AI agents, GEO and data quality: What the 2026 online merchant survey brings

Payrexx: The Online Merchant Survey 2026 is finally here. Prof. Dr Darius Zumstein, can you summarise the three most important key findings for us?

Prof. Dr Darius Zumstein: The biggest highlight for me is crystal clear: AI agents are coming – and extremely fast. A year ago, this was hardly a topic; back then, it was primarily about using AI for individual use cases such as text, image, or video generation. Now we are reaching a completely new level.

Secondly, discoverability in generative AI systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or Perplexity has become essential. Every SME and every online merchant no longer needs to be found solely in traditional search engines, but also in AI systems. A completely new Marketing discipline is emerging here with Generative Engine Marketing (GEM) – consisting of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and, most recently, Generative Engine Advertising (GEA).

The third focus of our study was the degree of automation: To what extent are processes in Swiss e-commerce companies already manual, partially, or fully automated, and where are they already using AI agents?

If you had to give specific recommendations for action: What should Swiss online shops ideally start implementing in their business as of tomorrow?

The first and most important thing is: Merchants must have control over their data. Product data, availability, delivery terms, and return information must be presented on the website in a clean and structured manner. Every day, crawlers and bots from AI systems and search engines visit product detail pages. Anyone with poor data quality here will not only face issues with automation and digitalisation, but is simply not «agent-ready».

My appeal to merchants is therefore: Invest in data quality and interfaces! Technical standards like UCP (Universal Commerce Protocol) or MCP are evolving at lightning speed. It is essential to keep an eye on these, regularly check how much traffic is already coming via AI systems, remain open and curious, pursue internal training, and create clear responsibilities for AI within the company.

Big Tech is advancing rapidly at the same time. What trends do you see among providers like Google or OpenAI?

For example, Google introduced AI Mode in May, which directly impacts every Marketing department. In addition, Agentic Checkout was announced. In the US, it is already possible for consumers to add products directly to a universal shopping basket on Google and pay via Google Pay.

Payment service providers and online shops must also ask themselves: What happens when customers process their transactions directly via AI systems or search engines in the future? Currently, most consumers use AI primarily for searching, comparing, and finding offers. It will take a little while until shopping is completely delegated to agents. Among the younger target group, however, we are already clearly seeing this shift.

According to the Online Merchant Survey 2026, Payrexx is the most widely used PSP in Switzerland.

Over 470 merchants participated in the ninth edition of the Online Merchant Survey. What significance does the study have for the Swiss market?

It is the largest and only representative e-commerce study in Switzerland that covers such a broad range of industries – from food to Home & Living, sports, health, and construction. Everything is represented, from small hobby shops to major players such as Galaxus, Brack, or Zalando.

For me as a researcher, it is particularly important to see where merchants are currently feeling the pinch. The challenges have changed significantly: Following the pandemic years, the focus today is on a difficult market environment, global competition, Temu, price pressure, and the question of how to remain relevant to customers.

Do you have any tips for merchants on how best to network and stay informed?

First: Participate in studies, because sharing knowledge helps everyone! Second, the old rule applies: «Markets are conversations.» Merchants should step out of their silos, attend industry events, join specialist groups, and maintain their network – for example, also in trade associations such as the Handelsverband. And third: Use LinkedIn! In our connected world, isolation is the death of any retail business.

Looking ahead: Which topics will be central to e-commerce and next year's survey?

Alongside technology, the human factor is strongly coming back into focus. The buzzword is Human in the Loop: How do humans and machines work together optimally? Which tasks are delegated, and where do humans retain leadership? It is about AI sovereignty, critical thinking, transparency, data protection, and how organisations and teams adapt sustainably.

In addition, the development offers enormous opportunities for SMEs. With modern tools such as coding assistants, even small teams without huge IT budgets can build innovative solutions and prototypes. If small SMEs use these tools cleverly, they can keep pace with the big players exceptionally well.