AI Shopping Recommendations Favor Big Stores. What Can Small Retailers Do?

What changed

In October 2026, analysts at the bank UBS published a note on which stores AI chatbots recommend. They put everyday shopping questions to AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Claude, and found the tools often treated Walmart as the default answer for everyday shopping, with Costco also doing well and Amazon recommended less than many people would expect. A separate study published in September, paid for by Lightspeed, a company that sells software to independent retailers, found a similar pattern: AI assistants often cited smaller stores as sources but tended to recommend the big chains.

The honest nuance

This is one bank's test, and the coverage does not publish its full method, how many questions it asked or a breakdown by model. AI answers also change as the models and their search tools change. The Lightspeed study was funded by a company with an interest in the result. Neither tells you how many shoppers actually buy based on a chatbot's suggestion. What they do suggest is that for broad, everyday questions, AI tools lean toward big, well-known names, which is roughly what happens in traditional search too.

Why it matters for your business

If you run an independent shop, you are unlikely to win a generic question like "where can I buy cheap batteries". That is not new, and it is not a reason to panic. Where small retailers have a better chance is in specific questions: a particular product, a specialty, a location, or a need the big chains do not serve well. AI assistants can only suggest you for those if the information about what you sell, where you are and what makes you different is clear and easy to find online.

What to actually do

Write down five specific questions a customer might ask that you are genuinely the best answer for, and try them in two or three AI assistants to see what comes back. Make sure your website and listings say plainly what you sell, where you are, your prices where possible, stock, delivery or pickup options and what makes you different. Keep your Google Business Profile and any marketplace listings accurate. Do not pay for services promising top placement in AI recommendations; nobody outside these companies knows how the ranking works, and the studies above cannot tell you either.

From Kindloom Labs

If you want a short list of practical AI basics to check before spending money on visibility, the free Small Business AI Checklist is a good starting point.

Sources

• AI chatbots are steering shoppers to Walmart and Costco over Amazon, UBS finds (Quartz)
• The surprising way AI chatbots are giving Walmart's business a boost (The Motley Fool)
• AI shopping cites small stores but recommends big chains, studies find (Fit Small Business)
• Study: AI shopping picks big retailers 9 times in 10 (Ecommerce Paradise)