Oct 27, 2026
Written by
Eirik Thue Buoe
More and more shoppers now begin their purchase consideration processes by asking an AI assistant what to buy. The assistant reviews product information from across the web and returns a short list of recommendations. For many shoppers, that list is where the decision gets made. Products with thin or incomplete data are less likely to make it into those recommendations.
CJ has added Channel3 to its technology and publisher ecosystem to help advertisers close that gap. Channel3 structures, enriches, and distributes a brand’s product data so AI shopping apps and agents can find and recommend its products for both broad and highly specific requests.
Adobe reported in April 2026 that Q1 traffic from AI sources to US retail sites grew 393% year over year, and that in March, AI-referred visitors converted 42% better than shoppers arriving any other way. In the same study, 39% of the more than 5,000 US consumers surveyed said they had already used AI to shop online.
Adobe also measured how much retail site content AI systems can read. Product pages scored lowest of any major page type, at 66%, which means a meaningful share of product information is going unseen by the tools on which shoppers increasingly rely.
Shoppers also have more AI tools to choose from every month. OpenAI reported in February 2026 that ChatGPT had reached 900 million weekly active users, up from 500 million in March 2025, and Alphabet said in July 2026 that the Gemini app had 950 million monthly users. Many retailers have launched assistants of their own, including Amazon’s Rufus and Walmart’s Sparky, and ChatGPT now supports purchases with retailers such as Target and Instacart, according to Modern Retail. A growing field of specialist shopping apps and agents adds to that mix, and each one relies on product data to decide what to show.
Channel3 maintains a product graph of more than 100 million products and already works directly with 5,000+ brands. Developers building AI shopping tools use the graph to search, recommend, and complete purchases.
When a brand connects through Channel3, its catalog is enriched with the attributes shoppers tend to include when they prompt an AI, such as materials, dimensions, fit, shade range, and intended use. Those products then become available across the network of AI shopping applications built on the graph. Channel3 keeps the data current as those applications evolve, so brands do not need to rebuild their feeds for each new destination.
Richer product data also changes which requests a brand can compete for. Broad questions, such as a search for the best running shoes, can be answered from basic product information, and nearly every brand in the category is in the running.
Especially for more specific requests, granular product details matter. A shopper might ask for foundation shades suited to women of color, a washer and dryer that fit a small apartment, or a running shoe built to hold up to high weekly road mileage. When a catalog spells out shade range and undertones, dimensions and capacity, or cushioning and outsole durability, the AI can match those products to requests that a thin listing would never qualify for.
Brands can approve the partners that can access their enriched data, review the queries that their products appear within, and learn about emerging queries.
CJ has long helped advertisers navigate major industry shifts, from the growth of affiliate marketing and content commerce to the emergence of creator partnerships and retail media. Today, we're applying that same approach to AI-driven commerce.
Our integration with Channel3 reflects our broader vision for how brands can thrive in an environment where discovery increasingly happens through AI.
By combining CJ's trusted performance marketing infrastructure with innovative partners like Channel3, we're helping advertisers remain visible, measurable, and competitive as the next generation of commerce takes shape.
CJ advertisers can onboard easily, and Channel3 handles the enrichment and distribution work. Brands do not need a dedicated team or new internal workflows to prepare their catalogs for AI shopping.
Current CJ advertisers can contact their CJ account team to begin onboarding with Channel3. Brands not yet working with CJ can reach out to platformpartnerships@cj.com to learn more.
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