Dimension 01 of 05

Official Route Clarity

Whether the official product page gives a buyer, or a shopping assistant acting on a buyer's behalf, everything needed to complete a purchase decision through the official route.

1. How clearly does your official product page show current price, stock availability, and delivery timing?

Consider: a buyer comparing sellers through an AI shopping tool needs this information to appear clearly, with minimal extra clicks or store contact.

Unclear. Price, stock, or delivery timing is missing or difficult to locate on the official page.

Partial. Some of this information is present but incomplete or inconsistently updated.

Clear. Price, stock, and delivery timing are all visible and current on the official page.

Precise. Price, stock, and delivery timing are visible, current, and structured for extraction by shopping tools.

2. How clearly does your official product page state return terms, warranty coverage, and authenticity assurance?

Consider: these three fields are frequently the deciding factor when a buyer is weighing the official route against a cheaper seller.

Unclear. Return terms, warranty, or authenticity information is absent or buried in general policy pages.

Partial. Some of this is stated inconsistently across product pages.

Clear. Return terms, warranty, and authenticity are stated clearly on most product pages.

Precise. All three are stated explicitly and consistently on every product page.

3. How visible is checkout access, including payment options and delivery to the buyer's market, on the official route?

Consider: a shopping assistant favours the route where the next step to purchase is unambiguous.

Unclear. Checkout access is unclear or restricted to certain markets with limited explanation.

Partial. Checkout is available but payment options or market coverage are limited or unclear.

Clear. Checkout access, payment options, and delivery markets are clearly presented.

Precise. Checkout access, payment options, and delivery markets are explicit and confirmed at the product level.

4. How current is the product, price, and stock information shown across your official channels?

Consider: outdated price or stock information is one of the most common reasons a shopping tool defers to another seller.

Often outdated. Price or stock information regularly lags behind the actual position.

Sometimes outdated. Discrepancies appear periodically, particularly during promotions or restocks.

Mostly current. Information is refreshed on a regular, defined cadence.

Always current. Price and stock update automatically and in near real time.

Dimension 02 of 05

Seller & Channel Comparison

Whether the business has an active view of the authorised retailers, marketplaces, and grey importers (sellers outside the brand's authorised network who still obtain and resell genuine stock) a shopping tool may compare against the official route, and how exposed specific products are to channel leakage (demand the brand's own marketing creates, captured instead by one of these other sellers).

5. How well do you know which authorised retailers, marketplaces, and grey importers appear alongside your official route for a given product?

Consider: this requires an active view of the seller landscape. The official route may be one of several visible options.

Limited visibility. Seller reviews happen rarely or ad hoc.

Partial visibility. Authorised retailers are tracked while marketplaces and grey importers sit outside the tracker.

Good visibility. Authorised retailers and major marketplaces are tracked, with occasional gaps on grey-importer activity.

Full visibility. Authorised retailers, marketplaces, and grey-importer activity are all tracked on a defined cadence.

6. How does your official price and delivery information compare with the authorised retailers and marketplaces selling the same product?

Consider: a shopping comparison typically surfaces the seller with the clearer combination of price, availability, delivery, returns, authenticity, and checkout information.

Consistently behind. Other sellers tend to present clearer price or delivery information than the official route.

Mixed. The comparison depends heavily on the product or the seller in question.

Broadly competitive. The official route compares well on most products.

Consistently ahead. The official route presents the clearest price and delivery information across the range.

7. How well do you understand what grey-importer or third-party listings show more clearly than your official route?

Consider: grey-importer listings often win through stock availability or price transparency ahead of legitimacy signals.

Unexamined. Grey-importer or third-party listings remain unreviewed against the official route.

Reviewed once. A one-time review has taken place, and the repeat cycle has lapsed.

Reviewed periodically. These listings are reviewed on an occasional basis.

Reviewed systematically. These listings are reviewed on a defined, recurring basis with findings logged.

8. How often is the seller landscape reviewed for products at risk of channel leakage?

Consider: channel leakage risk concentrates in specific products, typically those with high demand and inconsistent official-route information.

Unreviewed. The team lacks a process for identifying which products carry the highest channel-leakage risk.

Reviewed reactively. Review happens only after a leakage issue is raised elsewhere in the business.

Reviewed periodically. A subset of higher-risk products is reviewed on a regular basis.

Reviewed proactively. All at-risk products are identified and reviewed on a defined schedule.

Dimension 03 of 05

Product Data Consistency

Whether product data, merchant listing structured data, Merchant Center feeds, and retailer listings tell the same story about price, availability, category, sale timing, identifiers, and specification.

9. How consistent is product data, including price, availability, category, sale timing, and identifiers, across your website, Merchant Center feed (the product listing file a business submits to Google, which powers Shopping results), and retailer listings?

Consider: inconsistency across these sources, especially during promotions or category updates, is one of the most common causes of a shopping tool preferring another seller.

Frequently inconsistent. Price, availability, category, sale timing, or identifiers commonly differ across sources.

Sometimes inconsistent. Discrepancies appear periodically, often after catalogue updates or promotions.

Mostly consistent. Sources are aligned with occasional, quickly corrected exceptions.

Fully consistent. Price, availability, category, sale timing, and identifiers match across every source at all times.

10. How complete is your merchant listing structured data, such as schema.org Product and Offer markup, for price, availability, category, sale duration, shipping, returns, and reviews?

Consider: Google documents merchant listing markup for product information such as price, availability, category, and sale duration; valid markup can support richer product understanding, although appearance in search features is never guaranteed.

Absent. Structured data for products is missing or incomplete.

Partial. Structured data exists on some pages but fields are incomplete.

Mostly complete. Structured data is implemented across most product pages with the key merchant listing fields present.

Complete. Structured data is implemented across all product pages with price, availability, category, sale duration, shipping, returns, and reviews present where relevant and validated.

11. How aligned are product images, specifications, and descriptions across your official site and authorised retailer listings?

Consider: misaligned specifications create doubt about which listing is authoritative.

Frequently misaligned. Images, specifications, or descriptions commonly differ between the official site and retailer listings.

Sometimes misaligned. Misalignment appears for a subset of products or retailers.

Mostly aligned. Images, specifications, and descriptions are aligned across most listings.

Fully aligned. A single source of product content feeds the official site and all retailer listings.

12. How quickly are product data errors, such as an incorrect price or an out-of-stock item shown as available, identified and corrected?

Consider: the length of time an error persists determines how many buyers are shown the wrong information before it is fixed.

Slowly. Errors are typically identified only when a customer or partner reports them.

With delay. Errors are identified through periodic manual checks.

Reasonably quickly. Errors are identified through a mix of monitoring and periodic checks.

Quickly. Errors are identified through automated monitoring and corrected within a defined window.

Dimension 04 of 05

AI Shopping Discoverability

Whether AI shopping tools surface the official route accurately, and how often another seller is recommended instead.

13. When you ask AI shopping tools to compare sellers for one of your products, how often does your official route appear as an option?

Consider: try prompting a shopping-capable AI tool with a comparison question for one of your core products.

Rarely. The official route seldom appears when sellers are compared.

Sometimes. The official route appears inconsistently across products.

Usually. The official route appears for most products tested.

Consistently. The official route appears reliably across the product range tested.

14. How accurately do AI shopping tools describe your price, stock, and delivery when they do surface your official route?

Consider: appearing in the comparison is only useful if the information shown is correct.

Often inaccurate. Price, stock, or delivery information is frequently wrong when shown.

Sometimes inaccurate. Inaccuracies appear periodically.

Mostly accurate. Information is correct in most instances tested.

Consistently accurate. Information matches the official route exactly in every instance tested.

15. How often do AI shopping tools recommend an authorised retailer or grey importer ahead of your official route?

Consider: this is the direct measure of commercial leakage, demand created by the brand but captured by another seller.

Frequently. Another seller is recommended ahead of the official route in most comparisons tested.

Sometimes. Another seller is recommended ahead of the official route in a meaningful share of comparisons.

Occasionally. Another seller is recommended ahead of the official route in a small share of comparisons.

Rarely. The official route is recommended ahead of, or level with, other sellers in almost every comparison tested.

16. How clearly does your product content answer the questions AI shopping tools are likely to ask, such as price, stock, returns, and authenticity?

Consider: AI shopping tools extract direct, factual answers more readily than marketing language.

Marketing-led. Product content is written primarily in brand language, with few direct buying answers.

Mixed. Some direct answers are present alongside marketing language.

Mostly direct. Product content answers the likely buyer questions directly in most cases.

Direct throughout. Product content is structured to answer price, stock, returns, and authenticity questions directly.

Dimension 05 of 05

Channel Governance

Whether ownership, audit cadence, and response process exist to keep purchase-path clarity current as products and sellers change.

17. Is there a named owner responsible for purchase-path clarity and channel leakage across product lines?

Consider: when ownership is undefined, purchase-path issues tend to surface only when a leakage event is already visible.

No. No individual or team has this responsibility defined.

Informally. Someone typically handles it, though the responsibility remains informal.

Partially. Ownership is defined for some product lines or markets.

Yes. A named owner is responsible across all product lines and markets.

18. How regularly is the official purchase path audited against alternative sellers?

Consider: an audit compares the official product page, structured data, and retailer listings against the alternative seller routes.

Not audited. No regular audit of this kind takes place.

Audited reactively. Audits happen only after an issue is raised.

Audited periodically. A defined but infrequent audit cycle is in place.

Audited on a defined cadence. Audits take place on a set schedule with documented findings.

19. Is there a documented process for responding when a cheaper or clearer seller route is identified?

Consider: a leakage finding needs a response process before it can become a commercial outcome.

Undefined process. Findings lack routing to a defined next step.

Ad hoc response. A response happens but varies by situation and owner.

Defined but inconsistent. A process exists, though it is followed inconsistently.

Defined and followed. A documented process is consistently followed from finding to resolution.

20. How well do product, ecommerce, and brand teams coordinate on purchase-path and channel-leakage issues?

Consider: these issues typically sit across three teams, and coordination gaps are a common reason fixes stall.

Limited coordination. These teams lack a regular point of coordination on this issue.

Informal coordination. Coordination happens on an unstructured, unscheduled basis.

Structured coordination. A regular touchpoint exists between the relevant teams.

Fully coordinated. A structured, recurring process connects product, ecommerce, and brand teams on this issue.

Score whether your official route wins the AI shopping comparison.

Find out whether AI shopping tools send buyers to your official route, or to a cheaper seller.

Purchase-path clarity is a commercial asset.

Talk through the issue.

Score whether your official route wins the AI shopping comparison.

Find out whether AI shopping tools send buyers to your official route, or to a cheaper seller.

Purchase-path clarity is a commercial asset.

Why AI Shopping Sends Luxury Buyers to Cheaper Sellers

AI Search Visibility

Talk through the issue.