Think about the last time you bought something. Did you search Google, ask an AI assistant, scroll TikTok, or visit a store? There’s a good chance you did some combination of all four, and that is exactly the challenge facing every retailer today. Shopping has fundamentally changed: it’s no longer a straight line going from awareness to purchase. Now, it’s a constant state of discovery on digital channels, in-person exploration, and price comparison that happens 24 hours a day.

According to Salsify’s 2026 Consumer Research, eCommerce is expected to account for 21.1% of all global retail sales this year, and that doesn’t even include the millions of people who research online and then buy in-store. Retailers that don’t understand the behavior of the new generation of consumer, and harness AI to serve them better, are going to find themselves looking across a widening gap of shopper expectations.

The same Salsify study illustrated a shift in consumer behavior that should catch the eye of every retailer: 39% of all shoppers are comparing prices before they buy, and 38% have reduced spending in some product categories altogether. Value is no longer just a nice-to-have, it is the default mode for most customers.

At the same time, the channels they use are anything but simple to follow. 67% of consumers take part in “webrooming:” doing research online before purchasing in a store. 53% admit to doing the opposite (“showrooming”): researching in a brick-and-mortar store before buying an item online. When you add in the growth of social commerce on channels like TikTok and Instagram, you have customers who are simultaneously everywhere and nowhere.

Another study from Envive shows that 76% of consumers want personalization and recommendations from the retailers they do business with. Missing out on personalization hits a retailer’s bottom line in the form of abandoned carts, lost repeat business, and choosing another retailer that “gets them.”

But retailers aren’t helpless when it comes to personalization. Here are three ways retailers can use AI to acquire customers faster:

1. Hyper-Personalized Product Discovery: AI recommendation engines are not new, but their accessibility and usability have reached a point where any retailer can implement them. The ROI is difficult to ignore: companies using AI personalization earn 40% more revenue than those that do not.
2. Smarter Customer Acquisition Through Predictive Targeting: Acquiring new customers is expensive, but AI changes the economics of that. By using machine learning to analyze behavioral patterns, retailers can stretch their ad budgets further and target the right prospects on the right channel at the right moment. According to Deloitte, brands that use AI-driven ad targeting have reduced customer acquisition costs by up to 25%.
3. AI Shopping Assistants and Conversational Commerce: Consumers are increasingly comfortable letting AI help them shop. 64% of shoppers in the Salsify study have already used AI tools to assist with their shopping journey, and that number is increasing. AI chat tools increase conversion rates by 4X and help shoppers complete purchases 47% faster. Retailers that use AI shopping assistants aren’t just improving customer experience; they are shrinking the sales cycle.

The retailers that will dominate in 2026 aren’t just selling products; they’re using data and AI to anticipate what a customer needs before they realize they need it. Those retailers are meeting shoppers in their stores, on socials, in their in-box, and with an AI chatbot that just helped someone narrow down their options at midnight before going to bed.

That kind of multi-channel presence does not happen by accident. It starts with having organized and trustworthy data, and a strategy for putting it to work.

Do you want to explore how AI can help your retail business acquire customers faster and build more loyalty? Please Contact Us to request a meeting with us. Don’t have a data architecture for AI you trust yet? LRS can help you collect, organize, and analyze your data so that it is business-ready.