50 Retail Marketing and Consumer Shopping Statistics for 2027

Today’s shoppers don’t think in channels. They discover products on social media, check reviews on their phones, ask AI assistants for recommendations, and still make most of their purchases in physical stores. In fact, the average household shops at 39 different retailers a year, and shoppers who buy both online and in store spend nearly twice as much as those who stick to one channel.

At the same time, shoppers are more deliberate than ever. Nearly all of them research across multiple sources before buying, and they expect personalized, consistent experiences everywhere they engage, while staying protective of their personal data.

What Are the Biggest Consumer Shopping Trends for 2027?

Consumer shopping behavior continues to evolve as people move between online and physical stores, discover products through social media and increasingly use AI to research purchases.

The latest retail shopping statistics point to several trends marketers should watch:

• Omnichannel shopping: Consumers regularly move between online and in-store experiences.
• AI-powered discovery: Shoppers are using AI assistants to compare products and research recommendations.
• Mobile commerce: Smartphones play a central role in product discovery and purchasing.
• Social commerce: Social media platforms are becoming important shopping destinations.
• Value-driven decisions: Consumers are comparing options, researching reviews and considering affordability.
• Personalization and privacy: Shoppers want relevant experiences while remaining cautious about how brands use their data.

These trends highlight why understanding consumer behavior, shopping intent and customer preferences is increasingly important for retail marketers.

Here are 50 statistics on how consumers shop and what it means for retail marketers:

Where consumers shop

1. E-commerce made up 17.1% of total US retail sales in Q2 2026, which means nearly 83% of retail spending still happens in stores and other offline channels. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales, Q2 2026
2. US online sales grew 12.2% year over year in Q2 2026, nearly double the 6.7% growth of total retail. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales, Q2 2026
3. The average US household shops at 39 different retailers a year, and omnichannel shoppers spend nearly twice as much as shoppers who buy only in store or only online. Source: Circana, Complete Consumer research (April 2025)
4. Customers who became omnichannel shoppers had 18% higher brand lifetime value than single-channel customers. In-store-only customers who started buying online too had 24% higher lifetime value. Source: Pinterest Business, omnichannel shopper research (November 2026)
5. US consumers spent a record $257.8 billion online during the 2025 holiday season, up 6.8% year over year. Source: Adobe Digital Insights, 2025 Holiday Shopping Report
6. Global online holiday sales reached $1.29 trillion in 2025, including $294 billion in the US. Source: Salesforce, 2025 Holiday Shopping Data (January 2026)
7. Nearly 1 in 5 online holiday orders in 2025 was buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS), peaking at 35% of online orders on December 22. Source: Salesforce, 2025 Holiday Shopping Data (January 2026)
8. Curbside pickup accounted for 17.1% of online holiday orders in 2025 at retailers that offer it. Source: Adobe 2025 holiday data, via SGB Media
9. 47% of holiday shoppers planned to buy early in 2025 to avoid price increases. Source: Bazaarvoice, Holiday Shopping 2025 Report (July 2025)

Mobile and payments

10. Smartphones drove 56.4% of online holiday spending in 2025, up from 54.5% in 2024, and 66.5% on Christmas Day. Source: Adobe Digital Insights, 2025 Holiday Shopping Report
11. Only 38.8% of holiday returns were started on mobile, even though mobile drove 56.4% of spending, showing how shoppers switch devices across the journey. Source: Adobe 2025 holiday data, via CMOtech
12. Buy now, pay later drove a record $20 billion in online holiday spending in 2025, up 9.8% year over year. Source: Adobe Digital Insights, 2025 Holiday Shopping Report

Social commerce, creators, and video

13. US social commerce sales will top $100 billion for the first time in 2026, up 18% year over year. Source: eMarketer, US Social Commerce Forecast 2026
14. TikTok Shop is forecast to reach $23.41 billion in US sales in 2026, larger than Target’s own online sales of $21.94 billion. Source: eMarketer, FAQ on TikTok Shop (2026)
15. 51% of US social buyers will shop on TikTok in 2026. Source: eMarketer, US Social Commerce Forecast 2026
16. Social media drove 4.6% of online holiday revenue in 2025, up 40.3% year over year. Source: Adobe 2025 holiday data, via CMOtech
17. 32% of consumers say social media introduced them to new products, and 29% use it to compare prices and products. Source: Bazaarvoice, Shopper Preference Report 2025 (March 2025)
18. Influencers spark discovery, but reviews close the sale: 48% of shoppers lean on influencers to discover products, while 38% go straight to search engines to look for 1-star reviews and product flaws. Source: Bazaarvoice, Shopper Experience Index, 20th edition (June 2026)
19. 85% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a video. Source: Wyzowl, State of Video Marketing 2026
20. 63% of consumers would most like to learn about a product by watching a short video, more than any other format. Source: Wyzowl, State of Video Marketing 2026

How shoppers research

21. 97% of shoppers now consult multiple sources before making a purchase. Source: Bazaarvoice, Shopper Experience Index, 20th edition (June 2026)
22. 60% of shoppers consult 2 to 3 sources before feeling safe to buy, and 37% consult four or more. Source: Bazaarvoice, Shopper Experience Index, 20th edition (June 2026)
23. 9 in 10 shoppers want real reviews behind AI product recommendations. Source: Bazaarvoice and Bluefish research (September 2026)
24. 94% of consumers do outside research before buying a brand recommended by AI. Source: Bazaarvoice and Kiri Masters research (September 2026)

AI and the new shopping journey

25. AI and agents influenced 20% of global holiday retail sales in 2025, about $262 billion. Source: Salesforce, 2025 Holiday Shopping Data (January 2026)
26. Traffic from AI sources (like ChatGPT) to US retail sites rose 693.4% during the 2025 holidays. Source: Adobe Digital Insights, 2025 Holiday Shopping Report
27. Shoppers referred to retail sites from AI search converted nine times more often than shoppers referred from social media during the 2025 holidays. Source: Salesforce 2025 holiday data, via RetailWire
28. Retailers that deployed their own AI agents grew holiday sales 6.2% year over year, compared with 3.9% for those that did not. Source: Salesforce, 2025 Holiday Shopping Data (January 2026)
29. Shoppers want AI assistants, not autopilots: the most accepted AI tools are text summaries (43%) and Q&A chatbots (41%), and a third of shoppers want a fully human-led experience. Source: Bazaarvoice, Shopper Experience Index, 20th edition (June 2026)
30. 72% of customers say it is important to know if they are communicating with an AI agent. Source: Salesforce, State of the AI Connected Customer (2025)

Checkout, cart abandonment, and returns

31. About 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned (70.22% average across 50 studies), and unexpected extra costs like shipping, taxes, and fees remain the top fixable reason. Source: Baymard Institute, Cart Abandonment and Checkout Usability research (2026)
32. Shoppers are expected to return 15.8% of everything they bought in 2025, nearly $850 billion in merchandise. Source: NRF, 2025 Retail Returns Landscape press release (October 2025)
33. An estimated 19.3% of online sales will be returned in 2025. Source: NRF and Happy Returns, 2025 Retail Returns Landscape (October 2025)
34. 82% of consumers say free returns are an important consideration when shopping online, up from 76% the year before. Source: NRF, 2025 Retail Returns Landscape press release (October 2025)
35. Shoppers ages 18 to 30 made an average of 7.7 online returns in the past year, more than any other age group. Source: NRF, 2025 Retail Returns Landscape press release (October 2025)
36. Shoppers returned more than $181 billion of global online holiday purchases in 2025, 14% of all purchases. Source: Salesforce 2025 holiday data, via Chain Store Age
37. 9% of all retail returns are fraudulent. Source: NRF and Happy Returns, 2025 Retail Returns Landscape (October 2025)

Personalization, data, and loyalty

38. 73% of customers say companies treat them like an individual rather than a number, up from 39% in 2023. Source: Salesforce, State of the AI Connected Customer (2025)
39. 71% of customers feel increasingly protective of their personal information. Source: Salesforce, State of the AI Connected Customer (2025)
40. 64% of customers believe companies are reckless with customer data. Source: Salesforce, State of the AI Connected Customer (2025)
41. 54% of consumers say they spend more when engagement is tailored to them, with an average increase of 37%. Source: Twilio, 2025 State of Customer Engagement Report, Trend 2
42. Only 44% of consumers consider themselves very or extremely loyal to brands, down from 48% the year before. Source: Twilio, 2025 State of Customer Engagement Report
43. 82% of business leaders say they deeply understand their customers, but only 45% of consumers agree. Source: Twilio, 2025 State of Customer Engagement Report
44. 60% of US consumers with household incomes over $75,000 name email as their preferred digital marketing channel, ahead of social media (50%) and text (34%). Source: Optimove, Marketing Fatigue Report 2026 (via eMarketer)
45. Behavior-triggered emails made up just 2% of ecommerce email sends but drove 30% of email revenue. Source: Omnisend, 2026 Ecommerce Marketing Report

What retail marketers are facing

46. 83% of marketers say customers now expect two-way conversations with brands, yet 69% struggle to respond promptly and 84% admit to running generic campaigns. Source: Salesforce, State of Marketing, 10th Edition (February 2026)
47. Only 58% of marketers have complete access to service data, 56% to sales data, and 51% to commerce data. Source: Salesforce, State of Marketing, 10th Edition (February 2026)
48. 98% of marketers hit at least one barrier to personalization, with data issues the most common. Source: Salesforce, State of Marketing, 10th Edition (February 2026)
49. High-performing marketers are 2.4 times more likely to have unified their data sources, and teams with unified data are 42% more likely to regularly respond to customers. Source: Salesforce, State of Marketing, 10th Edition (February 2026)
50. 44% of businesses say connecting customer data across channels and platforms is a top obstacle to understanding customers. Source: Twilio, 2025 State of Customer Engagement Report

What Are the Biggest Consumer Shopping Trends for 2027?

Consumer shopping behavior continues to evolve as people move between online and physical stores, discover products through social media and increasingly use AI to research purchases.

The latest retail shopping statistics point to several trends marketers should watch:

• Omnichannel shopping: Consumers regularly move between online and in-store experiences.
• AI-powered discovery: Shoppers are using AI assistants to compare products and research recommendations.
• Mobile commerce: Smartphones play a central role in product discovery and purchasing.
• Social commerce: Social media platforms are becoming important shopping destinations.
• Value-driven decisions: Consumers are comparing options, researching reviews and considering affordability.
• Personalization and privacy: Shoppers want relevant experiences while remaining cautious about how brands use their data.

These trends highlight why understanding consumer behavior, shopping intent and customer preferences is increasingly important for retail marketers.

Frequently Asked Questions About Consumer Shopping Trends

How is consumer shopping behavior changing in 2026 and 2027?

Consumers are increasingly moving between online stores, physical retail locations, social media and AI-powered shopping tools. They are researching products across multiple sources, comparing prices and reviews, and expecting more relevant shopping experiences.

What are the biggest retail marketing trends for 2027?

Key retail marketing trends include AI-assisted product discovery, mobile commerce, social shopping, omnichannel experiences, personalized marketing and greater use of consumer behavioral and purchase intent data.

How is AI changing the way consumers shop?

AI tools help consumers discover products, compare features, summarize reviews and evaluate purchasing options. As more shoppers use AI assistants during research, marketers may need to look beyond traditional search activity to understand consumer interests.

Why is consumer shopping data important for retailers?

Consumer shopping data helps retailers understand audience interests, purchasing behaviors and potential demand. These insights can support more relevant targeting, personalized campaigns and better decisions about marketing investments.

What is the difference between consumer behavior data and purchase intent data?

Consumer behavior data describes actions and patterns such as browsing, engagement and shopping preferences. Purchase intent data focuses on signals that may indicate someone is actively researching or considering a particular product or service.

How can retailers identify in-market shoppers?

Retailers can use online research activity, browsing behavior, category interests and other intent signals to identify consumers who may be considering a purchase. Combining these signals with demographic and household data can help create more relevant target audiences.

How can retailers improve personalization across marketing channels?

Retailers can improve personalization by maintaining accurate customer data, enriching customer profiles and coordinating messaging across channels. Audience insights can help brands tailor campaigns to consumer interests, characteristics and potential needs.

Turn Consumer Shopping Insights Into More Targeted Marketing

Understanding how consumers shop is only part of the challenge. Marketers also need to identify the audiences most relevant to their products and services.

PGM helps brands use consumer insights to build more targeted marketing campaigns.

With People Factors, marketers can better understand consumers through demographic, household and lifestyle attributes. PGM Online Signals adds insights into consumer research activity and shopping interests, helping brands identify audiences showing potential purchase intent.

Combined with data enrichment and audience activation solutions, these insights can help marketers reach consumers with more relevant messaging across channels.