Marketplace visibility in AI answers is how often a marketplace appears when a buyer asks an AI assistant what to buy. A marketplace is a site where many sellers or brands list products, such as Amazon, Flipkart, Nykaa or Myntra. It can appear as a source the answer cites, as the store on a ChatGPT product card, or in the written answer.
This matters to any brand that sells on its own store and on marketplaces. An AI answer can recommend your product and send the buyer to your site, to your marketplace listing, or to a reseller.
The numbers in this guide come from Depra AI's study of 480 AI shopping answers. They were collected in India on 14 August 2026 from ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. Every claim about how ChatGPT or a marketplace works names its source.
How do marketplaces show up in AI answers?
In three places: among the sources an answer cites, on product cards, and in the written answer itself. A citation is a link an answer gives as its source. A product card is a small panel for one product that ChatGPT can show inside its answer.
Depra AI records cited sources on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, the AI summaries above some Google results. It records product cards from ChatGPT only. Our ChatGPT shopping guide explains the cards.
One note on product cards. OpenAI says shopping in ChatGPT is live for users in the US today and will expand to more regions (OpenAI merchants page, checked 7 Oct 2026). If you ask questions for India, you may see few or no products until ChatGPT shows products there. Cited sources and the written answer do not depend on this.
| Where | What it looks like | What it means for your brand |
|---|---|---|
| Cited source | A link to a marketplace page among the sources of the answer | The engine showed that page as a source. Check whether your product is on it |
| Store on a product card | The merchant named on a product ChatGPT shows, or in the list after a click | The buyer is sent to that store, which may not be yours |
| Named in the text | The answer names a marketplace as the place to buy | The marketplace is part of the recommendation |
Which marketplaces do AI answers cite in India?
In our study, nykaa.com was one of the most cited sites, behind youtube.com and reddit.com. The 480 answers carried 4,640 citations. Counted by every appearance, youtube.com was cited 534 times, reddit.com 191 times, nykaa.com 176 times and magicpin.in 133 times.
The counting basis changes the order. Counted by how many answers cite a site at all, reddit.com leads with 106 of 480 answers and youtube.com follows with 100.
The study asked 10 buying questions about skincare and fashion, in one 57-minute window. It says nothing about electronics, groceries or any other category.
The method and the data are in the Hinglish vs English AI shopping study. The breakdown by site is in which websites ChatGPT cites in India.
nykaa.com received 176 of the 4,640 citations in 480 AI shopping answers collected in India. (Depra AI Hinglish vs English study, fieldwork 14 Aug 2026)
Does ChatGPT cite Amazon?
Two public facts bear on this, and they do not settle it. First, on 7 October 2026 Amazon India's robots.txt named OpenAI's search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, with a rule that closes the whole site (amazon.in robots.txt, checked 7 Oct 2026). A robots.txt file tells bots which pages they may read.
Second, OpenAI's FAQ for publishers says a site should not block OAI-SearchBot if it wants its content included in summaries and snippets in ChatGPT (OpenAI Help Center, checked 7 Oct 2026). The same FAQ says OpenAI may still surface just the link and page title of a disallowed page in ChatGPT Atlas, its browser. That can happen when OpenAI gets the address from a third-party search provider or by crawling other pages (OpenAI Help Center, checked 7 Oct 2026).
Product cards are a separate matter. OpenAI says the list of merchants for a product is built from merchant and product data supplied by third-party providers or by the merchants themselves (OpenAI Help Center, checked 7 Oct 2026). A robots.txt file says nothing about that data.
Other marketplaces choose differently. A robots.txt file is one layer, and a site can also turn bots away at its firewall. Treat the table as a starting point and your own answers as the test.
| Marketplace | What its robots.txt said | File |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon India | Names GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot and ClaudeBot, each with a rule that closes the whole site | amazon.in/robots.txt |
| Flipkart | Names none of those bots. Its rules for all bots close some paths, such as the cart and review pages | flipkart.com/robots.txt |
| Nykaa | Names none of those bots. One group for all bots allows the site and closes some paths, such as search and the all-reviews pages | nykaa.com/robots.txt |
| Myntra | Names none of those bots. One group for all bots allows the site and closes some paths, such as cart and checkout pages | myntra.com/robots.txt |
Why can a marketplace listing be cited when your own site is not?
An AI answer does not say why it picked one page over another. A citation shows what an engine displayed, not why. There are still four things you can check.
- Your site may be closed to the crawler. OpenAI says a site should not block OAI-SearchBot if it wants its content included in summaries and snippets in ChatGPT (OpenAI Help Center, checked 7 Oct 2026). Read your robots.txt, or use the AI crawler checker.
- The marketplace page may fit the question. A buyer who asks for the best product under a price wants a list. A marketplace category page is a list with prices and ratings. Open the cited page and compare it with your own product page.
- Your own pages may show few reviews. OpenAI says ChatGPT's review summaries are written from reviews on public websites (OpenAI Help Center, checked 7 Oct 2026). If your product pages show few reviews, your own site carries little public review text about you.
- The listing may win on stock or price. OpenAI names the factors that rank the stores on a product card. They include availability, price, and whether the merchant is the maker or primary seller (OpenAI Help Center, checked 7 Oct 2026).
What should you check on your marketplace listings?
Check five things: the title, the attributes, the reviews, availability and price, and who the seller is. Each one maps to something OpenAI or a marketplace has published.
- Titles. Use one product name on your store and on every marketplace. OpenAI says ChatGPT may write its own simplified titles, because merchants often title the same product differently (OpenAI Help Center, checked 7 Oct 2026). Amazon's seller news for India says that, from 21 January 2025, titles in most categories may not exceed 200 characters. It also says a title may not use the same word more than twice, apart from small joining words such as "of", "the" and "and" (Amazon Seller Central India, checked 7 Oct 2026).
- Complete attributes. Fill in brand, size, colour and material wherever the marketplace asks for them. OpenAI's own product feed format has a field for each, and it requires brand, description, image, price and availability (OpenAI developer documentation, checked 7 Oct 2026). A product feed is a file of product data a merchant sends to a platform. Its field list is a fair checklist for a complete listing.
- Reviews. Ask real buyers for reviews, and never write your own. OpenAI's feed format has optional fields for review count and star rating (OpenAI developer documentation, checked 7 Oct 2026).
- Availability and price. Keep stock status and price current on every listing. OpenAI names both among the factors that rank the merchants on a product card (OpenAI Help Center, checked 7 Oct 2026).
- Seller identity. Check which seller each listing shows. OpenAI's feed format separates the seller from the marketplace where checkout happens (OpenAI developer documentation, checked 7 Oct 2026). Its merchant ranking also considers whether a store is the maker or primary seller (OpenAI Help Center, checked 7 Oct 2026).
How do you find which marketplaces matter in your category?
Count them in real answers. You need a spreadsheet and the questions your buyers ask. The method matches the audit in our guide to product-level AI visibility, with marketplaces as the thing you count.
- Step 1. Write the questions. List 10 to 20 buying questions for your category that do not name your brand.
- Step 2. Ask every engine. Ask each question in ChatGPT with search on, Gemini, Perplexity and Google, several times each.
- Step 3. Tally the cited marketplaces. Open the sources of each answer and count every marketplace domain.
- Step 4. Tally the stores on product cards. In ChatGPT, note the store on each product card. Then click a product and note the merchants listed. If no product cards appear for your questions, skip this step.
- Step 5. Rank them and act. Sort the marketplaces by count. For the top two or three, check that your listing exists and passes the five checks above.
- Step 6. Repeat every month. Categories differ and answers change, so use the same questions each time.
What does this mean if you sell on your own store and on marketplaces?
It means the buyer can land in either place, so keep both ready. You cannot choose which store an AI answer shows. You do control the facts each store carries.
- Keep your own site readable. Allow OAI-SearchBot in your robots.txt, and put price, size and availability in the visible text of each product page.
- Keep the facts identical. Use the same product name, pack size and price on your store and on every listing.
- List where AI already looks. Answers in your category may keep citing a marketplace where you have no listing. If so, create or claim your listing so the page exists for an engine to find and cite.
What does Depra AI show about marketplaces, and what does it not?
Depra AI shows three things. First, the marketplaces AI answers cite in your category. Second, the sites cited for competitors while your brand is missing. Third, the stores ChatGPT's product cards point to, whenever ChatGPT shows products in a tracked answer. It does not track what happens inside a marketplace.
Two Amazon terms appear in the table. The Buy Box is the area at the top of an Amazon product page with the Add to Cart and Buy Now buttons (Sell on Amazon, checked 7 Oct 2026). Amazon Rufus (renamed Alexa for Shopping in May 2026) is Amazon's AI shopping assistant (About Amazon, checked 7 Oct 2026).
For its action research, DepraBot, Depra AI's web reader, may read your own page on a marketplace for its review count. It never reads amazon.in, nykaa.com, ajio.com, meesho.com, reddit.com or quora.com for that research.
More detail: marketplace intelligence, product visibility and the Shopping docs. For your own store, see Depra AI for Shopify stores and the store catalogue docs. Plans are on Depra AI pricing.
| Question | Does Depra AI show it? | How |
|---|---|---|
| Which marketplaces do AI answers cite in my category, and how often? | Yes | Every cited website is labelled by site type, and marketplace is one of the types |
| Which marketplaces are cited for competitors while my brand is missing? | Yes | The citation gap analysis lists those sites, marketplaces included. The pricing page lists it on Growth and above |
| Which stores do ChatGPT's product cards point to? | Yes | The Shopping report lists the top merchants, from the answers where ChatGPT showed products |
| Where do I rank in a marketplace's own search? | No | Not tracked |
| Marketplace sales, the Buy Box or marketplace ads | No | Not tracked |
| What Amazon Rufus says about my product | No | Not tracked |