State of Ecommerce 2026: How AI Is Rewiring the Shopper Journey

Every ecommerce report for the last two years has promised that AI would change how people shop. This one measures it. Similarweb and Statista pulled together clickstream data on real shopper journeys, Amazon sales data, and consumer surveys covering tens of thousands of people across the US, UK and Germany, and published the result as a 71-page report.

We read all of it, rebuilt the charts that matter, and added a short section on what the numbers mean if organic traffic and links are part of how you grow. The headline: AI is now in more than one in ten shopping journeys — and in nine out of ten of those, search is still in the loop.

1. AI has changed how people browse — for every age group

Start with perception: do shoppers feel anything is different? 49% of US consumers agree that AI has altered their browsing habits, and among 25–44-year-olds the share tops 50%. The striking part is the floor, not the peak — no age band drops under 43%, so this is not just a Gen Z story.

2. AI now appears in one in nine journeys to a retail site

Self-reported change is one thing; behaviour is another. Similarweb tracked every desktop session that ended on a transactional retail site and checked whether an AI tool appeared along the way. In July 2024, that was true for 4.5% of journeys. By June 2026 it was 11.4% — more than double in under two years, with a steady climb rather than a spike.

Still a minority of journeys, then — but the direction is not in doubt. The people who use it are also the most engaged shoppers, as the next charts show.

3. AI is almost never used alone

This is the number that matters most for anyone who earns traffic from search. Among journeys that use AI at all, 89% also use a search engine. Only 11% go from AI straight to a retailer without touching search. Shoppers use AI to explore, compare and shortlist, then go back to search as they move toward a purchase.

4. AI wins early in the journey; search wins late

Asked which tool is most useful at each stage, consumers name AI almost twice as often as search for discovering ideas and researching options. The gap narrows when they are deciding what to buy, and nearly disappears at the last step — evaluating value and feeling confident. AI and search look less like substitutes and more like two tools for different jobs.

5. Where AI sits in the path to purchase

Behavioural data tells the same story from the other side. Similarweb split every session into a first touchpoint, middle touchpoints, and the last site before the retailer. AI shows up in the middle 76% of the time and is rarely first (23%) or last (18%). Search is spread across the whole journey — it is the first, middle or last touchpoint in more than half of the sessions where it appears.

That shape is drifting, though. Two years ago AI was a middle touchpoint in 81% of its journeys; today it is 76%, and both the first-touch and last-touch shares have crept up. In other words, more shoppers now open with AI and come back to it right before they buy.

6. The most complex journeys convert best

Journeys that mix AI and search visit almost 15 sites on average — far more than search-only (10) or AI-only (7). That extra research does not hurt: the same journeys convert at 23.0%, the highest of the three. The report is careful not to claim causation; the likelier reading is that these are higher-intent shoppers who consult more sources before they commit.

7. AI usage depends on what you are buying

The 11.4% average hides a spread between categories. Consumer electronics sits highest at 14.1% of journeys, beauty next at 13.2% — expensive gadgets and specific skincare both call for research — while home & garden trails at 10.4%. Put simply: the harder a purchase is to compare, the more often an AI tool ends up in the loop.

8. Ecommerce traffic is growing again — and apps grow faster

Worldwide ecommerce web visits grew 6.8% in the year to June 2026, up from 1.3% the year before. App sessions grew faster still at 8.6%. Growth is uneven, though: in the UK, Germany and Canada, visits rose while unique visitors fell — fewer people browsing harder, which the report links to longer, AI-assisted research before a purchase.

9. Where ecommerce traffic actually comes from

This is the chart to bookmark. Across all ecommerce sites worldwide, direct brings 44% of visits and organic search 24%. Everything paid — search, social, display — adds up to about 13%. And Gen AI referrals, the channel everyone is talking about, deliver 0.4%.

Share is only half the picture. Gen AI is the fastest-growing channel in every sector, up 203% year over year for ecommerce as a whole and 226–276% within individual categories — roughly six to ten times the growth of the next-fastest channel. Direct and organic search are essentially flat.

10. Marketplaces still own the traffic — except in the UK and France

Marketplaces take 38–45% of all ecommerce visits in most markets. The exceptions are the UK (30.6%) and France (21.1%), where fashion retailers fill the gap — UK fashion alone holds 16.2% of ecommerce traffic.

Geographically, marketplace growth is moving away from mature Western markets. The US still dominates by volume (56.9 billion visits), but the fastest growth is in India (+14.8%), France (+14.4%) and Saudi Arabia (+22.8%).

11. Conversational search is exploding inside Amazon

External AI referrals are under 1% of marketplace traffic, but shoppers do not have to leave Amazon to ask an assistant. Traffic to product pages from Amazon's own Alexa for Shopping (formerly Rufus) is growing 380–570% year over year. The catch, as the report notes, is that these assistants apply their own filter: sponsored products and past purchases get priority. Brands that skip retail media risk not appearing in the conversation at all.

12. Who wins the AI referral traffic?

For each sector, the report compares a site's rank by Gen AI referrals with its overall traffic rank. The big brands (Ulta, Apple, Home Depot) lead both lists. The interesting names are the ones that rank far higher in AI than on the open web — ingredient-led and specialist brands that answer the kind of questions people ask a chatbot.

The pattern by sector: in beauty, ChatGPT prompts are dominated by hair-care and skin-care routines, so dermatological brands win. In electronics, it is PC builds and compatibility, so Newegg gains. In fashion, AI acts as a personal stylist and elevated-basics brands like Quince and Abercrombie benefit. In home, it plays interior designer and lifts Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel.

13. In fashion, paid media has overtaken direct traffic

One of the clearest structural shifts in the report. In July 2023, direct traffic brought 33.6% of visits to fashion sites and paid channels 27.6%. By July 2026 the two had swapped: paid is at 33.8%, direct at 27.8%, and organic search plus social slipped to 23.7%. Retailers replaced fading organic reach with money.

14. The market keeps growing — with AI as a catalyst

Statista forecasts global B2C ecommerce revenue of over $4.9 trillion by 2030, 27% above 2026. The US alone goes from $1.2T to $1.5T. Statista estimates that AI in the shopping journey already contributed almost 2 percentage points of worldwide ecommerce growth between 2024 and 2025.

15. Adoption is real but uneven

How often do people actually use AI while shopping? In the US, 27% say often or very often. In Germany, 44% say never. Age is the sharpest divide: 34% of US Gen Z and 35% of Millennials use AI often in the shopping journey, against 16% of Gen X and 6% of Boomers. Parents, men and higher-income households also use it more.

16. Trust is the real limit on agentic commerce

Would consumers let an AI agent buy for them? Mostly not yet. 42% of US adults would not trust AI to make purchases on their behalf; for Baby Boomers it is 70%. Where there is openness, it is in fashion and electronics (26–27% comfortable), and lowest for luxury (16%).

The same picture appears when you ask about AI's role short of buying. Around four in ten trust it to recommend products, a third rely on it to narrow choices — but only 18–24% would let it make the final decision. People want AI as an assistant, not a proxy.

What this means for SEO and link building

Strip away the retail detail and the report leaves marketers with a fairly clear brief.

Get a summary in:

ChatGPTPerplexityClaudeGoogle AI ModeGrok