AI engines deliver a shortlist of trusted answers: not a scroll of blue links. Big-name competitors like Sports Direct still pour budgets into classical SEO. But for SMEs like FootAsylum: and every ambitious multichannel retailer: embracing Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) gives you a real shot at leapfrogging the giants.

Most multi-location retailers chase raw numbers. Vanity metrics that look great in reports but don't move product off shelves. The real challenge is getting the right eyeballs at the moment they're ready to buy. We wanted to prove something different: that AI-driven local visibility could explode reach while sharpening focus on high-value customers. The results exceeded expectations.

AI engines don't crawl and interpret websites the way humans do. They need structured, machine-readable data that explicitly connects products to locations. Without it, your brand doesn't exist in their world.

As of late 2025, AI Overviews appear in roughly 16% of all search queries and they peaked at nearly 25% mid-year. For retailers, the implications are massive. Traditional SEO tactics that worked for decades are losing ground to AI-generated summaries that answer customer questions before they ever click a link.

If you sell 5,000 products across 200 stores, you have exactly one million searchable opportunities. One million moments when a customer could type "Nike running shoes near me". But you're probably capturing less than 1% of them.

Most retailers chase visibility the wrong way. They try to optimize everything at once; thousands of products, hundreds of locations, dozens of platforms. The result? Scattered efforts, diluted budgets, and underwhelming returns.

We analyzed five years of global Google Trends data for "near me" searches. The pattern is unmistakable: every single December shows a significant spike in search intent, specifically for retail and shopping categories. Every December, something predictable happens in worldwide search behavior. The question is: are you prepared for it?

Every Black Friday, retailers pour millions into the same playbook. Increase ad spend. Optimize the homepage. Send more emails. Fight for traffic. And every Black Friday, they lose to the same fundamental problem: their entire business is trapped on one website.

The marketing world just witnessed a pivotal moment. Zeta Global's launch of their GEO platform this week, combined with the fact that 40% of generative engine optimization startups have emerged in just the past year, signals something profound: we're not just witnessing the evolution of search, we're watching the birth of an entirely new customer discovery ecosystem.

The empire is crumbling and most retailers don't even realize it yet. 2025 isn't just another year in retail. It's the year the old guard fell. For two decades, Amazon reigned supreme as the undisputed king of eCommerce, setting the rules that everyone else scrambled to follow. But something seismic has shifted in the digital shopping landscape, and the numbers tell a story that should terrify traditional omnichannel retailers.

The grocery industry stands at a remarkable inflection point. While other sectors have gradually embraced digital transformation, grocery retail, traditionally one of the most relationship-driven and tactile commerce experiences, is rapidly evolving into a sophisticated, AI-powered ecosystem. The latest data on Grocery Trends reveals not just an adoption trend, but a fundamental reimagining of how grocery businesses operate, compete, and serve customers.

The retail industry is undergoing a radical transformation. According to recent industry insights, over half, 52%, of all global retail growth in the upcoming years is expected to be captured by just 10 retailers worldwide. This remarkable concentration of market power is reshaping competitive dynamics and demands urgent reflection from every retailer and brand operating outside this elite group.

TL;DR; Omnichannel retailers that make each physical store and its product catalog discoverable to AI and search engines can capture a wave of unserved, hyperlocal product demand. That’s not hypothetical, it’s measurable: close to half of searches have local intent and local queries routinely turn into store visits. The play: build store-level product footprints (pages + structured data + product catalog) so AI/search can surface your products where and when people need them.

The search bar is disappearing. And with it, the rules that governed visibility for the past two decades. This isn't a small shift. It's a complete rewiring of how people discover and choose where to buy.

When someone asks "Where can I find sustainable sneakers in Brooklyn?" or "What's the best camera store near me?", these AI engines don't browse your website the way humans do. They need structured, crawlable content that connects your products to specific locations. Most retailers are invisible in this new landscape.

How the world's largest retailer proved that product-location visibility isn't just about SEO, it's about unlocking revenue that's...

This guide reviews the top five local SEO tools retailers use today, examining what they do well, where they fall short, and whether they're equipped for the product-level visibility modern retail demands.

Local Product Discovery is the strategic approach to creating product-location visibility that captures high-intent customers searching for specific products near specific locations, optimized for both traditional search engines and AI-powered discovery platforms. Unlike traditional local SEO, which focuses on optimizing store pages to be found in generic local searches, Local Product Discovery creates thousands of specific product-location combinations that match the exact