The way people shop online is changing.
Not long ago, someone looking for a new pair of running shoes might start with Google. They’d search for the best options, open a few articles, check Reddit, read reviews, visit brand websites, compare prices and eventually decide what to buy.
Now, that entire process can start with one search in ChatGPT:
I’m a 180-pound runner with flat feet looking for daily trainers with maximum cushioning under $150. What should I look at?
That’s the test we ran in a recent episode of ChatGPT Anatomy.
And ChatGPT didn’t just give us information about running shoes.
It recommended specific products. It ranked them. It explained why they fit the customer’s needs. It showed places to buy them.
Then, when we added local intent, it recommended specific stores to visit.
For B2C businesses, that’s the part worth paying attention to.
ChatGPT Is Doing More Than Product Research
Traditional search usually gives the consumer options.
Search for a product on Google and you’ll likely encounter ads, shopping results, organic listings, articles, reviews and retailer websites. The consumer still has a lot of work to do.
AI search can behave differently.
In our test, ChatGPT took the information from the prompt and turned it into specific product recommendations.
It didn’t simply say, “Here are some popular running shoes.”
It considered the shopper’s:
- Weight
- Foot characteristics
- Intended use
- Cushioning preference
- Budget
Then it ranked products based on those requirements.
That’s an important distinction because the question for a brand is no longer only:
Can someone find our product online?
Increasingly, there’s a new question to consider:
Will AI decide our product is a good answer to what that person needs?
From Search Results to Recommendations
This is one of the biggest differences businesses need to understand about AI search.
A traditional search engine might give someone dozens of links to explore.
An AI assistant can narrow those options down on the user’s behalf.
In our running shoe example, ChatGPT identified a “best overall match” and explained why it fit the shopper’s request.
That changes the value of visibility.
Being somewhere on page one is one thing, but being explicitly presented as the best option for a particular customer and use case is another.
That’s why we talk so much about the difference between being cited by AI and being recommended by AI.
The latter can carry significantly more influence over what the customer does next.
Then We Gave ChatGPT Local Intent
This is where the experiment became particularly interesting for local B2C businesses.
After ChatGPT recommended the shoes, we changed the scenario.
We told it the customer was in Dallas, Texas and wanted to go somewhere to try the shoes on.
ChatGPT then recommended two local running stores:
Fleet Feet Dallas and Luke’s Locker.
What caught our attention wasn’t only who appeared.
It was who didn’t.
National retailers with a presence in the area weren’t necessarily the stores ChatGPT chose to recommend first.
Instead, it surfaced specialized local businesses that matched the customer’s immediate need.
That’s a significant opportunity for local businesses.
Local Businesses Can Still Compete in AI Search
A local running store probably isn’t going to outrank Nike for a broad query about Nike shoes and it doesn’t need to.
The opportunity changes when the customer’s intent becomes more specific:
“Where can I try these on near me?”
“Where should I buy this in Dallas?”
“What’s the best store near me for someone who needs help choosing running shoes?”
AI has more context now.
And context creates opportunities for specialized businesses.
The same principle can extend far beyond running shoes.
Imagine someone asking:
- Where should I buy a mattress for back pain near me?
- What’s the best boutique near me for cocktail dresses?
- Where can I buy beginner golf clubs and get fitted?
- What’s the best furniture store nearby for a sectional under $2,000?
- Where should I go to find running shoes for flat feet?
These aren’t simply keyword searches.
They’re highly specific requests containing intent, preferences, location and context.
Businesses that AI understands well have an opportunity to become the recommendation.
Your Website Still Matters — But It Isn’t the Whole Picture
This doesn’t mean businesses should stop caring about their websites.
Quite the opposite.
Your website remains one of the most important places for clearly communicating:
What you sell.
Who it’s for.
Where you’re located.
What makes your products or services different.
What specific problems you solve.
But AI visibility extends beyond one website.
AI systems can use information from across the web to understand brands, products and businesses.
That makes consistency increasingly important.
If your website describes your company one way, your social profiles say something different, your business listings are outdated and third-party sources don’t clearly reinforce what you do, you’re making it harder for AI systems to form a confident picture of your business.
This is one of the reasons Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) requires a broader approach than simply optimizing individual webpages.
Specificity Matters More in AI Search
Consider two businesses.
One says:
“We sell premium footwear for every lifestyle.”
The other clearly communicates:
“We specialize in running shoes and professional fittings for runners in Dallas.”
Which one gives an AI system more information about when it should recommend the business?
The second for sure.
Broad marketing language may sound nice to a human, but it doesn’t always provide much useful context.
For AI visibility, clarity matters.
Your business should make it easy to understand:
What are you an authority on?
Who should buy from you?
Where do you serve customers?
What products or problems do you specialize in?
The more confidently those questions can be answered, the clearer the circumstances become in which your business may be relevant to a user’s request.
The Customer Journey Is Getting Compressed
The biggest takeaway from this experiment isn’t about running shoes at all.
It’s about the customer journey.
The traditional journey might look something like:
Search → Research → Compare → Visit Websites → Decide → Purchase
AI can compress several of those steps into one conversation.
A customer explains what they need.
AI researches and evaluates options.
AI narrows the choices.
AI recommends a product.
AI helps determine where to get it.
The consumer may still visit a website, go into a physical store or perform additional research. But AI can influence far more of the decision before that happens.
For businesses, that creates a new point of competition:
You need to be present when AI narrows the field.
Because by the time the customer reaches your website, an AI platform may have already influenced which businesses they’re willing to consider.
How Can a Business Improve Its Chances of Being Recommended by ChatGPT?
There isn’t a magic button that guarantees a recommendation.
And businesses shouldn’t approach AI visibility as a trick for “gaming ChatGPT.”
The more sustainable objective is helping AI systems accurately understand your business and establish where you’re relevant.
That means working on fundamentals such as:
- Make your website extremely clear. Explain what you sell, who you serve, where you operate and what you’re particularly good at.
- Build a consistent digital footprint. Your website, social channels, business profiles, directories and other relevant sources should reinforce the same core information.
- Be specific about your expertise. Don’t try to be the answer for everyone. Give AI enough context to understand the specific searches where your business belongs.
- Strengthen relevant third-party signals. Reviews, industry directories, local listings and authoritative mentions can all contribute to the broader information ecosystem surrounding a business.
- Test real customer prompts. Don’t only search your company’s name. Ask the questions a potential customer would ask before they know your company exists.
That last one is especially important.
Searching ChatGPT for your own brand tells you whether it knows you.
Searching for the problem your customer needs solved starts showing whether AI understands when to recommend you.
Don’t Just Be Known. Be Recommended.
AI visibility isn’t ultimately about getting your company name into ChatGPT.
It’s about being understood well enough that when someone asks:
“What should I buy?”
“Which company should I use?”
or
“Where should I go?”
your business has a chance to become part of the answer.
That’s the shift B2C companies should be preparing for.
In our full ChatGPT Anatomy video, WebPulse CEO Gerald Huffman walks through the running shoe experiment from beginning to end so you can see exactly how the recommendations change as we give ChatGPT more information.
WATCH THE FULL CHATGPT ANATOMY VIDEO
At WebPulse, we help companies understand and improve how they’re represented across AI search platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity with the larger goal of helping AI not simply recognize the company, but understand when it should recommend it.
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