Digital Commerce 360 and ReFiBuy launched AI Commerce Rankings in July 2026 to evaluate online retailers on AI-related criteria, measuring how well merchants connect with shoppers through AI channels and grow that reach over time (Digital Commerce 360 - AI). Despite ranking No. 1 in the Top 1000 by ecommerce sales, Amazon placed only 158th in the AI Commerce Rankings (Digital Commerce 360 - AI). The AI Commerce Rankings assess factors including catalog data accessibility to third-party AI agents, traffic from third-party AI sources, and diversity of those sources, tracking momentum over 90-day periods (Digital Commerce 360 - AI).
Amazon's low AI Commerce ranking reflects a deliberate strategy: the company has restricted third-party bot access to its catalog data to steer customers toward its own AI tools, including Alexa for Shopping and Buy for Me (Digital Commerce 360 - AI). This approach contrasts sharply with Walmart, which ranks No. 2 in traditional sales but No. 37 in AI Commerce Rankings—a 121-rank gap that underscores how much more open Walmart is to third-party AI platforms (Digital Commerce 360 - AI). For commerce practitioners, the divergence signals that retailers embracing agentic commerce and third-party AI integrations are capturing outsized traffic from ChatGPT, Gemini, and similar platforms, even when they rank lower in traditional ecommerce sales.
Smaller retailers are reaping unexpected benefits from this shift. Nixon, Online Labels, and Everlane—which ranked in the top three of the AI Commerce Rankings in Q2 2026—occupy positions 722, 814, and 264 respectively in the Top 1000 by sales, demonstrating that merchants outside the Top 100 can reach disproportionate shares of shoppers through AI discovery channels (Digital Commerce 360 - AI). Category-specific opportunities also exist; retailers in sectors like Automotive Parts & Accessories could unlock significant growth by improving bot-friendliness and enriching catalog data (Digital Commerce 360 - AI).