The eCommerce landscape is evolving faster than ever, and 2026 is shaping up to be a transformative year for online retailers. The traditional eCommerce experience has become a thing of the past. As retailers navigate changing customer expectations, emerging technologies, and economic trends, it can be hard to know where to focus an eCommerce team’s attention and budgets.
Below, we shed light on key trends impacting the eCommerce industry in 2026, and how retailers can leverage them for sustainable growth.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence has evolved to support many different facets of eCommerce, including customer support, inventory management, order fulfillment, marketing automation, fraud prevention, and more. In 2026, AI can now be used to tackle more complex challenges, like writing code and creating content, allowing teams to focus on strategy and providing a better experience for their customers.
This year, technology innovations such as OpenAI’s Instant Checkout helps retailers get closer to a wider audience of consumers. More than half of US consumers have used AI tools to help them shop online, and now it’s even easier for them to discover your products and even complete their purchase through AI engines like ChatGPT.
To leverage AI in 2026, optimize your eCommerce store with AI-ready product data. Just like SEO optimization, your site will need to be optimized for discovery as AI agents are more likely to overlook products that have incomplete or inaccurate data. Keeping your product data organized, complete, and structured makes it easier for AI agents to find you, which will in turn help you get ahead of the competition as AI engines become a fundamental part of the eCommerce journey. We cover how to optimize your site for AI engines in more detail in our customer experience whitepaper.
Personalization
Three quarters of consumers have come to expect a personalized experience when they shop online. Personalization helps build trust with your customers, and in turn, will help you grow your business and increase online revenue. This year, personalization has extended to encompass every step of the customer journey. AI can help with this as well, as AI can monitor many different triggers through the customer life cycle simultaneously. Rather than simple linear workflows, teams can take advantage of every opportunity for personalization, often with minimal effort. This can be a challenge as third-party data becomes less common and marketers must rely almost exclusively on the data customers willingly give out. With a healthy supply of zero-party data, retailers can take personalization to the next level in 2026.
In 2026, offer incentives in exchange for information that will help you understand your customers more and lead to better personalization. With AI, now it’s not only possible to deliver seamless personalized customer experiences, but you can even accomplish this in real-time. This means that while a customer is browsing products and learning more about what you offer, you can learn about your customers’ preferences and adapt the experience to better cater to their needs instantly.
Finally, dynamic and personalized pricing is another way that retailers can boost profits in 2026. For financially conscious consumers, retailers now have the power to offer individualized offers based on behavioral triggers, so you can still reach customers that may be hesitant about the price of your items.
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality technology isn’t new anymore, and it’s even started to make its way into the mainstream. Though the consumer market accounts for about half of the AR/VR market share, with innovations like Meta glasses and Apple Vision Pro, this technology is still steadily growing in popularity among eCommerce teams looking to reduce purchase hesitation and increase conversions. AR isn’t just generating buzz anymore; it’s becoming a practical utility helping major brands get ahead and educate their customers for optimized buying experiences.
Products like Sephora’s Visual Artist allow customers to see what a product will look like on them using facial recognition technology. The quality of this technology has improved significantly, now making consumers more comfortable using it in every shopping experience. Retailers can adopt AR into their user experience through integrations with third-party apps or by custom building it into their eCommerce platform. Your eCommerce platform may even be equipped with the technology already. If not, you may want to consider finding a platform that’s built to enable flexibility and control so any complex eCommerce integrations like AR can be custom built by expert engineers. Schedule a consultation with Virid to learn how our team can help you take control of your eCommerce experience and discover success.
Social Commerce
Consumers are growing to prefer authentic content from creators they know and trust. 73% of Gen Z consumers say that social media is their main outlet for product discovery, and many have made a purchase because of an influencer’s recommendation. Influencer marketing is continuing to grow in popularity as marketers invest more in user-generated content (UGC), with social media creator revenue expected to grow to over $1 trillion by 2028. UGC doesn’t always have to come from popular creators, however. It also includes ratings and reviews that can be displayed not just on your website, but in paid advertising and social media too.
If you’re looking to target a younger demographic of consumers in 2026, social commerce could pose an opportunity. Social media plays a role in every aspect of the customer journey, so merchants can meet their potential customers where they already are for a frictionless shopping experience. You can start by building partnerships with small, niche creators to build a content strategy that will help you reach potential customers who you already know will be interested in your offerings. You can also integrate your storefront with each social channel seamlessly through platform providers like Virid that have the capability to build custom solutions if your current platform doesn’t have the functionality available.
Flexible Payment Options
As time goes on, consumers expect more from their shopping experience. Your customers want an experience that’s personalized, efficient, and painless, but the cornerstone of the customer experience in 2026 is control. The eCommerce industry has evolved over the past few years with many new advancements in technology, and maximum flexibility and convenience have become the bare minimum. It’s always advisable to remove any friction in the checkout process, so allowing your customers to choose whatever payment options they’re most familiar with gets them one step closer to making a purchase. It also helps merchants prepare for future shifts in the industry and position themselves to launch new services or expand into new markets more efficiently.
In the coming year, security concerns around buy-now-pay-later and other alternative payment options remain persistent. In the past year, 79% of organizations reported some form of payment processing fraud. It’s important to consider how you can get ahead of the competition and satisfy the growing demands of your customers, but that also requires businesses to manage a variety of vendors and ensure sensitive customer information is being handled carefully by each.
Consider adding multi-factor authentication to verify the identity of your customers to keep their data secure. Many teams are looking towards embedding payments rather than building them into their storefront, leaving the integration and ongoing maintenance to the vendor, so you can benefit from increased flexibility for your customers without any additional effort from your team.
Looking Ahead
As we move through 2026, we will continue to see shifts in consumer behavior and emerging technologies. Success in this changing eCommerce landscape will require more than just keeping up with trends. It will require a strategic approach that prioritizes customer experience while leveraging the latest technologies to stay competitive.
For retailers looking for increased control and flexibility over their eCommerce experience, choosing a platform provider can make all the difference. Virid’s platform, marketAgility, combines an award-winning eCommerce platform with agency services and dedicated support to help retailers who are ready for the next level of eCommerce growth. Schedule a consolation today to get started and discover your eCommerce site’s true potential.
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