Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the way we search, and in this 2026 Holiday Shopping Season, it will change the way we shop. People will be searching things like, “What is a good gift under $50 for a 54-year-old man who likes hiking and the outdoors?” What’s going to come up? Your store? Probably not. Especially if you’re not posting STRATEGICALLY on social media and communities like Reddit. Here’s what you need to know about AI Search and Holiday Shopping, and what you need to do right away!
What’s Different?
Whether it’s asking ChatGPT, browsing Reddit, scrolling through TikTok, perusing Pinterest, or speaking to a voice assistant, a searcher’s behavior is fluid, multi-platform, and hard to track with traditional analytics. Though it’s not impossible.
Given that, it’s a challenge to track where people are going, how they find you, and most importantly, which of your marketing efforts worked and which didn’t.
How AI Search Affects Holiday Online Shopping
You need to know this if you are…
- An ecommerce business — whether you sell your exclusive products or someone else’s
- A brick-and-mortar retail location
- Planning to sell gift cards and certificates for services and/or products
An Example
Let’s take the question I posed in the opening paragraph: “What is a good gift, under $50, for a 54-year-old man who likes hiking and the outdoors?” and the gift buyer is a woman with a brother who fits that description, and she asks ChatGPT. (That one seems to be the most popular at the moment.)
In this case, there are only 2 sources: REI, which is a good choice for anything outdoors, and The Trek. However, not all the results have links.
If the buyer ponders the list and isn’t convinced, then she’ll copy one or two ideas and go to Pinterest and paste them into the search box. With that, she gets pictures, descriptions, and links!
If she still isn’t convinced, she may go over to Reddit and visit a hiking subreddit and ask that community the same question or ask them about a specific product. Here, she’ll get first-hand opinions on the products.
AI Nudges the Shopper to Stay on Its Platform.
Additionally, you have the AI answer bot nudging the shopper to take the next step. Which means they may stay on the initial AI chatbot through the whole shopping process!
In other words, the chatbot keeps asking the shopper questions like…
- Comparing products
- Reading reviews
- Comparing prices
- Finding deals
- Actually purchasing the product.
The last one is for those who have their Shopify (affiliate link) shopping carts linked to ChatGPT, or products set up on Google Merchant Center, Meta (Facebook/Instagram) Commerce Center, Walmart, TikTok Seller Center, and Amazon Seller Central, to name a few.
Should you be on all of these ecommerce platforms?
Yes. As many as makes sense for your business. Obviously, you need to clearly identify your target market and do some research as to which platforms they are most likely to use. Besides that, all the product descriptions need to be identical in each of the online stores. That’s SEO Copywriting.
Moreover, another good reason to be on more than one ecommerce platform is that if one goes down, you can still sell on others. For instance, recently, Shopify went down because of a cyberattack. Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been attacked in the past also. When a cyberattack happens, it sometimes takes time for it to be noticed, analyzed, and then fixed. You never know how long your store would be down!
How do you know which one is working the best?
That’s a great question for Google Analytics (GA4). It requires a professionally set up GA4 account with specific conversion goals and tracking.
The Traditional Marketing/Conversion Funnel Has Collapsed
In conclusion, searchers using AI for shopping don’t follow the old conversion funnel model. Thus, you need to create content or optimize your current content for the AI answer bots.
Get it?
Therefore, you need to start strategizing and planning early for this holiday sales season. I can help you! Please book a FREE 15-minute Zoom call to brainstorm some ideas.
How to Optimize for AI Search
You want to be found when people are searching for what you have to offer. Furthermore, you switch from your regular target market to the gift-giver. That person may be looking for gift ideas — it’s up to you to provide them and make sure they come up in the AI search and answer engines.
- Excellent SEO: Describe your offerings clearly and completely. This is no time to be lazy!
- Have a store on Shopify (Affiliate Link): Both ChatGPT and Perplexity have partnerships with Shopify, so your products will come up in their search results.
- Set up on both Google’s and Bing’s Merchant Centers. The more, the better!
- Most importantly, you must fill out your about sections, bios, product descriptions, etc., completely and make them keyword-centric. Moreover, not just on your website, but also in meta descriptions for each product or service page.
- Lastly, don’t forget to have Google Analytics properly set up to track where your sales are coming from!
Social Media and Communities
As it turns out, the AI Search and Answer bots crawl your social media and forum posts for information. In other words, it matters what you post! They grab text, videos, and images. All pictures and videos should be labeled with the product they’re showing — including the file names! Rename your picture/video files before you upload. Don’t leave “image456.jpg” or “video74839.mov” as the file names. That doesn’t help. Everything needs to be optimized.
Besides that, each of the social platforms has or will soon have AI-powered search.
For instance, on Pinterest, you have 500 characters for descriptions on both boards and pins. Use it! Don’t just pin items; go into Pinterest, edit each board, and pin with those important keywords and hashtags. Remember, on its own, Pinterest is a very powerful search engine more than it is a social media network. It’s where people go to plan how they’re going to spend their money! Most ecommerce stores integrate very nicely with Pinterest, including Shopify (affiliate link).
10 Tips to help you get a jump start on a Successful Holiday Sales Season:
- You must realize that your gift-giver may be a different target than the people you’ve been marketing to. For instance, if you sell women’s accessories, you’ve been targeting women of a certain age. Now, you need to target their husbands or boyfriends — the gift-giver. Do some research to figure out how best to reach them.
- Choose the right social media networks. If you’re promoting a local event venue for corporate parties (B2B), then you’ll want to focus heavily on LinkedIn and Google Business. If you’re an ecommerce site, then Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest are going to be your primary networks. But don’t forget that LinkedIn users are consumers, too! And, of course, you’ve got the younger generation on TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube!
- Create great, enticing, unique graphics. You need to stand out above all the other posts — not just your competition! Use only sharp, quality graphics and videos. For instance, videos and animated GIFs are more eye-catching than static, still photographs.
- Don’t use the same images over and over again. You don’t want to be boring. There are plenty of free-use graphics out there. I like Pixabay.com.
- Change your social media cover graphics to reflect the holidays. I’d do this by the end of October! Furthermore, keep an eye on your competition to see when they’ve switched to holiday mode.
- Diversify the people in your pictures. You want to make sure you’ve got everyone who’s a gift-giver covered! Don’t use the same type of people in your pictures. For instance, if you’re trying to reach the male gift-giver, show a picture of a guy giving a gal a gift.
- Showcase your best, UNIQUE, gift-giving ideas on your website or social networks. The phrase “Unique Gifts for…” has a very high search volume! Incorporate the phrase on your website and social media posts using hashtags. For instance, #UniqueGiftsForMen, #UniqueGiftsForKids, #UniqueGiftsForMom, etc. Create a board on Pinterest for each category. Then, pin pictures from your website there.
- Do some fun videos. As I mentioned above, videos and animations are more eye-catching than still photographs and graphics. Have fun. First, not all videos need to be professionally done. Second, use your phone or tablet to record impromptu, casual videos with tips, greetings, and messages. Third, upload them everywhere: YouTube, Instagram Stories and Reels, Snapchat, Facebook, & LinkedIn. In addition, embed them in your blog. As a time-saver, use Sendible (affiliate link) to schedule your posts to the various networks. They are really easy to create with AI tools like Google Flow and Canva.
- Make sure to cover all the holidays! It’s not just Christmas! There’s Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, too. Also, what about New Year’s? You may want to change the cover graphics to celebrate the new year.
- Budget some ad spending dollars. Face it, you might just have to spend some money to increase your reach, especially if you’ve got formidable competition. Moreover, what’s nice about social media advertising is that with just a little investment, you can reach a lot of people. Furthermore, you can specifically target your audience. Again, look at your competition. How are you going to stand out? How are you going to reach that gift-giver?
Big Bonus Tip!
Obviously, people are very price-conscious and love bargain-hunting. Therefore, focus on highlighting the VALUE of your products or services. Shoppers will SHOP. They’ll read reviews, compare prices, return policies, shipping deals, EVERYTHING. And EVERYTHING includes what the AI search tools suggest.
Don’t Sweat It! Strategize It!
In conclusion, it’s time to strategize! Just like it was back when Facebook and Twitter were born — they were disruptors. Today, Artificial Intelligence is a disruptor! Shoppers have new ways to search and shop, and it’s up to you to be sure that your products or services are featured in the new SERPs (search results pages). There’s a lot you can do, and I’m here to help!
Need some guidance? Let’s start with a free 15-minute Zoom Strategy Session, and we can talk about your goals for the season. Click here to schedule one today!
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What are the 10 tips to jump-start a successful holiday sales season?
Recognize that the gift-giver target may differ from your current marketing. Pick the right networks for your product. Create standout graphics and videos. Vary imagery. Update holiday covers. Diversify people in photos. Showcase unique gift ideas. Make fun videos. Cover all holidays. Budget some ad spend.
What is AI search doing to holiday shopping and how should my business respond?
AI search is changing how people hunt for gifts and where your products appear. To keep up, start strategizing early, post strategically on social media and communities, and use analytics to see what works so you can adjust fast.
How can I optimize for AI search during the holidays?
Focus on excellent SEO, have a store on Shopify (affiliate link), set up Google and Bing Merchant Centers, and fill out your about sections, bios, and product descriptions with keyword-centric detail so your items show up in AI search results.
Why should I tune my social media and communities for AI search?
AI bots crawl social posts and forums, so labeling every image and video with the product helps. Also, platforms like Pinterest function as powerful search engines, so optimize descriptions and hashtags and tailor content to the gift-giver.
