Metapack, a leading intelligent delivery platform, today released the Ecommerce Delivery Benchmark Report 2026 in partnership with Retail Economics.
The report reveals that UK retailers are forecasting online sales growth to accelerate in 2026 as AI adoption expands to enhance shopping experiences and improve delivery performance, strengthening customer loyalty.
This optimism is driven by rapid changes in consumer behaviour, with almost half of UK adults under 45 already using AI tools for ecommerce tasks such as product research, price comparison, and exploring delivery options.
In response, retailers are increasing investment to keep pace, with 90% globally planning to boost spending on AI to optimise ecommerce operations over the next 12 to 24 months.
The new research, which surveyed over 8,000 consumers and 400 retailers, examines how AI is transforming the consumer shopping journey and how retailers are positioning AI investment as a direct driver of conversion, delivery performance, and online sales growth in 2026 and beyond.
AI moves into the mainstream
Globally, 78% of consumers used AI tools such as ChatGPT in the past 12 months, rising to 93% among those under 35. In the UK, this shift is reflected in shopping behaviour, with 30% of adults open to AI acting as a personal shopping agent, recommending products, checking delivery and returns options, and even making certain purchases on their behalf once preferences are set.
As a result, chat-based platforms including ChatGPT are emerging as a major retail channel, generating 50.2 million monthly shopping-intent visits in the UK, ranking alongside the country’s biggest ecommerce sites.
“AI is changing the way people find, choose and buy products, as well as how they are delivered,” said Al Ko, CEO of Auctane, Metapack’s parent company. “Retailers who adopt AI now will get ahead. Those who hesitate will fall behind as AI reshapes every part of retail, from discovery to delivery.”
Across the eight international markets in the study, UK consumers stand out as the most confident in Europe when it comes to AI-assisted ecommerce, with almost two-thirds (64%) expressing trust in AI tools. Retailers are increasingly using AI to optimise product discovery and fulfilment, improve warehouse efficiency and delivery speed, to directly impact customer satisfaction and online sales growth.
Tech-anxiety: Retailers face adoption challenges
Retailers see AI as a key lever to drive growth and succeed in a competitive market, but adoption remains uneven. More than a third of European retailers (36%) cite keeping pace with AI and emerging technologies as a major challenge for their business in 2026, compared with 33% in North America.
Barriers vary by size. Larger retailers (£500m+ turnover) are more likely to point to skills gaps and the complexity of integrating AI with legacy systems (54%), while smaller firms (under £100m turnover) cite high development costs (35%) and data security or compliance concerns. These challenges are reflected in adoption maturity, with 28% of North American retailers having AI embedded and scaled across multiple functions, compared with just 17% of retailers in Europe, highlighting a competitive gap.
“AI is reshaping retail strategy, not just the customer experience,” said Richard Lim, CEO of Retail Economics. “Retailers clearly see the potential across conversion, delivery and customer experience, and consumers are increasingly comfortable with AI playing a role in how they shop. In 2026, the focus shifts from experimentation to execution, where success will be shaped by how effectively retailers can embed AI into their data, systems and everyday operations.”
Leave a Comment