By Steve Merrill, Founder of WRKNG Digital | September 6, 2026
What should I ask a Shopify agency before hiring them for AI commerce?
Ask them to prove they made a real store citable in ChatGPT or Perplexity, show you their schema and llms.txt process, and explain how they measure AI visibility instead of Google rankings. If they dodge those three, they are reselling old SEO with a new name. Here are the eight questions that sort the real ones from the pretenders.
1. Can you show me a store you made citable in ChatGPT or Perplexity?
A good answer is a live screenshot. They type a buyer question into ChatGPT or Perplexity, and their client's product shows up in the answer with a link. If they can only talk about Google keywords and traffic, they have never done this. Ask for the exact prompt and try it yourself on your phone.
2. How do you handle structured data and Product schema?
They should say Product schema, price, availability, and review markup, and they should know Shopify does not ship all of it correctly by default. AI assistants read structured data to understand what you sell. A strong agency will point you to schema.org Product and Google's product structured data docs without hesitating. Vague answers here mean they will guess.
3. What is your plan for llms.txt and AI crawler access?
The right answer names the file and explains it. An llms.txt file tells AI models what your site is and where the good content lives, and a good agency will check that you are not accidentally blocking AI crawlers in robots.txt. Point them to the llms.txt spec and watch their reaction. If they have never heard of it, they are not doing AI commerce work.
4. How do you measure AI visibility beyond Google rankings?
They should describe running your target buyer questions across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity on a schedule, then tracking whether you get mentioned and cited. Google rankings do not tell you if AI recommends you. If their only dashboard is Google Search Console, they are measuring the wrong internet.
5. Do you understand the Agentic Checkout and Agentic Commerce Protocol?
A sharp agency will explain that buyers are starting to complete purchases inside AI assistants, not only research there. Shopify and OpenAI launched agentic checkout so a shopper can buy from a store directly inside ChatGPT. Read Shopify's own announcements before the call so you can tell if they actually track this. This is where the next wave of sales moves.
6. How will you make my product content answer real buyer questions?
The answer should be about the questions your customers actually ask, like fit, materials, sizing, and comparisons. AI assistants pull from content that answers a question directly. If the agency talks about stuffing keywords instead of answering questions, they are stuck in 2015. Good content reads like a helpful reply, not a brochure.
7. What is your process for keeping content fresh as AI models change?
They should have a monthly rhythm for refreshing content and re-checking citations, because models retrain and their sources shift. AEO is not a one-time project you set and forget. Ask how often they re-run your buyer questions and update pages that stopped getting cited. A real answer has a calendar attached.
8. Who owns the work, and what happens if I leave?
You should own the schema, the content, and the llms.txt file, and you should keep them if you fire the agency. Some shops lock the work inside their own app or account so you lose it on the way out. Get ownership in writing before you sign. Your store, your data, your work.
How we chose these questions
These come from doing the work on live Shopify stores, not theory. Each one exposes whether an agency understands where commerce is actually moving, because a store you can't answer for is a store an agency can't optimize.
FAQ
Q: What is a Shopify AEO agency?
A Shopify AEO agency optimizes your store so AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity cite your products in their answers. It is different from SEO, which targets the ten blue links on Google.
Q: How much should I pay to hire a Shopify AEO agency?
Most credible AEO retainers run from $2,000 to $10,000 a month depending on catalog size and content volume. Be careful with anyone who promises a fixed number of AI citations. Nobody controls how a model answers.
Q: Can I do Shopify AEO myself instead of hiring an agency?
You can start yourself by adding Product schema, publishing an llms.txt file, and writing content that answers real buyer questions. An agency helps when you have a large catalog or no time to keep content fresh as models change.
Q: How long does Shopify AEO take to work?
Expect three to six months before AI assistants reliably cite your store. AI models refresh their sources on their own schedule, so results build over time rather than switching on.
Want to see what AI-ready commerce looks like on your own store? See how WRKNG Digital builds agentic commerce readiness for Shopify brands.
