AI Overviews appear on a minority of shopping queries, but where they appear, clicks to websites fall. Three pieces of 2026 research put numbers on this: one on how often Overviews appear for shopping, one on what they do to clicks, and one on whether being cited helps. Each has limits, which matter if you are deciding how your shop should respond.
How Often They Appear
ALM Corp reports an analysis by Visibility Labs using Ahrefs data across 20.9 million shopping keywords: AI Overviews appeared on about 14% of them in early 2026. The spread by intent is the useful part. "Best [product]" style informational queries showed an Overview in 83% of cases, while transactional queries sat around 13% to 14%. By category, grocery and food reached 49% and furniture 2%.
The article's headline growth figure compares different query sets, so we would not quote it. The practical reading is that research-stage queries are where Overviews concentrate.
What They Do To Clicks
Search Engine Journal covers a randomised study by researchers at the Indian School of Business and Carnegie Mellon University. It followed 1,065 US desktop Chrome users for two weeks in January and February 2026. Where an AI Overview appeared, outbound organic clicks fell 38%, and zero-click searches rose from 54% to 72%. The effect was concentrated in Overviews at the top of the page.
The limits are real: it is a working paper that hasn't been peer reviewed, it covers desktop Chrome users, and the article reports no shopping-specific findings. Sponsored clicks held steady.
Does Being Cited Help?
The ALM Corp article cites Seer Interactive data showing brands cited in AI Overviews earned 35% more organic clicks and 91% more paid clicks than uncited brands. That is a correlation: brands that get cited may simply be stronger brands. It doesn't show that citation causes the clicks.
Google's own documentation says clicks from AI Overview pages tend to be higher quality, with users more likely to spend time on the site. That is Google's claim, not independent evidence.
What To Do With It
- Split your keyword set by intent. Expect more pressure on "best" and "how to choose" queries than on product-name searches.
- Own the decision stage. Category pages and comparison content that help someone choose are harder for a summary to replace. See Category Page SEO for Large Catalogues.
- Track more than clicks. Use the Generative AI report for visibility and analytics for conversions.
- Be the source worth citing. That means the specific, first-hand content covered in GEO for Ecommerce.