Sauron Research · updated October 17, 2026
How America shops online, and who gets found.
Official US figures on online shopping and small businesses, plus our own studies of Google search. Every number has its source and date. Free to use.
Studies
Our own analysis of Google search data Oct 17, 2026 · 180 ChatGPT answers · 18 product categories Where does ChatGPT tell you to shop? Which stores ChatGPT names when you ask where to buy everyday products, against Google's first page.
Oct 16, 2026 · 281 US product searches Can Small Stores Still Win on Google? Who holds page one when Americans search for products, and how often small stores get there.
Oct 14, 2026 · March–August 2026 · 50 states Prices and Tariffs: What Americans Search For (2026) Searches for tariffs, American-made goods, dupes, coupons, buy now pay later and secondhand, state by state.
Oct 16, 2026 · October 2025–September 2026 · US AI Shopping Search Trends (2026) Google searches for AI assistants, AI shopping tools and retailers' AI assistants, against a year earlier.
Statistics
Official sources, updated on each release 17.1% US ecommerce of US retail sales were made online in Q2 2026, about $1 in every $6. · US Census Bureau Next: Nov 19 18.3% Holiday shopping of US retail sales were online in the 2025 holiday quarter, the highest share of any quarter that year. · US Census Bureau Next: Nov 19 36.2M Small business small businesses in the US: 99.9% of all businesses. · SBA Office of Advocacy Next: Nov 12 $15.9B Online shopping scams in fraud losses reported to the FTC in 2025, up from $12.5 billion in 2024. · Federal Trade Commission Next: Mar 2027 23.8% AI use by businesses of US businesses used AI in the last two weeks, about 1 in 4. · US Census Bureau, Business Trends and Outlook Survey Next: Oct 22
How we work
Primary sources only
Census, BLS, SBA and FTC tables, not other statistics pages. Each figure names its table and release date.
Updated on the release calendar
Pages change when the source changes, and say when the next update is due.
Open data
Every study ships its CSVs and method. Charts are free to embed with a link back.
Who we are
Sauron is an SEO app for Shopify stores. Research by Laurence Tuchin, founder.