Retailer Discovery
The shortlist gets written without you
The retailer evaluating your product this week will never see your outbound. They asked ChatGPT which tools handle their use case, asked Perplexity to compare the shortlist, and asked their agency who they'd actually implement. Three surfaces, and your sales team wasn't in the room for any of them.
Commerce technology gets shortlisted in those rooms or not at all. The brands that show up share three traits: AI engines can explain what they do and who they're for, their integrations are documented proof rather than logo-wall claims, and the agencies who build stores recommend them without being paid to.
We work on all three, because we live on the other side of the table: we're the agency writing the shortlist.
14+
150+
$1B+
The three surfaces we work on
AI answer visibility
Prompt-level measurement of how engines describe and recommend you in your category, then the fixes that move it. Same discipline as our AI Visibility Assessment, pointed at technology buying queries.
Category and entity definition
If engines can't state what you do in one sentence, they won't risk recommending you. We fix the definitional layer: content architecture that makes your category position explicit and citable.
Integration proof
Retailers check compatibility before capability. Documented, verifiable integrations with the platforms they already run, structured so both a developer and an AI engine can confirm them. The build side of this is headless app integrations.
Agency channel presence
The quiet channel that compounds. Being the tool agencies reach for by default, because you're easy to implement, well documented, and good to partner with. See how we run it from the other side: our partner program.
Discovery opens the door. Friction closes it.
Discovery gets you evaluated. What happens next depends on friction: how fast a retailer's team can implement you, and whether their agency hits walls. That's why this pairs with integration enablement, and on composable stacks, headless app integrations.
Start with the score: the Commerce Technology Assessment maps how retailers discover and evaluate you today, against named competitors, with a prioritised backlog you keep.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do retailers actually research tools now?
They ask AI engines for category overviews and comparisons, check what integrates with their existing stack, and ask their agency or dev partner what they'd implement. Review sites still matter, but the shortlist is increasingly written before anyone visits them.
What gets a commerce technology brand shortlisted?
Being explainable and checkable. A plain answer to "what does it do, who is it for, what does it work with," structured docs engines can parse, published pricing or starting points, and integration proof a developer can verify in ten minutes.
Does agency visibility really matter that much?
Yes. Agencies implement the stack, so their default recommendations compound across every project they run. Being easy to implement and well documented is what earns that default status, which is why this pairs with integration enablement. We run a partner program ourselves; we know exactly what makes an agency put a tool forward.
How do we find out where we stand today?
The Commerce Technology Assessment shows how retailers discover and evaluate you against competitors, and what stands in the way of adoption. Fixed price, scored, and the backlog is yours to keep.