The Trust Signals AI Assistants Check Before Recommending a Store

A shopper rarely buys without first answering three quiet questions: can I return this, how fast will it ship, and what about the thing I'm unsure of. When that shopper is asking an AI assistant instead of browsing your site, the assistant can only reassure them if your answers are machine-readable.

These are your trust signals. They are the difference between an assistant that confidently recommends you and one that hedges or moves on. Here is how to make them readable.

Returns: hasMerchantReturnPolicy

A returns page written for humans does nothing for an agent. To let an assistant answer "can I return this if it doesn't fit?", your return terms need to be structured data: hasMerchantReturnPolicy on your Offer, stating the return window in days, whether returns are free, and the method.

With it, an assistant can say "yes, 30-day free returns" on your behalf. Without it, the most it can do is point vaguely at a policy page, which is not the kind of answer that closes a recommendation.

Shipping: OfferShippingDetails

The second question is delivery. OfferShippingDetails expresses your shipping in a structured way: rates, regions, and handling time. It lets an assistant answer "how fast will this ship to me?" with a real answer rather than a shrug.

For international stores this compounds with per-market pricing: an assistant helping a shopper in Canada wants to quote Canadian delivery, not your domestic default.

Questions: FAQPage

The third question is everything else: sizing, materials, care, compatibility. FAQPage schema publishes your common questions and answers in a form an assistant can lift directly and use to resolve a shopper's doubt on the spot. It is also eligible for FAQ rich results in regular search, so the same work pays off in two channels.

Why trust is the step stores skip

It is easy to focus on getting products readable and your brand identified, then stop. But an assistant weighing whether to recommend you is doing risk assessment on the shopper's behalf. A store it cannot vouch for, one whose returns and shipping it cannot confirm, is a store it would rather not stake its answer on. Trust signals are what move you from "readable" to "recommendable."

Check what's machine-readable

The free AI-readiness checker looks for your return-policy, shipping, and FAQ signals and tells you which are present, alongside your product schema, brand identity, and discovery files. The discoverability playbook covers all five pillars together.

The hands-off version

Publishing return, shipping, and FAQ schema by hand means writing JSON-LD and keeping it in sync with your real policies as they change. AgentReady reads your Shopify policies and FAQs and publishes them as hasMerchantReturnPolicy, OfferShippingDetails, and FAQPage schema automatically, so an assistant can always answer the three questions that decide a sale. It is free, changes nothing in your theme, and stays in sync as your policies evolve.

Run the checker to see which trust signals an assistant can read on your store today.