Retailers must make their product data “speak human”

“[To feed AI systems effectively] retailers must make their product data speak human,” Annie Haas, Chief Delivery Officer at Stylitics, said at Alvanon’s Tech Fest 2025 panel ‘Retail Rewired: AI, Data, and the Customer Experience’ that took place last week.

Stylitics is a New York based technology company, helps fashion and lifestyle retailers such as Nike, Boden, Bloomingdale’s and JD Sports power shoppable outfitting and other inspirational commerce solutions. Haas noted that shoppers’ search behaviour is shifting [from query searches] to full sentences and AI systems interpret those natural, conversational cues.

“When you’re chatting with GPT or Gemini, you can describe the context - an event you’re going to, the people who’ll be there, the time, the weather - and the products need to surface to that context,” Haas explained.

That, she added, is where many brands fall behind. “Most product catalogues have been standardized and sanitized, built for a different purpose,” she noted, referring to how many systems still rely on technical data like SKUs and inventory codes.

“As retailers prepare for AI,” Haas added, “that natural language within their data is a really critical thing to think about, because searches won’t necessarily be in the form of a search, but could be in the form of a conversation.”

The product page becomes fashion’s new front door

This shift in discovery behavior is changing where and how consumers meet brands online.

“The Product Detail Page (PDP) is becoming the new homepage,” Haas said. “Today the intent has already been validated. The discovery process has condensed, because the full picture of that intent has been surfaced so much earlier. There’s no need to go through so many different points of the retailer’s website other than to ultimately land on that PDP and spend time there.”

Yael Kochman, CEO of Re:Tech Innovation Hub and moderator of the panel, reinforced this point with fresh data. “Websites are starting to get less direct traffic. Adobe just reported AI traffic to retail sites jumped 4,700 percent year-over-year (in the U.S., editors note),” she said. “But shoppers arriving through generative AI sources actually show 32 percent longer session duration and 27 percent lower bounce rate. They’re coming in with a sense of trust - the AI agent sent me to this website - so it’s likely to be the right one. They’re coming in with much higher expectations, much higher intent.”

That means the product page now carries far greater weight. The PDP is no longer just a technical endpoint but the emotional start of the customer relationship: if brands fail to inspire or build trust there, they risk losing the shopper.