AI shelf stats for CPG brands

What moved

Numbers we track as a before and after. Pink is the latest reading, grey the earlier one. Tap or hover a row for the detail.

• All AI assistants' share of site visits

  0.43% → to 0.46%

  Sept 2026 to Oct 2026 · Ahrefs

• AI visits' conversion gap vs other traffic

  -9% → to +90%

  Aug 2025 to Sept 2026 · Adobe

• Shop Direct products and links

  100M → to 250M

  March 2026 to Oct 2026 · PYMNTS

All 40 stats, by topic

Showing 40 of 40 stats.

1. Google AI Overviews and AI ModeMoved

   51%

   of tracked commercial desktop searches showed an AI Overview on Sept 30, 2026, up from 26% on Sept 1

   For your brand: The searches closest to a purchase now get an AI summary about half the time, so check what the Overview says about your category before you check your rank.

   Desktop searches where a tracked domain ranks first. Transactional searches went from 27% to 51% over the same month.

   Source: AccuRanker, “What Our Latest Data Reveal about AI Overviews” (opens in a new tab), Nov 5, 2026. Checked Nov 12. Our breakdown

2. Google AI Overviews and AI Mode

   4.0%

   click-through rate for a rank-1 desktop result when the AI Overview sits above it, against 13.0% with no Overview and 9.8% when it sits below

   For your brand: Where the box lands matters as much as whether it shows. If clicks fell while your rank held, look at the page before you rewrite anything.

   Position 1, July 2026, Google Search Console CTR. Mobile: 13.6% with no Overview, 6.8% with it above.

   Source: AccuRanker, “What Our Latest Data Reveal about AI Overviews” (opens in a new tab), Nov 5, 2026. Checked Nov 5. Our breakdown

3. Google AI Overviews and AI ModeMoved

   85.11%

   of tracked US ecommerce keywords showed an AI Overview in Aug 2026, up from 32.62% in Sept 2025

   For your brand: A year ago most product searches skipped the AI summary. Now most get one, including 'best X for Y' and review searches.

   Keyword-weighted share of a fixed panel of 400 US desktop commercial keywords across banking, ecommerce and software.

   Source: Semrush, “AI Overviews have nearly doubled across five commercial search modifiers” (opens in a new tab), Oct 21, 2026. Checked Nov 5. Our breakdown

4. Google AI Overviews and AI ModeMoved

   71.43%

   of ecommerce price and cost searches (like "coffee maker under 100") showed an AI Overview in Aug 2026, up from 4.76% in Sept 2025

   For your brand: Price searches were the last gap. If your price, pack size and per-unit cost are not easy to read on the page, the summary will take them from someone else.

   Source: Semrush, “AI Overviews have nearly doubled across five commercial search modifiers” (opens in a new tab), Oct 21, 2026. Checked Nov 5. Our breakdown

5. Google AI Overviews and AI Mode

   46.5%

   of US product answers in Google AI Mode linked only to Google's own pages, Oct 14 to 17, 2026; 54.1% in sun care

   For your brand: For beauty and personal care, your Merchant Center listing may be the only page a shopper sees in AI Mode. Treat the feed like a product page.

   Findrix study of 55,198 answers to 18,400 US buyer questions. Counts links shown, not clicks.

   Source: Search Engine Land, “Google AI Mode sends 57% of product links to Google Shopping: Study” (opens in a new tab), Oct 29, 2026. Checked Nov 5. Our breakdown

6. Google AI Overviews and AI Mode

   4

   Google Ads seen in a single AI Mode answer, where one or two used to be the norm

   For your brand: Paid listings are moving into the answer itself. If a competitor buys the slot above your organic mention, the answer reads like their pitch.

   Seen in a screenshot shared by Sachin Patel; a count of ad slots, not a measured average.

   Source: Search Engine Roundtable, “Google AI Mode Now With Up To Four Ads” (opens in a new tab), Nov 4, 2026. Checked Nov 5. Our breakdown

7. Where the visits come fromMoved

   0.36%

   of tracked site visits came from ChatGPT in Oct 2026, against 24.74% from Google

   For your brand: ChatGPT matters for what it says about you, not for the visits it sends. Keep Google product pages in shape first.

   Ahrefs Web Analytics, the same 118,671 sites each month. All AI assistants combined went from 0.43% to 0.46% of visits.

   Source: Ahrefs, “AI vs Search Traffic Analysis” (opens in a new tab), Nov 5, 2026. Checked Nov 12. Our breakdown

8. Where the visits come from

   1/5

   ChatGPT's search-like queries as a share of Google's search volume, by OpenAI's own count

   For your brand: Lots of shopping questions now happen in ChatGPT even if few visits follow. That is where your product gets described.

   OpenAI counts every question that sends ChatGPT to the web as a search, and did not say which Google figure it compared with.

   Source: Search Engine Journal, “Google's Search Volume Is About 5x ChatGPT's, OpenAI Says” (opens in a new tab), Nov 3, 2026. Checked Nov 5. Our breakdown

9. What an AI visit is worthMoved

   +90%

   better conversion for AI-referred visits to US retail sites than other visits, Sept 2026, after converting 9% worse in Aug 2025

   For your brand: Few shoppers arrive from AI, but the ones who do are ready to buy. Make the page they land on answer the last question fast.

   Adobe data on more than 1 trillion visits to US retail sites; AI traffic counted as clicks on links. AI traffic grew 71% year over year.

   Source: Adobe, “AI traffic now generates 83% higher revenue per visit for U.S. retailers” (opens in a new tab), Oct 29, 2026. Checked Nov 12. Our breakdown

10. What an AI visit is worth

    +83%

    higher revenue per visit from AI traffic than from non-AI traffic on US retail sites, Sept 2026

    For your brand: An AI visit is now worth nearly two ordinary visits on Adobe's numbers. Track it as its own channel so you can see it.

    Source: Adobe, “AI traffic now generates 83% higher revenue per visit for U.S. retailers” (opens in a new tab), Oct 29, 2026. Checked Nov 5. Our breakdown

11. What an AI visit is worth

    55%

    Adobe's Citation Readability Score for grocery sites: how much of the page AI can understand and cite, against 79% for electronics

    For your brand: Grocery pages lean on images and promos. Put ingredients, sizes, claims and FAQs in plain text so an assistant can quote them.

    Sept 2026. The average US retail homepage scored 63%; general merchandise homepages 40%.

    Source: Adobe, “AI traffic now generates 83% higher revenue per visit for U.S. retailers” (opens in a new tab), Oct 29, 2026. Checked Nov 5.

12. What an AI visit is worth

    $0.89

    revenue per paid ChatGPT ad visit in US traffic, against $2.45 for a paid Google Search visit and $3.27 for an organic ChatGPT referral

    For your brand: Being named in the free answer still beats paying for the card under it. Test ChatGPT ads small, against a Google baseline.

    Kaiser and Schulze working paper, under review; 102 advertisers with full revenue tracking. The paid panel is not CPG-specific.

    Source: PPC Land, “ChatGPT ad visits earn shops $0.89 against $2.45 for Google search ads” (opens in a new tab), Nov 2, 2026. Checked Nov 5. Our breakdown

13. Agents and checkoutMoved

    77%

    of AI-agent orders on Forter's network came from agents driving the store's own checkout pages, week of Oct 19, 2026, up from 1% in late July

    For your brand: Most agents don't wait for a protocol. They click through your normal checkout, so test it with an agent and fix whatever trips it.

    Forter network data, July 23 to Oct 29, 2026. Scraping agents include Muse, Instinct, Grok Bot and ChatGPT Agent.

    Source: Forter, “AI Agent Order Data: Agentic Commerce on Forter's Network” (opens in a new tab), Nov 2, 2026. Checked Nov 12. Our breakdown

14. Agents and checkout

    $227

    average AI-agent order on Forter's network; only 27% of agent orders were $50 or less

    For your brand: Agents are used for considered baskets, not single impulse items. Bundles and multipacks need clear, comparable product data.

    Source: Forter, “AI Agent Order Data: Agentic Commerce on Forter's Network” (opens in a new tab), Nov 2, 2026. Checked Nov 5. Our breakdown

15. Agents and checkout

    59%

    of US shoppers' most recent AI-assisted purchases were completed on Amazon, though Amazon was the start of only 29% of online product research

    For your brand: AI changes where the search starts, not yet where the money lands. Your Amazon listing has to match what the assistant said.

    PYMNTS Intelligence survey. Research starts and purchases are separate measures, not one tracked funnel.

    Source: PYMNTS, “Amazon Wins 59% of AI-Assisted Purchases as Checkout Becomes the Prize” (opens in a new tab), Oct 30, 2026. Checked Nov 5. Our breakdown

16. Agents and checkoutMoved

    24%

    of US consumers would let an AI agent both shop and buy for them in Aug 2026, down from 32% in Sept 2025

    For your brand: Shoppers want the agent to find, and they want to press buy. Plan for 'add to cart' more than for hands-off reorders.

    Source: PYMNTS, “Amazon Wins 59% of AI-Assisted Purchases as Checkout Becomes the Prize” (opens in a new tab), Oct 30, 2026. Checked Nov 5. Our breakdown

17. Agents and checkoutMoved

    17%

    of US AI users completed a purchase with an AI tool, up from 10% a year earlier

    For your brand: Still a minority, but grocery and beauty are catching up fastest, so CPG is in the early wave, not the late one.

    McKinsey Agentic Commerce Consumer Survey, about 21,000 consumers in 11 markets, fielded June 2026. US year-over-year comparison.

    Source: McKinsey, “Who wins when AI does the shopping? New evidence on agentic commerce” (opens in a new tab), Oct 28, 2026. Checked Nov 5. Our breakdown

18. Agents and checkout

    48%

    of US adults used AI for at least one shopping task in the past three months, against a 53% average across 11 markets

    For your brand: Half your US shoppers have asked an AI something on the way to a purchase. Ask your category questions yourself and keep the answers.

    Source: McKinsey, “Who wins when AI does the shopping? New evidence on agentic commerce” (opens in a new tab), Oct 28, 2026. Checked Nov 5. Our breakdown

19. Agents and checkout

    ~25%

    of Meta Muse users use it to shop, with an average purchase of about $200, out of about 10 million sign-ups in the US and Canada

    For your brand: A new agent with no Amazon access is buying for millions of people. Your own site and other retailers are what it can see.

    Figures Mark Zuckerberg gave on Meta's Q3 2026 earnings call; shopping includes travel planning.

    Source: Payments Dive, “Shopping is Muse's top task: Meta” (opens in a new tab), Oct 23, 2026. Checked Nov 5.

20. Amazon and Alexa for Shopping

    +570%

    year-over-year growth in Alexa for Shopping customer interactions; more than 400 million customers used it in the last 12 months

    For your brand: Amazon's assistant is now the biggest AI shopping surface for most CPG brands. Check what it says when asked about your category.

    Q3 2026 results. McKinsey notes Amazon retired the stand-alone Rufus assistant and replaced it with Alexa for Shopping.

    Source: Amazon, “Amazon.com Announces Third Quarter Results” (opens in a new tab), Oct 29, 2026. Checked Nov 5. Our breakdown

21. Amazon and Alexa for Shopping

    ~1/2

    of all units Amazon sold in Q3 2026 were fresh groceries and everyday essentials, growing about 3x faster than the rest of the store

    For your brand: Grocery and household are now the core of Amazon's volume, which is where Alexa for Shopping's answers will be tuned first.

    Source: Amazon, “Amazon.com Announces Third Quarter Results” (opens in a new tab), Oct 29, 2026. Checked Nov 5. Our breakdown

22. Amazon and Alexa for ShoppingMoved

    250M

    Shop Direct links on Amazon to products sold on other websites, 2.5 times the count in March

    For your brand: If you sell only on your own site, Amazon may already show your product. Search Amazon for your brand, and see the free Shop Direct sign-up.

    PYMNTS, citing The Information. Shop Direct had 100 million products from 400,000 merchants in March.

    Source: PYMNTS, “Amazon Expands Shop Direct Catalog to Keep Shoppers Off Agents” (opens in a new tab), Oct 28, 2026. Checked Nov 5. Our breakdown

23. What gets cited

    2.1x

    as often cited by ChatGPT, AI Mode and AI Overviews: pages that combine many of 11 structure and trust features, against barely optimized pages on the same domain

    For your brand: Structure beats tricks: a table of contents, Article and FAQ schema, a visible author and a last-updated date.

    48,527 cited pages from the SISTRIX AI Index for the DACH region, each paired with an uncited page on the same domain. Correlation, not cause.

    Source: SISTRIX, “Citation Worthiness: Which GEO Tactics Hold Up Across 96,418 URLs” (opens in a new tab), Oct 22, 2026. Checked Nov 5. Our breakdown

24. What gets cited

    0.8x

    citation factor for pages with Product schema (0.5x in AI Overviews), against 1.6x for Article schema

    For your brand: Keep Product schema for shopping results, but build advice pages with Article schema for the citation. For shops, SISTRIX says advice sections are the better bet.

    Source: SISTRIX, “Citation Worthiness: Which GEO Tactics Hold Up Across 96,418 URLs” (opens in a new tab), Oct 22, 2026. Checked Nov 5. Our breakdown

25. What gets cited

    1.5x

    as often cited: pages with FAQPage schema, across ChatGPT, AI Mode and AI Overviews, even after Google dropped FAQ rich results

    For your brand: Real questions from real shoppers, answered in two or three sentences, are still worth marking up.

    Source: SISTRIX, “Citation Worthiness: Which GEO Tactics Hold Up Across 96,418 URLs” (opens in a new tab), Oct 22, 2026. Checked Nov 5. Our breakdown

26. Amazon and Alexa for Shopping

    400M

    customers used Alexa for Shopping in the 12 months before Amazon's Oct 29, 2026 update

    For your brand: Amazon also added 100+ account actions (lists, Subscribe & Save, billing, delivery instructions) for all US customers.

    Amazon also said customers using agentic features grew more than eight times since the start of the year.

    Source: Amazon, “Alexa for Shopping adds 100+ new capabilities to make shopping even faster and easier” (opens in a new tab), Oct 29, 2026. Checked Nov 6. Our breakdown

27. Google AI Overviews and AI Mode

    1.2%

    of ~175,100 Google AI Overview and AI Mode ad placements in five US holiday categories were in beauty (~2,100), Jun-Sep 2026

    For your brand: Apparel and electronics soak up most paid slots inside Google AI answers. Beauty brands should not assume paid Search coverage equals AI-answer coverage.

    Our calculation from Adthena counts reported by SEJ: beauty ~2,100 of ~175,100 placements. Apparel ~111,000; consumer electronics ~55,000.

    Source: Search Engine Journal (Adthena Holiday AI Paid Search Report), “Ads In Google AI Answers Concentrate In Apparel & Electronics” (opens in a new tab), Nov 5, 2026. Checked Nov 6. Our breakdown

28. What gets cited

    15%

    of 11,147 AI brand recommendations also cited the brand's own website, 5 US assistants, Nov 1 to 3, 2026

    For your brand: Consumer brands were cited on their own site even less: 4.9% in sportswear, 4.3% in gifts, 1.6% in beauty. Reviewers and retailers carry the evidence.

    257 US questions in 10 industries, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini via API with web search, plus Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. Vendor study with published method.

    Source: Babel42, “AI visibility study 2026: who ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google cite and recommend, by industry” (opens in a new tab), Nov 4, 2026. Checked Nov 7. Our breakdown

29. Google AI Overviews and AI ModeMoved

    64%

    of 282 tracked brand and product names showed a Google AI Overview in the week of Oct 24, 2026, up from 19% in mid August

    For your brand: Packaged food and beverage names over 100k monthly searches went from 2 of 21 to 18 of 21. Search your own brand name and read what Google says.

    BrightEdge keyword reporting, Google US desktop, weeks 34 to 43 of 2026. Peaked at 74% in week 42. Presence only, not citations or clicks.

    Source: BrightEdge, “AI Is Defining Your Brand Before You Get the Chance To” (opens in a new tab), Nov 6, 2026. Checked Nov 7. Our breakdown

30. Google AI Overviews and AI Mode

    83.6%

    of Google AI Overviews on US buying searches cited a Google product page, Sept 26 to Oct 12, 2026

    For your brand: On best and vs searches Google supplies the product link itself, so a product missing from Google's listings is missing from most of these answers.

    660 US English searches rerun daily for 15 days; 1,331 online shopping AI Overviews citing at least one site.

    Source: Babel42, “On buying searches, 84% of AI Overviews cite Google's product pages” (opens in a new tab), Nov 1, 2026. Checked Nov 8. Our breakdown

31. Where the visits come from

    21%

    of one site's Google search clicks came from AI Overview and AI Mode links, Sept 2026, from about 10% of its impressions

    For your brand: A citation in Google's AI answer drew clicks at about twice the site's normal rate. Weigh that before opting brand or product pages out.

    One small site, 28 days opted out then 28 opted in. Clicks inferred from the change in totals; AI click rate about 0.9% (range 0.7% to 1.1%) against a 0.4% site average.

    Source: Zyppy Signal, “We Opted Out of Google AI Search - Here's What Happened” (opens in a new tab), Nov 5, 2026. Checked Nov 9. Our breakdown

32. Agents and checkout

    57.2%

    of AI shopping-assistant test runs passed in Visa's Agentic Commerce Benchmark, 22 models, Nov 2026

    For your brand: Assistants that failed usually never asked about the unstated need. Write your deal-breakers on the page so a hurried assistant cannot guess wrong.

    22 models from 12 labs, 15 simulated shopping scenarios, three runs each. 54% of failed runs still ended in a purchase. Scenarios include TVs, laptops and a personal care appliance.

    Source: Visa, “Visa Releases First-of-Its-Kind Industry Benchmark for AI Shopping; Almost Half of Test Runs Fail” (opens in a new tab), Nov 5, 2026. Checked Nov 10. Our breakdown

33. Agents and checkout

    25.21%

    of website sessions involving an AI agent recorded a checkout event, against 14.65% of human sessions, Aug 13 to Sep 9, 2026

    For your brand: Agents come to finish a task, often with a person in the session. Make sure your checkout lets them through and confirms what the assistant promised.

    230,511 Clarity projects; agents from the OpenAI, Google and Anthropic ecosystems. Sessions may include a human handoff; events are not funnel steps or proof of a completed order.

    Source: Microsoft Clarity, “What AI Agents Actually Do on Websites (Study)” (opens in a new tab), Oct 29, 2026. Checked Nov 10. Our breakdown

34. Where the visits come from

    1.2B

    people use ChatGPT each week, by OpenAI's count in its Nov 10, 2026 Businesses in ChatGPT launch

    For your brand: That audience now has brand profiles you can claim. Claim yours so the policies and prices ChatGPT shows match your site.

    OpenAI's own figure, not an independent audit.

    Source: OpenAI, “Introducing Businesses in ChatGPT” (opens in a new tab), Nov 10, 2026. Checked Nov 11. Our breakdown

35. Agents and checkout

    16%

    of shoppers trust AI agents to buy products without their approval, against 53% comfortable using AI to compare prices

    For your brand: Shoppers let AI research and compare, not pay. Make the moment they approve the purchase easy: same price, pack and claims everywhere.

    Circana survey of more than 4,600 US adults, as reported by FoodNavigator; 34% said AI influences their decisions.

    Source: FoodNavigator (Circana survey), “How brands can improve trust in agentic commerce” (opens in a new tab), Nov 10, 2026. Checked Nov 11. Our breakdown

36. What gets cited

    30%

    of Google AI Overview citation links went through a google.com redirect on Nov 5, 2026, against none of 2,333 on Oct 22

    For your brand: If you track AI Overview citations by URL, some of yours may now read as google.com. Match by site name too before you call a drop.

    951 of 3,138 links in one day of 60 US B2B questions, run three times; one market, one day.

    Source: Hasmord, “B2B buying questions in AI search: whose pages ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google cite” (opens in a new tab), Nov 5, 2026. Checked Nov 11. Our breakdown

37. Amazon and Alexa for Shopping

    8x

    growth since the start of 2026 in customers using Alexa for Shopping's agentic features, per Amazon on Nov 6, 2026

    For your brand: Amazon's own agent is growing fast inside its store. Keep Amazon titles, pack sizes and Subscribe & Save options exact.

    Amazon says more than eight times; we show 8x. Amazon's own figure.

    Source: Amazon, “Text, shop, done: Alexa for Shopping is now just a text away” (opens in a new tab), Nov 6, 2026. Checked Nov 11. Our breakdown

38. What gets citedMoved

    20.1%

    of the sources ChatGPT cited were product pages by the end of Q3 2026, up from 13.8% in a typical Q2 2026 week

    For your brand: After its August model switch ChatGPT leans on brands' own pages more, so the facts on each product page now carry more of the answer.

    Peec AI platform data, July to September 2026, compared with an average Q2 2026 week. Peec AI sells AI search tracking.

    Source: Peec AI, “AI search is changing faster than marketing teams can keep up, despite increased spend” (opens in a new tab), Nov 11, 2026. Checked Nov 12. Our breakdown

39. What an AI visit is worth

    24%

    of 700 US, UK and German marketing decision-makers said they can prove a return on AI search, September 2026

    For your brand: Most teams are spending before they can measure. Set a baseline and one owner before you raise the budget again.

    Sapio Research survey for Peec AI, companies with 100+ employees. 89% raised AI search spend in the past year. US respondents: 31%.

    Source: Peec AI, “AI search is changing faster than marketing teams can keep up, despite increased spend” (opens in a new tab), Nov 11, 2026. Checked Nov 12. Our breakdown

40. What gets cited

    62.7%

    of GPT-5-mini answers named a made-up brand after one sentence of a source article was rewritten to mention it, in a lab test

    For your brand: A single passing mention on a page an assistant retrieves can shape its answer, so watch what third-party pages in your category say.

    arXiv preprint 2611.04005, not peer reviewed. Synthetic brands, research retrieval pipeline, questions written from the article; not live search engines.

    Source: DREAM Lab, UIUC, “Can One Brand Mention Steer AI Search Answers?” (opens in a new tab), Nov 11, 2026. Checked Nov 12. Our breakdown

The same numbers as a table

Sort by any column. The topic filter above applies here too.

Where we dig into these numbers

• ChatGPT now cites product pages more and Reddit far less: what Peec AI's Q3 data means for CPG brands Nov 12
• 89% raised AI search budgets, 24% can prove a return: a measurement and ownership playbook for CPG brands Nov 12
• One planted sentence can put a brand in most AI answers. That is the best reason not to try it Nov 12
• How to claim your brand in ChatGPT's Business Hub: a first-week checklist for CPG teams Nov 11
• When an agent does the grocery run, where does the impulse buy go? Nov 11
• Google now routes 30% of AI Overview citation links through a redirect. Check your citation tracking Nov 11
• Google's AI links drew 21% of one site's clicks from 10% of its impressions. How to estimate your own share Nov 9
• On buying searches, 84% of AI Overviews cite a Google product page. The opinions come from YouTube Nov 8

See which brands assistants actually recommend in the AI Shelf Award, or get one practical fix a day from the tip library.