2026 Consumer Research
What Makes Shopping Experiences Matter?
Explore our consumer research to dive into the latest trends across the buying journey, including what drives loyalty or dissuades trust.
Learn why meeting shoppers with consistency, dependability, sensibility — and yes, maybe a little AI — is the way to win the digital shelf in 2026.
Understanding the AI Trust Gap
AI Shopping Tools Face Cautious Adoption and Conditional Trust
Only 14% of shoppers trust AI recommendations alone to make a purchase. Others verify with content across marketplaces, reviews, and social media before buying — or don’t use AI at all.
Shoppers’ view of AI is fairly nuanced: Winning the AI recommendation is worthless if your product content doesn't hold up everywhere shoppers go to confirm it.
Gen Alpha’s Impact on Household Spending
Alphas are Causing a Ruckus — and Regularly Influencing Purchases
A notable number (43%) of parents and guardians say their Gen Alpha children (ages 1–15) influence spending in some way, with 9% influencing most purchases.
Look alive: Gen Alphas influence 19–26% of household purchases across food and beverage; fashion and apparel; and electronics.
Effect of Tariffs and Global Trade Policies
Shoppers Reduce Spending and Seek Lower-Priced Options
With an influx of global trade policies in flux, shoppers have faced higher prices, fewer options, different options, or some amalgamation of the three.
Their response includes price and product origin consciousness in varying degrees, with 39% of shoppers reporting that they compare prices more carefully before purchasing.
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