Beyond Shopify SEO Experts: Why You Need a ChatGPT Shopping Specialist
SEO is not enough in AI shopping. Here is the new remit, skills, and playbook for the ChatGPT Shopping era.
Your Shopify SEO expert has driven real growth for years. They know how to optimize product pages, build internal linking, and chase featured snippets. But the job has fundamentally changed.
The playbook that worked for Google doesn't work for AI agents. You need someone who understands how products get discovered in conversational interfaces.
What changed
Traditional SEO optimized pages to rank in search results. You targeted keywords, built backlinks, and tracked positions in Google. The goal was getting your product pages in front of people searching specific terms.
ChatGPT Shopping has no pages to rank. No search results. No keywords in the traditional sense.
AI agents make recommendations based on structured product data, buyer intent, and trusted sources. They pick three to five products that match what the shopper needs. If yours isn't in that set, you're invisible.
The new remit
A ChatGPT Shopping Specialist owns visibility in conversational commerce. Here's what that means:
Product data completeness Not just filled-in titles and descriptions. Complete, structured attributes that AI agents need to evaluate fit. Materials, dimensions, compatibility, use cases, care instructions, sustainability details.
Your SEO expert probably wasn't thinking about whether your product schema includes thread count or warranty period. But AI agents evaluating bedding or electronics absolutely need that.
Testing and iteration Not checking keyword rankings in Ahrefs. Running actual simulations in ChatGPT and other AI platforms. Asking the questions real buyers ask. Seeing which products get recommended and why.
This is closer to performance marketing. Test prompts weekly. Measure visibility. Identify gaps. Ship fixes. Test again.
Source authority development Which publications and review sites does the AI trust? How do you get your products featured in buying guides and comparison articles? How do you earn citations that signal quality?
This requires thinking like a PR person and content strategist. Building genuine relationships with credible sources in your category.
Checkout optimization Coordinating with engineering to enable instant checkout. Testing the handoff from agent to purchase. Eliminating friction that sends customers to competitors.
Skills that matter
- Technical comfort with product feeds and schema on Shopify
- Experimental mindset for testing and iteration
- Partnership skills for earning source authority
- Ability to coordinate across merchandising, ops, and engineering
This is a hybrid role. Part data, part marketing, part partnerships. It doesn't fit cleanly into traditional org structures.
The first 90 days
Weeks 1-2: Baseline Run visibility checks for top buyer intents. Audit attribute coverage for your hero products. Identify obvious gaps.
Weeks 3-6: Fix the basics Ship attribute improvements. Secure credible citations for top SKUs. Work with merchandising to clean up product data.
Weeks 7-12: Scale and systemize Establish weekly testing and reporting. Enable instant checkout for key products. Expand to the next category.
By day 90, you should have measurable improvement in visibility and a proven process for continuous optimization.
Why this isn't just rebranded SEO
The mindset is different. SEO was about reverse engineering algorithms you could study. AI shopping requires comfort with systems that evolve constantly and reveal less about how they work. You need more experimentation, less certainty.
The tactics are different. You're not building backlinks. You're earning citations. You're not optimizing meta descriptions. You're completing product attributes. You're not tracking keyword rankings. You're testing conversational prompts.
The pace is different. SEO strategies took months to show results. AI shopping optimization happens in weeks. You need to move faster and iterate more often.
The bottom line
If you're serious about ChatGPT Shopping, someone needs to own it. Not as a side project for your SEO team. As a dedicated role with clear accountability and resources to execute.
The market for this talent is still early. But growth marketers, SEO specialists, and product people with the right mindset can learn quickly. Hire for curiosity, technical comfort, and bias toward action.
The brands making this hire now will be category leaders in two years. The ones waiting will be figuring out how to catch up.