Feedvisor Report: Consumers Demand Proof in an Era of AI-Assisted Shopping

U.S. consumers are not retreating from commerce; they are simply demanding significantly more evidence before committing to a purchase. According to Feedvisor’s “2026 Consumer Commerce Report,” 87% of surveyed consumers say economic factors have changed their shopping habits, yet 52% still buy online at least weekly. The shift is less about a drop in volume and more about a rise in the friction of the decision-making process, where shoppers are doing more work to justify every dollar spent.

What happened

MarTech reports that the primary change in consumer behavior is the increased effort surrounding the purchase. Forty-five percent of consumers compare prices more frequently than a year ago, with nearly half of those shoppers checking three different retailers before buying. Additionally, 41% wait for sales and 31% have increased their use of coupons or cashback. Despite this scrutiny, 56% of consumers still buy items to improve their mood at least once a month, though 44% cap these discretionary purchases between $10 and $20.

A key finding in the report is the role of AI in this process. Fifty-five percent of consumers have used AI to research or compare products in the past six months. However, this usage is focused on tedious tasks: 39% use AI to find the lowest price, 31% to compare products, and 27% to find coupons. Crucially, 62% of consumers stated they would never trust an autonomous AI agent to place an order and pay without a manual checkout. Instead, after an AI recommendation, many shoppers still manually search Google or Amazon, read reviews, and compare alternatives. This indicates a preference for AI as a verification tool rather than an autonomous buyer.

Trust in traditional promotional events is also eroding. Only 49% of consumers believe events like Prime Day or Black Friday offer genuine savings. Twenty-eight percent feel deal quality has declined or feels artificial, and 15% suffer from sale fatigue. This skepticism is more pronounced among younger demographics, with 38% of 18-to-29-year-olds citing artificial deals, compared to 22% of those 65 and older.

Why it matters for marketing teams

For small and mid-sized companies, this data signals that the "spray and pray" era of discounting is over. Your customers are using AI to do the heavy lifting of comparison, meaning your product listing, price point, and review profile are being stress-tested by algorithms before a human even sees them. The fact that consumers refuse to let AI complete the checkout is a critical strategic insight: you are not competing with other brands for the click; you are competing with the AI’s initial recommendation for the final human validation. If your value proposition is vague or your pricing is inconsistent across platforms, the AI will flag it, and the human shopper will abandon the cart. The opportunity here is not to fight the AI, but to ensure your data is clean and your value is explicit enough to survive the AI’s scrutiny and the human’s final check.

What to do this week

1. Audit your product listings to ensure prices, stock levels, and descriptions are perfectly consistent across all marketplaces, as AI tools rely on this structured data to make comparisons.
2. Review your top 10 products’ review sections to identify any recurring complaints about shipping or quality, and address them with clear, visible updates to your FAQ or product description.
3. Create a simple, transparent "why this price" or value-proposition banner on your landing pages to counter the 28% of consumers who feel current deals are artificial.

Sources

• Consumers are still buying. They’re just harder to convince. — MarTech