When someone asks an AI assistant for a product, the assistant can tell Shopify’s catalog where that shopper is. Shopify’s developer docs list the shopper’s country, region, postal code, language and currency as signals “for relevance and localization”, plus a filter for products that ship to a given place.
So the same search can return a different shelf in Toronto and in Chicago. We saw that happen with a small Canadian lip gloss brand, and then watched it change a week later.
The same searches, two countries, a week apart
“Not found” means the brand wasn’t in the top 10.
| What the shopper typed | Oct 27, Canada | Oct 27, no location | Nov 4, Canada | Nov 4, US |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A gloss’s exact name (two glosses) | #1 | Not found | #1 | #1 |
| The gift box’s exact name | #1 (checked Oct 28) | Not run | #1 | #1 |
| Brand name plus “lip gloss” | Not found | Not found | Not found | Not found |
| “non sticky lip gloss” | Not found | Not found | Not found | Not found |
| “vegan lip gloss” | Not found | Not found | Not found | Not found |
“No location” is what the catalog gets when an assistant doesn’t pass a country. It behaves much like a US shopper: on October 27 every listing came back priced in US dollars, and on November 4 the no-location and US searches put the same product first in all six searches.
So on October 27, a US-style shopper couldn’t find this store even by typing a product’s exact name. A week later, they could.
What changed in between
On October 26 we’d recorded that the store shipped only within Canada. Its shipping policy, last updated November 3, now says it ships within Canada and to the United States, with US orders priced in US dollars.
Other things changed too:
- Prices. A US shopper now sees a gloss at US$19.99. A Canadian shopper sees CA$19.99, with a CA$31.99 list price struck through.
- Descriptions. The shipping line in each product description was edited.
- The gift box. Its product-level description, blank on October 28, now comes through.
- Time. A week passed, and catalogs update and reshuffle on their own.
So we can’t tell you that shipping to the US is what made the products appear for US shoppers. What we can tell you is what we saw. Before the store shipped to the US, a US-style shopper couldn’t find it by name. After, they could.
What didn’t change: the everyday searches
Opening up to US shoppers helped people who already knew a product’s name. It didn’t put the brand on the shelf for “non sticky lip gloss” or “vegan lip gloss” in either country, or for its own brand name. That’s a different problem, and the case study digs into it.
Prices follow the shopper too
The price an assistant shows depends on where the shopper is, and it’s worth checking in each market.
On October 28, the brand’s gift box came back priced at US$22.83 in a Canadian shopper’s search. On November 4 it showed as CA$31.99. An assistant comparing prices uses whatever number and currency it’s handed.
Canadian shoppers don’t get an all-Canadian-dollar shelf, either. On November 4, 8 of the 60 listings in our Canadian searches were priced in US dollars and one in Chinese yuan. An assistant that doesn’t watch the currency can line those up as if they were the same money.
The struck-through price differs by market as well. Shopify returns a list price only when you share compare-at prices with its catalog and the compare-at price is higher than the price, and it’s your compare-at price “for the buyer’s market”. This brand’s Canadian shoppers saw the sale price; its US shoppers didn’t. If a sale is part of your pitch, check that it shows up in every market. Shopify’s Channel mapping page is where you choose whether the catalog uses the compare-at price.
How to check your store from each country
- List the countries you actually ship to. Those are the shelves that matter.
- Pick your best seller and three searches: its exact name, your brand plus the product type, and one everyday phrase your customers use.
- Run each one as a shopper in each country. Shopify’s catalog search takes the shopper’s country as an input, so a developer can do this in a few minutes. Our AI visibility audit lists other ways to see your record.
- Write down three things per country: your position or “not found”, the price and currency shown, and whether your sale price appears.
- Check again a week after you change shipping, markets or prices. One snapshot before and one after is the only way to see what moved.
How we checked
On October 27, 2026 we searched Shopify’s catalog twice for each search: once with the shopper set to Canada (Quebec, Canadian dollars) and once with no location set. On October 28 we checked the gift box as a Canadian shopper. On November 4 we ran six searches four ways: no location, US, Canada, and Canada with Quebec and Canadian dollars. Each time we saved the top 10 and identified the brand by its seller record. We also read the store’s published shipping policy and re-read Shopify’s catalog documentation on November 4.
Your next step
Pick the country where you’d most like more customers. This week, search your best seller’s exact name as a shopper from there. If you’re not in the top 10 for your own product’s name, check that you ship there and that your price shows up in their currency before you touch any copy.