Something profound is happening in how customers find brands. It's not a single algorithm update or a new platform to master—it's a structural shift in discovery itself. The search landscape that built most e-commerce businesses over the past decade is quietly transforming into something new.

For CEOs navigating 2026, understanding this shift isn't optional. It's the difference between riding the wave and being caught beneath it.

Where Discovery Is Heading

Your customers still have questions. Where they find answers has fundamentally shifted. A multi-faceted, multi-platform discovery landscape has replaced the old linear search funnel.

The queries still exist. The purchase intent is real. Customer demand hasn't disappeared—it's redistributing. Traffic that once flowed predictably through Google's ten blue links is now fragmenting across AI assistants, social platforms, and conversational interfaces. Understanding where your customers are going is the first step to meeting them there.

The new discovery landscape:

• ChatGPT processes 1.1 billion queries daily—with 800 million weekly active users
• Perplexity handled 780 million queries in May 2025 (up 239% year-over-year)
• AI Overviews consume 42-48% of screen real estate before any organic result appears
• Gen Z starts 1 in 10 searches with Google Lens —20% with commercial intent

Your customers are still searching. The question is: are you visible where they're looking?

Why Traditional Playbooks Need an Update

The SEO strategies that drove growth from 2015-2023 were built for a different world. Target keywords. Publish content. Build backlinks. Watch rankings climb.

That approach worked brilliantly when Google meant "10 blue links" and visibility meant ranking on page one. But the landscape has evolved faster in the past 18 months than in the previous decade.

Across our 250+ e-commerce partners, we're seeing a clear pattern: the brands thriving in 2026 aren't abandoning SEO—they're expanding their definition of what SEO means. They're optimizing for visibility across an ecosystem, not just rankings on a single platform.

💡 Key Insight

92% of AI Overview citations come from top-10 ranking domains. Rankings still matter—they're just the starting point now, not the finish line.

Three Shifts Shaping Visibility in 2026

1

From Rankings to Citations When Google's AI summarizes an answer, it cites multiple sources. Getting cited drives 35% more organic clicks than ranking without citation. "The strategic question is evolving: from "What keywords should we target?" to "What questions should we be the definitive answer to?"

2

From Google-First to Search Everywhere Customers aren't searching on Google alone anymore. They're researching on TikTok, comparing on ChatGPT, validating on Reddit, discovering on YouTube. By end of 2026, "Search Everywhere Optimization" will be the dominant strategy for forward-thinking e-commerce brands. The opportunity? Being present across multiple discovery surfaces creates resilience—and compounds visibility over time.

3

From Traffic Volume to Brand Authority AI systems now aggregate everything the internet says about your brand—reviews, social mentions, press coverage, forum discussions—then use that composite to decide what to recommend. Strong brand reputation is becoming a visibility asset. Authentic customer love compounds into an advantage that AI systems amplify.

What Leading Brands Are Doing Now

Across our partner base, clear patterns are emerging. The brands gaining visibility share four characteristics:

They invest in what AI can't replicate.

• Original research (reports/yes sets). Customer case set. "Authoritative summarizable guides." In addition-max economics probably.

They build entity authority, not just content volume.

• Google and AI systems understand brands as entities with attributes, relationships, and reputations. Investing in structured data and consistent signals makes your brand machine-readable in ways that compound over time."

They treat AI visibility as its own channel.

• Dedicated resources. Prompt testing. LLM monitoring. Citation tracking. Not as an afterthought—as a parallel strategy with its own metrics and goals.

They're diversified discovery surfaces:

• TBeing present on YouTube, active on Reddit, and optimized for AI platforms creates resilience. When one channel shifts, the others provide stability.

The CEO's Updated Dashboard: Metrics That Matter Now

Traditional metrics like organic traffic and keyword rankings still have value—but they're no longer the complete picture. Here's what to add:

The brands that move early will build compounding advantages. The window for getting ahead is still open—but it won't stay that way.

The opportunity is significant. The path forward is clear.

• Brands that adapt now will compound their visibility advantage over the coming years. Those that wait will find themselves playing catch-up in a landscape that's already moved on.