Impulse Buying Taking Backseat to Deliberate Shopping: Report

Shoppers are showing less impulse and greater deliberation when making purchasing decisions these days, according to a report released Tuesday by a global provider of user-generated content platforms for brands and retailers.

Today's shoppers are becoming more deliberate in their purchase decisions, prioritizing trust, validation, and value over convenience and speed, according to the 20th edition of the Shopper Experience Index published by Bazaarvoice.

While brands race to deploy earlier-than-ever summer sales, fully autonomous agentic AI tools, and high-cost influencer campaigns aimed at quick conversion, today's shoppers — regardless of age — are being hyper-analytical, pausing the purchase process to independently validate value and authenticity with third-party sources, Bazaarvoice said in a statement.

Amid economic uncertainty, almost all shoppers (97%) now consult multiple sources before making a purchase, prioritizing certainty and trust over transactional speed and impulse buying, according to the report based on a survey of 1,531 adults across North America, EMEA, and APAC.

"There are two forces at play here," Bazaarvoice Vice President for Strategy and Experience Jo Callahan told the E-Commerce Times.

"Macroeconomic conditions are making consumer budgets tighter, so they're validating the authenticity of brands' claims themselves before committing to a purchase," she said.

"Second," she continued, "trust in sponsored content and polished marketing has long been on the decline."

"What's new is the reach," she added. "This used to skew younger, but the data shows it's universal now. Ninety-seven percent of shoppers consult multiple sources before buying, and 60% need two to three before they feel confident in their purchase. In other words, independent verification is now the default."

Every Dollar Matters

While it's true that consumers are prioritizing trust, validation, and value, it's not over convenience and speed, argued Cary Lawrence, CEO of Decile, a customer intelligence company in Washington, D.C. "It's alongside or with convenience and speed," she told the E-Commerce Times.

"With the introduction and adoption of AI, consumers can get the answers and validation that they need within seconds without having to go through all the legwork themselves," she added.

Matthew A. Gilbert, a marketing lecturer at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, S.C., explained that everything has gotten so much more expensive that consumers are rethinking even small purchases. "At this point, every dollar matters," he told the E-Commerce Times.

"This all boils down to the cornerstone of marketing: value," he said. "Cost-conscious consumers are looking to maximize their purchases to make sure they're getting what they're paying for. Retailers need to be mindful of this and go out of their way to not just demonstrate the value of their products, but ensure their pricing is competitive."

Consumers have become more analytical because inflation, product overload, fake reviews, and influencer fatigue have made every purchase feel a little riskier, added Mark N. Vena, president and principal analyst at SmartTech Research, a technology advisory firm in Las Vegas.

"Shoppers are not just asking, 'Do I want this?' They are asking, 'Can I trust this, is it worth it, and will I regret it?'" he told the E-Commerce Times.

"Retailers can no longer win with slick product pages alone," he said. "They need transparent pricing, authentic reviews, credible third-party validation, and enough real-world proof to help shoppers feel smart about saying yes."

Brian Klais, CEO and founder of URLgenius, a global app-linking platform, agreed that shoppers have gotten more analytical because the cost of getting it wrong feels higher than it used to. "Prices are volatile, promotions are constant, and a lot of content is optimized to persuade, not inform," he told the E-Commerce Times.

"So the default posture has shifted to 'prove it,'" he said. "People still buy, but they take more steps to validate that the product is real, the value is real, and the claims will hold up once they dig in."

Shopping Assistants, Not Agents

The Bazaarvoice report also noted that shoppers want AI assistants, not agents. Despite massive industry investments in autonomous AI shopping experiences, consumers are fiercely retaining control.

A third of shoppers want a completely human-led experience, and the tools gaining the most traction are strictly supportive rather than automated, it added, with the most accepted AI tools being assistive, such as text summaries (43%) and Q&A chatbots (41%).

"Consumers view AI as an advisor, not a decision-maker," observed Richard Ashbaugh, CEO of Mabbly, a digital marketing and branding agency in Chicago.

"It's less that consumers distrust AI itself and more that they distrust surrendering important purchase decisions to it," he told the E-Commerce Times. "People are comfortable using AI to accelerate research or simplify comparisons, but they still want to exercise their own judgment, especially for purchases involving significant cost, personal identity, or long-term value."

That means many retailers are misaligning their automation efforts with their customers' desires. "Some retailers have mistaken the demand for convenience as a desire to remove the human element altogether, when consumers actually want technology that enhances their decision-making rather than replacing it," he said.

"The most effective retail experiences will use AI to reduce friction, surface relevant information, and personalize recommendations while leaving shoppers firmly in control of the final decision," he added.

However, Bazaarvoice's Callahan argued that the research suggests retailers and consumers are just at different stages of the adoption curve. "The industry is heavily investing in agentic commerce and automated shopping experiences because the long-term potential is significant, but today's consumers are still building comfort and trust with these technologies," she explained.

"The research shows that shoppers are currently gravitating towards AI tools that support decision-making, but that doesn't mean consumers won't embrace more autonomous experiences in the future," she said.

Pressure-Testing Influencer Claims

Bazaarvoice researchers also found that while influencer marketing remains a powerhouse for product discovery, it is not being used as a standalone conversion tool.

Consumers are leaving social apps to pressure-test influencer claims through traditional search and user-generated reviews, they reported. While 48% of shoppers identify as an "Influencer's Best Friend" during discovery, they noted 38% immediately turn to search engines during the research phase, opening multiple tabs to hunt for one-star reviews and product flaws.

"I think the overabundance of paid influencers and paid advocates has jaded consumers because they have been personally misled by the results, so they are now looking for broader validation and less biased information sources," contended Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst at the Enderle Group, an advisory services firm in Bend, Ore.

"I also think people get that a lot of influencers don't use or even like the products they advocate, which creates a foundation of distrust for the practice," he told the E-Commerce Times.

Callahan explained that influencers still have value, but their role in the purchase journey has shifted. "Influencers are still incredibly instrumental for product discovery," she said. "Our data shows nearly half of shoppers identify as an 'Influencer's Best Friend' when they first encounter a product. The shift is that consumers no longer run to press purchase immediately after learning about a product from an influencer."

"Because of this, consumers are actively looking for reviews from other consumers to pressure-test those influencer claims," she continued.

"For marketers, this means you can no longer rely on a siloed influencer campaign to drive revenue," she added. "If a consumer gets excited by a creator and finds a gap between that influencer's praise and real customer reviews, you'll lose them instantly."

"Marketers must ensure that authentic, third-party validation is deeply embedded across the entire search and research ecosystem to catch shoppers the moment they cross-reference your brand," Callahan advised.