A Findrix study of 55,198 answers to 18,400 U.S. buyer questions, run from October 14 to 17, finds that 57% of the links in AI Mode's product answers lead to Google Shopping listings, and that AI Mode cites only Google pages in 46.5% of its product answers. The rate climbs as high as 60.4% for swimwear and drops to 5.1% for local services and 1.1% for software. For an online store, visibility in AI Mode runs mainly through the Merchant Center feed, and referral traffic alone no longer captures the full picture of product exposure.
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Search Engine Land published the results of a Findrix study on October 29, 2026, covering the links Google's AI Mode places in its answers to buyer questions.1 Findrix tested 18,400 buyer questions across 35 U.S. markets from October 14 to 17, collecting 55,198 answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, and AI Mode, testing each question once per platform.1 This article covers the study's figures as reported by Search Engine Land, category by category, and what they change for an online store's visibility.
0157% of product links go to Google Shopping
Across all the product answers collected, 57% of the links shown by AI Mode led to Google Shopping listings.1 In 46.5% of product answers, AI Mode cited no page outside of Google.1
Fashion and beauty, the most affected categories
The share of answers that cite only Google pages varies sharply by product category. It is highest for fashion and beauty.1
| Product category | Answers citing only Google pages |
|---|---|
| Swimwear | 60.4% |
| Women's everyday fashion | 57% |
| Sun care | 54.1% |
| Activewear | 53.8% |
| Sports nutrition (exception) | 7.6% |
Sports nutrition is the exception among sport- and body-care-related products: Search Engine Land names it as the only tested category where the rate drops below 10%, far below the other fashion and body-care categories.1
Local services and software, far more often sent to their own site
The rate falls sharply outside physical products. For local services, including plumbers, lawyers, and dentists, only 5.1% of AI Mode's links went to Google pages.1 For software questions, that figure drops to 1.1%.1
02Why Google Shopping concentrates product links
Findrix co-founder Yosif Merman attributes the gap to Google's product database, which holds prices, ratings, and inventory information.1 AI Mode can use that data to build a product answer with fewer links to outside sites.1
A different path from ChatGPT and Gemini
None of Gemini's measured links went to google.com.1 ChatGPT, by contrast, showed about 25 links per answer, compared with about three for AI Mode.1 In product answers, ChatGPT linked to Walmart in 45.1% of cases and to Amazon in 6.1% of cases.1
The figures behind these product answers come from different sources: the merchant feed for Google, the Walmart or Amazon catalog for ChatGPT. For a store, that means visibility doesn't depend on the same data depending on which platform is asked. Product schema and other e-commerce structured data feed the first of these sources, the one Google draws on directly.
The gap shows up in Reddit citations too
ChatGPT cited Reddit in 35.6% of all its U.S. answers, compared with 5.1% for AI Mode and 1.5% for Gemini.1
03What this changes for a store or a local service
The study's figures point to two different situations. A shopper can discover products in AI Mode without ever visiting the site that sells them, which means referral traffic alone no longer covers the full visibility of a store's products.1
For an online store, the Merchant Center feed becomes central
Since AI Mode builds its product answers from Google's own database rather than from outside links, the quality and coverage of the product listings submitted to Google matter more than optimizing a single landing page.
For a tradesperson or a local service provider, the site stays the destination
At 5.1% of answers limited to Google pages, local services are still overwhelmingly sent to the professional's own site, unlike fashion or beauty products.1
Measuring a visibility that no longer always runs through a click
The study itself notes that its figures measure the links shown in answers, not actual clicks or purchases.1 The method for measuring exposure in AI answers through Search Console remains the most direct way to track that presence once it no longer turns into a visit.