How Aftersell Became the Most Cited Shopify Upsell App on ChatGPT

Over a 2-month period, Aftersell transformed from minimal AI search visibility to becoming one of the most consistently cited post-purchase upsell solutions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Mode. What started as an experiment in Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) quickly turned into a proven growth strategy, positioning Aftersell as a market leader in the competitive Shopify app ecosystem.

Key Results

• #2 most cited source on ChatGPT, behind Shopify's official app marketplace

• 50+ AI discovery queries citing Aftersell content on Google AI Mode

• +18% brand visibility increase on Google AI Mode across priority discovery queries in 4 weeks

• +15% brand visibility increase on ChatGPT and Perplexity in 4 weeks

About Aftersell

Aftersell is a leading Shopify app that helps e-commerce brands maximize revenue through post-purchase upsells and checkout optimization. Built specifically for Shopify merchants, Aftersell enables one-click upsell offers on order confirmation pages, helping brands increase average order value (AOV) without disrupting the customer experience. Trusted by thousands of merchants, Aftersell competes in one of the most competitive Shopify app categories.

The Challenge: Visibility Without Ownership

Aftersell had a strong product with solid market presence, excellent reviews, and growing merchant adoption. However, testing revealed a critical gap: while Aftersell had AI visibility, almost all citations came from third-party sources like app directories and listicle blogs. LLMs were citing the Shopify App Store and external publishers, not Aftersell.com.

Three Major Risks

1. No control over brand narrative – Third-party pages could misrepresent features, pricing, or positioning

2. Sentiment risk – Negative or outdated reviews could dominate AI answers

3. Unstable visibility – Rankings could change overnight if external sites updated or removed content

The goal was clear: build brand authority for Aftersell's own domain inside AI search engines, so LLMs would cite Aftersell.com directly, not intermediaries. That's when Aftersell partnered with XLR8 AI.

The 3-Pillar Strategy Behind Aftersell's Success

1. AI Readiness & Technical Setup

Before creating content, we implemented foundational infrastructure to ensure LLMs could properly discover, crawl, and cite Aftersell:

Technical Implementations:

• llms.txt – Custom instructions file signaling priority pages, key differentiators, and brand positioning to AI crawlers

• robots.txt optimization – Refined crawl permissions to guide LLMs to valuable content

• IndexNow integration – Instant indexing for Bing (which powers ChatGPT's live search)

• Sitemap upgrades – Added <lastmod> tags to signal content recency—a critical LLM ranking factor

• Post-purchase surveys – Added "How did you hear about us?" options including ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Grok for attribution tracking

Results: LLMs could now crawl Aftersell properly, new content got indexed 10x faster, attribution from AI sources became measurable, and recency signals improved citation probability.

2. AI Search Research: Reverse-Engineering LLM Citations

Our team analyzed 10,000+ URLs cited by LLMs to reverse-engineer the patterns behind AI visibility.

Key Discoveries:

• Why certain pages get cited: Clear structure, explicit brand mentions, comparison-friendly formatting

• What structure LLMs prefer: Listicle formats with headings, tables, and FAQ sections

• How competitors win AI visibility: Structured content that's easy for LLMs to parse and extract

Critical Insight: Listicle-style pages with strong structure and explicit brand mentions dominate AI answers. Long-form thought leadership blogs that work for SEO often get ignored by LLMs. Many brands avoid mentioning themselves to seem objective—this backfires in AI search. LLMs need clear brand mentions to make citations. Being too subtle means being invisible.

3. GEO Content Execution: LLM-First Listicles

Instead of generic blogs optimized for Google, we created LLM-first listicles targeting high-intent merchant queries across post-purchase upsells, checkout monetization, AOV optimization, and cross-sell strategies.

We created 4 comprehensive listicle articles designed to capture merchants at different stages from broad discovery queries like "What are the best Shopify upsell apps?" to specific solution queries like "How do I increase AOV with post-purchase offers?"

Each article was:

• Modeled after top-cited competitor URLs identified in our research

• Optimized with schema markup, clear H2/H3 headings matching query intent, comparison tables for easy LLM extraction, and FAQ sections

• Tested using adversarial AI prompts to ensure citation probability

• Designed to rank across multiple LLMs, not just Google

Early Results: Immediate Citation Success in 7 Days

Within 7 days of publication, citation success across all platforms:

• Google AI Mode: 4/4 articles cited (100%)

• ChatGPT: 4/4 articles cited (100%)

• Gemini: 4/4 articles cited (100%)

• Perplexity: 3/4 articles cited (75%)

What changed: Aftersell's own domain (aftersell.com) began replacing third-party sources in AI answers. For the first time, merchants researching Shopify upsell apps were seeing direct citations to Aftersell's content.

2-Month Performance Impact: Platform-by-Platform Breakdown

ChatGPT

• +15% visibility increase with Aftersell becoming the Most Cited Source

• Now cited across 14+ high-intent queries, placing second only to Shopify's official app marketplace

• Strong visibility across Shopify Upsell App discovery queries

• Growing presence in Post-Purchase Upsell and Checkout Monetization queries

Perplexity

• +15% visibility increase, breaking into the top 10 Most Cited Sources (#10)

• Now cited across 15+ merchant discovery queries

• Strong visibility across Post-Purchase Upsell discovery queries

• Consistent citations in Checkout Optimization technical queries

• Growing presence in AOV Increase merchant solution queries

Gemini

• +11% visibility increase, securing the #5 Most Cited Source position

• Now cited across 10+ queries, demonstrating strong performance across all query categories

Google AI Mode

• +18.54% visibility increase, the most dramatic improvement on priority queries

• Climbed from #7 to #2 Most Cited Source

• Citations increased from 20+ → 54+ queries now citing Aftersell content

• Strong ownership in Post-Purchase Upsell discovery

• Significant gains in AOV optimization queries

• Improved visibility across Shopify Cross-Sell App category

"XLR8 AI helped us Win on AI Search. Within 4 weeks, our content was cited across every major LLM, going from zero direct citations to becoming the most cited source on ChatGPT after Shopify. E-Commerce for LLMs might seem like a blackbox, but the XLR8 AI team knows how to uncover it."
— Varun Kundra, Founder, Aftersell

Why This Matters: The New Rules of Discovery

Merchants are changing how they research products:

• 60% of product research now starts with AI assistants, not Google

• ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini are becoming primary discovery channels

• Traditional SEO rankings don't guarantee AI visibility

Aftersell already had a category-defining product and strong marketplace presence. XLR8 AI made sure that when merchants asked AI for recommendations, Aftersell wasn't just listed—it was directly cited and recommended.