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Available to all AI Commerce Visibility customers.

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Summary

Sales Channel Visibility, the Merchant tab in AI Commerce Visibility, shows which stores AI assistants recommend when a shopper has chosen a product and asks where to buy it: your own website, a marketplace or a competitor’s store. It compares each recommended channel on five fixed attributes, such as shipping options and discounts, so you can see why an assistant sends shoppers to a marketplace instead of to you.

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Who it’s for

E-commerce and channel teams who want their own store to be the recommended place to buy their products. A sale through a marketplace costs margin and the customer relationship, and this tab shows when and why AI assistants route shoppers there.

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Key benefits

  • You see where the assistants send shoppers. The ranked list shows every channel named in “where to buy” answers, tagged as Owned, Marketplace or Competitor.
  • You see why. Five attributes, shipping options, discounts, product selection, shopping experience and authenticity, show on what grounds each channel is recommended.
  • You can compare channel with channel. Select a marketplace or competitor to compare its attribute values with your own store’s.
  • You see the sources behind a channel. The channel detail panel lists the publications and reviews the assistants drew on for that channel.
  • Every number is traceable. View Prompts on any chart opens the prompts, answers and sources behind it.

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How it works

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Data used

The Merchant tab uses only prompts in the Merchant prompt category, for instance “Where should I buy trail running shoes in the UK?”, plus the Merchant attribute prompts that compare channels on one attribute. Visibility, Ranking and Sentiment are defined as on the Brand tab and shown per AI assistant for each channel, with benchmarking tables, trend lines, a comparison toggle and the standard filters.

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Channel types

Every channel named in the responses is classified by its business model. The ranked list shows each channel’s domain so you can identify it.

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Sales channel attributes

The five attributes are fixed and the same for every product category.

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Charts, radar and ranked list

  • Attribute radar. Plots the channels on the five attributes.
  • Attribute table. One percentage per attribute per channel, colour coded.
  • Ranked channel list. Rank, logo, domain, type, average value and the value per attribute. Only channels the assistants recommend appear. Searchable by name or domain and sortable by any attribute.

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Channel detail panel

Selecting a channel opens a panel showing its rank and type, for instance “Rank 1 of 5”. The panel contains:
  • Sentiment benchmarking. How the channel is described compared with the channel you select, as a radar chart.
  • Attribute comparison. Each attribute with the values for the channel and the comparison channel, marked as matched, ahead or behind, with trends. Each attribute expands to a plain-language explanation of the result, aggregated across the channel’s selling channels.
  • Citations. The articles and reviews that mention or recommend the channel, with the count per source and links.

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Comparing channel types

The attribute values show the typical strengths of each channel type: marketplaces tend to lead on product selection and shipping options, a brand’s own store on authenticity and exclusive products, and specialist retailers on expertise and service. Compare with the previous period to see whether your own store is gaining or losing ground.

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Set up in the portal

No configuration is needed beyond an active product category. Go to AI Commerce Visibility > Merchant.
  1. Select the product category at the top of the page, then narrow by market, AI model, competitors or persona.
  2. Read the Visibility, Ranking and Sentiment charts for each channel, then scroll to the ranked channel list and find your own store.
  3. Select a marketplace or competitor to open its detail panel and compare it with your store attribute by attribute. Expand an attribute to read the explanation.
  4. Scroll to the citations in the panel to see which publications and reviews informed the assistants.
  5. Select View Prompts on any chart to open the prompts and answers behind it.

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FAQ

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Do I need to connect my marketplace account?

No. AI Commerce Visibility reads public AI assistant answers and identifies your products on a marketplace from the answers themselves.

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Can I track a competitor’s own store?

Yes. Add the competitor to the product category’s competitors, and its store is classified as Competitor in the ranked list.

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Why does an assistant recommend a marketplace over my store?

Open the marketplace’s detail panel and compare it with your store. The attribute comparison shows where it is ahead, which is often shipping options or returns, and the citations show the content the assistants drew on. Showing delivery times and return terms clearly on your product pages gives the assistants something to cite.

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How is my store classified?

Your own website or app is Owned, platforms selling many brands are Marketplace, and other retailers’ or brands’ stores are Competitor.

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What do the Trust tab and the Merchant tab each cover?

The Merchant tab covers the purchase decision: where to buy, on shipping options, discounts, product selection, shopping experience and authenticity. The Trust tab covers what the assistants say about a channel’s estimated delivery dates, delivery experience and returns.

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Troubleshooting