Four ways to solve this. We're one of them.
Before you hire anyone, the real decision is which approach fits: hire in-house, do it yourself, buy measurement software, or extend the agency you already have. Each page below states the other option's case first, and names the conditions under which you should pick it over us.
Every page includes a 'don't hire us' section. They're not decorative.
vs. Hiring in-house
Hire someone for agentic commerce, or bring in a team that's done it?
In-house is the better end state. It is rarely the better next 90 days. Here is the actual trade — including the cases where you should stop reading and post the job.
5 reasons to pick hiring in-house instead
Read the comparisonvs. DIY with apps
Shopify gives you agentic commerce free. So what are you paying anyone for?
A fair question, and the honest answer disqualifies most of what agencies sell. Turning the features on is free and genuinely doable. Being the product an assistant recommends is not the same job.
5 reasons to pick diy with apps instead
Read the comparisonvs. A GEO platform
A platform tells you you're invisible. It doesn't make you visible.
AI-visibility software is useful, cheaper than a retainer, and more neutral than any agency's own reporting — ours included. It also stops exactly where the work starts. Here's the line.
5 reasons to pick a geo platform instead
Read the comparisonvs. Your current agency
Give it to the agency you already have, or bring in a specialist?
Your incumbent knows your business, and adding a workstream there is genuinely lower friction. Whether they can do this work is a question with a specific, testable answer. Here are the questions.
5 reasons to pick your current agency instead
Read the comparisonWhy these read oddly
Comparison pages usually lie by omission.
The standard “us vs. them” page picks dimensions the author wins on, describes the alternative in its worst light, and concludes what it was always going to conclude. Merchants have read enough of them to discount the format entirely.
So these are built the other way round. The alternative's genuine advantages come first, in its own best terms. The grid says where the other column is stronger. And every page carries a section listing the specific, realistic conditions under which you should not hire us — because for a good share of readers, that's the true answer, and pretending otherwise costs more trust than it wins deals.
The one hard number anywhere in this set is our own published pricing. No invented statistics, no fabricated market averages, and no guaranteed AI citations — the engines are non-deterministic, and anyone promising a placement is selling certainty that doesn't exist.
Questions we get a lot.
Why would an agency publish pages saying not to hire it?
Because the alternative is worse. Opaque pricing and one-sided comparisons are the top complaints merchants have about agencies, and a page that concludes "buy from us" regardless of the reader's situation gets ignored by readers and by AI assistants. Being genuinely useful when the answer is "not us" is how an unknown brand earns a first conversation.
What's the difference between these pages and your buyer's guide?
These are about which approach to take — hire, DIY, buy software, or extend your current agency. The buyer's guide is about vetting a specific agency once you've decided to use one. Different decision, different stage.
What if more than one of these applies to me?
That's normal, and the combinations usually resolve cleanly. The most common good answer is a platform for neutral measurement, a specialist to build the foundation once, and an in-house owner or your existing agency to maintain it. We scope for that ending deliberately rather than for an indefinite retainer.
How do I get a real number without a sales call?
Our pricing is published with honest floors — a free Snapshot, a Readiness Audit from $1,500 credited toward a build, a fixed-scope Setup + Catalog Sprint from $4,000, and a Commerce GEO retainer from $3,000 a month. Run the free AI Shelf Check first; it takes no call and it may tell you that you don't need any of it.
Or skip the reading and get a number.
The free AI Shelf Check shows whether ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini recommend your products or a competitor's. No call, no card — and if it says your gap isn't worth paying anyone for, that's what it'll say.