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Shopify Merchant Setup

Shopify is one of the earliest platforms to support the AI agent commerce ecosystem. In 2025, Shopify enabled “Agentic Storefronts” by default for U.S. merchants, allowing AI agents to browse and recommend Shopify store products directly. This chapter helps you audit your current state, fill in the gaps, and ensure AI agents can fully understand and recommend your products.

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5.1 Shopify’s AI Visibility Baseline

Good news: most Shopify themes already include some of the AI visibility infrastructure out of the box.
InfrastructureShopify DefaultWhat You Need to Do
SSL certificateAutomatically configuredNo action needed
Schema.org ProductBuilt into most themesConfirm it is enabled; check data completeness
SitemapAuto-generatedConfirm product pages are included
robots.txtTheme-controlledCheck that AI crawlers are not blocked
llms.txtNot includedMust be created manually
agent.jsonNot includedMust be created manually
DMARC/SPFDepends on domain configMust be configured in DNS
DNSSECDepends on domain registrarMust be enabled at the registrar

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5.2 Check Your AI Trust Score

Before you start optimizing, get a baseline. There are several AI trust assessment tools available. For example, ORBEXA’s free trust assessment tool at orbexa.io/verify shows a detailed six-dimension score breakdown. Record your current score for each dimension so you can measure improvement later.

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5.3 Action Checklist

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Step 1: Confirm Schema.org Product Markup (5 minutes)

  1. In Shopify Admin -> Online Store -> Themes -> current theme -> Customize
  2. Open any product page
  3. Right-click -> View Page Source -> search for "@type": "Product"
  4. If found, confirm it includes these fields:
    • name (product name)
    • description (description)
    • offers (price and availability)
    • brand (brand)
    • image (image)
If your theme does not include it, consider installing a Shopify app like JSON-LD for SEO to auto-generate the markup.

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Step 2: Create llms.txt (10 minutes)

The llms.txt file is a “company brief” for AI agents. Shopify does not support uploading files directly to the root directory, but there are two approaches: Option A: Via a Shopify App ORBEXA offers a free Shopify plugin that automatically generates and hosts your llms.txt file. Search for “ORBEXA” in the Shopify App Store to install. Option B: Manual creation
  1. Settings -> Custom data -> create a custom page template
  2. Follow the content format from the llms.txt specification:
# Your Brand Name

> One-sentence description of your business

## About Us
Brief company history, core business, and service regions.

## Product Categories
- Category 1: Description
- Category 2: Description

## Contact
- Website: yourdomain.com
- Email: hello@yourdomain.com

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Step 3: DNS Security Configuration (30 minutes)

These settings are configured at your domain registrar (not in Shopify Admin):
  1. DMARC: Add a DNS TXT record for _dmarc.yourdomain.com -> v=DMARC1; p=quarantine; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com
  2. SPF: Add a DNS TXT record -> v=spf1 include:shops.shopify.com ~all
  3. DNSSEC: Enable in your domain registrar’s dashboard (Cloudflare, Namecheap, and others support one-click activation)

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Step 4: Check robots.txt (5 minutes)

Visit yourdomain.com/robots.txt and confirm the following AI crawlers are not blocked: 
# These should NOT be Disallowed
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
User-agent: Claude-Web
User-agent: PerplexityBot
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Shopify’s robots.txt is controlled through the theme’s robots.txt.liquid file. If you need to make changes, search for this file in the theme editor.

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5.4 Verify Your Improvements

After completing these steps, allow 24-48 hours for DNS records to propagate and AI crawlers to re-index your site, then check your trust score again. Focus on:
  • S dimension (Security): should improve noticeably after DMARC/SPF/DNSSEC configuration
  • D dimension (Data Quality): llms.txt and complete Schema.org markup will boost this score
  • T dimension (Transparency): ensure your privacy policy and return policy pages are thorough
Next chapter: WooCommerce Merchant Setup — the setup guide for WordPress/WooCommerce stores