Every UK brand ready for AI shopping agents runs on Shopify.

What we found

• The AI shopping divide is a platform divide. Of the 50 sites we could read, 15 publish a Universal Commerce Protocol manifest and a storefront MCP endpoint. Every one runs on Shopify. We found neither on any of the 31 sites with no Shopify markers, including Marks and Spencer, Dunelm, Moonpig, Boohoo and Charlotte Tilbury.
• One in five is never recommended. 15 of 75 brands were not listed by any assistant when asked for the best brands in their own category. Among the 50 big retailers it was 12: Boohoo, New Look, Matalan, River Island, Schuh, AO, The Range, Lookfantastic, Tredz, Sigma Sports, Evans Cycles and Go Outdoors. Among the 25 direct to consumer brands it was 3: Passenger, Tails.com and Beauty Pie.
• The assistants disagree. For brands that at least one assistant recommends, on average 39% of the others leave them out.
• ChatGPT is the hardest to get into. It listed a brand unprompted 40% of the time. Claude did 60%, Google AI 53%, DeepSeek 48%, Meta AI 48% and Perplexity 44%.
• Everyday names get lost. Ask "What is Next?" and four of six assistants give a dictionary definition. Ask "What is Iceland?" and all six describe the country. "Dreams" gets the PlayStation game or sleep from all six. "AO" gets an abbreviation from four.
• Bike shops are invisible. Tredz, Sigma Sports and Evans Cycles were never recommended by any assistant.

The full table

Ranked on AI answers, so sites that blocked our crawler still rank. AI answers is a score out of 100. Named unprompted is how many of the six assistants listed the brand when asked for the best brands in its category. Agent ready means a UCP manifest and a storefront MCP endpoint were found on 26 October 2026. Not checked means the site blocked or did not answer our crawler.

Method

On 26 October 2026, each of 75 brands was tested in the UK market with five questions a shopper would ask: what the brand is, where to buy it, the best brands in its category, whether it is legitimate, and what it sells. Each question went to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google's Gemini, DeepSeek and Meta's Muse through their public APIs, with web search where the assistant offers it. A separate AI model graded every answer for whether the brand was named, whether its official website was given, accuracy and sentiment.

Each brand's website was checked for a Universal Commerce Protocol manifest and a storefront MCP endpoint, the standards AI agents use to browse and buy. Platform was identified from each site's public page code and DNS. Brand names and categories were set by hand. The brands are well known UK retail and direct to consumer names across seven categories; the selection is not a ranking of the largest retailers.

What this does and does not show

• 25 of the 75 sites blocked or did not answer our crawler, so every agent readiness figure is "of the 50 we could read". 21 blocked the crawler outright and 4 were unreachable, which partly reflects the network we tested from.
• Every statement about a brand describes what we found on 26 October 2026. Sites and assistants change.
• A missing UCP manifest does not mean a brand has no AI strategy. It means we did not find one of the open standards agents use.
• Grok is part of Findability but was left out of this research on cost. Six assistants were asked.
• Scores measure whether an assistant knows a brand, gives its official site, lists it unprompted and knows what it sells. They do not check prices or stock.