AI-to-retail routing intelligence · for footwear and wellness brands with DTC + retail
When AI recommends running shoes, who gets the cart?
Runner's World and RunRepeat are the only two third-party publishers that appear in the top-10 citation lists on both AI trackers we compared. Across 7.73M outbound links, they route the same demand in almost opposite ways — and only one of them ever sends it to a brand.
No visibility subscription required — and it plugs into sources like Profound, Semrush, Similarweb or Ahrefs. No tags. No pixels. No platform replacement. Commerce Graph Method v1.4.
01 · The proof in footwear & wellness
Three numbers from this category's benchmark.
98.6%
of RunRepeat's outbound is commercial
44.0% goes to Amazon and 40.9% into affiliate networks. It is a routing engine, not a magazine.
86.6%
of Runner's World outbound stays inside the Hearst graph
Only 3.1% is commercial at all — so the citations that reach it rarely convert anywhere you can see.
#2 of 64
Adidas rank in AI answers, on both trackers
48% visibility on Gumshoe, 49% on Profound — behind Nike, and still not the destination the clicks reach.
Observed: link paths, affiliate wrappers, merchant destinations. Modeled: opportunity cost and share of clicks. We label which is which.
Read the full running publisher teardown02 · What we analysed
Named brands, named publishers, resolved destinations.
Brands analysed
- Nike
- Adidas
- Brooks
- Hoka
- New Balance
- Asics
- Saucony
- On Running
Publishers analysed
- Runner's World
- RunRepeat
- Outside
- Believe in the Run
- Road Runner Sports
Destinations that captured the demand
- Amazon
- Dick's Sporting Goods
- Road Runner Sports
- Zappos
- Foot Locker
What we look at first for you
- 01
Which of the two publisher models your citations actually sit on, and what each one does with the click
- 02
Where Amazon and the big sporting-goods retailers intercept demand ahead of your own site
- 03
Which review and roundup formats convert citation weight into brand-direct traffic in this category
Who this is for
Built for Complexity.
Aqxle is built for consumer brands with meaningful online demand, competitive category pressure, and complex discovery pathways across AI platforms, publishers, affiliates, retailers, and marketplaces.
- You manage complex omnichannel availability (DTC, Amazon, Walmart, Target).
- You are paying for AI visibility and digital shelf tools, but can't connect top-of-funnel marketing lift to actual retail checkout.
- You suspect AI engines are routing your buyers to competitors or third-party sellers, but have no visibility into the pathways.
How it works
From prompt to the retail shelf — and where the revenue is lost.
Most tools stop at "were we mentioned." Aqxle keeps going — through the citation, through the commerce route, all the way to the shelf the buyer actually lands on, and puts a dollar figure on every hop that leaks.
- Prompt100%
- AI visibility62%
Not visible in the answer · −38%
- Citation source46%
Cited, but no commerce route · −16%
- Commerce route37%
Wrong merchant / broken link · −9%
- DTC cart12%
Lands on your own cart
- Amazon 3P hijacker15%
Third-party seller wins the buy box
- Walmart out-of-stock10%
Unbuyable listing or broken link
Captured on your shelf
12%
Leaked at retail
42%
Largest single leak
Off-shelf · no listing met · 15%
No tags, no pixels, no rip-and-replace. Aqxle runs on its own data and plugs into sources like Profound, Stackline, SEMrush, Similarweb or Ahrefs.
The offer
Start free. Pay when you want us to go deeper.
The free audit proves the leakage is real on your brand. The paid tiers go wider and faster across your citation sources and retail shelves, and are the only ones that connect to your first-party data.
PROVE IT'S HAPPENING
Free Revenue Opportunity Audit
$0
24 hours
Proof before you pay. We trace one specific AI-to-retail path in your category and deliver one hard leakage number to prove the blind spot exists.
- 1 brand, 1 category
- 1 traced AI-to-retail path
- One leakage or capture number
- Delivered straight to your inbox
Pinpoint the bottleneck
Rapid Diagnostic Scan
$2,500
48 hours
A surgical, automated scan of your most critical AI-to-retail bottleneck.
- 1 brand + 2 competitors
- Scan of 1 priority citation source
- Digital shelf readiness check
- 1-page diagnostic & 15-minute walkthrough
100% credited toward the Omnichannel Leakage Map.
Request my free auditThe category diagnostic
Omnichannel Leakage Map
$10,000
Delivered in under 3 weeks
The definitive map of your AI-driven revenue leakage across your top AI-cited domains and major retail shelves.
- 1 brand + 4 competitors
- Top 50 AI-cited domains scanned
- Multi-retailer shelf readiness map
- Modeled revenue leakage calculation
- Executive action plan & 60-minute workshop
100% credited toward Continuous Leakage Monitoring.
Request my free auditContinuous protection
Continuous Leakage Monitoring
from $36,000/year
Billed annually
Real-time routing intelligence and alerts when an AI pathway breaks or sends traffic to an out-of-stock retail SKU.
- Everything in the Leakage Map, continuously updated
- First-party data integration
- Real-time route change alerts
- Out-of-stock and broken-link SKU alerts
- Verified recovery reporting
Your audit is delivered privately. We publish benchmarks, never client diagnostics.
Want this for your brand?