We are happy to present our latest report in collaboration with industry expert Shopify: ‘The Future of AI Shopping: How AI Is Reshaping Product Discovery, Consumer Trust and the Path to Purchase.’

What’s inside?

IMRG and Shopify surveyed 1,000 UK consumers aged 18 and over to understand how they are engaging with AI throughout the shopping journey, including the AI platforms they use, how they discover products, and their attitudes towards AI-powered shopping experiences.

The findings are based on quantitative consumer research and are complemented by Shopify’s expertise and industry insights, providing retailers with practical considerations for preparing for the next evolution of AI-powered commerce.

Inside the report, we cover:
  • The sources consumers rely on to discover new brands and where AI sits within this
  • Top reasons why consumers have turned to AI in the last 12 months
  • The most important outcomes of using AI to discover products
  • AI tools that are most trusted to give accurate product recommendations and information
  • How consumers really feel about AI-powered personalisation and generational differences
  • Consumers’ approaches to searching for items on AI platforms such as Chat GPT, Gemini, etc.
  • Why maintaining accurate company and product information is crucial in the age of AI
  • The information consumers are most comfortable giving to AI tools
  • Whether product recommendation explanations are essential
  • If consumers would purchase directly through AI and how confidence in this can grow
  • The shopping experiences within AI that consumers are most interested in
  • Shopify’s 5 tips for steps ahead

Meet your experts

IMRG

IMRG is where the UK eCommerce community lives. Since 2000, we have been tracking the performance of the UK online market, with an index comprised of 230 retailers based on eCommerce revenue of £30bn in 2025. We help retailers understand and improve their online performance, bringing the community together to share knowledge, tackle industry challenges and drive the future of eCommerce.

Shopify

Shopify is the commerce platform powering millions of merchants in more than 175 countries, from fast-growing direct-to-consumer brands to global enterprise retailers. Shopify provides a unified operating system for commerce, spanning online, in-store, B2B, payments, and now agentic commerce, all in one place. With the best-converting checkout in the world and AI built into the core, Shopify helps brands sell wherever their customers are, including inside AI-powered conversations.

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