The Best AI Ecommerce Search Tools in 2024: Frevana’s Recommendations

8 min read ·

If your ecommerce search still looks like a 2015 keyword box, you’re quietly leaking revenue in 2024.

Shoppers aren’t patiently typing “black shoes size 9” and playing with filters anymore. They’re talking to AI like it’s a trusted shopping buddy:

“What’s the most durable black running shoe under $150 for daily city commutes?”
“Which deodorant won’t irritate sensitive skin and is safe for teens?”
“Best gifts under $50 for a new dad who loves coffee and running?”

And here’s the twist: the brands that win these AI-powered moments don’t just rank on Google—they show up inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Amazon Rufus, and AI-native ecommerce search tools.

This guide walks through the best AI ecommerce search tools in 2024, how they fit into your stack, and why we recommend pairing them with Frevana if you want to consistently be the product AI recommends—on and off your own site.

Executive Summary

In 2024, “search” in ecommerce has split into two connected battlegrounds:

On-site AI search
Tools that power product discovery inside your store (semantic search, conversational shopping, vector search, smart recommendations).
AI answer engines
Places like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Amazon Rufus, where shoppers now ask “What should I buy?” before they ever visit your website.

Most brands pour time and money into #1 and completely ignore #2—then wonder why growth plateaus.

Our core recommendation:

Use a best-in-class AI ecommerce search tool to convert visitors who are already on your site.

Use Frevana to make sure those visitors (and many more) actually discover you in the AI answers they rely on to make buying decisions.

You need both: one to win on-site intent, and one to win AI-driven demand across the wider ecosystem.

Introduction: Search Has Moved Beyond the Search Bar

Quick thought experiment:

If Google turned off tomorrow, you’d notice immediately.
If your brand stopped appearing in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, or Amazon’s AI suggestions… would you even know?

For most teams, the honest answer is no. That’s the blind spot.

The New Shopper Journey

Here’s how a 2024 buyer journey often really looks:

They start by asking an AI:
“Best cruelty-free vitamin C serums that don’t pill under makeup?”
They get a short list of brand recommendations plus buying criteria—almost like a mini-consultation.
They compare a couple of those brands, often still inside the AI:
“Is Brand A better than Brand B for sensitive skin?”
Only then do they click through to 1–2 sites and use on-site search to find the right SKU.

If you’re only optimizing for on-site search, you’re fighting the last battle. The new game is:

Be findable in AI answers.
Be frictionless once they land on your site.

This article focuses on the second part (AI ecommerce search tools), but we’ll also show how Frevana helps you win the first part—so AI actually recommends you in the first place.

Market Insights: What Makes an AI Ecommerce Search Tool “Best” in 2024?

When we evaluate AI ecommerce search tools, we look past the marketing buzz. Everyone claims “vector search” and “semantic understanding.” What actually moves revenue?

Think of it this way: if your search tool feels like chatting with a helpful store associate instead of wrestling with a vending machine, you’re on the right track.

1. Semantic & Natural Language Understanding

In 2024, shoppers talk to search like they talk to a friend. Your tool should understand:

That “shoes,” “sneakers,” and “trainers” are basically the same thing
That “for flat feet” is a condition and not just two random words
That “gifts for my wife who hates clutter” is a type of intent, not gibberish

Look for:

True semantic search (so it understands meaning, not just exact words)
Synonym and concept expansion (it “gets” different ways of saying the same thing)
Handling of multi-attribute, plain-language queries

If a shopper types a full sentence and your search throws a tantrum? Time to upgrade.

2. Personalization & Context

Modern tools don’t just show “relevant” products—they prioritize what’s relevant to this person, right now based on:

What they’ve clicked or viewed in this session
Past purchases or browsing history
Context like location, device, or even time of day

The line between “search” and “recommendations” is basically gone. The experience should feel like: “You typed one thing, but I also noticed you like this, so here’s what really fits.”

3. Merchandising Control

AI should be powerful—but it shouldn’t hijack your revenue strategy.

You still want to be able to:

Pin specific products or collections
Boost or bury items based on margin, inventory levels, or seasonality
A/B test ranking strategies and see what actually converts

Think of AI as your very smart assistant—not your new boss.

4. Analytics You Can Act On

You can’t optimize what you can’t see. Your search tool should tell you things like:

Which queries return no results (a goldmine for merchandising and content)
Which terms get lots of searches but low conversion
Revenue per search, click-through rates, and where shoppers drop off
Query clustering by intent (“gift ideas,” “problem-solving,” “refills,” etc.)

If all you see is “10,000 searches this week,” that’s not an insight—that’s just a number.

5. AI Ecosystem Awareness (The Missing Piece)

Here’s where most tools stop: they focus exclusively on your internal search box.

But if buyers first ask ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity what to buy—and those engines don’t even mention your brand—your beautifully tuned on-site search never gets a chance.

This is where Frevana steps in. Instead of obsessing over what users type into your site search, Frevana looks at what millions of users type into AI engines before they ever reach you.

The Best Types of AI Ecommerce Search Tools in 2024

Instead of a shallow “top 10 tools” list, it’s more helpful to think in categories. The right combo depends on your size, your catalog, and your growth goals.

Imagine your AI ecommerce search stack as a team: each type of tool plays a position.

1. On-Site AI Search Engines

These are the upgraded brains behind your site’s internal search bar. They usually include:

Smart matching between queries and products (even if words don’t match perfectly)
Natural language understanding (so full questions work, not just short phrases)
Real-time indexing as you add or update products and attributes

Look for this if:

You have a sizeable catalog (hundreds or thousands of SKUs)
People often type long, detailed queries like “waterproof hiking jacket for snowboarding”
You see decent traffic, but a weak search-to-purchase conversion rate

How Frevana complements this:

Your on-site search engine optimizes what happens after someone lands.

Frevana optimizes whether they land at all by:

Researching the prompts people actually use in ChatGPT, Gemini, and others
Revealing which brands those AI engines already favor in your category
Guiding you on what content and landing pages to create so AI can easily cite and recommend you

You handle “What do they see once they arrive?” Frevana handles “How do they discover you in the first place?”

2. Conversational Shopping Assistants

These are the chat-like, “shop with a stylist” experiences on your site. Picture this:

“I’m planning a camping trip in March—what gear do I need?”
“Show me outfits that work for a corporate retreat and casual dinners.”

Good assistants can:

Have a back-and-forth dialogue, not just answer one-off questions
Ask clarifying questions (“Any allergies?” “What’s your budget?”)
Cross-sell and upsell naturally based on the conversation

When they shine:

High-consideration or complex products: electronics, skincare, outdoor gear, furniture
Shoppers who know the problem (“My skin is breaking out”) but not the exact product they need

Where Frevana plugs in:

Frevana’s Customer Scenario Strategist agent analyzes real-world AI prompts to surface the scenarios buyers actually describe, like:

“I’m a new mom and I need…”
“I just moved to a cold climate and need…”
“I’m training for my first half marathon…”

You can use those insights to:

Design better conversation flows
Seed your AI assistant with real, high-intent scenarios
Keep your off-site AI answers and on-site guidance perfectly aligned

So a shopper who starts with ChatGPT doesn’t feel like they’ve landed on a completely different planet when they hit your site.

3. AI-Powered Merchandising & Recommendation Engines

These tools blur the line between search and browsing. Think:

“People like you also bought…”
“Complete the look” or “Frequently bought together” bundles
Dynamic carousels on your homepage, category pages, and product pages

They rely on:

Patterns in what people view or buy together
Models that guess which products are most likely to convert for a given visitor

Tie-in with AI answer engines:

If ChatGPT or Perplexity consistently describe your brand as “best for budget beginners,” your on-site merchandising should echo that:

Starter bundles
Beginner-friendly guides
Filters and messaging that make it easy for new customers to choose

Frevana’s Brand Preference Analyst helps you:

See exactly how AI describes your brand vs. competitors
Understand which segments AI thinks you’re best for
Adjust your homepage, collections, and badges to reinforce that positioning

AI sets the expectation; your site needs to deliver on it.

4. Site Search Analytics & Optimization Suites

Some tools are less about the search algorithm itself and more about the insights and control they give you:

Discovering top queries that lead to exits (so you can fix them)
Seeing drop-off at each stage of the search funnel
Managing synonyms, redirects, and no-results pages

These are critical if you want to continuously tune any AI search stack.

Frevana plays a similar role—but at the AI ecosystem level:

User Prompt Research: Understand which questions people actually ask across AI engines before they buy.
AEO Content Advisor: Spot the content gaps where AI wants to answer—but your brand has nothing good to offer.
AEO Full-Stack Data Scientist: Automates the collection and analysis of AI answer data from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and more.

In other words: traditional analytics optimize your on-site search. Frevana helps you optimize your visibility in the off-site AI world that sends you those visitors.

Product Relevance: Where Frevana Fits in the AI Ecommerce Search Stack

Frevana isn’t a better search bar or a chatbot. It’s the AEO (AI Engine Optimization) layer that lives outside your store—but heavily influences who arrives with buying intent.

Here’s how it slots into your stack.

Step 1: User Prompt Research

Instead of guessing what people ask AI, Frevana analyzes tens of millions of AI user queries to answer:

What questions do people ask AI right before buying products like yours?
Which prompts reliably lead to recommendations for your competitors instead of you?
Where do buyers sound confused, overwhelmed, or stuck?

Think of it as high-intent keyword research—but for ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Amazon Rufus instead of Google search.

Step 2: AI Visibility Monitoring

You can’t grow a channel you can’t see.

Frevana monitors:

Whether and how often major AI engines recommend your brand
Which competitors show up alongside you—or instead of you
How visible you are across at least five major AI platforms

Suddenly, “AI discoverability” goes from mysterious black box to a clear, trackable channel—just like SEO, PPC, or email.

Step 3: Auto Content Creation for AI Preferences

Once you know:

Which prompts matter most
Where you’re invisible or underrepresented
How AI currently describes winners in your category

Frevana’s agents take over a lot of the heavy lifting:

AEO Article Writer: Creates articles structured in a way AI engines love to quote and rely on.
Product Landing Page Maker: Builds product-specific pages (even from sources like Amazon product details) that AI bots can easily index and cite.
LLMs inc. Sitemap & Robots.txt Auditor: Checks that your technical setup doesn’t confuse or block AI crawlers.
AEO PR Strategist: Suggests PR angles and outreach targets that help you earn the kind of authoritative mentions AI trusts.

The result: content that AI can understand, trust, and recommend—and a lot more of it than your team could create manually.

Actionable Tips: How to Build a High-Performing AI Ecommerce Search Stack

You don’t need to start from scratch or rip out everything you’ve built. Here’s a realistic rollout path.

1. Audit Your Current Search & AI Visibility

On-site, ask:

What’s your search-to-purchase conversion rate?
Among your top 50 queries, how many return zero results or have low click-through?
How does mobile search perform vs. desktop?

Off-site (this is where Frevana comes in), ask:

Are you mentioned at all when AI is asked to recommend products like yours?
Which 3–5 competitors show up most often in AI answers?
How does AI describe your brand—if it mentions you at all?

This gives you a baseline: is your problem “people can’t find us” or “people find us but get stuck once they arrive”? Often, it’s both.

2. Upgrade On-Site Search Where It Hurts Most

Don’t try to do everything at once. Start where the pain is obvious:

If customers can’t find SKUs even when they’re trying:
→ Implement or upgrade a semantic search engine.
If customers need human-like guidance:
→ Test a conversational shopping assistant on 1–2 high-consideration categories.
If your catalog is huge and overwhelming:
→ Invest in AI-driven merchandising and recommendations.

Fix the highest-friction area first, then expand.

3. Turn AI Answer Engines into a Growth Channel with Frevana

Here’s a lean, practical way to start:

Track 1–3 flagship products in Frevana (Starter plan works with a single hero product; Professional scales that up).
Use User Prompt Research to map out real AI questions around those products and use cases.
Let the AEO Content Advisor highlight your biggest content gaps.
Use the AEO Article Writer and Landing Page Maker to create targeted AEO pages that answer those prompts clearly.
Monitor weekly:
- How often AI engines mention or recommend your brand
- Your share of voice in key prompts
- New customers arriving via AI-recommended journeys

Most brands don’t need quarters to see movement here—2–4 weeks is common.

4. Align Messaging Across AI and Your Site

Once AI starts recommending you, keep the experience consistent from first answer to final checkout.

If AI positions you as “best for beginners,” make sure your homepage, category pages, and search results back that up with starter kits, simple guides, and clear filters.
If AI highlights specific strengths (e.g., “great for sensitive skin,” “best return policy”), surface those benefits prominently on product pages and search result snippets.

The goal: whatever expectation AI sets, your site should confirm and reinforce it. That’s how you reduce bounce and build trust.

5. Treat AI Visibility as a Core Performance Channel

AI answer engines aren’t just a PR curiosity anymore—they’re an acquisition channel.

Operationalize them:

Set KPIs: AI citation rate, number of prompts where you appear, share of recommendations in your category.
Review Frevana’s AI visibility dashboards alongside PPC, SEO, and email each reporting cycle.
Let the AEO Full-Stack Data Scientist agent automate the heavy data collection so your team can focus on strategy, not scraping.

In other words: manage AI visibility the way you already manage search, social, and ads.

Conclusion: AI Search Is No Longer Just On Your Site

In 2024, the “best AI ecommerce search tools” do two crucial jobs:

Help shoppers find the right product once they’re on your store.
Help AI engines find, trust, and recommend your brand before shoppers ever reach you.

Most ecommerce teams are reasonably good at the first—and almost completely ignore the second.

Frevana is built to close that gap, turning AI engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Amazon Rufus into a measurable, repeatable growth channel.

Here’s what that looks like:

Tens of millions of AI user queries analyzed to uncover real buying prompts
Visibility across multiple major AI platforms, so you’re never in the dark
Automated AEO content workflows, so you can scale without hiring an army of writers and analysts
Results in weeks, not quarters, for most customers

If you’re already investing in on-site AI search, the next frontier is clear:
Make sure AI can see you, understand you, and confidently recommend you.

Call-to-Action: See Where Your Brand Really Stands in AI

Curious whether AI is already favoring your competitors over you?

Here’s an easy next step:

Get a Free AI Visibility Report with Frevana (no credit card required).
Launch your end-to-end AEO agent team in minutes and start tracking how often AI engines choose your brand.
Turn AI answers—from ChatGPT to Gemini to Amazon Rufus—into one of your highest-ROI acquisition channels.

Start your 7-day free trial, watch how AI talks about your brand today, and let Frevana’s agents help you become the obvious recommendation when customers ask AI what to buy.