Survey: Even on Equal Terms, 40.2% of US Consumers Still Send AI Agents to Big Marketplaces
When price, shipping and return terms are identical, US consumers still show a clear preference for large e-commerce marketplaces over brand websites.
A report published by PYMNTS Intelligence in October 2026 shows that, when price, shipping and return terms are identical, 40.2% of US consumers still prefer to have AI shopping agents place orders on large e-commerce marketplaces; 21.8% choose department stores or large retailers, only 16.1% choose brand websites, and another 21.8% leave the decision to the AI itself.
The survey, conducted in August 2026, covered 2,191 US consumers. Among those who chose a specific type of seller, 36.6% cited easier or more reliable returns, 34.9% cited a broader product selection, and 32.7% attributed it to shopping habits. The report says these reasons stem more from relationships built over years of purchasing than from differences in offers.
In terms of actual transactions, the report shows that 59.7% of the most recent AI-assisted purchases were completed on Amazon, while brand websites or apps accounted for only 6.3%; 57.9% of consumers who use AI for shopping said that even with AI helping them find products, they usually still place orders on Amazon.
Among the 1,286 respondents who mainly complete purchases on marketplaces, 53.9% said lower prices or exclusive discounts would prompt them to switch to brand websites, 49.9% chose free shipping as fast as the marketplace's, and "having an AI agent handle checkout" accounted for only 12.1%.
Source: https://www.pymnts.com/commerce/ecommerce/2026/shoppers-would-send-ai-agents-to-marketplaces-over-brand-sites/
Provenance & status
- Byline
- OceanAlt Editorial
- First published
- 2026-10-24
- Last updated
- 2026-10-24
- Content type
- Newsflash
- Source material
- View original ↗
Related reading
Harbor Enters AI Agent Insurance With $10M Seed Round, Leaving Liability Attribution and Claims Pricing as the First Unsolved Problems
South Korea's President Confirms AI Role in Attacks on Seven Financial Firms: A Look at the Attack Chain
NVIDIA Open-Sources Agent Security Platform: Another Piece in the Agent Security Infrastructure, from Testing to Deployment
Paste a payee address before you pay and see whether it's on a sanctions list, through a mixer, or tagged for fraud.
This judgement can sit inside your own product
One line of code; it touches neither your CSS nor your JS. The same pre-settlement judgement can appear in your articles, on your wallet's confirmation screen, or as an endpoint your agent calls before it pays.