistants.
The focus shifts away from store design or brand storytelling to the completeness and credibility of your product data. Understanding the model is the easy part. Spotting the traps before you hand over control is the hard part.
Nine traps that could cost you control in Agentic Commerce
1: Ranking neutrality versus commercial incentives
Neutral rankings don’t exist.
Every platform claims it’s fair, but incentives always seem to creep in. If enabling “Instant Checkout” becomes a ranking factor, that’s not user experience. It is instead self-preference disguised as optimization.
Continue reading the rest of the article →
Multi-site Innovation on Shopify
Last month, I wrote about multi-site and multi-brand setups on Shopify. As a continuation of that, I am sharing two examples of work we recently launched that show what is possible when brands move from Magento to Shopify and want to simplify without losing flexibility.
Freedom Munitions - They previously ran four separate sites, two of them on a Magento multistore setup. We migrated everything into a single Shopify store while still maintaining distinct brand identities. Each brand has its own style guide and design rules, but everything sits under one domain. The theme dynamically updates based on which brand a customer is browsing, so the navigation and styling always stay consistent. Products can be shared across brands or isolated on the frontend depending on business needs.
Chesapeake Fine Food Group - This project was a true multi-store migration from Magento. We moved them onto two connected Shopify stores, but designed the experience to feel unified. Single sign-on allows customers to use the same account across both stores, and a shared cart ensures that items added in one store carry over to the other. Products and SKUs stay synchronized across both environments. On the backend, the stores remain independent, but the shopper experience is seamless.
These examples show that Shopify can handle complex multi-brand requirements while simplifying operations and costs compared to Magento. The right architecture can deliver both flexibility and stability without adding unnecessary complexity to your tech stack.
Why Your SEO Tools Say Traffic Dropped (and Why You Shouldn’t Panic)
If you’ve opened Ahrefs or another SEO tool lately and noticed a sharp drop in traffic or domain rating, you’re not alone. Over the past few weeks, Google quietly modified the &num=100 search results parameter, which is what SEO tools use to pull full SERPs for rank tracking and visibility data.
That's because Google stopped supporting the setting that let those tools load 100 results at once. This change means most rank trackers are now pulling smaller datasets. Less data in the crawl equals fewer counted impressions, which looks like a traffic drop in third-party tools even when your real site visits haven’t changed.
So, if your analytics show steady sessions, conversions, or even slight growth, trust your own data first. Your Search Console, GA4, and Shopify analytics reflect real users, not simulated SERPs.
For merchants, here’s what this means:
- Don’t panic when you see a sudden decline in Ahrefs or Semrush visibility metrics. It’s not your site under penalty; it’s your tracking source changing its inputs.
- Focus on on-site behavior, conversion rate, repeat purchase, and returning visitor growth. Those are true signals of brand health.
- Use this as a reminder that external tools give you a model of search visibility, not a literal traffic count.
In short, this update broke part of the mirror, not the store. Keep an eye on your real analytics, keep publishing value, and let your competitors waste time worrying about numbers that no longer tell the whole story.
Read the full report on Search Engine Journal
SEO Developments You Should Know
You don’t have time to chase every update. Here’s what you should actually pay attention to if you care about ranking higher and selling more.
1. Google’s August 2025 Spam Update completes rollout - The update finished on September 22 after nearly a month. It focused heavily on link spam, thin AI generated content, and doorway pages. Several ecommerce sites reported significant ranking volatility and recovery cycles began appearing around the end of September.
2. Google updates Quality Rater Guidelines - New examples now reference AI Overviews and expanded YMYL definitions, clarifying what trustworthy content means in a generative search environment. This revision signals that human quality raters are being trained to judge AI generated experiences the same way they evaluate traditional SERPs.
3. DOJ antitrust ruling reshapes Google’s search data access - A U.S. court ruled Google will not be broken up but must share parts of its search index and interaction data with competitors. This could open opportunities for alternative search engines and data platforms, potentially changing how traffic attribution and discovery evolve.
4. Internal linking evolves from link juice to entity mapping -Kevin Indig and Amanda Johnson explain how internal links now act as semantic connectors that build Google’s understanding of relationships between pages. Strong internal structures reinforce topical authority and improve entity recognition for AI search.
5. Google drops six structured data types from Search Console - Search Console will no longer report Course, Info Claim Review, Estimated Salary, Learning Video, Special Announcement, and Vehicle Listing schema. Google continues cleaning up unused schema categories to simplify how structured data is reported and maintained.
6. Google disables the num=100 results parameter - This change limits rank tracking tools from retrieving 100 result pages and reduces inflated impression data. SEO software like SEMRush or Ahrefs is adjusting its crawlers to better reflect how users actually see results.
7. Branding in the era of AI and zero-click search - In this amazing podcast, Rand Fishkin and Gianluca Fiorelli discuss how attention has shifted from Google to social and video platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Reddit. Building brand demand outside of search is becoming essential for sustainable visibility.
8. Google adds “From Publishers You Follow” carousel to mobile search - Google has introduced a new “From Publishers You Follow” carousel in mobile search results, showing recent content directly from outlets users follow in Google News. This feature pushes brands and merchants to build loyal audiences through Google News and Discover, not just rely on keyword rankings.
9. Google’s new Store Widget for eCommerce - A new Merchant Center widget allows stores to embed trust indicators such as reviews, shipping options, and return policies directly on their websites. This enhancement builds credibility at the point of purchase and may improve conversion rates.
10. New Bing Places for Business is live Microsoft has rolled out a redesigned Bing Places for Business, featuring a new interface, a new URL, faster imports, and a recommendation tool that flags missing photos and key details. If you manage store listings, review your profiles now so local visibility and map pack conversions do not slip.
11. Enterprise SEO depends on alignment not tools - Jojo Furnival explains that the biggest obstacle for large brands is misalignment between teams rather than a lack of resources. She recommends structured communication channels between SEO, development, and content teams to move faster.
12. Google tests AI Overview refinement options - Recent experiments show clickable refinement chips inside AI Overviews, suggesting a more interactive search experience. This could create new opportunities for secondary keyword visibility within AI generated results.
13. Entity optimization gains importance in AI search - A great article on entity clarity across schema, author profiles, and brand pages. Establishing unique entities helps Google connect brand, product, and content relationships in AI powered search.
14. YMYL category expansion impacts eCommerce - Google’s YMYL categories now include financial, sustainability, and wellness content. Ecommerce brands in these sectors must strengthen transparency and expertise signals to maintain rankings.
15. Search is becoming multimodal - Google continues merging visual, voice, and text search through Lens and Circle to Search. Merchants should optimize imagery, alt text, and spoken queries to capture this growing search behavior.
eCommerce News
You already have enough on your plate, so here’s a quick look at the news that’s actually worth your attention this month.
- OpenAI brings checkout to ChatGPT (Etsy now; Shopify “coming soon”) - Shoppers in the U.S. can buy directly inside ChatGPT via Instant Checkout, built with Stripe’s new Agentic Commerce Protocol. Shopify has confirmed its participation. Expect agent-led discovery to turn into agent-led conversion.
- Amazon will fulfill Walmart, Shopify, and (soon) Shein orders via MCF - Amazon expanded Multi-Channel Fulfillment so sellers can route Walmart Marketplace and Shopify orders through Amazon’s network. One inventory pool, faster SLAs, broader reach.
- Apple Pay + Affirm expand to in-store BNPL - Affirm’s pay-later option now works in-store through Apple Pay on iPhone, widening installment coverage at the physical POS and lifting potential AOV.
- Google’s Think Week: big creative + AI ads upgrades - Google rolled out an AI-heavy ads stack: Asset Studio, Product Studio enhancements (video transforms, scene transfer), reporting transparency for Performance Max, and more. Useful for faster variant testing ahead of Q4.
- Meta adds more Threads + Reels ad options - Meta expanded Reels Trending Ads and introduced new Threads formats/targeting qualifiers, less hunting in the app store, more places to scale creative that already performs.
- TikTok Shop U.S. GMV passes ~$1.1B with momentum carrying into fall - Fresh analysis projects U.S. GMV at ~$1.1B in July with triple-digit YoY growth and broader category penetration, which signals that social commerce budgets will keep shifting. (Paywall)
- Adobe projections: Holiday 2025 online sales to reach $253.4B (+5.3%) - Adobe’s October forecast calls for slower growth vs. 2024, a larger role for BNPL, and mobile crossing half of purchases. Plan promos and inventory with more conservative demand curves.
- EU AI Act: Transparency Consultation and Member-State Moves - The EU Commission launched a September consultation on transparency (including synthetic media labeling and chatbot disclosures) as countries accelerate national implementation; key obligations are set to tighten by 2026. If you sell in the EU, start mapping your AI touchpoints.
- Amazon’s September event: Alexa+ and agentic shopping signals - Amazon emphasized Alexa+ and agent-style assistance across devices. This signals another data point that agent-mediated shopping is the next battleground.
- Google expands virtual try-on to more countries and adds shoes - Google’s virtual try-on shopping tool is now available in additional countries and includes footwear for the first time. Shoppers can visualize how sneakers and shoes look on real models, giving brands new ways to boost confidence and reduce returns.
New Shopify Features in September
These updates were taken from the Shopify changelog, and also Khalid Chao on LinkedIn, whom you should follow. He does an excellent job surfacing Shopify’s newest releases every week.
1. Sell directly in ChatGPT - Shopify merchants will soon be able to sell products inside ChatGPT conversations, turning AI chat discovery into a real conversion channel managed through Shopify Admin.
2. Shopify Email gets dynamic product sections - You can now automatically pull product images, descriptions, and prices into email templates, making your campaigns faster, more relevant, and shoppable.
3. Estimated Delivery Dates at checkout - Shopify now shows clear delivery timelines before checkout, improving trust and reducing support tickets.
4. Advanced customer segmentation - Merchants can build customer segments based on products browsed or purchased, enabling personalized marketing and loyalty campaigns.
5. Shopify Flow adds new triggers - You can now automate actions tied to discounts, disputes, and fulfillment order splits, cutting out repetitive manual steps across your operations.
6. Duty-inclusive pricing for Managed Markets - Shopify Markets now lets you include duties directly in product prices for clearer international checkout experiences.
7. POS now supports any HID barcode scanner - Retailers can connect any HID scanner for faster in-store checkouts and easier inventory tracking.
8. Multi-gift card checkout support - Customers can now apply multiple gift cards at once, making checkout smoother for shoppers with store credits or rewards.
9. Metafields for product and content linking - Two new metafield types (article_reference and list.article_reference) allow products and collections to link directly to blog posts or buying guides.
10. Sidekick App Recommendations - Sidekick can now suggest and install apps directly through chat, helping merchants find the right tools faster.
11. Global unit pricing rollout - Unit pricing can now be displayed by weight, volume, or quantity across all regions, improving transparency and compliance.
12. Flow workflow scheduling - Merchants can now schedule Flow automations to run at set times, perfect for launching campaigns or inventory changes automatically.
13. Shopify Balance expands globally - Shopify Balance accounts and cards are now available in more countries, letting merchants manage payouts and spending directly in Shopify.
14. Voice mode for Sidekick - You can now talk to Sidekick by voice or use full-screen mode for longer interactive sessions.
15. Order filtering by metafields - Shopify Admin now supports filtering orders by metafields, giving operations teams more control over fulfillment and workflows.
16. Inventory and transfer updates - Shopify’s Inventory system now supports location-based restock notifications and improved transfer tracking between warehouses.
17. Search & Discovery upgrades - New category metafield filters let merchants create more intuitive browsing experiences on storefronts without custom code.
18. Shopify Bundles improvements - The Bundles app now supports customizable bundles with variant-level inventory tracking, giving brands more flexibility in how they sell sets or kits.
19. Shopify launches new WordPress integration - Last, Shopify has reintroduced its Sell on WordPress integration, giving creators and publishers a faster way to add products, checkout, and buy buttons directly inside WordPress. It’s built for content-led brands that want to keep their WordPress site but run Shopify’s backend for checkout, inventory, and fulfillment.
Prompt Toolbox: Evaluate Your Store Like a Pro (Expert-Sourced)
In an in-depth search, I’ve identified four great ChatGPT prompts used by respected eCommerce consultants and marketers. These prompts cover SEO content creation, creative copywriting, conversion rate optimization (CRO), and competitor analysis. Each prompt is credited to its original creator – professionals with proven expertise – and has gained traction for delivering results. Below, we break down each prompt, why it’s effective, and who created it.
1. SEO Blog Post with Storytelling and Data – Neil Patel (NP Digital)
Neil Patel recommends using ChatGPT to draft content that is both engaging and authoritative. His go-to prompt for blog writing combines storytelling in the introduction with data-driven insights throughout the post, ensuring the content hooks readers and builds credibility. Patel notes that starting the article with a narrative keeps readers more engaged, while weaving in statistics and citing sources lends trustworthiness to the content. This approach also makes the AI-generated draft easier to refine later. For example, his prompt is:
Prompt: “I want to write an article about [insert topic] that includes stats and cite your sources. Make sure you cover information that most websites don’t talk about. And use storytelling in the introductory paragraph.The article should be written in a conversational tone. The article should be tailored to [your ideal customer]. The article should focus on [what you want to talk about] instead of [what you don’t want to talk about]. Please mention [insert your company or product] in the article and how we can help [your ideal customer] with [the problem your product or service solves]. But please don’t mention [your product or service or company name] more than twice. And wrap up the article with a conclusion and end the last sentence in the article with a question.”
Why it’s effective: By instructing ChatGPT to include storytelling and credible data, the output isn’t a generic article – it has an engaging hook and authoritative support. Patel’s own team uses this formula to produce content that requires minimal editing while maintaining reader interest and SEO value.
2. SEO Content Targeting Audience Pain Points – Jon Morgan (Venture Smarter)
SEO consultant Jon Morgan (CEO of Venture Smarter) shares a prompt focused on addressing the pain points of your target audience in blog content. This prompt guides ChatGPT to produce a well-structured, lengthy article tailored to a specific audience and keyword, explicitly covering 3–5 key pain points those readers have. It also reminds the AI to naturally integrate relevant keywords for SEO, but to prioritize readability and real value to the reader. Morgan’s prompt is:
Prompt: “Write a well-researched and informative blog post of at least [number] words targeted towards [target audience] on the topic of [main keyword]. Focus on addressing the following pain points: [list 3-5 common pain points of the target audience related to the keyword]. Ensure the content is SEO-friendly by adding relevant keywords throughout the text, but prioritize readability and providing genuine value to the reader.
Why it’s effective: Morgan explains that this prompt gives the AI clear direction on audience and intent, preventing it from going off-topic. It emphasizes substantive, helpful content (which search engines reward) and keeps user experience front and center by insisting on readability. In practice, this method helps generate draft content that is highly relevant and user-focused.
3. CRO Strategy and Testing Plan by Aimonks
This prompt comes from the Aimonks article “20 Killer ChatGPT Prompts for Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)”, one of the most shared CRO prompt guides online. It helps brands move from surface-level insights to a structured, testable CRO plan.
Prompt: “You are an e-commerce CRO strategist. Based on my product page or landing page (include URL or paste the content), design a detailed CRO strategy including: Key hypotheses to test (e.g., headline, hero image, CTA, social proof)/At least 3 A/B test ideas with variations and rationales/Metrics to track and how to interpret results/Suggested timing and sample sizes/Potential risks or pitfalls to watch out for.”
Why it’s effective: It goes beyond quick fixes, forcing AI to act like a seasoned CRO consultant who structures real experiments, not guesses. The framework aligns testing with measurable goals, encouraging merchants to validate creative or layout ideas through data rather than instinct.
4. Prompt from Andy Crestodina on Content / Audit Gap Analysis
Andy Crestodina has written extensively about AI audit prompts and gap analysis for content. In his blog “How to Write AI Audit Prompts to Improve All of Your Content,” he shows how to write a prompt that asks an AI to audit your content by identifying missing topics or gaps relative to your niche or buyer persona.
He also has a “Prompt Library Starter Kit” of 20 prompts (for B2B marketers) that’s part of Orbit Media’s offerings.
One core example derived from his guidance is:
Prompt: “I want you to act as a content strategist. Here’s a draft of my content on [topic / keyword / page URL] and here's my buyer persona profile (include goals, pain points, typical questions). Identify what content topics, themes, or subtopics are missing that would matter to that persona. Suggest at least 5 content gaps + brief outlines or headings for those missing topics. Also highlight semantically related keywords or phrases I should include to make the piece more comprehensive in this niche.”
This prompt structure mirrors Andy’s philosophy: use AI to audit and enhance what you already have, rather than just churn new content.
Why it’s effective: Forces the AI to compare against persona expectations and niche norms, rather than just regurgitating generic content. Helps uncover latent topics or angles your competitors may already use (but you don’t). Encourages the AI to output actionable headings, keywords, and structure ideas, making it easier to implement. You can adapt this more tightly for eCommerce / product pages, etc., by changing “content” to “product descriptions,” “category pages,” or “blog posts in my store niche.”
15 Years in the Making of Shero
Last month, Shero Commerce celebrated a major milestone: our 15th anniversary.
From a basement start-up in Poughkeepsie, NY, to a global eCommerce agency with teams across the US, UK, Albania, and Finland, it has been a journey shaped by resilience, skill, and the belief that what stands in the way becomes the way.
I shared a few personal reflections on this journey that resonated with many of you.
Read the full LinkedIn post: → Today marks 15 years of Shero Commerce
Fifteen years in, our mission remains the same: to build, to grow, and to help clients achieve lasting independence through thoughtful strategy, design, and technology.
Here’s to the next chapter! 🍺🐝💪
Latest Insights from the Shero Blog
Here are the newest posts from our blog. Each one focused on helping merchants navigate today’s most important eCommerce challenges.
How to Optimize Google Shopping Campaigns (2025 Guide) - Your product feed is the heart of every Shopping campaign. This post breaks down ten actionable steps to improve feed quality, bidding structure, and campaign performance to help you maximize ROAS.
Customizing Shopify Collection Pages for Better Conversions - Your collection pages do more than display products. They guide purchasing intent. Learn how to customize filters, layouts, and on-page content to improve UX and boost conversion rates.
Shopify and AI Crawlers: How to Stay Visible in the Age of AI Search - AI is reshaping how products are indexed and discovered. This post explains how to make your Shopify store readable to AI crawlers and why that matters for long-term visibility.
How to Add Products to Shopify (The Complete Guide) - From single items to bulk imports, this guide walks through every method for adding and managing products in Shopify, including variants, SEO best practices, and inventory tips.
eCommerce PPC Strategy: How to Build a Profitable Ad Framework - Learn how to structure Google Ads, Shopping, and Meta campaigns for better visibility and sustainable growth. A practical guide for merchants looking to make every ad dollar count.
Final thoughts
We are entering a new era where platforms and AI agents sit between you and your customers. The real challenge is not keeping up with every new protocol or integration. It is keeping your connection alive when the distance between you and the customer continues to grow.
The brands that will win in Agentic Commerce are the ones that never outsource trust. They understand their data, control their experiences, and build direct relationships that no AI layer can replace.
Keep owning your story, your data, and your customer. Everything else is just infrastructure.
Warm regards,
Gentian
P.S. If you enjoyed this month’s newsletter, feel free to share it with a colleague or friend in the industry. And as always, I’d love to hear your feedback or topics you’d like to see covered in future editions, just hit reply and let me know!
