Agentic commerce statistics 2026: new survey data

Key takeaways

Adoption is further along than the discourse suggests. 70% of brands, retailers, and agencies are testing or deploying an agentic storefront, and only 7% have no plans at all.

Discovery is the goal, conversion is the outcome. 62% name improved brand discovery as a leading objective, ahead of increased conversions at 57% — but merchants running agentic storefronts report 2x conversion regardless.

The blocker is measurement, not belief. Data requirements and ROI measurement tie at 57% as the top anticipated challenges, while 88% of adopters still expect to increase investment over the next 12 months.

How many brands are using agentic commerce?

Seventy percent of brands, retailers, and agencies are currently experimenting with or using an agentic storefront, including 40% actively deploying one. A further 23% plan to adopt within the next 12 months, and only 7% have no current plans. These figures come from a 2026 survey of 80 brand, retailer, and agency respondents conducted by Swap in partnership with Glossy.

Learn more about Swap's agentic storefront.

Ninety percent of the same group are already using AI in some form to improve customer shopping experiences, and 71% report their ecommerce sites are set up to be discoverable by AI agents. Twenty percent are unsure, which is its own finding. Download the State of Agentic Commerce report for the full research.

What are brands trying to get out of agentic commerce?

Improved brand discovery is the leading goal, named by 62% of respondents with significant agentic investment. Increased conversions follows at 57%, improved user experience and personalization at 56%, and lowered customer acquisition costs at 50%. Reduced returns (49%) and increased customer loyalty (47%) round out the majority-cited goals.

The ranking is worth sitting with. Discovery leads because search behaviour is visibly moving — more than 1 in 5 brand and agency professionals report decreases in upper-funnel (37%) and lower-funnel (21%) search traffic as a result of AI. But the goals below it are all full-funnel, which means brands are not treating this as an AI product discovery patch.

What is stopping the rest?

Data requirements and measuring ROI tie as the most significant anticipated challenges, each named by 57% of respondents. Low customer interest or consumer trust follows at 53%, cost at 46%, and structuring product content to be machine-readable at 43%. Brand safety and diminished brand identity rank lowest, both at 35%.

Among the roughly 15% not using agentic commerce at all, cost and bandwidth are the stated obstacles. Insufficient data or data quality was cited by only 8% — which contradicts the assumption that data readiness is what holds brands back. It is a concern of adopters, not a barrier for non-adopters.

Measurement is more tractable than the 57% suggests. An agentic storefront running on a .ai domain alongside a traditional site gives you a direct comparison: conversion rate, average order value, return rate, and time on site, same catalog, same period, two experiences.

What data do agentic tools actually need?

Core product attributes lead at 56%, followed by review signals at 54%, customer and payment data for checkout at 45%, and existing brand voice and tone guidelines at 43%. Real-time inventory and shipping and return policies follow at 39% each, FAQs at 38%, and current pricing and offers at 36%.

The presence of brand voice guidelines at 43% is the interesting one. Nearly half of respondents are feeding their agents the same tone documentation they give their writers, which says they are treating the agent as an extension of brand identity rather than a utility bolted onto the site. That is central to conversational commerce.

What results are agentic storefronts producing?

Merchants implementing Swap's Agentic Storefront have seen 2x conversion rates, a 22% increase in monthly average order volume, a 20% increase in daily total orders, 3x time on site, and 20% fewer returns. Virtual try-on performs particularly well at the point of decision: 58% of try-on sessions end in an add-to-cart, and 20% convert to purchase.

Those figures are Swap platform data, not survey findings. The survey measures what brands are doing; the platform data measures what happens when they do it. See more merchant results.

Where is agentic commerce heading?

Eighty-eight percent of current adopters and 58% of non-adopters expect to increase investment in agentic commerce over the next 12 months, including 25% of adopters expecting a significant increase. No respondent group expects to decrease investment significantly.

The market projections point the same direction. Bain forecasts the US agentic AI market reaching $300 to $500 billion by 2030. McKinsey estimates AI agents could generate up to $1 trillion in US retail revenue over the same period. Salesforce tied AI and agents to 20% of all retail sales and $262 billion in spend during the 2025 holiday season.

The consumer side is already there. Nielsen reports 49% of consumers already receive beauty recommendations from generative AI.

Consumer engagement with agentic shopping is moving faster than brand adoption. That gap does not usually close in the brand's favour.

Last updated: August 2026