Most brands are still guessing how to show up in AI search. Vicky Grahan has the data. As president of Coyuchi—the organic textiles brand founded in 1991, long before “organic” meant anything to shoppers—she can point to her “How did you hear about us” survey and name acquisition through LLMs as her single fastest-growing source of new customers. Coyuchi has an unusual edge here: 35 years of press coverage already baked into the models. Vicky joined two and a half years ago to lead the brand’s rebirth, and AI discovery has become central to it. Here’s how she built the channel, why decades of press turned into an asset, and the concrete moves that keep it compounding.
On why acquisition through LLMs became her fastest-growing channel:
When we ask in our “How did you hear about us” survey via LLMs—ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, whatever you want to say—is our literal fastest-growing channel of customer acquisition. Fastest growing by far.
And honestly, it makes sense. More and more, the consumer is landing there. They’re interacting with Gemini, they’re sourcing information in ChatGPT. It’s no different than what we’ve gotten used to over the last 20 years with Google. If someone says, “I want really soft, healthy, sustainable sheets,” I want Coyuchi to show up. Well, if they say that in ChatGPT, we want to show up there too.
On how 35 years of press became an unexpected advantage:
It starts with a strong baseline, and that’s where Coyuchi has had an advantage, because we’ve been around a long time. We had a lot of organic, natural baseline to leverage when LLMs came onto the scene. We’d legitimately been written up numerous, numerous times as having the best organic textiles in the home market.
These tools are pulling from content that’s already in the ecosystem—content that’s been out there for years. That’s been amazing for us. Now, we obviously have to keep it up, because this is on everyone’s radar now.
On why agentic engine optimization is really just SEO in new clothes:
AEO—agentic engine optimization, or whatever acronym you want to use—really isn’t that dissimilar to SEO. It’s the same idea as search engine optimization, just for AI.
A lot of it is technical things on the back end, like having the right schema set up so these LLMs can read what’s on your website: what you sell, what the description is, what the benefit is, what the frequently asked questions are, and what the answers are. My advice is to find a way to get an audit done of your site. We’ve had a handful of audits done, and we’re consistently implementing new things on the back end to make sure our site is fully readable by LLMs and all these agentic engines.
It’s a journey. Much like SEO, it’s not a one-and-done process. We just learned of a new type of schema that came out, and we’re going to start populating it so the site can be read properly. It’s really about discovery.
On “feeding the beast” by choosing PR placements LLMs cite:
We have a lovely PR and affiliate team, and they do a really nice job of flagging opportunities. So if it’s something like giving away a free $4,000 mattress, it’s, OK, should we do that? If it’s highly cited by an LLM, we’ll go ahead and do it. I literally approved one this morning.
That’s one way of keeping it going.
On the UGC campaign that got great click-throughs and instant bounces:
When I first joined, we had a lot of UGC in our Meta campaigns, and the initial creative was all around “Look how cute these sheets are.” It got amazing click-through rates, because the sheets were cute. But then someone got to the website and it was pure sticker shock. Wait, what? These sheets you just told me were so cute cost $678. It was an instant bounce.
We still use a lot of UGC, and it works very well—but we’ve taken a completely different approach. We don’t shy away from the premium quality we’re delivering, and we don’t shy away from telling you it’s not easy to deliver a certified organic product.
On selling feeling before features to justify a premium price:
Data can inform who your customer is, but empathy is why she actually purchases. And empathy comes from storytelling—connecting with what she’s feeling in that moment.
I can tell you we sell organic bedsheets, and that’s probably not going to do it for you. But if I talk about the most restorative rest, or towels that keep your skin clean after your clean skincare routine, that’s a different message. We hook her with the outcome first, then explain that the reason we can deliver it is because these are organic. Do you want to wake up restored? Do you want to not be inhaling microplastics while you sleep?
On discovering customers were recommending Coyuchi on Reddit:
In that same survey, we have all the usual suspects, including LLMs as a bucket. But then we have “other.” And when we looked at the people checking “other,” more than anything else they were talking about Reddit as where they’d discovered us. We are not active on Reddit. So we were like, Oh, wow—we should really start paying attention here.
This is where our customer retention worked to our benefit. There’s a subreddit around bedding, and someone will ask, “What are the best sheets out there?” We had numerous customers promoting us. That felt very good.
We’re dipping our toes into Reddit ads now and seeing a really positive response. The bigger question is how much we should join the actual conversation. Authenticity is one of our core values, so we never want to come off as the pushy salesperson. Where I see a future is education. Greenwashing is a real thing in bedding, so there might be a place for “Did you know?” content in relevant conversations, for people who genuinely want a healthy home without toxins. Our monitoring tool pings us that Coyuchi is trending, and 9.5 times out of 10, it’s Reddit.
On where she expects marketing spend to shift over the next five years:
If I look at our marketing spend today, it’s no secret that the vast majority goes to Meta and Google. But if I fast-forward five years, I expect a very substantial amount will have shifted into what we now think of as AI ads.
ChatGPT ads are on the scene—very recent. We’re not live yet, so it’s something we’ll explore over time. For now it’s much more of a content play, plus making sure your site is set up properly. But the principle doesn’t change: You show up where the consumer is looking. That used to be Google. More and more, it’s these LLMs sitting between the brand and the consumer.
Hear Vicky’s full conversation on Shopify Masters for how Coyuchi cleared $1 million on a mattress customers couldn’t lie down on, why its baby category grew more than 200% this year, and how returned quilts became 65 one-of-a-kind jackets.
Because you can’t touch the product online, we lean on descriptive language. We’ll call our flannel cashmere for your bed, because it truly is that soft. We’ll describe our sateen as petal-like softness and show you a rose petal so you know what to expect. And we talk about lasting softness: A chemical softener feels amazing for a while, then 10 washes later it’s sandpaper. Organic cotton is soft from the start and gets softer with every wash.
