Consumer Buying Behavior Online Statistics 2026: Research and AI

US retail e-commerce sales reached $340.2 billion in the second quarter of 2026. The Census Bureau puts online purchases at 17.1% of total sales. That share keeps inching up, but consumer buying behavior online statistics show the path to “buy” changing faster than the share itself. Eurostat found that 72% of individuals aged between 16 and 74 years old used the internet to find information about goods and services in the EU in 2025, which makes pre-purchase research a majority habit.

The surveys below point to a more cautious shopper who checks more channels and leans on reviews. The data covers research habits, channels, mobile and AI shopping, peak events, pricing, checkout friction and reviews, drawn from government statistics offices, retail analytics and consumer surveys published through September 2026.

Key Takeaways

• Salsify found 54% use two to three channels for mid-range items, while 30% use four to six channels before buying.
• Bazaarvoice reports 94% of consumers insist on doing outside research after receiving an AI recommendation.
• Baymard Institute calculates the average cart abandonment rate of 70.22% across 50 different studies.
• Eurostat found more than a third (35.4%) of online shoppers in the EU reported encountering problems when buying through a website or app.
• Adobe measured the majority of online transactions (56.4%) taking place through a smartphone during the 2025 holiday season.
• Salsify found daily online shopping has dropped sharply, falling from 21% to 9% in the past year.

Editor’s Choice

• US e-commerce growth: increased 12.2% from the second quarter of 2025, against 6.7% growth for total retail sales.
• 2025 US holiday online spend: $257.8 billion online from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, up 6.8% year-over-year.
• Prime Day 2026 online spend: $26.4 billion in online spend from June 23 to June 26.
• Great Britain online share: the proportion of sales made online rose from 28.4% in July 2026 to 28.8% in August 2026.
• Holiday BNPL spend: $20 billion in online spend, up 9.8% YoY.
• EU online buyers: 74% of individuals aged 16 to 74 in the EU ordered or bought goods or services over the internet for private use, up from 65% in 2020.

US E-Commerce Share of Retail Sales

• The Census Bureau’s quarterly e-commerce release shows adjusted e-commerce sales increased by 3.8% (±0.4%) from the first quarter of 2026.
• Total retail sales for the second quarter of 2026 were estimated at $1,986.5 billion, an increase of 2.9% on the prior quarter.
• The adjusted online share gained 0.8 percentage points in a year, a slow climb given double-digit sales growth.

Source: US Census Bureau, Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales, Q2 2026 (seasonally adjusted)

About This Data

• Compiled from 14 sources: 6 official and company publications (Census Bureau, three Eurostat publications, ONS and Adobe’s newsroom) and 8 industry research reports (Adobe Digital Insights reports, PwC, Baymard Institute, Salsify and Bazaarvoice research).
• Source publication dates run from September 2025 to September 2026.
• Only official statistics, first-party analytics and original surveys with published methods qualified; aggregator stat lists were excluded.
• Figures are reviewed on a rolling basis and updated when the underlying sources publish new editions.

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How Shoppers Research Products Before Buying Online

• Salsify reports 11% use up to 10 for big-ticket purchases, the heaviest research segment.
• U.S. shoppers are the most thorough, with 56% checking four or more channels, according to Salsify.
• Mismatched listings cost sales: up to 45% of Gen Z and 43% of millennials abandon purchases when product details do not match across sites.
• PwC found three-quarters of AI users lean on it to research products, and 55% use it to compare prices.
• Bazaarvoice found one-third spending over an hour verifying the product after an AI suggestion.

Key finding: Salsify’s survey of online shoppers in the US, Canada and the UK describes a verification habit: 54% use two to three channels for mid-range items, and 22% use AI tools to research products. A single product page rarely closes the sale on its own; shoppers cross-check it against other sites, stores and reviews first.

What Percentage of Shoppers Research Products Online Before Buying?

Eurostat’s 2025 survey found 72% of individuals aged between 16 and 74 years old used the internet to find information about goods and services in the EU. Online product research is now a majority habit across the EU. Bazaarvoice puts outside research after an AI recommendation at 94%.

Online Shopping Adoption by Age Group

• Eurostat reports 95% of the individuals surveyed aged 16-74 years had used the internet within the last 12 months in 2025.
• In 2015, among individuals who used the internet in the previous 12 months, the share of those who bought or ordered goods or services online was 62%.
• Eurostat’s 2025 reading marks an increase of 16 pp in 10 years for the share of internet users buying online.
• The 25-34 group sits 12 pp over the EU average.
• In 2025, 27% of internet users bought transport services.

Recent Developments

• September 17, 2026: Bazaarvoice and Bluefish reported that 57% of consumers point to authentic reviews and star ratings over any other source when deciding whether to trust an AI product recommendation.
• September 15, 2026: Bazaarvoice’s research with Kiri Masters found 65% of shoppers immediately click the brand they already know when an AI tool presents several options.
• September 8, 2026: PwC’s Holiday Outlook found 29% of consumers plan to use AI somewhere in their holiday shopping this year, up from 22% last year.
• September 2026: The ONS reported online sales values rose by 2.5% over the month to August 2026 in Great Britain.
• August 18, 2026: The Census Bureau’s Q2 release showed total retail sales increased 6.7% year on year, well behind online sales growth.

Consumer Buying Behavior Online Statistics: Online vs In-Store

• Bazaarvoice found the percentage of consumers who exclusively shop in-store surged from 7% in 2024 to 29% in 2025.
• Over the same period, the percentage of shoppers who “only shop online” dropped sharply from 13% to just 5%.
• In Great Britain, the ONS found online sales values were 8.9% higher compared with August 2025.
• The ONS also reported online spending values rose by 10.1% in the three months to August 2025.

Worth noting: Frequency and share are moving in opposite directions. The Census Bureau puts e-commerce at 17.1% of total sales, a record for the series shown above, yet Salsify found daily online shopping has dropped sharply, falling from 21% to 9%. Shoppers appear to buy online less often but not less overall, bundling orders around planned purchases and sales events.

Mobile Shopping Statistics

• Mobile hit $14.2 billion in overall spend, an all-time high during Prime Day 2026.
• Smartphones carry most pay-later checkouts, driving the vast majority (82.2%) of BNPL purchases in the 2025 holiday season.
• Returns stay on bigger screens: 38.8% of returns happened on a mobile device (vs. desktop).
• Adobe found Returns were down 1.2% this holiday season, but in the days following Christmas Day (Dec. 26 to Dec. 31), returns were up 4.7%.
• App checkout and stored wallets drive much of that shift, which our mobile commerce statistics break down by channel.

Online Spending During Peak Shopping Events

• Adobe counted 25 days when consumers spent more than $4 billion in a single day (a significant jump from 18 days in 2024).
• Cyber Monday remained the biggest e-commerce day of the season (and year), driving $14.25 billion in online spend.
• Cyber Monday growth was outpaced by Black Friday ($11.8 billion, up 9.1% YoY), as shoppers moved on earlier deals.
• Adobe compared Prime Day with the holiday peak: consumers spent $32.4 billion across Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday in 2025.
• Prime Day 2026 online spend equaled about 81% of the 2025 Thanksgiving-to-Cyber Monday total.

Source: Adobe Digital Insights, 2025 holiday season and Prime Day 2026

What Consumers Buy Online Most

• Adobe found that over half (54%) of the 2025 holiday online total.
• Electronics grew up 8.2% YoY, while groceries reached $23.7 billion, up 10.2% YoY.
• Prime Day demand peaked in electronics (up 120% vs. average daily sales in June 2026).
• Shoppers traded up during Prime Day: the share of the most expensive goods increased by 19% across all tracked categories.

Price Comparison and Budget Behavior

• PwC found that 8/10 consumers plan to adopt a budgeting strategy this season, and 79% say deals and discounts influence when they shop.
• Salsify reports 1/3 now prioritizes domestically made products, a response to trade-driven price rises.
• Resale is gaining ground, with one in five buying more secondhand, according to Salsify.
• AI now plays a budgeting role for some shoppers: among PwC’s AI users, A quarter use it to stay on budget.

Discount and Buy Now, Pay Later Statistics

• Adobe found ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ (BNPL) orders accounted for 6.6% of online orders during Prime Day 2026.
• That share equaled $2.1 billion in online spend from June 23 to 26, representing 9.5% growth YoY.
• Holiday BNPL spend was $1.8 billion more than the last season, the method’s all-time high.
• Pay-later use tends to cluster around big-ticket categories and deal days, and our Buy Now, Pay Later statistics cover the lenders and repayment data behind it.

Cart Abandonment Statistics

• Baymard’s survey found 42% of US online shoppers have abandoned a cart because “I was just browsing / not ready to buy”.
• Payment friction also shows up in Baymard’s reason list, from a declined credit card (10%) to too few payment methods (9%).
• Baymard sizes the prize from combined e-commerce sales of $738 billion in the US and EU.
• A better checkout could unlock $260 billion worth of lost orders that are recoverable, based on a 35.26% increase in conversion rate.
• Checkout fixes connect directly to conversion, which our e-commerce conversion rate benchmarks track across devices and sectors.

What Checkout Problems Make Shoppers Abandon Online Purchases?

Surprise costs lead the list. Baymard found extra costs too high (shipping, tax, fees) behind 40% of abandonments among shoppers who left for a reason other than browsing. Most of the remaining reasons (slow delivery, forced accounts, long forms, site errors) are design and policy choices a retailer controls, not shopper indecision.

Online Shopping Problems and Complaints

• Eurostat found the most common problem was slower delivery than expected, reported by a fifth (19.9%) of customers.
• The second most frequent issue was that the website was difficult to use or worked unsatisfactorily, reported by 11.5% of shoppers.
• Wrong or broken orders followed: delivery of incorrect or damaged goods or services, reported by 10.4% of customers.
• Eurostat’s e-commerce survey also found that 63% of e-shoppers reported having encountered no problems when purchasing online.
• Salsify found 45% of shoppers returned an online purchase due to incorrect or misleading information, with millennials returning at the highest rate at 56%.

Source: Eurostat, ICT usage survey (2025 data, published March 2026)

What Percentage of Online Shoppers Experience Problems When Buying?

Eurostat’s 2025 survey found More than a third (35.4%) of online shoppers in the EU reported encountering problems while making purchases through a website or an app. Delivery speed tops the complaint list, so fulfillment shapes repeat buying as much as the storefront does.

Online Reviews and User-Generated Content Statistics

• The Bazaarvoice and Bluefish study found 59% of AI-cited PDPs have 100 or more reviews, 92% have ratings of four stars or higher, and 65% display a review summary at the top.
• Trust in AI picks is rising on the back of reviews: 62% said that, compared to six months ago, their trust in AI recommendations has increased.
• Salsify ranks reviews as a value signal, with Durability and longevity as the top signals of product value at 54%, with reviews close behind at 47%.
• Brand familiarity still wins clicks: 24% who click the product AI labels as its top “best match,” and a mere 11% who select the cheapest option.
• Shoppers treat reviews as evidence, and our online review statistics show how rating volume and recency shape that trust.

Source: Bazaarvoice Brand Equity Survey and Bazaarvoice with Bluefish, September 2026

By the numbers: Bazaarvoice’s September research ties purchase confidence to customer content. 76% of consumers require visual reviews (authentic customer photos or videos) before buying an unfamiliar AI recommendation, while 75% require written user reviews. User photos now act as proof of fit and quality, which is why product pages without them lose unfamiliar buyers.

AI Shopping Assistant Statistics

• Adobe’s survey found 39% of consumers say they have used AI before for online shopping, with 85% of them saying it improved their experience.
• Adobe also reported 66% of respondents believe AI tools provide accurate results.
• In March 2026, AI traffic converted 42% better (a new record high), a reversal from March 2025, when AI traffic converted 38% worse.
• During Prime Day 2026, AI visitors converted 40% better than non-AI channels.
• Bazaarvoice found Almost 1-in-4 respondents said they’ve used a generative AI tool to search for a product instead of a search engine, and that number jumps to 41% for those aged 18-34.
• Eurostat reports 1/3 of individuals used generative AI tools in the EU in 2025.
• Retail use of AI extends well beyond chat assistants, as our AI in e-commerce statistics show for personalization and search.

Why it matters: AI helps shoppers research, but few complete purchases inside it. PwC found 64% of consumers using AI for ideas continue to open a separate tab and go to a website to make a purchase, and only 4% through AI tools expect to buy gifts that way. Retailers still win or lose the sale on their own product pages.

Where Shoppers Discover New Products

• Adobe found social media share of revenue coming in at 4.6%, up a significant 40.3% YoY (2024: 3.3% share, up 5.4% YoY) during the 2025 holidays.
• In ‘affiliates and partners’, which includes social media influencers, revenue share came in at 20.4%, up 15.9% YoY.
• At Prime Day 2026, social media drove a 4.4% share of revenue but grew the fastest (up 15.8% YoY).
• Affiliates and partners, which include social media influencers, saw strong growth as well (21.3% share, up 7.0% YoY).
• Creator-led selling keeps drawing budget even as impulse buys cool, a pattern our social commerce statistics follow platform by platform.

Source: Salsify 2026 Consumer Research (US, UK and Canada)

How Often Do Consumers Shop Online?

Fewer shoppers buy online every day than a year ago. Salsify found Daily online shopping has dropped sharply, falling from 21% to 9% in the past year as shoppers pull back from fast online purchases. Frequency fell while total online spend kept growing, which suggests fewer, larger and better-researched orders.

Monthly national data shows steady online demand. The ONS found online spending values rose by 1.9% in the three months to August 2026 compared with the three months to May 2026 in Great Britain.

What Factors Influence Online Purchase Decisions Most?

Price and proof of quality lead. PwC found 79% say deals and discounts influence when they shop, and Salsify ranks durability first as a value signal at 54%. Reviews, clear total costs, and fast delivery then decide whether a shopper completes the order or leaves.

Conclusion

Online buying keeps gaining share, with the Census Bureau placing e-commerce at 17.1% of total sales, yet the path to each purchase has grown longer. Eurostat’s finding that in the EU, 72% of individuals aged between 16 and 74 years old used the internet to find information about goods and services shows research is the default step. Retailers, marketplaces and brands benefit most when their pages answer the questions shoppers bring from reviews, stores and AI tools.

Holiday results will show whether AI-assisted research and mobile checkout lift spending or only sharpen choices.