Retailers get included in AI search answers by combining strong SEO foundations with clear, credible, machine-readable content that directly addresses real shopper questions. SEO, digital commerce, and content leaders should prioritize high-value content can be crawled, indexed, verified, retrieved, and trusted.

At eTail Palm Springs 2026, Dana Tan, AEO, GEO and SEO Director at Under Armour, emphasized that traditional search visibility remains the starting point for AI discovery: "SEO is your ticket to the audition." Her point is practical: AI systems need reliable evidence that a retailer's content is accessible, relevant, accurate, and supported by trustworthy information before they can confidently use it in an answer.

Results from the 2026 eTail Insights report, Personalized Channel Activation in Retail & eCommerce, suggest that many organizations are beginning to apply AI, but need stronger operating foundations before they can scale its use confidently. 64% of retail and eCommerce leaders describe their AI-powered optimization as moderate, with human decision-making still driving most activity, according to the report.

Retailers should start with the pages that shape high-intent discovery: category pages, product detail pages, buying guides, comparison content, and customer-support resources. They should make the core information available in crawlable text, substantiate product and brand claims, include clear authorship where appropriate, maintain consistent facts across pages and feeds, and organize content around the full questions shoppers are likely to ask.

Join the upcoming eTail Palm Springs event to learn how retail leaders are strengthening AI search visibility while building the content, data, and technical foundations that support long-term discoverability.