A major consumer survey conducted in August 2026 reveals a sharp shift in how American shoppers engage with retail pricing — one that carries serious consequences for retailers navigating an increasingly price-conscious and technology-driven marketplace.
The “PX Pulse” survey, conducted by first-party data company Dynata among 1,000 US consumers aged 18 and over, paints a striking picture of eroding consumer trust and evolving shopping behaviour. Only 32% of respondents said they completely or mostly trusted retailers to offer a fair or competitive price. Meanwhile, 59% said price mattered more to them than it had six months prior — a clear signal that retail pricing is under greater scrutiny than ever before.
Shoppers Are Waiting, Watching and Comparing
The way consumers time their purchases has changed noticeably. Nearly four in five respondents — 79% — said they had postponed a purchase because they believed the price might drop later. This kind of deliberate, wait-and-see approach underscores just how central retail pricing strategy has become to the overall buying decision.
Price comparison is now a standard part of the shopping journey. Some 46% of respondents said they compare prices across multiple retailers before making a purchase, while only 9% said they typically buy without any form of comparison. The gap between these two groups tells its own story about where consumer expectations now stand.
Cross-channel price visibility is also intensifying. As many as 77% of consumers said they had noticed the same product listed at different prices across retailers or shopping platforms within the past year. An additional 68% said they at least sometimes check a retailer’s website or app while shopping in-store to determine whether the same item is available for less online. This blending of physical and digital shopping channels is making price inconsistencies harder for retailers to obscure.
Personalised Pricing Raises Consumer Trust Concerns
The survey also shed light on growing unease around personalised or behaviour-based pricing. Some 57% of respondents said they would trust a retailer less if they discovered that a product’s price had been adjusted based on their personal information or browsing and shopping behaviour. This finding highlights a key tension retailers must manage: the desire to leverage consumer data for pricing optimisation against the risk of alienating shoppers who view such practices as unfair.
AI Shopping Tools Are Reshaping Price Discovery
Perhaps the most forward-looking finding in the survey is the rising role of AI shopping tools in the consumer price comparison process. A notable 24% of consumers said they already use AI-powered tools — such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini — to compare prices or identify the best deals. Further, 56% of respondents said they trust these AI tools to provide accurate pricing information when evaluating products across different sellers.
This growing reliance on AI shopping tools is expected to carry through into the holiday shopping season. When asked how they plan to compare prices during that period, 40% of respondents said they would compare retailer websites directly, 37% cited search engines, and 24% said they expected to use AI tools such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini. The data suggests that AI-powered price discovery is no longer a niche behaviour — it is becoming a mainstream part of how consumers approach retail pricing decisions.
What This Means for Retailers
Akeneo CEO Romain Fouache addressed the implications directly: “Consumers are paying closer attention to price and that raises the stakes for retailers. Pricing can no longer sit in a silo from the rest of the product experience. Consumers, and increasingly AI-powered shopping tools, are constantly comparing products, prices and offers across channels. Brands need trusted product and pricing information working together so shoppers see a consistent, credible experience wherever discovery happens.”
His remarks reflect the broader challenge the survey data presents: as consumer trust in retail pricing weakens and AI shopping tools become more embedded in the price comparison journey, retailers must ensure that their pricing is not only competitive but also consistent and transparent across every channel where their products appear.
With holiday shopping on the horizon and price comparison habits firmly established among the majority of US consumers, the pressure on retailers to get their pricing strategies right — and to present that pricing in a way that consumers and AI tools alike can trust — has never been more pronounced.
