UK shoppers now trust luxury brand sites and AI agents most for product research
New data points in a clear direction: 68% of UK consumers say luxury brand websites provide the best product information. Right behind them, 67% rate AI agents like ChatGPT and Amazon's Rufus as accurate, useful sources for product details.
Traditional channels are slipping. In-store assistance and social commerce trail digital and AI-led discovery, and that has real revenue consequences. Poor product info now kills deals.
Why this matters for Sales
Your buyer's shortlist is being shaped by AI and premium-brand content before they ever see your pitch. If your product data isn't structured, detailed, and easy for AI to parse, you're invisible at the moment of intent. That's lost pipeline, not just lost clicks.
Key data points you can use in the room
- 68%: Luxury brand sites ranked best for product information
- 67%: AI agents like ChatGPT and Rufus rated highly for accuracy and depth
- Switching risk: 70% will pick an alternative if info is weak
- Abandonment risk: 65% will drop the purchase entirely
- Loyalty risk: 68% will stop buying from a business after a bad content experience
- Channel ranking by perceived quality: marketplaces/apps (52%), rental platforms (46%), luxury stores (45%), other physical retail (43%), retailer websites (40%), social commerce (38%)
- Sample size: 1,800 global consumers, including 250 in the UK
The quote your prospects will remember
"If your product information isn't accurate, structured, enriched, and optimised for AI, you simply won't be found." - Romain Fouache, CEO at Akeneo
How to turn this into revenue
- Lead with risk and speed: Use the 70% switching and 65% abandonment stats to frame urgency. Tie it to this quarter's conversion and return-rate targets.
- Pitch "AI discoverability" first, channels second: Show how structured attributes, consistent taxonomy, and clean variants get products surfaced by AI agents and premium-brand-level search.
- Sell measurable upgrades: Enriched specs, comparison tables, FAQs, sourcing and compliance docs, and high-res media. These move conversion, reduce returns, and build trust.
- Create a fast pilot: 50-200 SKUs, attribute cleanup, schema markup, and an AI-readability pass. Commit to reporting on add-to-cart rate, PDP dwell time, and assisted revenue.
- Bundle enablement: Give buyers talk tracks and templates so sales and CX teams reinforce the new product story consistently.
Sales talk tracks you can swipe
- Discovery opener: "Right now, 67% of UK shoppers trust AI assistants for product research. How confident are you that your catalog is readable and rankable by those agents?"
- Value framing: "If 70% of shoppers switch on weak info, improving attributes and comparison content is the cheapest way to lift conversion without more ad spend."
- Budget unlock: "We'll ship an AI-readiness pilot in 30 days and report PDP conversion, return-rate shifts, and assisted revenue from AI-led sessions."
Metrics that matter to economic buyers
- PDP conversion rate and add-to-cart rate
- Search-to-product-view and zero-result searches
- Return rate tied to "item not as described"
- Time on page and spec/FAQ engagement
- Share of sales influenced by AI-assisted sessions
Checklist: make your catalog easy for AI to read
- Complete, consistent attributes (sizes, materials, dimensions, compatibility, care)
- Clear naming and variant logic (no duplicate or ambiguous titles)
- Comparison-ready specs and simple comparison tables
- Structured FAQs that address objections and use cases
- Evidence for trust claims (certifications, sourcing, compliance, sustainability)
- High-quality imagery and short demo clips with concise alt text
- Schema markup on PDPs; clean, crawlable PDP templates
What to sell into next-gen PX/PIM roadmaps
- AI-readability scoring and alerts for missing attributes
- Automated enrichment suggestions with human approval
- Channel- and agent-specific content variants
- Centralized taxonomy governance and version control
- Analytics tying content quality to conversion and returns
If you ignore this shift
Shoppers will go elsewhere. The data is blunt: switching, abandonment, and long-term trust loss follow weak product content. That hits revenue this quarter, and makes next quarter's pipeline harder.
Sources and further reading
Akeneo's research and tooling for product experience are worth a look. Akeneo. Related behavior trends on AI-led search: Yext.
If your sales team needs practical AI skills for discovery and content workflows, explore role-based training: Complete AI Training - Courses by job.
Quick outbound template
- Subject: Your products vs AI agents (and why shoppers switch)
- Body: "68% of UK shoppers rate luxury brand sites best for product info and 67% trust AI agents like ChatGPT/Rufus. That means buyers often meet your products through an AI lens. If attributes are thin or unstructured, 70% will choose an alternative and 65% will abandon the purchase. I can stand up a 30-day pilot to improve AI discoverability and PDP conversion on your top 100 SKUs. Open to a 20-minute review on what that pilot would track?"
Bottom line
AI and luxury-grade product content now set the standard. Make your catalog readable, comparable, and trustworthy-or lose the sale before the conversation begins.
Your membership also unlocks:
