AI Shopping Agents Struggle With Many Retailers
Blend Commerce's audit scored 200 UK and US retailers on how well AI agents can access, read and buy from their sites.
Updated on Nov. 6, 2026 in Artificial Intelligence
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Blend Commerce sent an AI shopping agent to 200 UK and US retailers to score how well each works for AI-driven shopping. The study, which is a research assessment rather than a shipped product, scored retailers out of 100 across access, product discovery, product comprehension and basket-to-checkout.
Why it matters
As planned AI use among shoppers grows, retailers that AI agents cannot read, navigate or check out with risk losing those sales. The results show wide variation in readiness across sectors and suggest AI shopping will reward well-structured product data.
The figures come from a Blend Commerce audit of 200 retailers, with 10 per sector across 20 sectors, and a YouGov survey on shopper intent. Of the 200 retailers, 29 refused the AI shopping agent, and none of those 29 blocks AI in robots.txt, while 7 of 10 furniture retailers were missing barcode numbers.
The players
Blend Commerce
Commerce consultancy that ran the AI shopping-agent test across 200 retailers.
YouGov
Market research firm whose report tracked planned UK AI use for Black Friday shopping.
Heal's
UK furniture retailer that led UK furniture retailers with a score of 94.
Slumberland
US furniture retailer that led US furniture retailers with a score of 90.
The details
The test sent an AI shopping agent, a software program that acts on a user's behalf to browse and buy, to each retailer's site. The agent assessed four stages: whether it could access the site, whether it could discover products, whether it could understand product information, and whether it could move a basket through to checkout. Each retailer received a combined score out of 100 across those factors.
Timeline
Planned UK Black Friday AI use was 19% in 2025 and 34% in 2026.
The AI-readiness article was published on 6 November 2026.
The Tech Race
Blend Commerce's audit tests retailers against the AI shopping agents that buyers are beginning to use, rather than against a traditional search or web-accessibility standard. The contest is shifting toward which retailers can be read and transacted with by machines, a field where the study's sector scores show a wide spread.
Shoppers planning to use AI for Black Friday may find some retailers unable to serve their agents, and shoppers may see sharp differences in how smoothly AI-assisted buying works across stores. The study does not state when or how retailers will change their sites in response.
The takeaway
Retailers whose product data is complete and machine-readable are positioned to benefit as AI-assisted shopping grows. Watch the next Blend Commerce readiness round to see whether the sector averages and the 29 refusing retailers change.
Further reading
Explore more reporting in our Artificial Intelligence section for context on how AI is reshaping online buying.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Furniture News.
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