Retail Trends 2026: How Independent Retailers Should Use Generative AI

So let's start off with the numbers, and as usual, these vary wildly depending on how you define using AI.

And what that looks like in practice is that 16% of UK businesses are formally using AI according to government data.

But if you think about it informally, around 50 to 70% of SMEs are using it according to surveys like the British Chambers of Commerce and Intuit who've done a fair amount of research themselves.

And up to 80% of SME decision-makers are saying they've used it in some way according to research done by Enterprise Nation.

So what this really means is that people saying that they're using AI is often about writing emails faster.

It's not as deeply embedded yet, but it is becoming the norm.

So what are people actually using it for? Well, the first main use case that we're seeing for generative AI in retail business is as an assistant as opposed to a replacement.

So people are actually using it for writing support.

They are using the Shopify tools to help them with product descriptions.

They are getting it to draft them emails, to come up with subject lines for their newsletters, to help them create social media captions, and to write blogs.

They also might be using it for things like customer communications, so FAQs.

And a lot of people that I've spoken to actually use AI, the number one thing that they use it for is to take awkward customer messages and to help them rewrite it or to come up with a way of diplomatically responding to them.

People are also using AI for a lot of admin, so meeting summaries, note-taking, and some basic organization.

Another really important role which I think AI can be very good for is idea generation, so content ideas, campaign angles, or planning prompts.

So what we're seeing with a lot of independent retailers, and I'm sure this will be a no surprise to anybody, is that they're using AI to help them save time.

Because if it's one thing that I know about independent retailers and brands is that you are time poor.

I'm sure that you have felt that a lot in your own business.

Product pages, let's just talk about those for a minute because that is a major use case that we're seeing in terms of what people are actually using generative AI for.

And this is important because of the other side of AI, that agentic AI that we're gonna talk more about.

But AI tools are increasingly reading your product pages, interpreting your business from the information it finds there, and then using that information to help with product recommendations, which means that your product descriptions now need to explain clearly what the product is, who it's for, why it's useful, and what makes it different.

So weak product pages or product pages without a lot of information on it are often can almost become invisible under agentic AI.

This is where you can really use AI tools to your advantage because previously I know before the advent of ChatGPT or other generative AI tools, that writing product descriptions was one of the most tedious, long-winded tasks that a lot of retailers went through.

And now with these tools, we can have an advantage.

You know your products better than anyone, so you can work on it to come up with product pages that reflect them.

AI rewards clarity, not fluff.