A shopper is choosing between two ergonomic pillows. They no longer type "best pillow for neck pain" into Google. They ask ChatGPT which one to pick for a stiff neck, and where to buy it.
The answer names three products, two stores, a Reddit thread and a magazine review. Your brand sells exactly that product. It is nowhere in the answer.
Your marketing team sees direct traffic climb without knowing where it comes from, and category sales move without a clear reason. This page starts from what AI engines actually cite in e-commerce, then shows what Mentionable does for a brand that wants to be part of the answer.
Which sites do AI engines cite in e-commerce?
The Mentionable Index lists 128 domains cited on e-commerce questions. Together they account for 25,294 citations, found in 27,250 AI answers analyzed from February to October 2026 across the major AI engines (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overview). Most of these answers come from questions asked in France, which shows in the French sites below.
Reddit leads with 4,251 citations, 17% of the citations of these domains. YouTube follows with 3,256. Next come the price comparison site idealo.fr (1,874), the review sites Les Numériques (1,244) and Clubic (1,033), then the consumer magazine Que Choisir (824) and Amazon (778).
The ranking says something simple. An AI that recommends a product does not start with the brand's product page. It reads what others say about the product:
- forums and videos, where buyers describe how they use it (Reddit, YouTube);
- price comparison sites and top-10 lists, such as idealo.fr or les10meilleurs.net;
- reviews in the specialist press, such as Les Numériques, Clubic or Que Choisir;
- marketplaces and review platforms, such as Amazon, Etsy or Trustpilot.
Second lesson: the sector is scattered. The 10 most cited domains capture only 23% of citations. The rest spreads over hundreds of sites, often specific to one category (pools, shoes, computers, furniture). Getting cited in a category takes a list of sites built for that category, not a generic one.
Last, the engines differ. In e-commerce, Perplexity averages 4.6 citations per answer and Gemini 0.8. ChatGPT and Google AI Mode show only about half of their sources inside the answer text. A brand visible in Perplexity can be absent from Gemini, which is why each engine is tracked on its own.
What do your shoppers ask AI?
The buying questions tracked in Mentionable follow patterns that repeat across categories:
- choice for a use case: "Which pillow should I choose for chronic neck pain?";
- comparing technologies: "Compressed sofa or flat-pack sofa, which one should I buy?";
- where to buy: "Where can I buy a good refurbished PC?";
- alternatives to a big retailer: "What are good alternatives to the big online shoe stores?";
- brand reliability: "Is this watch brand reliable for everyday use?".
Each one calls for an answer that names products and stores. That is where your share of the shopper's shortlist is decided.
What makes e-commerce different
A catalog holds hundreds or thousands of products, and each category has its own sources. Seasons move the questions around (sales, back to school, holidays). And an AI answer often sends the shopper to a marketplace or a retailer instead of your site, even when it names your product.
Stores selling health and wellness products see the same pattern, with advice questions asked before every purchase: health and wellness brands. Tracking the brand name alone is not enough. You need to know which products are recommended, on which questions, and which store the AI sends the shopper to.
Measure, improve your site, earn mentions
Mentionable covers the 3 levers of AI visibility in one tool. For an e-commerce brand, they look like this.
Measure: your products and retailers, country by country
You enter your store URL. Mentionable reads the site, suggests the buying questions to track, and asks them every day to the AI engines in your plan, in each country where you sell. You see your visibility by question, by engine and by country, next to the competitors cited instead of you.
Two views serve e-commerce directly: products recommended by AI, product by product, and retailers cited by AI, which shows where AI sends your shoppers.
Improve your site: product pages, buying guides, fixes
The Action Plan orders, month by month, what gets a store cited: site fixes, product or category pages to rewrite, buying guides to create. Mentionable crawls your site, flags what stops AI from reading your pages, and checks each fix at the next crawl.
Guides and new pages arrive written, based on the Google top 3 and the pages AI engines cite. What only you know about your products (materials, uses, sizes) is highlighted, never made up.
Earn mentions: the sites AI reads in your category
Mentionable lists the sites AI engines cite on your questions: comparison sites, reviews, forums, niche blogs. It shows which ones cite your competitors and not you. From the Influence plan up, outreach campaigns contact these sites for you, with follow-ups and reply sorting.
Which plan for an e-commerce brand?
| Plan | Price per month | Questions tracked | AI engines | Countries | Articles per month | Outreach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Presence | €249 | 50 | up to 3 | 1 | 4 | Not included |
| Influence | €449 | 100 | up to 4 | 2 | 8 | 200 sites per month |
| Reference | €799 | 150 | All tracked engines | 3 | 15 | 500 sites per month |
Several brands, or a catalog tracked in many countries: the Custom card on the pricing page is set up on a call.
The 7-day trial needs no card. Enter your store URL and see which of your products AI already recommends, and which ones it leaves out.