How Shopify AI Catalog Works (And How to Set It Up with Shoptank)
There is a feature in Shopify that most merchants have not touched yet. It changes how AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini read your product catalog. And it can directly affect whether your products get recommended or ignored.
Here is what it is and how to set it up in under 10 minutes.
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Your Store Now Has Two Titles and Two Descriptions
Shopify has introduced a dual catalog structure. Every product in your store can now carry two sets of content:
These are two separate brand catalogs serving two completely different audiences. One talks to humans. The other talks to machines.
If you only have one version, you are either writing for conversions at the cost of AI visibility, or writing for AI at the cost of conversions. With Shoptank you do not have to choose.
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How to Set It Up in Shoptank
The setup takes a few minutes. Here is exactly what to do.
Step 1. Open the AI Catalog section
Inside Shoptank, navigate to the AI Catalog section. This is where your AI-specific product content lives.
Step 2. Configure Shopify Catalog Mappings
This is the most important step. In the catalog mappings, you assign your custom AI title field to "Product Title" and your AI description field to "Product Description." Once mapped correctly, save the settings.
Step 3. Batch generate AI content
Shoptank includes a batch generate feature that uses AI to create optimized titles and descriptions for your entire catalog at once. Press batch generate and the app processes all your products automatically. The generated content is structured to be more likely recommended by AI assistants.
Step 4. Manually optimize your bestsellers
Batch generation handles the bulk of your catalog well. But for your top-selling products, manual optimization is worth the extra time.
Here is the process. Generate a sample in Shoptank, save the product, then take the product page URL to ChatGPT. Ask it directly: would you recommend this product, and to whom? Then push further. Ask it how your listing compares to your top competitors. Ask it to grade your title and description on readability. Ask it what you need to change to hit a perfect score.
If your product is made for runners, your AI description should say runners. It should mention durability, performance, and the specific use case. ChatGPT will tell you exactly what is missing. Keep iterating until the score hits 10, then paste the final version back into Shoptank.
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Why This Matters Now
AI tools are becoming a primary discovery channel for consumers. When someone asks ChatGPT to recommend running shoes under $100, the products that get mentioned are the ones AI can read, understand, and confidently recommend. A generic product description written for Google SEO does not cut it for this.
The merchants who set up their AI catalog now are getting ahead of a shift that most of their competitors have not noticed yet.
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Get Started
Shoptank handles the AI catalog setup, batch generation, and ongoing AI visibility for your Shopify store. If you are not on Shoptank yet, install it from the Shopify App Store and run your first AI Visibility Score to see where your store stands today.
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