In 2026, consumer behavior trends show shoppers are price-conscious, but also selectively splurging; demanding privacy, and turning toward AI to shop.
Consumer spending trends suggest shoppers are more informed, more skeptical, and more selective.
Buying behavior has fractured: Some customers discover a brand in a physical store, research it through an AI shopping assistant, and complete the purchase on their phone—all before considering whether a customer loyalty program is worth sacrificing their privacy for.
To help you navigate this new territory, explore these nine shopping behaviors and consumer trends to look out for in 2026.
Nine consumer behavior trends shaping 2026
- Customers lean on AI search to shop
- Consumers are more value-driven, not just price-driven
- Gen Alpha control household spending
- Digital channels influence discovery, but trust still comes from people and proof
- In-store shopping is a discovery and experience channel
- Digital wallets and flexible payments continue to grow
- Sustainability still matters when brands can prove credibility
- Personalization works only when the value exchange is clear
- Silent churn is rising as customers give less direct feedback
1. Customers lean on AI search to shop
AI search engines are solidifying their place in customers’ purchasing decisions.
Shopify data corroborates this: traffic to Shopify sites from AI search increased eightfold year-over-year, while orders saw a 15-times increase over the same period.
Agentic commerce is a model of online shopping where AI agents like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot handle the entire purchasing journey on a customer’s behalf. AI agents research products, compare options, and support shoppers to complete the transaction.
Agentic commerce is emerging as a potential opportunity for retailers. The question isn’t whether AI shopping agents matter; it’s how to prepare your commerce business to work with them without adding another complex integration to an already stretched tech stack.
Deloitte’s 2026 study found 31% of executives say they’re struggling to figure out the best way to reach AI shoppers. And according to Shopify’s 2025 Store Owner Survey, of those not already using AI, 29% are unsure of their capabilities and 26% don’t know which tool to use.*
The Universal Commerce Protocol (UPC), codeveloped by Shopify and Google, is an open standard that allows AI agents to handle complete shopping journeys. They can parse data and let customers complete the entire purchase process inside the generative AI tool, including:
- Submitting discount codes
- Applying loyalty credentials
- Adjusting subscription billing cadences
- Processing payments
“At Monos, we’re excited about agentic shopping because it enables us to meet customers where they already are,” said Victor Tam, CEO and cofounder of luggage brand Monos.
“It’s a new way for our story and product details to show up at the exact moment someone is asking real questions with real intent, in a format that feels helpful, not intrusive. For a brand built on thoughtful design, it’s a natural next channel for discovery and trust.”
2. Consumers are more value-driven, not just price-driven
As economic pressures mount, consumers are placing greater emphasis on value when making purchasing decisions. Capgemini’s 2026 consumer research report found almost three-quarters of consumers would switch brands for lower regular prices.
Salsify’s 2026 data supports this, citing global trade policies as the driving factor: 39% of consumers say they’re comparing prices more carefully before purchasing, while 27% say they’re delaying nonessential purchases. They report a sharp decline in daily spending from 21% to 9% year over year.
“Consumers are still buying,” says Shelley Martin, founder of Skinician, “but the items they spend their money on must be well worth the investment. Solve problems well, as many of them as possible with one product, then tell your consumers how your product makes life better.”
Deloitte's 2026 report found nearly half of shoppers—including 35% of high-income households—behave as value seekers. They sacrifice convenience to keep costs down.
“I think value is the reason why we have gone from 87 customers to now in the six figures; because people have started to make decisions very consciously about what they're buying, why they're buying it,” says Divyansh Ojha, founder of Odd Bunch, in a Shopify Masters interview.
3. Gen Alpha control household spending
Gen Alpha, those born between 2010 and 2024, might be the newest generation, but they have spending power—directly influencing $95 billion worth of purchases, according to a report by DKC.
Research from Salsify draws a similar conclusion. It found 43% of parents and guardians say their Gen Alpha children influence spending in some way. Their impact is most prevalent in food and beverage, fashion and apparel, and electronics categories.
- Language changes: The same DKC report found 77% of parents have begun to (or plan to) learn their Gen Alpha children’s slang and language.
- Youth entrepreneurship: Gen Alpha has grown up alongside the rise of the creator economy. It’s proved inspiring: 91% of children in this generation are earning money, per DKC, with 2 in 5 monetizing their online engagement through online buying and selling.
- The nostalgia lens: Around7 in 10 of Gen Alpha’s parents are millennials, according to DKC. This demographic is known for their love of nostalgia. Brands like Magic Spoon lean into that, using flavors they base on their customers’ “favorite childhood cereal,” but with a healthier twist.
“When you’re a kid, of course you’re not in charge of groceries, but now millennials are in control of the purchasing decisions for their households and their families,” says Angie Meltsner, a trends and consumer insights researcher and founder of the cultural insights studio Tomato Baby.
“They can live vicariously through these nostalgic purchases in a way, buying those things they wanted in their youth but as better-for-you alternatives for both their kids and themselves.”
4. Digital channels influence discovery, but trust still comes from people and proof
TikTok Shop accounted for almost 20% of social commerce in 2025. Sales in the US grew by 407% from the year prior.
But McKinsey’s "State of the Consumer 2026" report, found a paradox in how people shop today. Consumers say social media is their least trusted source when making buying decisions, yet it’s where they interact with their most trusted sources: family and friends.
Initial content that surfaces a product on social media is rarely what closes the sale: per Bazaarvoice’s "2025 Shopper Preference " report, 47% of consumers trust customer testimonials and peer reviews when shopping on social media, and for 39%, confidence in a purchase grows with the sheer volume of reviews.
Brands are relying on scale—something Solgaard uses creators to achieve. The premium lifestyle and luggage brand turned to Shopify Collabs to recruit brand ambassadors to promote their products on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
The result: Solgaard grew creator-attributed revenue by over 287%. Partners have driven over $50,000 in sales since launching on Shopify Collabs.
“Fostering a community of remarkable individuals on the Shopify Collabs app has made our efforts easier and more effective—which helps us to drive maximum impact,” says founder and CEO Adrian Solgaard.
5. In-store shopping is a discovery and experience channel
According to Salsify’s consumer research, physical retail stores are the top product- and brand-discovery method: 3 in 5 shoppers use retail stores for discovery, and 69% of shoppers primarily purchase new products in retail stores, compared to 29% on brand websites.
But the shopper journey is not linear, and it is not channel-specific. Salsify found 53% of shoppers check out a product in-store before buying it online, and 43% use their smartphone to search for more information about a product while shopping in-store.
Physical stores are serving multiple functions, including product discovery, fulfillment, and brand engagement. But unified data is required for this to work efficiently at scale.
Apparel brand BYLT Basics illustrates what that unification looks like. They evolved from a purely digital operation by implementing an omnichannel retail strategy through Shopify’s unified platform, including:
- Rapid point-of-sale (POS) deployment that enabled same-day store setup
- A unified loyalty program that lets customers earn and redeem rewards across both digital and physical channels
- A custom mobile app integrated with existing systems, which drives 10% of overall conversions
BYLT Basics scaled to seven profitable retail locations in under a year and achieved 400% growth in their women's category.
“Given recent growth within our omnichannel approach, it’s made us realize that we need to simplify our tech stack to what’s best fitting within our business,” says Ryan Groh, head of ecommerce at BYLT Basics.
“We’ve put a strong focus into utilizing multiple Shopify solutions and consolidating within their stack as we continue to expand our channel offerings. It’s saved our team a tremendous amount of time, while we’ve been able to further develop our longstanding partnership with Shopify to the BYLT loyal online and in person.”
6. Digital wallets and flexible payments continue to grow
Digital wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Shop Pay have normalized one-click checkout to the point where entering card details manually now feels like friction: Baymard’s research shows a combined 37% of shoppers abandon their carts if the checkout process is too long or the site forces them to create an account.
As a result, Statista forecasts that digital wallets, which currently account for 56% of all online transactions, will claim 63% of transactions by 2030.
Shop Pay offers functionality out of the box. Customers can store their payment information securely in Shop Pay and check out faster than on other websites. It’s proven to outpace other accelerated checkouts by at least 10%.
Everlane experienced this first-hand. “We didn’t want our customers to continue having to enter their address or credit card information, or spend time making an account,” says Anna M. Peterson, product lead at Everlane. “Most people want to avoid signing up and giving you their password. We wanted to make it seamless and easy for them to purchase quickly.”
Everlane captured 15% of their audience in the first 30 days with Shop Pay. Based on Shopify's internal measurement of the brand’s performance, Shop Pay has achieved conversion rates of up to 70%.
7. Sustainability still matters when brands can prove credibility
Circana’s 2026 report found $1 out of every $4 spent on consumer packaged goods (CPG) in the US goes to sustainability marketed products. These items were responsible for 44.9% of growth in the CPG industry between 2013 and 2025, per NYU Stern.
There’s a price premium attached to those products: the same NYU research found products marketed as sustainable have a 26.6% price premium on average.
But Blue Yonder’s 2025 Sustainability report found customers don’t always take a brand’s sustainability credentials at face value:
- 20% believe brands accurately communicate their sustainability initiatives in ads and marketing.
- 25% don’t trust a brand’s sustainability claims.
- 17% feel the need to do extra research to verify those claims.
Brands are rightly concerned about getting it wrong: Forrester found three-quarters of B2C marketers would like to share more about their green initiatives but fear their actions would be perceived as greenwashing.
Wild caters to this by embedding sustainability into product development, not a bolt-on after the fact. They sell natural body wash and deodorants which come in refillable cases, with the goal of reducing single-use plastic.
Wild turned to Shopify to communicate their value proposition and operate their subscription model. “We knew we had to create a flexible and trustworthy shopping experience to encourage customers to switch to our sustainable products,” says cofounder and CMO Charlie Bowes-Lyon.
Since migrating, Wild boasts a 8% conversion rate, well above the industry average. Between 40% and 50% of customers have an active subscription plan.
8. Personalization works only when the value exchange is clear
Ecommerce personalization has become a hot topic, and for good reason. Personalized discounts influence 39% shoppers to buy, per Salsify’s 2026 data.
But there’s a gap between what customers want and the data they’re willing to provide to make personalization possible.
Qualtrics’ 2026 report found just 41% of customers believe the benefits of personalization justify the privacy cost, and just 39% believe businesses use their information responsibly.
Brands can:
- Explicitly share what data you’re collecting: 46% of customers are more willing to share information if brands are transparent about what they’re collecting.
- Give customers control: 45% of consumers expect the ability to control or delete data themselves. This is made possible with a single customer view that eliminates data silos by creating a single source of truth for customer data.
Beauty brand Sculpted by Aimee applies this level of customer control at the point of data collection. The brand relies on Shopify POS’s email cart feature to collect customer data for future personalization.
“After integrating email capture, we gave our store teams an annual goal for email conversion by employee,” says Sam Sisca, VP of retail. “We’ve seen most of their email conversion rates increase by at least 20% and, in some cases, up to 95%. Shopify had a lot to do with this because the customer is able to quickly put in their information.”
9. Silent churn is rising as customers give less direct feedback
Direct customer feedback has been in steady decline since 2021. Only 3 in 10 customers take the time to explain why they leave a brand, according to Qualtrics’ 2026 data. They switch brands silently without giving their feedback.
When brands do not understand why customers leave, it can affect revenue, retention, and future optimization efforts.
But there’s an interesting paradox: While customers are less likely to give feedback, they’re becoming increasingly reliant on it to form purchasing decisions.
BrightLocal’s 2026 survey found shoppers expect higher star ratings and fresh reviews than ever before. Around half (47%) won’t use a business that has fewer than 20 reviews; 74% only care about reviews written within the last month.
Brands benefit from using more proactive methods to gather customer feedback.
SilkSilky took this approach by implementing Shopify’s checkout-page customization capabilities. A user survey appears immediately after a customer places an order, offering an additional 15% discount. The pop-up survey has three times the response rate of email marketing.
How retailers can respond to these consumer behavior trends in 2026
The research across every trend points to the same underlying dynamic: Consumers in 2026 are more informed, more skeptical, and more willing to switch. Here’s how you can respond:
Prioritize value communication over blanket discounting
Use the product page to clearly communicate value and address common comparison points for prospective buyers.
Anchor this against the questions of a skeptical first-time buyer:
- What problem does this solve?
- What does it replace?
- How long does it last?
- What do people who already own it think?
Audit product descriptions to ensure they speak to outcomes over features, surfacing reviews that reinforce durability and problem-solving, and being transparent about what’s included.
As Capgemini’s 2026 research confirms, transparent pricing and consistent policies now sit alongside quality itself as top drivers of consumer trust.
Treat first-party data as a trust exchange
When a customer shares first-party data, show what they get in return: a personalized recommendation, a loyalty benefit, or a restock alert when the item on their wishlist is available to buy.
This ties back into Capgemini’s research, which proves customers are more willing to share data when brands are transparent about what they’re collecting.
Tip: On Shopify, unified customer profiles collect data from both native Shopify features and integrated apps. These profiles power dynamic segmentation and marketing automation, which allowed Sanjo to increase retention rates by 60%.
Reduce friction across checkout, delivery, and returns
Every point of unnecessary friction is a moment where a customer can go elsewhere:
- Checkout: Shop Pay’s accelerated checkout removes the account creation and complex form-filling steps that account for 37% of cart abandonment. Shoppers can save their email address, payment method, shipping, and billing details to check out on any Shop Pay-enabled store.
- Delivery: Shop Promise can show a specific delivery window on the product page and at checkout. It uses order-fulfillment history and transit time estimations to calculate delivery windows. If the item arrives outside of those windows, eligible Shop Promise orders are backed by a limited guarantee.
- Returns: Route’s 2026 report found 82% of shoppers say easy return options influence their decision to buy from a brand. Shopify’s built-in self-serve returns function lets customers initiate a return request directly from their order status page. Approve or decline requests, add exchange items, provide shipping instructions, and send return labels.
Use AI to support—not replace—customer relationships
Customers are turning to AI search engines for shopping, but they distrust AI when it appears to be acting on behalf of a brand. YouGov’s December 2025 report shows only 5% “trust AI a lot.” Some 19% say they “don’t trust it much” and 22% don’t have any confidence in it at all.
Audit the customer journey to find out what AI handles better. Configure a “Talk to a human” button in your chatbot and record the topics or themes most commonly escalated. Explore AI use cases for those easily handled by machine learning (ML) technology.
Tip: Shopify Sidekick is an AI assistant built into every Shopify plan. It can surface data and retrieve insights from your store. Snocks Group uses it to cut report-building time by up to 98%, from 30 minutes to seconds per query.
“Everyone has worked with AI by now,” says Kevin Foitzik, group head of online shop and IT at Snocks Group. “But having it sit right inside Shopify, connected to your own data, makes it so much more usable.”
*Based on a 2025 survey of 500 Shopify store owners conducted in English across Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States. Respondents were established businesses with two or more years on the platform. Results reflect the experiences of this specific sample and may not be representative of all store owners.
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Consumer behavior trends FAQ
What is consumer behavior?
Consumer behavior is the study of how and why people make purchasing decisions: what drives them to buy, what makes them switch, and what keeps them coming back. Brands use their target audience’s emotions, thoughts, and feelings in their marketing strategies.
Why is consumer behavior changing in 2026?
Customer behavior in 2026 is changing as customers focus on value and prices, use AI to shop, and treat retail stores as a place of discovery. Personalization and sustainability still matter, but only when brands can prove their claims and are transparent in how they’re using customer data.
What are the main factors influencing consumer behavior today?
There are four factors that influence consumer behavior in 2026:
- Psychological factors, such as buying motivations, attitudes, and consumer preferences
- Social influences, such as reviews, market trends, and peer pressure
- Economic factors, such as product pricing and rising costs
- Personal factors, such as their occupation, age, and income level
How should ecommerce brands respond to changing consumer behavior?
Brands can respond to changing consumer behavior by:
- Making checkout, delivery, and returns as frictionless as possible
- Collecting first-party data transparently
- Being present where AI discovery happens
- Treating reviews as a marketing channel
- Using physical retail as a discovery and brand experience tool
- Communicating sustainability claims with proof
