Waterproof apparel and footwear brand Vessi has opted not to block traffic from artificial intelligence (AI) agents, instead leaning into answer engine optimization (AEO).
“It can play into our favor,” Ray Hua, director of D2C and lifecycle marketing at Vessi, told Digital Commerce 360.
Similar to search engine optimization (SEO), AEO is a practice in which brands determine how LLMs will rank and discover online content using a mix of text- and image-based attributes.
The decision comes as brands are learning to navigate the world of large language models (LLMs) and how they factor into search traffic. Some retailers, such as apparel brand Carve Designs, have opted to block traffic from AI agents.
But for Vessi — based in British Columbia, Canada — AI-powered search experiences are generating noticeable traffic. However, he noted that even though AI technology is rapidly advancing, it’s “it’s still important to realize the strategy is still very much [dependent on] the brand itself.”
How Vessi is leveraging AEO for search and product discovery
Vessi has a way to filter out bots and maintain a “clear view” on analytics, Hua told Digital Commerce 360. It can distinguish traffic coming from humans versus from AI agents.
Part of that ability to distinguish comes from using a Shopify interface, Hua said. In late March, Shopify rolled out a feature that allows its merchants to sell directly through OpenAI’s ChatGPT. [Editor’s note: Digital Commerce 360 spoke with Hua before Shopify announced details for the aforementioned ChatGPT integration.]
Within the Shopify interface, he said, Vessi can see sessions originating in ChatGPT.
“On our end, we’ve taken a concrete approach to make sure that our product data structure is optimized for AEO,” Hua said.
That’s in regards to attributes, product-level reviews and more, he said.
“People are no longer searching ‘waterproof shoes’ on Google as permanent as before,” Hua said. “There’s still a large amount, but there are different ways for people to search. People are leveraging ChatGPT, leveraging Gemini and Claude to input those questions or discoveries, and it’s much more detailed — long-tail.”
Hua said Vessi’s priority in terms of AEO is to make sure its products’ direct data and catalog are “clean.” In other words, he wants the data to be clear and optimized enough for LLMs to easily identify them. From there, AI platforms might then recommend Vessi products in their engines.
Both SEO and AEO play into Vessi’s strategy, Hua said, with the former still driving “a lot” of organic traffic to the brand’s site. But Vessi is adapting on the metadata side, Hua said.
“It’s important to keep pace with how AI scrubs your site and synthesize your structures,” Hua said.
How not to use AI
“AI is still quite new,” Hua said. “What I’m seeing is there’s a lot of vendors on the market trying to sell AI products. I’m noticing a lot of brands are chasing AI as well. AI is a tool, and it should help us in ‘where’ and ‘who.’ But in terms of ‘why’ and ‘what,’ it still relies on the brand.”
He said brands should chase the customer experience rather than AI tools. If brands are not careful, he warned, they will look at different AI tools with too much wonder and get distracted from the core problems they’re trying to solve.
“At the end of the day, we’re selling product,” Hua said. “If the product cannot resonate with our customers, then no matter how much AI you bring in, it will not help the business.”
Hua noted that Vessi focuses on telling a brand story, “which may take a lot of time to read,” even though attention spans appear to be shortening.
“Now we are focusing on the benefits of our products and use cases,” Hua said. “People might search in Google, search in Gemini: I’m going on a hiking trip and I want waterproof shoes. Do we have that content lined up? Do we have that copy on our product descriptions? We need to if we don’t.”
“The good thing” is that Vessi has a limited product selection and has already synthesized the product data, he added.
To do that, Vessi optimizes language in its copy “not just for the AI but also for the changing customer behaviour, but also make sure that we are ready when people spend more time in ChatGPT to discover new products.”
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