Mentioned, Cited or Recommended: Three Different Outcomes

A mention

The answer names a brand or product:

You could also look at products from Alder Row.

This shows awareness in that response. It does not show that the system used the merchant’s page, selected a product, or recommended it for the stated need.

A citation

The answer provides a visible source link to the merchant’s canonical domain. A citation can support one fact without endorsing the product.

The Transit Overshirt contains 68% merino wool. [Alder Row product page]

Record the exact source URL. A marketplace, affiliate page, or old press article is not the same as a first-party product citation.

A recommendation

The answer selects the product for the buyer’s constraints and gives reasons.

The Transit Overshirt is a good option if you want a regular-fit
merino layer with four pockets, but it is not waterproof.

The limitation is part of a credible recommendation.

A transaction event

The shopper clicks through, creates a cart, or completes checkout. This is a separate commerce metric. Agentic commerce can support transactions inside or through an AI surface, but a citation does not imply an order.

Report each event separately

Use binary fields for:

brand_mentioned
product_mentioned
canonical_domain_cited
qualified_recommendation
price_accurate
availability_accurate
checkout_referral

This schema prevents one visible link from being reported as a recommendation.

Add evidence levels

The strongest report stores the prompt, platform, timestamp, answer, source links, and market. A screenshot without the prompt loses context; a copied answer without a timestamp loses reproducibility.

Use the mention evidence levels reference when designing reports.