What Is AEO and Why Adobe Commerce Merchants Need It Now

Learn what Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is and why Adobe Commerce merchants need it now. Discover how to optimize for ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity to capture AI-driven product discovery.

February 8, 2026

Your customers are no longer starting their buying journey on Google. They’re asking ChatGPT for product recommendations. They’re using Perplexity to compare suppliers. They’re having conversations with AI assistants before they ever think to visit your website.

This shift represents the biggest change in ecommerce discovery since the rise of mobile. And most merchants are unprepared.

What Is AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)?

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of optimizing your content and product data to appear in responses from AI assistants like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude. It’s also called Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)—same concept, different name.

Traditional SEO optimizes for search engine results pages. You target keywords, build backlinks, and compete for the top ten blue links.

AEO is different. AI assistants don’t present a list of links—they synthesize answers. When a buyer asks “What’s the best B2B ecommerce platform for a distributor with 50,000 SKUs?” the AI pulls from its training data and real-time web access to generate a direct answer. It might mention your competitor. It might mention no one. It might get your product details wrong.

The goal of AEO isn’t to rank #1. It’s to be the brand that AI assistants cite, recommend, and trust.

Why This Matters for Ecommerce Now

The data is clear: AI-powered discovery is growing fast.

• ChatGPT has over 300 million weekly active users as of early 2026
• Perplexity processes hundreds of millions of queries monthly, with significant growth in product research
• Google Gemini integrates directly into Search, affecting even traditional SEO traffic
• Claude is increasingly used for B2B research and complex purchasing decisions

For B2B ecommerce specifically, the impact is even more pronounced. B2B buyers research extensively before purchasing. A single enterprise deal might involve six months of research, multiple stakeholders, and dozens of information-gathering sessions. Increasingly, those sessions happen with AI assistants.

When a procurement manager asks “Which hydraulic fitting supplier offers the fastest turnaround for custom orders?” and your brand doesn’t appear in the AI’s answer, you’re invisible during the research phase. By the time that buyer visits your website—if they ever do—they may have already decided on a competitor.

How AEO Differs from Traditional SEO

The mechanics are fundamentally different:

AI assistants don’t crawl your site the way Google does. They rely on:

1. Training data (what they already know about your brand)
2. Real-time web access (content they can retrieve and synthesize)
3. Structured data signals (schema markup that helps them understand your products)
4. Content clarity (whether your information is extractable and citable)

This means the old tricks don’t work. Keyword stuffing, backlink schemes, and thin content designed to rank don’t help with AI visibility. In fact, they hurt—AI assistants prioritize authoritative, well-structured content.

AEO for Adobe Commerce: Specific Requirements

Adobe Commerce merchants have unique advantages and challenges for AEO.

Product Schema Is Non-Negotiable

Your product data needs to be machine-readable. This means comprehensive Product schema markup on every product page, including:

• SKU, name, and description
• Pricing and availability
• Dimensions, weight, and specifications
• Material and compatibility data
• Brand and manufacturer information

Adobe Commerce supports schema markup through extensions or custom development. If your catalog has 50,000+ SKUs with inconsistent descriptions and no structured data, AI systems can’t parse it reliably. You won’t appear in recommendations.

Content Structure Matters

AI assistants extract information differently than search engines. They look for:

• Clear headings that signal what content follows
• FAQ sections that directly answer specific questions
• Comparison content that positions products against alternatives
• Technical specifications presented in structured formats (tables, lists)
• How-to content that demonstrates expertise

Your Adobe Commerce store needs content that answers the questions your sales team hears repeatedly. Not generic “buyer’s guides”—specific, detailed responses to real buyer questions.

Technical Performance Still Counts

AI assistants can’t cite content they can’t access. Slow-loading pages, JavaScript-heavy renders, and blocked resources all reduce your visibility. Adobe Commerce’s default setup requires optimization for:

• Page speed (Core Web Vitals)
• Mobile responsiveness
• Crawlability of key pages
• Proper canonicalization and indexing signals

The B2B Factor

Adobe Commerce excels at B2B features—quote requests, company accounts, negotiated pricing, complex catalogs. But these same features create AEO challenges:

• Gated content can’t be cited by AI assistants
• Complex product configurations need clear public-facing summaries
• Custom pricing requires transparent list pricing for baseline visibility

You need a strategy that balances your B2B functionality with public visibility.

Actionable First Steps for Adobe Commerce Merchants

You don’t need a complete overhaul to start improving AI visibility. Here’s where to begin:

1. Audit Your AI Presence (This Week)

Open ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. Ask questions your buyers ask:

• “What are the best [your product category] suppliers?”
• “How does [your product] compare to [competitor product]?”
• “What’s the best solution for [specific use case you serve]?”

Document what appears. Do you show up? Do competitors? What content is being cited? This baseline tells you exactly where you stand.

2. Fix Your Product Schema (This Month)

Run your top 50 product pages through Google’s Rich Results Test. Do they pass? Do you have complete Product schema?

If not, prioritize fixing this. Adobe Commerce has schema extensions available, or your development team can implement custom markup. Product schema is the foundation of AI visibility for ecommerce.

3. Create Answer-Focused Content (Next Quarter)

Identify the 20 questions your sales team answers most often. Create dedicated content for each:

• FAQ pages with proper schema markup
• Comparison pages (your product vs. specific competitors)
• Use case guides that explain which product fits which scenario
• Technical specification sheets in machine-readable formats

Don’t write for keywords. Write for questions.

4. Implement Organization Schema (This Week)

Add Organization schema to your homepage. Include your company name, description, founding date, location, and key products or services. This helps AI assistants understand who you are and what you do.

5. Monitor and Iterate (Ongoing)

Set a monthly reminder to test your AI visibility. Track which queries mention your brand, which don’t, and how this changes over time. As AI assistants evolve, your strategy needs to evolve with them.

The Competitive Window Is Closing

Right now, very few Adobe Commerce merchants are optimizing for AI visibility. The brands that start now will have a significant first-mover advantage.

Think back to early SEO. Companies that invested in organic search in 2005 built moats that lasted a decade. Companies that waited until 2015 paid more and got less.

AEO is at that 2005 moment. The tools are new. The strategies are evolving. But the direction is clear: AI-powered discovery will dominate ecommerce research within the next few years.

Adobe Commerce merchants are particularly well-positioned. You have the technical foundation, the B2B functionality, and the product data. What you need is a strategy to make that data accessible to AI systems.

Bottom Line

AEO isn’t the future—it’s the present. Your buyers are already using AI assistants to research and recommend. If your brand doesn’t appear in those recommendations, you’re losing deals you never knew existed.

The question isn’t whether to optimize for AI visibility. It’s whether to start now—while the space is uncrowded—or later, when everyone is competing for the same citations.

For Adobe Commerce merchants, the path forward is clear: structured data, answer-focused content, and continuous monitoring. The merchants who act now will define the AI discovery landscape for years to come.

Ready to assess your AI visibility? Learn more about our AEO services for Adobe Commerce or contact us for a complimentary AI visibility assessment.