Surprise Castle started in 2020, during a weird time for retail. Shopping habits were changing fast, supply chains were messy, and a lot of people were starting to realize how unstable digital access can be. We built the store around people who still like owning the real thing: books, movies, music, toys, games, collectibles, and shelf-worthy finds. What makes us different is that we are not trying to be Amazon-lite. The goal is to help people find specific entertainment products, including harder-to-find titles and long-tail items that are easy to lose inside bigger marketplaces. We are still building trust as a newer retailer, so a lot of our work is very practical: better product data, clearer pages, better search, honest communication, and making the store feel real to someone who has never heard of us before.

Most new customers still come from search. Someone is usually looking for a specific book, movie, toy, CD, or collectible, finds us through Google, and then decides very quickly whether we look trustworthy enough to try. Where I’d like more business to come from is repeat customers, word of mouth, and community. That is a better kind of growth for us. If someone buys once, has a good experience, and later thinks of Surprise Castle as their place to look for physical entertainment products, that means a lot more than a one-time click.

We have handed AI some of the rough sorting and first-pass work. It is useful for reviewing product information, spotting pages that feel thin, comparing media opportunities, and helping us think through customer trust issues faster. But I still pull the human handbrake on anything that affects credibility. Product wording, customer emails, pitches, and anything that could make us sound like we manufacture a product we only retail has to be checked by a person. AI is good at helping me see the mess faster. It is not good enough to own the final judgment.

I have not seen customers directly say, “ChatGPT sent me here,” at least not in a clear way yet. But I do think the buying journey is changing before the customer ever reaches the site. People arrive with more context now. They compare faster, skim harder, and are more suspicious of unfamiliar stores. AI search makes that even more important because public information about the business, reviews, product data, and third-party mentions can shape trust before the visit starts. For us, the job is to make the site feel specific, consistent, and real within the first few seconds.

I would tell other ecommerce businesses to use AI on boring problems first. Fix product data. Improve search. Find confusing pages. Review customer emails. Spot patterns in support questions. Those are the places where AI can quietly save time. I would ignore the pressure to add AI just so the business looks modern. Customers do not care that you use AI. They care whether they can find the product, trust the store, understand the price, and feel safe placing the order. If AI helps with that, use it. If it just adds another layer of noise, leave it alone.