You may have the right product. Better service. More expertise.

But if AI recommends your competitor, you will lose the opportunity before that prospect ever reaches your website.

That makes answer engine optimization—AEO—an increasingly important part of your marketing strategy.

It means helping answer engines, like ChatGPT, Grok and Gemini, find, understand, and accurately describe your business when prospects ask relevant questions.

A new study by Vaer AI examined roughly 460,000 AI responses to 20,000 shopping prompts.

The results revealed a persistent preference for larger companies.

The research focused on retail, but the principles are the same for e-commerce. If you market services, products or generate leads, consider it a reason to examine your own AI visibility.

Here are five findings—and what I recommend you do about them:

1. Big retailers have an AI search advantage.

With web search turned off, ChatGPT and Google Gemini selected large national retailers roughly 63%–70% of the time.

Small or local independents appeared about 10% of the time.

That’s a substantial disadvantage. But it can be overcome with proper AEO.

Give prospects something more useful than “great products and excellent service.”

Your AI action: Use proper AI search optimization. Floow the AI rules. For example, make your unique selling proposition unmistakable. Explain whom you serve, what you offer, and why a customer should choose you. Support your claims with specific expertise, authentic customer reviews, and proof.

2. AI sees “safer” choices with big companies.

In head-to-head tests without web search, researchers presented one large retailer and one smaller store without labeling their sizes.

The models chose the larger retailer 90%–94% of the time.

Why?

Because reviews, authority and other AEO variables that help the larger companies. You must outsmart them in your AEO.

3. Specific product searches help smaller retailers.

For broad shopping questions, smaller stores captured roughly one-third of top recommendations.

For specific product searches, that fell to about 10%.

Think about what that means.

You could become harder to find just as a shopper gets closer to buying.

Your AEO action: Review your most important product pages. Make model numbers, specifications, prices, availability and shipping clear and current.

Google specifically recommends maintaining ecommerce and local business details for visibility in its AI experiences.

4. One word changed the results: “independent.”

In a controlled follow-up sample, adding “independent” to shopping prompts increased the share of small and local stores named from about one-third to nearly four-fifths.

That is a striking difference.

Your AEO action: If your business is independently owned, make that fact clear on your website and business profiles. Explain the customer benefits that come with it.

5. “Local” and “near me” don’t necessarily mean independently owned.

The study found that “local” helped far less than “independent.”

Why?

Because AI could interpret a nearby national-chain location as a local store.

Being nearby is only part of your story.

Your AEO action: Keep your location, hours, contact information, service area, and business profiles accurate and usable on every marketing page of your landing page/website. Then explain what makes your business relevant to the product or customer’s specific need.

AEO builds on sound SEO, useful content, and accurate business information.

Action:

Would you like to find out where your company may be missing opportunities in AI search?

Call Michael at 615-933-4647 or email [email protected]⁠.

Michael will explain how CDMG can help you develop an AI visibility strategy designed to get your business found, communicate your competitive advantages, and turn more prospects into customers.

Don’t leave your place in the buying conversation to chance.

FAQs:

Q: What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?
A: AEO helps AI tools find, understand, and recommend your business to relevant customers.

Q: Why do AI tools often favor large companies?
A: Larger companies may have stronger brand recognition, reviews, authority, and online visibility.

Q: How can small businesses improve AI search visibility?
A: Highlight your unique advantages, expertise, customer reviews, and proven results.

Q: Why are specific product searches challenging for smaller businesses?
A: AI may recommend fewer independent retailers when shoppers search for specific products.

Q: Does describing a business as local improve AI recommendations?
A: Not always, because AI may interpret local as including nearby national chains.

Q: What steps can businesses take to improve AEO?
A: Combine sound SEO, useful content, accurate business information, and clear messaging about what makes your company different.

About Craig Huey

Craig Huey is one of America’s leading direct response marketing and advertising experts. He is the founder and president of Creative Direct Marketing Group (CDMG), a direct response advertising and marketing agency specializing in direct mail, digital, and multichannel campaigns. CDMG has worked with hundreds of companies, helping them generate leads, sales, and measurable results through targeted, data-driven marketing. Craig is also the publisher of the Direct Marketing Update, a newsletter read by marketing professionals, business owners, and executives who want to stay ahead of the latest trends in direct response marketing.

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