Nearly half of AI Mode's product answers link exclusively to Google's own pages, and 57% of product links in AI Mode go to Google Shopping, according to the study covered. For ecommerce brands and affiliates, those two numbers describe a search experience in which the AI answer does not simply recommend products: it increasingly routes the shopper toward Google's own shopping surface before any independent retailer gets a click.
The headline figures are striking. Nearly half of AI Mode's product answers link exclusively to Google's own pages, meaning that for a large share of product questions, the answer contains no outbound link to an independent retailer at all. Separately, 57% of product links in AI Mode go to Google Shopping. Together, the figures paint a consistent picture: when AI Mode answers a shopping question, Google's own properties dominate the links that follow. Fashion and beauty categories have the highest rates, which makes sense as categories where visual comparison, price, and availability matter, and where a shopping surface can present many options at once. But the pattern raises questions that extend well beyond those two categories.
The self-preferencing angle is unavoidable. When a platform that controls the answer also owns the destination that most links point to, competitors face a structural disadvantage that has nothing to do with price, quality, or service. An independent retailer may offer a better product page, a lower price, or faster delivery, and still lose the click because the AI answer never links to it. That is different from traditional search, where organic rankings at least gave strong retailers a visible path to the click. In AI Mode, the answer itself is the ranking, and if that answer points mainly to Google Shopping, the path for everyone else narrows. Regulators, retailers, and SEOs will all read the study through that lens, even if they draw different conclusions about what should be done.
For ecommerce SEOs, the study changes how product visibility should be measured. Ranking a product page is no longer enough if AI Mode answers the same query with links to Google Shopping instead. Ecommerce teams should therefore track whether their products appear inside AI answers, whether those answers link to their own pages or to a shopping aggregator, and how that split affects clicks and revenue. Product data quality becomes even more important: accurate prices, availability, images, and structured information make it easier for any system, including Google's, to surface a product correctly. But data quality alone cannot overcome a system that prefers its own surface, so teams should also build demand that does not depend on a single AI answer.
For affiliates and link builders, the study is a warning about building a business on links inside AI product answers. If most product links go to Google Shopping, affiliate links inside AI answers will be scarce, contested, and less reliable than traditional organic links. Affiliates should therefore focus on content that shoppers seek out directly: detailed comparisons, honest reviews, buying guides with original testing, and recommendations from trusted voices. Those assets earn clicks because readers want the author's judgment, not just a list of products. Link strategy should follow the same logic: earn links from pages that shoppers and publishers actually value, rather than chasing placements inside AI answers that may route around independent sites altogether.
The broader question is what kind of marketplace AI search should be. A search engine that answers product questions mainly with links to its own shopping surface is acting as both referee and player, and that dual role deserves scrutiny. Shoppers may still benefit from a convenient, consolidated shopping view, and Google Shopping can be a useful way to compare options. But convenience should not come at the cost of choice, and choice requires that independent retailers remain visible when they offer something better. How Google balances its own shopping surface against independent retailers in AI Mode will be one of the most important ecommerce stories of the next year, and this study gives the debate its first hard numbers.
Sources: Search Engine Land, October 29, 2026.
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