With 50% of consumers already using AI when searching for products online, LLM-powered search is quickly (if it hasn’t already) becoming the de facto way consumers discover, evaluate and compare retailers.
Whether it be through ChatGPT, Gemini or Google’s AI overviews, search activity through LLMs is only set to increase, with McKinsey reporting that it will impact $750 billion in revenue by 2028.
And who can blame consumers for flocking to LLM-powered search? It collapses the funnel into a single one-stop shop that has inspiration, product information, suitability, and ratings and reviews all in one place.
The retail industry therefore faces a new battleground: algorithmic sentiment.
Unlike traditional SEO, where visibility hinges on keywords and backlinks, LLM search surfaces opinions, narratives and contextual signals drawn from across the open web.
For retailers, this means brand perception is no longer shaped solely by marketing campaigns or customer reviews but by how an AI model interprets the totality of their digital footprint.
As a result, brands must now treat LLM search as both a brand channel and a customer experience touch point – one that requires the same investment, rigor and creativity as any other part of the funnel.
Wait, AI has Feelings Now?
Now, I know what you’re thinking by me saying “AI sentiment” – does AI feel things now? Do we all need to stop typing into ChatGPT right this second or risk a Terminator-esque uprise in the next 10 years?
Well hold your horses, because in this instance AI sentiment doesn’t quite mean we should be worried about having AI overlords anytime soon. When we refer to sentiment, we are typically looking at how an AI model interprets, summarizes and communicates the tone, reputation and trust signals associated with a specific business.
An LLM search engine doesn’t just gather this from a single source, but from across a brand’s entire digital footprint.
Whether it be product reviews, Reddit threads or brand.com, LLM models judge a brand on the stability of its voice, consistency of messaging and the thoroughness of the information it can access.
That narrative then becomes the default answer when consumers are searching and asking a specific question, such as “which retailers offer the best value for shoes?”
Have comprehensive information across the web and chances are you’ll be included, have incomplete sections and you’re less likely to be recommended.
So whether or not your brand “will be back” in a consumer’s LLM shopping basket is all dependent on how much you look after your digital channels.
What can we do to Influence how AI Feels About Us?
So the brands that have the most complete, stable and factual information are the ones that will be rewarded. But how do retailers enact this?
For starters, it’s an all-hands-on-deck operation.
While the recommendations may need to come from the SEO team, who have experience knowing what search platforms want to see, actions will need to be taken across the board.
Customer service teams who manage reviews must be diligent to ensure their reactivity to negative ones, while merchandising and ecommerce teams need to consistently update product data, pricing and availability to ensure all information is consistent across different touch points.
If internal teams don’t strategize and delegate, then brands risk their digital footprint becoming fragmented and being penalised for it in LLM search engines. And the time to act on this is now, with the LLM market’s current state being a lovely valley compared to Google’s towering mountain.
To previously rank well in search, you would have had to have done a significant amount of digital PR activity to build that reputation. But LLM search has rewritten the script, allowing smaller brands to compete with conglomerates by focusing on consistency and doubling down on the factors that make them unique.
We recently conducted an internal study into the baby care sector and found that smaller brands performed particularly well by doubling down on sustainability and recycling initiatives – elements they could own as their USP.
These smaller brands rightly identified an opportunity to structure their digital ecosystem in a way that highlighted the most important part to consumers rather than adapting a scattergun approach of bits and pieces.
And it will pay off, particularly in this relatively infant stage of LLM search, as the retailers that are investing in it now will shape the future of the platform.
By aligning your narrative, you can set yourself up nicely to acquire that first mover advantage to get one over competitors. While on the contrary, those that delay embracing LLM search risk losing control of their narrative and hence, a significant chunk of that predicted $750 billion revenue.