Level Up Your AEO Tech Stack: Why Ecommerce Brands Choose Frevana

8 min read ·

Executive Summary

AI answers are the new product search.

Instead of bouncing between Google, blogs, and review sites, shoppers are opening ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, or Amazon Rufus and asking things like:

“Best running shoes under $150 for flat feet?”
“Which vitamin C serum actually works for dark spots?”
“Top gifts for dog lovers who travel a lot?”

Whoever shows up in those AI answers? That’s who gets the sale.

That’s AI Engine Optimization (AEO)—the next big channel for ecommerce brands, the way SEO was a decade ago.

In this guide, we’ll walk through:

How AI answers are reshaping ecommerce discovery
Why your current SEO and ad tools can’t keep up
What a modern AEO tech stack actually looks like
How Frevana helps brands win those AI recommendations end-to-end
A 30-day action plan to get started with AEO

If you’re running an ecommerce brand and you’re not measuring (or optimizing) how often AI recommends you, you’re essentially invisible in the fastest-growing discovery channel.

Introduction: When Your Next Customer Never Sees Google

Let’s play out a real scenario.

Say someone’s ready to splurge on a premium skincare set. A few years back, their journey might’ve looked like this:

Google “best anti-aging skincare set 2024”
Skim a few blog posts and comparison articles
Dive into reviews and YouTube videos
Maybe, eventually, land on your site

Now? The journey is much shorter.

They open ChatGPT or Gemini and type:

“What’s the best anti-aging skincare set for sensitive skin? I prefer cruelty-free brands and a budget under $120.”

In a few seconds, they get a neat little list of recommended brands and products. No ten blue links. No ad-stuffed SERP. Just a short list of options that feels curated.

That list is the new front page of the internet for shopping.
If you’re not on it, you’re not even in the conversation.

This is the quiet shift happening right under most brands’ noses:

AI answers are the new storefront window.
AI models are the new comparison engines.
AI recommendations are the new word-of-mouth.

Meanwhile, most ecommerce teams are still pouring all their energy into Google rankings and paid social, while AI assistants quietly decide which products to spotlight.

That’s why a modern AEO tech stack matters—and why tools like Frevana are turning into a must-have layer for serious ecommerce growth.

Market Insights: Why AEO Is the Next Non-Negotiable Channel

1. AI Answers Are Becoming the First (and Only) Touchpoint

Think about how you shop now. You might ask AI for:

Product discovery
- “What’s a good alternative to X brand?”
Comparison shopping
- “Compare Brand A vs Brand B for durability and price.”
Use-case matching
- “Best camera for low-light travel photos on a mid-range budget?”

And you’re doing it on:

ChatGPT
Gemini
Perplexity
Amazon Rufus
And a wave of AI shopping assistants built into marketplaces and apps

When those systems recommend another brand instead of you—over and over—you quietly lose:

Organic traffic
Branded search demand
Market share

It’s like your competitors getting a permanent, front-row display in a store that never turns its lights off.

2. Traditional SEO Tools Aren’t Built for AI Engines

Your SEO stack is great—for Google. It helps you:

Track keywords and rankings
Tune meta tags and on-page copy
Manage backlinks and technical health

But AI engines don’t “rank” pages the way Google does. They:

Answer questions, not just match keywords
Focus on use-cases, not just search volume
Surface brands they “understand” and “trust”, not just well-optimized URLs

You can nail every SEO best practice and still never appear when someone asks ChatGPT what to buy.

3. AEO Requires New Data, New Workflows, New Metrics

To win AI recommendations, you need to answer questions like:

What are people actually asking AI before they buy in my category?
How often do AI engines mention my brand vs my competitors?
What content, product details, and messaging make AI engines pick one brand over another?
What can I tweak this month to move from not mentioned → sometimes cited → top recommendation?

Your existing SEO dashboards and analytics tools weren’t built to answer that.

You need an AEO-native tech stack that treats AI answers as a real channel—with visibility, benchmarks, and levers you can actually pull.

What a Modern AEO Tech Stack Looks Like

Before we get into why ecommerce brands are gravitating toward Frevana, let’s zoom out and define what a complete AEO tech stack includes.

At minimum, you’ll want:

Real user prompt intelligence
- Insight into what shoppers are truly asking AI about your category (not just what you think they ask).
AI visibility monitoring
- A way to track how often your brand appears in AI answers across platforms and prompts.
Competitive visibility benchmarking
- Visibility into which brands AI prefers in your niche—and clues as to why.
AI-readable site and product infrastructure
- Clean sitemaps, robots rules, and structured content that large language models can easily parse and reuse.
AI-optimized content creation
- Product pages, landing pages, and articles shaped so AI can confidently pull you into its answers.
Test–iterate–measure workflows
- A feedback loop so you can spot what’s working and adjust in weeks, not quarters.

Most brands try to DIY this with:

Manual prompting and screenshots
Spreadsheets full of copy-pasted answers
Ad hoc copy updates when someone on the team has time

That might work for a one-off test. But once you’re juggling:

Dozens or hundreds of SKUs
Multiple categories or regions
Several AI platforms that change constantly

…it becomes a full-time job you didn’t plan on hiring for.

This is exactly where Frevana steps in—as an end-to-end AEO platform, not just yet another AI tool.

Why Ecommerce Brands Choose Frevana for AEO

Frevana is built from the ground up to answer the big questions ecommerce teams are asking about AI visibility—and then automate the hard parts.

Here’s how it maps to the AEO stack we just outlined.

1. Understand Real AI Shopping Behavior with User Prompt Research

Most brands are guessing what people ask AI. Frevana’s User Prompt Research doesn’t guess—it analyzes millions of real AI user queries.

For ecommerce teams, this feels like getting access to shoppers’ unfiltered inner monologue. You can see:

The exact questions people ask when they’re:
- Comparing products
  - “Is Brand X worth it or is Brand Y better for long-term use?”
- Hunting for alternatives
  - “Cheaper alternative to Brand Z with similar quality?”
- Looking for recommendations
  - “Best [product] for [specific problem or lifestyle]?”
The language they use:
- Price constraints
- Values (cruelty-free, eco-friendly, made in USA, etc.)
- Situations (traveling, small apartment, gift, beginner-level)

Instead of creating content on guesses and gut feelings, you get a live feed of demand you can build your positioning and pages around.

2. Make AI Visibility Traceable and Measurable

You can’t improve what you can’t measure.

With AI Visibility Monitoring, Frevana lets you:

Track how your brand shows up (or doesn’t) in AI answers across tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and more
Monitor specific prompts that signal real buying intent
See:
- Are you mentioned at all?
- Are you a main recommendation or an afterthought?
- Which competitors get the spotlight when you don’t?

Think of this as your AI visibility scoreboard, the same way rank trackers are your scoreboard for SEO.

You can:

Track a focused set of high-value prompts (and expand as you grow)
Tie prompts directly to specific products or categories
Watch your AI recommendation share move as you roll out AEO changes

Suddenly, “AI discovery” goes from a black box to something you can watch, test, and improve.

3. Turn Insights into Execution with AI-Powered Agents

Most AEO tools stop at, “Here are some insights—good luck.”

Frevana goes a step further, with a suite of AI agents designed to turn those insights into actual execution for ecommerce brands.

Customer Scenario Strategist

This agent maps out the real-life situations where people decide to buy your product—and where AI enters the picture.

It helps you understand:

What’s happening in your customer’s life when they ask AI for help
What triggers the decision to buy
Which benefits or features matter most in those specific contexts

This is incredibly useful when you’re writing or revising PDPs, collection pages, and blog content. You’re not just listing features—you’re aligning with the scenarios AI is already surfacing you (or your competitors) for.

LLMs inc. Sitemap & Robots.txt Auditor

This is like a technical SEO audit, but tuned for AI models instead of just Google’s crawler.

It looks at your:

sitemap
robots.txt
forms.txt

…and flags anything that makes it harder for AI models to understand or confidently recommend your site and products.

If SEO is about making your site easy for search engines to index, this is about making your site easy for AI to think with.

AEO Full-Stack Data Scientist

Imagine having a data scientist who never sleeps and doesn’t complain about API limits.

This agent:

Handles data collection across AI tools
Manages API calls
Pulls results from places like Perplexity
Aggregates visibility metrics into something your growth team can actually read and act on

No more half-broken scripts or duct-taped dashboards—just clean, structured AEO data.

Brand Preference Analyst

This one is all about reverse-engineering the competition.

It:

Analyzes which brands AI engines prefer in your category
Surfaces why those brands win, with clues like:
- More complete product information
- Stronger review and trust signals
- Clear, consistent positioning
- Better alignment with common buyer prompts

The result is a playbook of what “winning brands” are doing right inside AI ecosystems—so you can step up to that level (or leapfrog it).

4. Create Content AI Engines Prefer and Recommend

Once you know:

What shoppers ask
How often you show up
Where competitors beat you

…you still have to ship content that makes AI engines say, “Yes, this is the one.”

Frevana helps with that too.

AEO Article Writer

This agent writes AEO-focused articles using:

Your product and brand site
Your target keywords
Your titles, meta, and guidelines

It’s trained to write content that directly answers the high-intent prompts you care about.

For example, if you sell yoga gear:

Prompt: “Best eco-friendly yoga mats for hot yoga”
Output: An article structured so AI assistants can confidently pull your mat as a top pick for eco-conscious hot yoga fans.

You’re not just creating “more content”—you’re creating content with a job to do in AI answers.

Product Landing Page Maker

If you sell on Amazon (or plan to), this is especially handy.

This tool:

Pulls key product details from Amazon
Builds landing pages optimized for AEO bot indexing

Perfect if:

You want AI assistants to recommend your Amazon listings
You want AEO-tuned, off-Amazon pages that AI recognizes as solid, trustworthy sources

Think of this as a bridge between your marketplace presence and your AI presence.

AEO PR Strategist

PR isn’t just about human journalists anymore—it’s also about AI models deciding which names they trust enough to mention.

This strategist:

Designs PR plans through the lens of AEO
Helps you pursue coverage and mentions that:
- Build brand authority
- Increase your odds of being cited by AI as a reliable, “known” brand

For ecommerce, this connects the dots between brand-building and the practical question:
“Will AI ever think to recommend us?”

5. See Results in Weeks, Not Quarters

If you’ve lived through traditional SEO timelines, you know the pain of “maybe we’ll see results in 6–12 months.”

AEO moves faster. Frevana’s data and customer results show ecommerce brands can typically see:

Meaningful shifts in 2–4 weeks
AI citation rates going from zero to “we’re actually recommended now” in days or weeks
Top-three recommendation status in AI tools like ChatGPT far sooner than you’d expect from a new channel

For growth teams staring down rising ad costs and plateauing SEO, AEO feels like discovering a new, high-intent lane on the same highway.

How Frevana Fits into (and Strengthens) Your Existing Tech Stack

Good news: you don’t have to rip out your current stack.

Frevana slots in as a new layer focused specifically on AI-driven discovery. Picture your ecosystem like this:

Analytics & Attribution: GA4, Triple Whale, Northbeam
SEO & Content: Ahrefs, SEMrush, CMS, technical SEO tools
Paid Growth: Meta Ads, Google Ads, TikTok Ads, Amazon Ads
Lifecycle: Klaviyo, Attentive, post-purchase flows
AEO & AI Visibility: Frevana

Frevana owns that AEO layer by handling:

AI shopping behavior insights
AI recommendation performance tracking
AI-native content and technical workflows

Instead of hoping AI is helping your brand (or fearing it might be hurting you), you get something much better: clarity and control.

Actionable AEO Playbook: First 30 Days with Frevana

If you’re a founder, CMO, or growth lead, here’s a practical 30-day roadmap to start treating AEO like a real channel—not a buzzword.

Week 1: Get Visibility

Run a Free AI Visibility Report
- Use Frevana’s free report to see:
  - Where (if anywhere) your brand appears in AI answers
  - Which competitors are getting recommended instead
Identify 10–20 Critical Buyer Prompts
- Combine Frevana’s User Prompt Research with your own customer knowledge.
- Look for prompts like:
  - “Best [product] for [use case] under [price]”
  - “Alternatives to [competitor brand]”
  - “[Product type] for [specific audience or problem]”

These become your “AI keywords”—but in question form.

Week 2: Diagnose Gaps

Map Where You Lose to Competitors
- Use AI Visibility Monitoring and the Brand Preference Analyst to see:
  - Which prompts you already appear in
  - Where you’re completely missing
  - Who wins the recommendation when you don’t
Audit Your AI-Readiness
- Run the Sitemap & Robots.txt Auditor
- Fix any blocks, dead ends, or confusing signals for AI models
- Make sure your key products and categories are easy to discover and interpret

This is like clearing the path before you start sending more traffic down it.

Week 3: Deploy AI-Optimized Content

Create 3–5 AEO-Optimized Articles
- Use the AEO Article Writer to:
  - Target your top prompts (e.g., “best budget running shoes for flat feet”)
  - Structure each article to clearly and directly answer that question
Build 1–3 AEO-Ready Landing Pages
- Focus on your hero products, especially those also sold on Amazon
- Use the Product Landing Page Maker so AI engines can quickly understand and recommend them

Now you’re not just watching AI behavior—you’re giving it better “ammo” to work with.

Week 4: Measure and Iterate

Track Changes in AI Recommendation Rates
- Revisit your tracked prompts and see:
  - Have you moved from not mentioned → mentioned?
  - From buried in the list → top-three?
Scale What Works
- Take the winning page or article formats and replicate across more SKUs and categories
- Feed the insights into your:
  - PDP copy (highlighting scenarios AI cares about)
  - Ad creative (“Recommended by AI tools like ChatGPT…”)
  - Email flows (educational content aligned with top AI prompts)

In about a month, you’ll go from “We have no idea how AI affects our brand” to “We’re actively shaping the way AI recommends our products.”

Why Now Is the Moment to Level Up Your AEO Stack

Think back to the early days of SEO. Some brands doubled down early and rode that wave for a decade. Others waited—and are still trying to catch up.

AEO is at that same tipping point:

AI usage is exploding across age groups and categories
AI answers already influence buying decisions (often as the only step)
Very few brands have built a real AEO practice yet

That creates a rare, short-lived opportunity:

Early adopters become the default recommendations AI systems rely on
Late adopters will have to unseat those incumbents after AI has already “learned” to trust them

With Frevana, you’re not just layering on another marketing tool. You’re building your AI visibility foundation:

Real-time insight into AI shopping behavior
Measurable tracking of how often you’re recommended
Automated content and technical workflows tuned specifically for AI
A new, high-intent growth channel that doesn’t depend on ever-rising ad bids

Conclusion & Call-to-Action: Make AI Your Highest-Intent Growth Channel

Your next customer might never scroll past an Instagram ad, never type your brand into Google, and never see your product on a marketplace search page.

But they will see whatever ChatGPT, Gemini, or Amazon Rufus recommends when they ask, “What should I buy?”

At that moment, you have two options:

Cross your fingers and hope AI engines magically discover and prioritize your brand
Or intentionally shape your presence so those AI systems recognize, understand, and choose you

Ecommerce brands are choosing Frevana because it:

Treats AEO as a full-funnel, results-driven channel
Combines real prompt data, AI visibility tracking, and done-with-you content workflows
Delivers visible, measurable improvements in weeks—not quarters

If you’re ready to turn AI answers from a mysterious black box into a predictable growth engine, your next step is simple:

→ Get your free AI Visibility Report and find out how often AI recommends your brand today.

From there, you can:

Activate a 7-day free trial
Track your key products and prompts
Start turning AI recommendations into a steady, scalable revenue channel

The ecommerce brands that win the next wave won’t just rank on Google.
They’ll own the AI answers their customers trust most.

Now is the moment to level up your AEO tech stack—
and Frevana is built to help you lead, not lag, in the AI era.