In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital commerce, the traditional playbook for customer acquisition—relying heavily on search engine optimization (SEO) and paid social media—is undergoing a radical transformation. As generative AI (genAI) reshapes how consumers discover products, ecommerce startups are finding themselves in a state of "AI tumult." To decode this new reality, we sat down with Kenny Trusnik, founder of Forest City Digital, an agency specializing in the intersection of data architecture and marketing performance.
Trusnik, whose career spans from corporate giants like Toyota and Sherwin-Williams to the agile world of creator-led ecommerce, argues that the future of digital retail isn’t just about having a website; it’s about making that website legible to the machines that now act as the internet’s primary gatekeepers.
The Evolution of Forest City Digital: A Chronology of Expertise
To understand Trusnik’s philosophy, one must look at the foundation of his agency. Launched in 2020, Forest City Digital emerged at a critical juncture in ecommerce history. While many agencies were focused on vanity metrics like clicks and impressions, Trusnik’s background in corporate strategy informed a different approach: outcomes-based marketing.
- Pre-2020: Trusnik cut his teeth in corporate marketing, learning the rigors of large-scale brand management, before transitioning to a startup environment focused on helping content creators monetize their audiences.
- 2020: Forest City Digital is established in Cleveland, Ohio. The agency’s initial mandate was to bridge the gap between creative content and technical ecommerce performance.
- 2022-2023: As the "AI revolution" gained momentum, Trusnik pivoted his agency’s focus to "AI visibility," recognizing that search behavior was shifting from keyword-based queries to conversational, intent-driven discovery via LLMs.
- 2024: The agency formally integrated strategies for Shopify’s "Agentic Storefronts" into their client offerings, prioritizing deep metadata and structured data as primary drivers of growth.
The Shift Toward AI-First Visibility
The central challenge for modern ecommerce is no longer just "being found" on Google; it is being recommended by LLMs like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Trusnik notes that for his clients, this is no longer theoretical—upwards of 10% of online revenue for some brands is now directly attributable to visibility within generative AI interfaces.
The Technical Foundation: Why Data Hygiene Matters
Trusnik emphasizes that AI visibility is a byproduct of extreme technical rigor. "Focus on getting the product data as deep and clean as possible in a structured environment," he advises.
In the AI era, this means:
- Metadata Optimization: Ensuring that every product field—from material composition and size to specific use-case categories—is clearly defined in the backend.
- Robots.txt Management: A common pitfall for merchants is inadvertently blocking AI crawlers from their sites. Trusnik stresses that the first step for any merchant is to audit their robots.txt file to ensure generative AI platforms can access and index their catalog.
- Schema.org Markup: Beyond basic text, structured data provides the context machines need to understand the intent behind a product. By implementing robust Schema.org markup, brands allow LLMs to interpret the "purpose" of a site, leading to more accurate citations in AI-generated answers.
Agentic Storefronts: The New Gateway to Discovery
A significant portion of Trusnik’s work involves helping brands navigate Shopify’s "Agentic Storefronts." Released earlier this year, this tool acts as a bridge between the merchant’s inventory and the world’s most prominent LLMs.
"It’s similar in concept to syncing products to Google Merchant Center or a Meta Commerce account," Trusnik explains. By making product catalogs crawlable and machine-readable, Agentic Storefronts allows brands to surface their products in conversational contexts. When a user asks an AI, "What is the best sustainable material for a waterproof jacket?" a brand that has clearly tagged its products with that specific metadata is significantly more likely to be featured as a recommendation.
Strategic Implications: How to Launch in 2026
When asked how he would approach launching an ecommerce brand in 2026, Trusnik’s strategy centers on a blend of technical infrastructure and high-signal content.
1. Prioritizing Structured Data
If resources are limited, a founder’s first investment should not be in flashy creative, but in the backend. Clean, deep, and structured data is the prerequisite for being "seen" by the next generation of AI search agents.
2. The Power of "Listicle" Authority
LLMs rely heavily on high-authority external sources to validate their recommendations. Trusnik suggests that acquiring backlinks and mentions in prominent "best-of" articles and listicles remains a critical signal. These articles act as "ground truth" for LLMs, which synthesize these high-quality reviews into their responses.
3. The Value of Originality
Trusnik warns against the flood of AI-generated, "repurposed" content. "Content—articles, videos, social posts—helps if it contains original info unavailable elsewhere," he says. In a sea of machine-written mediocrity, original research, proprietary data, and unique brand narratives become the ultimate competitive advantage.
4. The "Iterative Novelty" Approach
Trusnik cautions entrepreneurs against trying to be "too novel." Using the example of Grüns gummies—which took an existing product (vitamins) and repositioned it as a superfood—he argues that the most successful businesses are those that improve upon existing behaviors rather than trying to invent entirely new markets. This is a classic "Blue Ocean" strategy: finding an unaddressed pain point in a "Red Ocean" (an existing, competitive market) and providing a novel solution.
The Holistic Marketing Ecosystem
While AI visibility is the new frontier, Trusnik is careful to note that it does not replace the traditional pillars of marketing. His agency continues to manage:
- Influencer Programs: To build trust and social proof, which remains a human-centric requirement for purchase decisions.
- Paid Channels (Meta Ads): Used primarily for top-of-funnel awareness to feed the brand’s ecosystem.
- Retention Marketing: Using platforms like Klaviyo or Brevo to maximize the lifetime value (LTV) of customers once they have been acquired.
"We want to plug the holes in the sales funnel," Trusnik notes. The goal is to ensure that the traffic gained through AI and social channels is successfully converted into repeat customers.
Implications for the Future of Ecommerce
The implications of Trusnik’s insights are clear: the barrier to entry for ecommerce is shifting from "how much money do you have to spend on ads?" to "how well-structured is your digital architecture?"
Brands that fail to adapt their technical backend to the needs of LLMs will find themselves increasingly invisible. Conversely, those that prioritize clean data, invest in high-authority content, and leverage tools like Agentic Storefronts will occupy the prime "digital shelf space" of the future.
As the industry continues to mature, the distinction between a "marketing agency" and a "data consultancy" will continue to blur. Trusnik’s model for Forest City Digital represents this shift: a focus on the underlying logic of the internet, ensuring his clients are not just shouting into the void, but are part of the very answers that the future of search is providing to consumers.
For founders and marketers, the message is one of cautious optimism. The AI tumult is indeed a challenge, but for those willing to do the heavy lifting of data hygiene and strategic positioning, it is the most significant opportunity for growth in the modern digital age.
For those looking to learn more about Forest City Digital’s approach, Kenny Trusnik can be reached through their official website at ForestCityDigital.com or via his LinkedIn profile.
