AI-Powered Product Discovery: How Social and GenAI search are reshaping the marketplace funnel

The way consumers discover products is undergoing a seismic shift. Discovery no longer begins with a single search box on a marketplace. Instead, it now flows through TikTok scrolls, YouTube shorts, Instagram feeds, and even AI-powered engines like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews. Far from shrinking, the funnel is expanding, multiplying entry points for shoppers before they ever hit “add to cart.”

Social commerce as a full funnel

• Creators: early adopters who seed awareness.
• Affiliates: scaling reach by embedding product links into everyday content.
• Live shopping & tagging: blending entertainment with instant conversion.
• Fulfillment integration: platforms ensuring smooth delivery experiences.

A simple framework emerges: Seed, Spark, Scale. Creators seed adoption, content sparks engagement, and affiliate programs plus catalog sync scale reach. TikTok Shop demonstrates this power, with many electronics and home goods brands reporting rapid sales lifts after activating creator and affiliate partnerships.

Generative AI and discovery through search

• Natural language queries replace keyword strings.
• Semantic ranking values context and structured answers over raw keyword density.
• Fewer ad placements mean organic, well-structured data matters more than ever.

• Crawlability: ensure bots like OAI-SearchBot can access feeds.
• Schema markup & JSON-LD: enrich product pages with clear context.
• Structured spec tables & FAQs: align with how consumers phrase product questions.
• Ratings and reviews: build trust signals AI engines prefer to surface.

Looking ahead, expect direct product feed integrations into AI platforms, blurring the lines between marketplaces, social content, and AI-powered shopping companions. This evolution is a key step toward agentic commerce, where autonomous AI agents act on behalf of consumers to find, evaluate, and purchase products.

Redefining the marketplace funnel

AI and social commerce don’t eliminate marketplaces; they shift the starting line. Instead of typing “wireless headphones” directly into Amazon, today’s shopper might first encounter a product in a TikTok unboxing video, save it to a Pinterest board, or ask ChatGPT, “What are the best noise-cancelling options under $200?”

Only after that upstream discovery do they flow into a marketplace like Amazon, Zalando, or Bol to compare prices, check shipping speed, and complete the transaction.  This new reality creates a layered funnel:

• Inspiration & validation: Platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube act as discovery engines, shaping what consumers consider in the first place. AI engines then validate those options by providing context, alternatives, or aggregated reviews.
• Marketplace exploration: Once interest is sparked, consumers head to marketplaces not just for search, but to confirm credibility, see seller ratings, and evaluate fulfillment options.
• Purchase & loyalty: Conversion still happens within marketplaces, but the consumer’s mindset has been heavily influenced before they arrive.
  
  

That doesn’t mean marketplace optimization is less important - in fact, it’s more critical than ever. If your product surfaces in upstream discovery flows, but your marketplace listing isn’t optimized, you’ll lose the conversion. On the other hand, if you only optimize for the marketplace, you risk invisibility because your product never enters the conversation in the first place.

The brands that integrate both discovery and marketplace strategies will capture compound demand, meeting consumers first where they’re inspired, and again when they’re ready to buy. Think of TikTok or ChatGPT as the new front door to your marketplace listing. If your product isn’t showing up in those entry points, you’re asking consumers to walk around the block and find you on their own.

Discovery readiness checklist

To thrive in a world where consumers begin their journey on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, or inside AI-driven search engines, brands need a structured approach to discovery readiness. That means not just preparing products for conversion, but making them visible, credible, and easy to engage with long before a cart is filled. Sellers should evaluate readiness across two distinct but connected fronts: social and AI search.

1. For social commerce

Product tagging and creator whitelisting

When creators showcase products in short videos or live streams, tagging ensures those items are directly shoppable. Creator whitelisting (allowing influencers to run ads with your brand assets) expands reach and keeps messaging authentic. Without these, discovery moments remain “dead ends” that don’t translate into measurable traffic.

Affiliate/commission structures

Social platforms increasingly rely on affiliate ecosystems to scale product visibility. Clear commission tiers and simple onboarding for creators, whether micro-influencers or larger partners, make your products more attractive to promote. Brands in electronics and home goods, for example, have seen significant sales bumps by offering higher commissions for new product launches, creating urgency and momentum.

Catalog sync health

Platforms like TikTok Shop or Instagram Shopping sync directly with product catalogs. Broken links, outdated pricing, or low stock indicators can immediately undermine consumer trust. Regular catalog audits ensure your feed is accurate, responsive, and aligned with promotions running elsewhere. Consistency across platforms signals reliability, both to consumers and platform algorithms.

2. For AI search

Keep feeds open and crawlable

Generative AI engines pull from what they can access. If bots like OAI-SearchBot can’t crawl your product pages, you risk being excluded from AI-generated recommendations. Think of crawlability as your ticket of entry into AI-driven discovery.

Implement JSON-LD schema and FAQ blocks

Structured data (e.g., JSON-LD) gives AI clear signals about product attributes, dimensions, colors, and warranty terms that matter in natural language queries. FAQ blocks capture the “human” side of product searches, such as “Does this vacuum work on hardwood floors?” Providing those answers upfront increases your odds of being surfaced in conversational search results.

Provide spec tables aligned with common consumer queries

Many AI systems prioritize structured comparisons. If your spec tables clearly align with what shoppers ask, AI can more easily recommend your product over a competitor’s. For example, a home appliance seller that publishes detailed energy efficiency tables will show up more reliably when consumers ask, “What’s the most energy-efficient fridge under $1,000?”

Leverage ratings and reviews as trust anchors

AI engines weigh reputation heavily. Verified reviews, aggregated ratings, and third-party trust signals provide the credibility needed for your products to appear in AI-curated answers. Encourage review generation across marketplaces and ensure that review content is structured and accessible for AI to parse.

Measuring discovery impact

One of the biggest challenges for brands right now is that traditional ecommerce metrics, such as click-through rate, conversion percentage, or average order value, tell only half the story. They’re great at showing what happens once a shopper is already on the path to purchase, but they fail to capture the upstream activity that determines whether a shopper ever enters the funnel in the first place.

To understand discovery in this new environment, brands need to track a different class of signals. On social platforms, the most telling indicators are the moments of engagement that happen before intent solidifies: how often consumers save or share your content, and how frequently creators are producing fresh videos that feature your products. These show not just awareness but momentum, the pace at which your product is spreading across feeds.

In the world of AI-driven search, visibility looks different again. A key measure is whether your products are being cited in AI answers. If consumers ask ChatGPT or Google’s AI Overviews for “the best kitchen blender under $150” and your brand surfaces in the response, that’s a meaningful discovery event, even if the shopper doesn’t click through immediately.

Similarly, shifts in branded search queries across channels can reveal how social and AI exposure is influencing consumer curiosity and recognition. Finally, it’s worth tracing how these discovery sparks flow downstream into marketplaces. Are you seeing sessions start on Amazon or Bol that originate from TikTok or AI search referrals? That linkage between upstream discovery and downstream activity is the connective tissue of modern commerce.

The important point is that discovery KPIs serve a different purpose from conversion KPIs. They measure visibility and intent formation, not purchasing behavior. Yet both matter equally for long-term growth. Without discovery signals, you can’t see whether your brand is winning attention in the earliest moments that shape consumer preference. Without conversion signals, you can’t prove that attention translates into revenue. The two together form a complete picture of performance in today’s fragmented funnel.

Beyond discovery: Preparing for the AI commerce era

Discovery is no longer confined to search engines or marketplace algorithms. Social platforms and generative AI are creating entirely new entry points for consumers, shifting attention far upstream. What begins with discovery today will soon evolve into agentic shopping, where AI agents don’t just recommend but transact on behalf of consumers.

Brands that invest in visibility now will be better positioned when AI-driven commerce reaches scale. Those absent from the early stages of discovery risk losing relevance before the shopping agents even arrive.

Winning in this environment requires building discovery readiness:

• Healthy, optimized catalogs
• Creator and affiliate ecosystems
• Schema-enriched feeds
• Clear visibility into discovery metrics
  
  

At the same time, marketplace optimization remains essential. Discovery gets you into the conversation, but a strong marketplace presence ensures you close the sale. The real advantage lies in integrating both strategies — meeting consumers first where they’re inspired, and again when they’re ready to buy.