According to fresh McKinsey & Company data from a survey of 21,000 consumers, an average of 53% of global consumers used AI for at least one shopping-related task in the previous three months.

They found AI use continues to accelerate, with the report also finding that ChatGPT and Gemini reached over one billion monthly active users. Consumers are clearly turning to AI, or 'agentic commerce', for product search and buying decisions, with the spotlight now on e-commerce stocks as investors race to identify which platforms will capture this multi-billion-dollar shift in consumer spending.

The Consumer AI Shopping Boom

There has been a huge increase in consumer AI shopping in the last 12 months, much of it due to rising purchase intent.

Adobe Analytics reported that traffic referred from generative AI tools to US retail websites increased 127% year-on-year in August 2026. In another article, Adobe Analytics estimated that, over the upcoming festive holiday season, AI-referred traffic to US retail sites will increase 13% year-over-year between November and December 2026.

Visits to retail sites from AI are also converting at 60% higher rates. This suggests buyers arriving through AI agents are further down the conversion funnel, which would lower customer acquisition costs but put pressure on pricing, as the following BNN Bloomberg clip explains:

As the market has grown, investors have started to speculate about which AI platforms will gain the upper hand to meet exponential demand.

AI Shopping Expansion Puts E-Commerce Stock Performance in Focus

Many e-commerce providers are seeing their revenue growth and stock prices rise, with Etsy, for example, citing personalization improvements, including AI and machine learning approaches, contributing approximately two percentage points to its annualised year-over-year GMV growth rate. Etsy shares closed 5.35% higher on 28 October following the earnings announcement.

Shopify's financial performance also attracted investor attention. In its Q2 results, Shopify reported 34% year-over-year revenue growth to $3.583 billion, and gross merchandise sales reached approximately $115.6 billion, with the e-commerce platform highlighting how AI had become part of its broader growth strategy. Shopify shares reacted strongly to the earnings announcement.

The Information reported that the stock jumped approximately 17%. That said, these results do not show how much of that growth came from AI.

Diverging AI Shopping Strategies Can Attract Investor Attention

Competition between publicly traded retailers is intensifying. Reuters reported in October 2026 that Walmart is opening its systems to external AI shopping agents, while Amazon is restricting certain third-party agents.

What's clear is that companies are taking different strategic approaches based on their business goals, leading investors and traders to potentially evaluate the moves and how they relate to customer relationships, product discovery, and transaction control.

As these strategies develop, they could also influence how investors value the companies behind them. Traders can follow these changes and use a CFD platform to take positions on share price movements without owning the underlying stocks.

The consumer approach to online shopping has completely changed. The market, from e-commerce brands creating new strategies to investor interest growing, looks completely different now compared to this time last year. The spotlight is now on e-commerce and associated AI shopping technology stocks, as investor interest will continue to grow into 2027.