Your customer has a gift list, a budget, and about four spare minutes. So she doesn’t open six tabs. She asks an AI assistant to find a good option under $50 that will arrive before December 20.
Your product page may never get the first look.
That’s the shift behind AI holiday shopping. Before shoppers land on your store, an assistant has already compared options, checked prices, and read up on delivery and returns. The stores that make it into that shortlist are the ones whose answers are easy to find and easy to trust.
AI is already part of how people shop
This isn’t a niche habit. ShipStation’s 2026 Ecommerce Delivery Benchmark Report, based on surveys of 8,000 consumers and 400 senior ecommerce decision-makers across eight markets, found that nearly 80% of consumers used a generative AI assistant in the past year. Half of consumers under 35 use one daily. Even among older shoppers, 59% have tried it.
And shopping is part of the mix. More than one in four consumers (28%) used chat-based AI for shopping tasks in that same window.
“I just tell [AI]: this is what I want, find me the best one that has it in stock at the best price.”
Aaron Rubin — CEO
ShipHero
The report also found that ChatGPT now generates retail-related traffic comparable to the leading ecommerce websites. Discovery is happening earlier, and it’s happening somewhere other than your store, a comparison site, or a search results page.
Ecommerce Delivery Benchmark Report
Unlocking data-driven insights on AI, delivery, and the future of ecommerce.
Why shoppers hand off the research
The reason is simple. For 48% of consumers, the biggest benefit of using AI for online shopping is saving time and effort.
AI holiday shopping solves a time-and-effort problem at its peak. Shoppers are buying for more people, comparing more options, and watching more deadlines. They use AI to compare products, find deals, and get upfront answers on price, availability, delivery, and returns.
Notice what’s on that list. Delivery and returns aren’t an afterthought in the research phase. They’re part of the question from the start: Will this get here in time? What if it doesn’t fit?
“Now the AI is going to do an equivalent level of research on that $5 purchase.”
Jason “Retailgeek” Goldberg — Chief Commerce Strategy Officer
Publicis Groupe
Shoppers want help, not a replacement
Before you rebuild anything, keep this in mind. About 6 in 10 consumers are comfortable using AI in their shopping journey, but in a controlled way. They use it to discover and evaluate. The final choice still belongs to them.
That’s good news for sellers. The assistant narrows the field, and then a human decides. Your job is to be in the field and to give that human a reason to say yes once they arrive.
What AI can actually read on your site
An assistant can only summarize what it can find. If your shipping details live in a PDF, a pop-up, or a line of fine print, they may not make it into the answer. If your product page says one thing about returns and your marketplace listing says another, the assistant has to guess.
The report’s advice for retailers points in the same direction: make product data clear, structured, and machine-readable, and keep your content consistent across channels. In plain terms, that means a few specific things.
Put shipping and returns in plain text. Cover delivery cost, free shipping thresholds, typical transit times, and your returns window. Put them on a dedicated page and on product pages, not just at checkout.
Make holiday cutoffs explicit. “Order by December 15 for delivery by December 24” gives an assistant, and a shopper, something concrete to use. Vague promises like “fast shipping” give them nothing to work with.
Keep everything consistent. Check that your website, marketplace listings, and social shops all tell the same story about shipping speed, cost, and returns. Conflicting answers erode trust, whether the reader is a person or a model.
Answer the questions people actually ask. Add FAQs for the things shoppers type into an assistant: Do you ship to P.O. boxes? Is there a gift receipt? Can I return this after the holidays? Strong reviews and credible comparisons help here too.
Add structured product data. Structured data (often called schema markup) is code that labels details such as price, availability, and shipping on a page so software can read them accurately. Many ecommerce platforms offer it as a setting or app.
Your shipping setup has to match your promises
Here’s where AI holiday shopping meets operations. If an assistant tells a shopper your order will arrive by December 22, your shipping has to deliver on that.
That’s the part AI can’t fix for you. Delivery promises depend on carrier choices, cutoff times, and how reliably orders move through your warehouse in the busiest weeks of the year. Peak also brings carrier surcharges, which make the rate you quote and the service you choose even more important.
A few things help keep the promise honest:
A shipping platform like ShipStation can handle that groundwork across carriers, which leaves you free to focus on the shopper side.
“Data has always been preached as critically important. Now it’s even more so, because of how quickly AI advances things—capitalizing on good data, or revealing poor data.”
Darin Lynch — Founder and CEO
Irish Titan
Do this before the rush
You don’t need an AI strategy to win at AI holiday shopping. You need accurate, easy-to-find shipping and returns information, plus a fulfillment setup that backs it up.
This week:
- Read your shipping and returns pages as if you’ve never seen your store. Can you answer questions about cost, timing, and returns in 30 seconds?
- Compare your policies across your website and every marketplace. Fix any mismatch.
- Publish your holiday order-by dates.
- Add FAQs for the top questions your support team gets.
- Check that your carrier and service rules reflect the promises you’re making.
The shoppers doing AI holiday shopping research aren’t looking for the flashiest store. They’re looking for the one that makes the decision easy, and clarity on shipping and returns does that.
Get your shipping ready for the holiday rush. Start shipping with ShipStation today.
The Peak Season Playbook
A guide to preparing for, executing, and learning from your biggest shipping season.
