Benchmarks
Where AI-driven demand leaks between the prompt and the shelf.
Public teardowns of how AI answers, publishers and retailers route category demand — and where it stops converting: the wrong merchant, a third-party seller, an empty shelf. Same method every time, so the results are comparable across categories. We publish benchmarks, never client diagnostics.
Commerce Graph Method v1.4CPG BRAND · WALMART & AMAZON US
The demand is there. The shelves aren't catching it.
Brand search up 42%, 22% AI answer visibility, yet only 1 of 3 Walmart listings buyable same day. ~$840k annual opportunity cost.
View the Commerce Graph02Prestige beauty · Allure
How Allure routes AI citations: MAC vs NARS
78% of AI-cited prestige beauty clicks in the resolved sample land on Amazon, Sephora, Ulta or Nordstrom — not on the brand.
Read the teardown03Consumer tech · Laptops · PCMag
The most AI-cited laptop brands are invisible on the most AI-cited laptop publisher
0.002% of PCMag laptop links go direct to a brand's own site — 35 of 1.85M.
Read the teardownArchive
Earlier routing and retailer studies
Publisher-routing and retailer backlink studies from the Commerce Graph programme, kept live for reference. The current method adds shelf readiness and opportunity cost on top of this work.
Running shoes · Runner's World / RunRepeat
Editorial-first vs pure-affiliate: two running publishers, two routing engines
Runner's World keeps 86.6% of its outbound inside the Hearst graph and is only 3.1% commercial.
Read the teardown05Credit cards · Premium travel · NerdWallet
Citi trails on two of three AI trackers — but the gap is content and commerce, not credibility
Citi trails Chase and Capital One on two of three AI trackers — same brand, three different scores.
Read the teardown06Beauty retail · Backlink Intelligence
Sephora vs Ulta: earned authority vs rented authority
Sephora carries 1.76x more referring domains than Ulta.
Read the teardown07Big retail · Backlink Intelligence
Walmart vs Target: opposite digital PR and affiliate playbooks
Two retail giants, two completely different ways of earning links, distributing affiliate revenue, and shaping the SERPs that brands compete on.
Read the teardownThe AI Commerce Capture Brief
One link chain, resolved. Every Friday.
Where AI-driven demand leaked this week — one category, one traced route, one shelf, one dollar figure.
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