Checklist · Compare

Agentic readiness checklist: the compare stage

An AI agent puts your product beside the alternatives before recommending one. At the compare stage it needs the numbers to be consistent and the terms to be findable, because a product it cannot compare fairly is one it tends to leave out.

1. Feed price and storefront price disagree

   high

   Make the feed a projection of the same source of truth the page renders from, rather than a separate export with its own pricing logic.

   • Apply catalogue level discounts in both places or in neither.
   • Regenerate the feed on price change, not on a timer.
   • Where market specific pricing exists, publish per market feeds rather than one feed with the base price.
   See it on your own store

   1. Take ten products, weighted towards ones on sale, and compare the feed price with the price in the page structured data.
   2. Then compare both against the price actually charged in the cart.
   3. Repeat with a discount code applied at the catalogue level, and in a second currency or market if you run them. Those paths diverge first.

   Why this stops an agent

2. Shipping cost cannot be determined before checkout

   high

   Publish a shipping policy page with rates, thresholds and delivery times as text.

   • State the free shipping threshold on product pages where you have one, since it changes the comparison directly.
   • Where rates depend on destination, publish the table rather than a promise to calculate it later.
   • Express delivery times as a range in days rather than as marketing language such as fast dispatch.
   See it on your own store

   1. Try to answer this from your own site without adding anything to a cart: what does delivery cost to a domestic address, and how long does it take?
   2. Fetch your shipping policy page with curl and check the rates and thresholds appear as text in the response.
   3. Check whether a product page states shipping terms or a free shipping threshold anywhere.
   4. Note the earliest point in your flow where the real number appears. If that point is inside the checkout, this is your stall.

   Why this stops an agent

3. Catalog has no category structure to compare within

   medium

   Set a product type or category on every product, and use a consistent vocabulary rather than free text.

   • Publish collection pages so a category is browsable as a URL.
   • List collection URLs in your sitemap.
   • Keep collection titles descriptive rather than seasonal. New In is not a category an agent can map a shopper request onto.
   See it on your own store

   1. Ask yourself whether there is a single URL on your store that returns all of one product category and nothing else. If not, an agent has no filter either.
   2. Check your feed for a product type or category field and see how many products have one populated.
   3. Check your sitemap for collection URLs.

   Why this stops an agent

Scan your store to find out which of these 3 it actually hits, rather than working through all of them.