# Know whether AI shopping tools send buyers to your official route, or to a cheaper seller. Canonical URL: https://www.fcpress.org/shopping-path-diagnostic HTML page: https://www.fcpress.org/shopping-path-diagnostic Markdown alternate: https://www.fcpress.org/shopping-path-diagnostic.md Updated: 2026-07-13 Status: Public bot-facing Markdown alternate. The HTML page remains canonical. Rights holder: Full Court Press Pte. Ltd. Singapore UEN: 202306714R. AI Shopping Purchase-Path Diagnostic AI shopping can compress brand preference into an operational seller comparison: price, stock, delivery, returns, warranty, authenticity, and checkout access. When another seller gives the clearer answer, that seller may capture the transaction the brand created. Key Takeaways The Full Court Press (FCP) AI Shopping Purchase-Path Diagnostic helps brand, ecommerce, and channel teams assess whether the official route is positioned to win the AI shopping comparison against authorised retailers, marketplaces, and grey importers (sellers outside the brand's authorised distribution network who still obtain and resell genuine stock). It is useful when leaders want to understand where commercial leakage, demand the brand's own marketing creates but a different seller ends up capturing, is most likely to occur. The Full Court Press (FCP) AI Shopping Purchase-Path Diagnostic gives you a scored view of how clearly your official route compares against alternative sellers in AI-assisted shopping research. This diagnostic assesses the product data, structural, and governance signals that determine whether AI shopping tools favour the official route. 8 Min 20 Questions 5 Dimensions [Take the Diagnostic →](https://www.fcpress.org/fcp_shopping_path_diagnostic) The diagnostic answers three questions - Does the official route give a shopping assistant everything needed to complete the comparison? - Which authorised retailers, marketplaces, or grey importers are winning the comparison instead? - Is there ownership and process in place to keep the purchase path clear as products and sellers change? The problem this solves AI shopping tools compress a broader value proposition, service, packaging, retail experience, and loyalty status, into an operational comparison: price, stock, delivery, returns, warranty, and authenticity. A buyer can ask an AI tool to compare sellers for a product before visiting the official page. When another seller gives the clearer answer in that comparison, the brand keeps the interest while that seller captures the transaction. The diagnostic is built to make that comparison, and the channel leakage it can create, visible. What the diagnostic assesses ## Five conditions determine whether the official route wins the seller comparison. The score focuses on the specific conditions that determine whether an AI shopping tool can find the official route, describe it accurately, and favour it over authorised retailers, marketplaces, and grey importers. D01 ### Official Route Clarity Whether the official product page shows price, stock, delivery, returns, warranty, authenticity, and checkout access clearly enough for a shopping tool to compare. D02 ### Seller & Channel Comparison Whether the business has an active, current view of the authorised retailers, marketplaces, and grey importers appearing alongside the official route. D03 ### 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. D04 ### AI Shopping Discoverability Whether AI shopping tools surface the official route accurately, and how often another seller is recommended instead. D05 ### Channel Governance Whether ownership, audit cadence, and a response process exist to keep purchase-path clarity current as products and sellers change. If the score is strong The official route is well positioned to win the AI shopping comparison. Buyers are more likely to see accurate, complete information, and AI shopping tools are more likely to favour the official route over authorised retailers, marketplaces, or grey importers. If the score is weak The issue usually sits upstream of the storefront. Product data may be inconsistent across sources, the seller landscape may lack active monitoring, or ownership for purchase-path clarity may be unclear as products and sellers change. Free diagnostic ## See whether your official route wins the AI shopping comparison. Eight minutes. Immediate results. Free diagnostic. [Start the Diagnostic →](https://www.fcpress.org/fcp_shopping_path_diagnostic) FAQ ## Common questions before you begin What the diagnostic measures, who it is for, and how to use the result. What is the Full Court Press (FCP) AI Shopping Purchase-Path Diagnostic? The Full Court Press (FCP) AI Shopping Purchase-Path Diagnostic is a structured self-assessment for understanding whether AI shopping tools favour your official route over authorised retailers, marketplaces, and grey importers. It scores five dimensions: Official Route Clarity, Seller and Channel Comparison, Product Data Consistency, AI Shopping Discoverability, and Channel Governance. The result shows where commercial leakage is most likely to occur. Who is this diagnostic designed for? It is designed for brand, ecommerce, and channel leaders at premium and luxury businesses where the official route competes against authorised retailers, marketplaces, and grey importers. It is especially relevant where AI shopping tools are beginning to influence which seller a buyer chooses. How long does it take to complete? The diagnostic takes approximately eight minutes. It consists of 20 questions across five dimensions, each with four response options. Results are generated immediately upon submission. What do the results tell me? Your results include an overall purchase-path score from 0 to 100, a score across five dimensions, and a band classification. The output identifies the lowest-scoring dimension, whether that is route clarity, seller comparison, product data consistency, AI shopping discoverability, or channel governance, and explains what that gap means for commercial leakage. A recommended first action shows what to address first. Is the diagnostic free? Yes. The diagnostic is free to complete. You will be asked for your name, company, email, and primary market before your results are displayed. This allows Full Court Press to provide relevant follow-up and ensures results are matched to your specific context. What should I do after completing the diagnostic? Start with the lowest dimension score. If route clarity is low, the official page may be missing the price, stock, delivery, returns, warranty, or authenticity information a shopping tool compares. If seller comparison or product data consistency is low, the gap likely sits in visibility into other sellers or inconsistency across product feeds. If AI shopping discoverability or channel governance is low, the priority is closing the upstream gaps identified in the other dimensions. How to read the result ## Purchase-path clarity improves when the comparison becomes easier for a shopping tool to resolve in your favour. The diagnostic is designed to separate a visibility problem from a comparison problem. Some official routes are missing from AI shopping answers entirely. Others appear, but lose the comparison to a seller with clearer information. ### How do AI shopping tools decide which seller to recommend? AI shopping tools draw on product data, merchant listing structured data, Merchant Center feeds (the product listing file a business submits to Google, which powers Shopping results and Shopping-aware AI answers), and retailer listings to compare price, availability, category, sale timing, delivery, returns, and authenticity. The seller with the clearest combination of these signals tends to win the comparison, even when price is only one part of the answer. ### What is the difference between channel conflict and AI shopping leakage? Channel conflict is a distribution management issue between the brand and its authorised partners. AI shopping leakage is what happens when an AI tool, comparing on the buyer's behalf, sends the transaction to a seller outside that managed structure because that seller’s information is clearer. Related reading ## Go deeper after the score Use the diagnostic result to decide what to read next: the article on AI shopping and channel leakage, the AI Search Visibility hub, or the broader AI Visibility Diagnostic. [ARTICLE ### Why AI Shopping Can Send Luxury Buyers to Cheaper Sellers How AI shopping compresses brand preference into seller comparison, and what determines which seller wins that comparison.](https://www.fcpress.org/fcp-article-why-ai-shopping-sends-luxury-buyers-to-cheaper-sellers) [SERVICE HUB ### AI Search Visibility AI search visibility advisory for companies that need buyers and AI systems to find, understand, validate, and shortlist them.](https://www.fcpress.org/ai-search-visibility) [DIAGNOSTIC ### AI Visibility Diagnostic Assess whether AI tools can find, describe, and recommend your company across five dimensions. Free, instant results.](https://www.fcpress.org/ai-visibility-diagnostic) [INTELLIGENCE ### AI visibility tools and current signals Current Full Court Press (FCP) assessments of AI visibility tools, AEO/GEO tracking platforms, and market signals through a commercial lens.](https://www.fcpress.org/intelligence) **Source context:** Google Search Central's Product and Merchant listing structured data guidance, together with Google Merchant Center's product data specification, document the fields Google can use for richer product understanding, including price, availability, category, sale duration, shipping, returns, and seller information. [Read the merchant listing guidance.](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/merchant-listing) ## Rights and Ownership Copyright 2026 Full Court Press Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved.