Episode Title: You're no longer just competing for clicks

Date: 23rd July 2026

Summary: In episode 200, Kevin King breaks down how Gen Z is really shopping now — they don't just say "ChatGPT," they say "Chat," and AI has become the thing that decides what they buy. The big shift: you're no longer just competing for clicks, you're competing for AI recommendations. Plus Amazon's AI Overviews hitting the desktop, the fight over AI avatars flooding TikTok Shop, and vendors finally getting search query data.

Key Points Discussed:

Rory Wingo (college sophomore and daughter of ChannelAdvisor/Retailgentic founder Scot Wingo) wrote a guest post describing how her generation actually shops: TikTok still owns discovery, but AI now owns everything that happens after. Chat remembers every past conversation — her style, her budget — so the buying "conversation" moved from friends to AI.
The funnel has compressed from TikTok → Google → Reddit → Sephora → Amazon → buy, down to TikTok → one AI conversation → purchase. Discovery and validation have split apart, and there's no ad unit you can buy into that second moment.
The takeaway line the episode is named after: you're no longer just competing for clicks, you're competing for AI recommendations. Your product data, reviews, comparisons and content need to give the AI enough information and trust to recommend you. This is agentic commerce from the shopper's side.
App stats: In a ranking of the top 25 apps by daily use and retention, WhatsApp leads on both at once, and Google/Meta own most billion-user positions. The standout for sellers — Shopify beats Amazon on retention.
Amazon's AI Overviews hit the desktop: Andrew Bell spotted Alexa for Shopping's A/B test showing AI Overviews in a desktop sidebar. Inside the module: personalized category insights synthesized from on- and off-Amazon sources, visual navigation that rewrites the next search for you, prompt pills trained on clicks, and external cited sources (SoundGuys, PCMag, What Hi-Fi) — "authority anchoring," where off-Amazon PR becomes on-Amazon SEO. Bell's grounding notes: COSMO is a knowledge graph, not an algorithm, and it did not replace A9; Amazon SEO is alive and well. Walmart is copying all of it.
AI avatars are flooding TikTok Shop: The WSJ's Patrick Coffee reports AI-generated demos, makeup applications and dress twirls spreading across TikTok Shop. TikTok's own AI Video Maker lets affiliates auto-generate shoppable videos, and fully AI-generated content can earn commissions if tagged. SharkNinja banned AI content for its affiliates; Rare Beauty was AI-twinned without consent. TikTok Shop US sales are projected past $23B this year (up 48%), with affiliates exploding from 2.3M (2024) to 11.3M globally. Brands can move from open to targeted affiliate plans, tighten creator approval, and disable auto-conversion of top posts to ads — but can't fully stop AI posts.
Software tool of the day: Jordi Ordóñez's independent Amazon seller software directory (reviewing tools since 2013), now 170+ tools across 18+ categories, filterable and scored, free and not funded by Amazon.
Vendors are finally getting search query data: Amazon finished rolling out Search Query Performance and Search Catalog Performance dashboards to Vendor Central — real search volume, rank, and full-funnel visibility by term and ASIN (market-share view still hidden from vendors). Find it under Brands → Brand Analytics → Search Analytics.

Links Mentioned:

Hot Picks:

Stump Bezos Answer: 51%. Even with almost 51% of AI shoppers abandoning a purchase after AI raised a concern, 51% of all AI-researched purchases still close on Amazon.

Parting Shot: From Calvin Coolidge — "The chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing, and prospering in the world." Almost a hundred years later, and it still holds up.

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