Customers ask AI where to buy. Is your store there?

MiRT Radar no. 1

Between August 2025 and May 2026, in Italy, product discovery through traditional search fell by 15%. Discovery through AI assistants and other new channels grew by 38%.

What is changing

The question has changed. No longer “optician Milan”, but “optician near Porta Venezia that does progressive lenses and is open on Saturday”.

And the assistant doesn’t show ten results: it names two or three. It recommends the stores it can read: opening hours, services, brands, reviews.

Why this is good news for a specialist store

For a specialist store this is good news, on one condition: that its expertise is written down somewhere. On the Google profile, on the website, in the replies to reviews.

Six moves to get found, almost all of them free

1. Fix your Google profile. A precise category, the right opening hours (including holidays and December), the services and brands you carry.
2. Write down your expertise. The questions customers ask at the counter, with the owner’s answers, on the website and on the profile.
3. Look after your reviews. Ask satisfied customers for them and reply to all of them, criticism included, with a real detail.
4. Be consistent. The same name, address, phone number and opening hours on the Google profile, the website and social media.
5. Put your products online. At least the main categories and brands, so the assistant knows what can be found at your store.
6. Do the monthly test. Ask ChatGPT or Gemini where to buy what you sell, in your neighbourhood. Write down the answer and repeat every month.

The last move is the simplest and the most instructive: do it today, it takes five minutes.

Source: Salesforce, State of Commerce, July 2026.
Written with the help of AI under the supervision of Gianluca Falduto.