Holiday Study: 23% Would Let AI Buy, 57% Punish Payment Gaps
ETA and TSG's 2026 holiday study: 46% will use AI to compare prices, 23% would let AI buy, and 57% punish merchants missing their payment method.
The 2026 Consumer Holiday Spending Study from the Electronic Transactions Association and TSG says 46% of shoppers plan to use AI tools to compare prices, but only 23% would let AI complete a purchase for them. The bigger number in the same study is about payments: 57% say a merchant pays a price when it doesn't take their preferred payment method. AI decides where shoppers look. Checkout still decides who gets paid.
What actually happened
ETA and TSG published the seventh annual study on October 30. It surveyed 1,099 US consumers from September 8 to 13, 2026. The release does not state a margin of error.
The headline numbers:
- 44% feel more financially stressed than last year, up from 27% in 2025.
- 72% plan to set a holiday budget, and 73% plan to spend under $1,000.
- When a preferred payment method isn't accepted, 24% would buy elsewhere, 7% would abandon or delay, and 26% would pay another way but be less likely to come back. That totals 57%.
- 81% use tap-to-pay regularly.
- Online, shoppers rank free shipping (74%) and flexible payment options (72%) as top priorities.
The AI figure lines up with other surveys this season. Deloitte's holiday survey found that only 16% would let AI complete a purchase. Shoppers use AI for research and keep the buy button for themselves.
Why AI shopping and payment choice matter for your business
Two jobs, two budgets.
AI is the research layer. Almost half your shoppers will ask an AI tool to compare prices. That tool reads your product pages, prices and shipping terms. If those are vague or out of date, you lose the comparison before anyone reaches your site.
Checkout is the close. Once they arrive, a missing payment method sends more than half of them somewhere else or makes them less likely to return. That is a fixable leak, and you can fix it this week.
What we would do before Black Friday:
- Turn on Apple Pay, Google Pay and Shop Pay (or your platform's wallet) if they're off.
- Check that tap-to-pay works at every in-store terminal.
- Put shipping cost and delivery dates on the product page, in plain text an AI tool can read.
- Don't build an "AI buys for you" flow for this season. 23% is interest, not volume.
Key takeaways
- ETA and TSG surveyed 1,099 US consumers September 8–13, 2026
- 46% will use AI tools to compare prices; only 23% would let AI complete a purchase
- 57% report a negative result for merchants that don't take their preferred payment method
- 44% feel more financially stressed, up from 27% last year
- Fix product data for AI comparison and add wallets at checkout before Black Friday
Close the checkout leak before the holiday rush. We audit commerce stacks for missing payment methods, slow checkouts and product data AI tools can't read, then fix what costs you orders. See our commerce work, or estimate what a checkout fix is worth.
Sources: ETA and TSG via PR Newswire, Deloitte 2026 Holiday Retail Survey.
- #holiday-shopping
- #payments
- #ai-shopping
- #checkout
- #digital-wallets
Tommy Rush — Founder, Rush Commerce
Operator turned builder. 15+ years running operations — now shipping the systems businesses run on. More
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