Key Takeaways
- Nearly two-thirds of shoppers now lean on AI-assisted tools to evaluate and select products, pushing brands to optimize for AI-powered search or risk losing consideration.
- Price still matters, but consumers increasingly weigh factors like ethical practices, product ingredients and seamless omnichannel fulfillment when deciding where and how to buy.
Ryder System’s 12th annual benchmark study of U.S. consumer online shopping behaviors, preferences, and expectations highlights consumers not choosing between retail channels or buying motives but balancing them
The “Beyond Price: What’s Driving Consumer Shopping Behavior” study, based on a consumer survey of 1,160 U.S. online shoppers, examines how consumers balance convenience, cost, and experience to provide brands and retailers with actionable insights to refine their e-commerce and omnichannel fulfillment strategies in an increasingly complex retail landscape.
Beyond product discovery, artificial intelligence is increasingly shaping how consumers evaluate and select products, with 64% now using AI-assisted shopping tools. Among these consumers, search and shopping assistants lead adoption (45%), followed by customer review summaries or key takeaways (37%), visual or image-based search (33%), voice assistants (31%), and virtual try-on or visualization tools (31%).
Ryder ‘s Jeff Wolpov on the Impact of AI
Jeff Wolpov, Ryder Senior Vice President of E-commerce and Ryder Last Mile, stated that industry-wide data echoes their findings on consumers use of AI tools.
“AI is fundamentally changing online shopping behaviors. another study found that nearly three in five consumers have begun replacing traditional search engines with generative AI search,” says Wolpov in a statement. “What it all amounts to is, if products are not optimized for AI-powered search results, brands may lose consideration in the consumer buying journey.”
Price Influence Declines as Consumer Values Evolve
While price continues to play a significant role in brand consideration and purchase decisions, its influence softened in two retail categories as respondents evaluated additional factors. Among apparel and beauty shoppers, price’s role in purchase decisions decreased 12% and 13%, respectively year-over-year, marking a three-year low for beauty. At the same time, product materials and ingredients, environmental impact, and ethical practices proved to be purchase drivers, cumulatively gaining 13% for each group.
Consumers are embrace a mix of omnichannel fulfillment options, reinforcing that no single model meets all expectations, creating opportunities for retailers. A new e-commerce trend emerged this year, as survey respondents’ use of remote locker/location pickup jumped 14%, surpassing Buy Online Pickup In-Store (BOPIS) and curbside pickup as the leading alternative fulfillment option compared to ship-to-home.
At the same time, 86% of consumers have picked up or returned online purchases in-store (up three percentage point from a year ago), with 52% of that group now reporting they often make additional purchases while there, demonstrating the revenue opportunity of integrated omnichannel strategies.
Faster Shipping Expectations Rebound
While free shipping remains the leading factor in purchase decisions (62%), its influence dropped 14% year over year. Fast delivery expectations nearly doubled as 39% of respondents now expect delivery within one to two days – a four-year high.
Still, 71% of consumers surveyed abandoned items in their carts due to unanticipated shipping fees. Forty-eight percent of consumers research which brands offer free/cheaper shipping, and 73% added items to their carts to qualify for free shipping – the highest since 2023. Other key findings included:
- 52% prefer in-store returns while 48% prefer to return via mail/drop box. And, among the 79% of respondents who had returns experiences that prevented them from shopping with a brand again, the absence of options to return online orders in-store and via mail were cited equally,
- Consumers whose returns experience negatively impacted customer loyalty, the most common complaint was return shipping fees (55%).
- 52% are unwilling to purchase from a retailer without a free-return policy.
“The retail landscape is becoming increasingly complex, but also more opportunity-rich,” adds Wolpov. “Brands that succeed will balance price with customer experience, deliver seamless omnichannel fulfillment, and leverage AI and data-driven insights to meet rising expectations for personalization, visibility, and ease.”