Shoppers are paying closer attention not only to how much products cost, but also to whether the prices they see are fair, consistent and trustworthy, according to new PX Pulse survey findings released by Akeneo, the Product Experience (PX) leader.
As economic pressures continue to shape consumer behaviour, price is becoming increasingly important in purchase decisions, with 59% of consumers saying it matters more than it did six months ago. Yet only 32% completely or mostly trust retailers to offer a fair or competitive price. As a result, shoppers are becoming more deliberate about when they buy, where they compare and which sources they trust to determine whether a product is worth the price.
“Consumers are paying closer attention to price and that raises the stakes for retailers,” said Romain Fouache, CEO of Akeneo. “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.”
As price takes on greater importance, consumers are becoming more calculated about when they make a purchase. 79% say they have delayed a purchase because they believed the price would be lower later.
That same caution is showing up in how consumers research products before buying. Nearly half (46%) compare prices across multiple retailers when shopping online, while only 9% say they typically purchase without comparing prices.
For retailers, this means the competition for a sale is no longer limited to the product page in front of the shopper. Consumers are actively validating price and value across multiple sources before making a decision.
More aggressive comparison shopping is also making price inconsistencies harder to miss. 77% of consumers say they have noticed the same product listed at different prices across retailers or shopping platforms in the past year.
Consumers are also looking for discrepancies between online and offline channels. 68% say they at least sometimes check a retailer’s website or app while shopping in-store to see whether the same product is available at a lower price online.
That increased scrutiny creates a broader trust challenge. Only 32% of consumers completely or mostly trust retailers to offer a fair or competitive price. Shoppers are particularly wary of pricing practices that feel opaque or overly personalised: 57% say they would trust a retailer less if they learned that the price of a product had changed based on their personal information or shopping behaviour.
For retailers, the findings point to a growing need to pair sophisticated pricing strategies with transparency and consistency, particularly as consumers become more active in comparing prices across channels.
AI is also becoming part of how consumers compare prices and assess whether they are getting a good deal. Nearly one quarter (24%) already use tools such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini to compare prices or deals, while more than half (56%) trust AI tools to provide accurate pricing information when comparing products across retailers.
That behaviour is set to continue into the holiday shopping season. 40% of consumers expect to compare prices across retailer websites to determine whether they are getting a good deal, while 37% plan to use search engines and 24% expect to turn to AI tools such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini.
For brands and retailers, AI introduces another discovery layer where product information and pricing can influence a purchase. As shoppers move between retailer websites, marketplaces, search engines, physical stores and AI assistants, inconsistent or incomplete information becomes increasingly visible. When an LLM encounters conflicting prices across those sources, it may struggle to determine which information is most reliable, potentially affecting whether a product is recommended or creating a mismatch between discovery and checkout. Brands need trusted, governed product and pricing data that can travel consistently across every discovery surface.
