Ecommerce AI Search Readiness Index
Foreword
The way people search is changing. Generative AI, voice search, and social-first platforms are shifting how customers discover, evaluate, and buy.
For ecommerce brands, being “AI-ready” isn’t just a technical checkbox - it’s about ensuring your business is visible, trusted, and chosen in a landscape where algorithms answer questions before customers even click.
The AI Search Readiness Index looks at the UK’s top 20 ecommerce sites, scoring their preparedness for AI-driven discovery. It’s the first step in benchmarking where the industry stands – and where the biggest opportunities lie.
About the Index
Why AI readiness matters
- Google’s AI Overviews and other answer engines are surfacing fewer clickable results
- LLM-powered platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude are influencing buyer journeys
- TikTok and social search are reshaping how Gen Z shops
- Being AI-ready means future-proofing your visibility across all of these discovery paths.
The AI Readiness League Table:UK Top 20 Ecommerce Sites
- Technical Readiness (30 pts)
- Content Readiness (30 pts)
- Authority & Trust (25 pts)
- Experience (15 pts)
Scores are banded:
- 80+ = AI-Ready
- 50–79 = Needs Improvement
- <50 = At Risk
We focused on UK-based ecommerce leaders by combining:
- Retail sales and revenue rankings (using sources like Retail Economics, Statista, Retail Week and InternetRetailing’s Top 500)
- Search visibility and traffic data (i.e., SimilarWeb, SISTRIX) to confirm the most visited and visible ecommerce domains in the UK
- We also ensured there was a good level of sector representation to ensure a spread across categories like Fashion, Grocery, Electronics, Home & DIY, and General Retail.
From this, we shortlisted the 20 domains with the largest impact and reach in UK ecommerce including names like Amazon, eBay, Tesco, John Lewis, Asos, and Screwfix.
| Rank | Domain | Sector | Score | Band | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | amazon.co.uk | Marketplace | 92 | AI-Ready | Deep schema, vast content coverage, authority off the charts. UX and CWV strong at scale. |
| 2 | ebay.co.uk | Marketplace | 86 | AI-Ready | Immense authority and UGC. Content depth uneven but FAQs/reviews strong. |
| 3 | temu.com | Marketplace | 63 | Needs Improvement | Huge traffic but thin brand trust signals, limited content, mixed CWV. |
| 4 | argos.co.uk | General retail | 84 | AI-Ready | Strong technicals and schema. Good content depth, authority still high. |
| 5 | asda.com | Grocery | 78 | Needs Improvement | Solid technical base. Informational coverage lags outside grocery. |
| 6 | tesco.com | Grocery | 81 | AI-Ready | Strong authority and reviews. Decent content, could expand conversational assets. |
| 7 | sainsburys.co.uk | Grocery | 76 | Needs Improvement | Good CWV and schema. Content depth varies by category. |
| 8 | marksandspencer.com | Dept store | 79 | Needs Improvement | Strong trust and UX. Needs more Q&A/buying guides at scale. |
| 9 | next.co.uk | Fashion | 77 | Needs Improvement | Great UX and internal linking. Thin informational content layer. |
| 10 | boots.com | Health & Beauty | 83 | AI-Ready | Strong EEAT, robust FAQs and advice hub. Solid technicals. |
| 11 | johnlewis.com | Dept store | 80 | AI-Ready | Authoritative brand, rich buying guides. Some CWV variance on heavy pages. |
| 12 | currys.co.uk | Electronics | 82 | AI-Ready | Good comparison content, FAQs, schema strong. UX heavy but works. |
| 13 | very.co.uk | Dept store | 74 | Needs Improvement | Strong authority. Needs deeper help content and clearer authorship signals. |
| 14 | asos.com | Fashion | 72 | Needs Improvement | Excellent UX. Limited evergreen informational content, sparse structured Q&A. |
| 15 | shein.com | Fast fashion | 58 | Needs Improvement | Scale and UGC help, but EEAT and transparency weak in UK context. |
| 16 | dunelm.com | Home | 75 | Needs Improvement | Good advice content emerging. Technicals mostly solid. |
| 17 | diy.com | Home improvement | 78 | Needs Improvement | Strong how-to library but inconsistent schema coverage. |
| 18 | screwfix.com | Trade DIY | 85 | AI-Ready | Excellent technical hygiene, robust Q&A, trusted brand signals. |
| 19 | ikea.com/gb | Home | 73 | Needs Improvement | Great brand and UX. Informational content dispersed. Some CWV issues. |
| 20 | ocado.com | Grocery | 71 | Needs Improvement | Good technicals. Limited content beyond commerce flows. |
AI readiness at a glance: UK’s Top 20 ecommerce sites
The chart data shows a clear split in readiness among the UK’s top 20 ecommerce sites. Marketplaces and large multichannel retailers dominate the top end, with Amazon, eBay, and John Lewis leading due to their strong technical setups, structured content, and brand authority. Home and DIY brands also perform well, supported by robust how-to content and effective schema use.
At the other end, fast-growing entrants like Shein and Temu scored lower, reflecting weaker content depth, patchy structured data, and limited authority signals. While no sites fell into the “at risk” category, the majority sit in the “needs improvement” band – showing that most still have significant work to do before they can be considered fully AI-ready.
- 35% of the UK’s top 20 ecommerce sites are AI-ready – the rest still need work
- 65% of sites sit in the “needs improvement” band – highlighting untapped opportunity
- 0 sites fell into the “at risk” category (<50 points), but several are close
- Amazon leads with a score of 92, while Temu trails at 55
- Home & DIY brands average 78 points, outperforming Fashion & Apparel at 71
- Marketplaces dominate the top 3, with Amazon, eBay, and John Lewis.
Key findings
1. Marketplaces dominate
- Amazon (92) and eBay (86) top the Index thanks to scale, schema coverage, and unmatched authority
- Their combination of structured data, customer reviews, and breadth of content makes them the clearest AI-ready brands.
2. Grocers hold their ground
- Tesco (81) and Asda (78) are technically sound but need to expand beyond transactional content.
3. Fashion falters
- Asos (72) and Shein (58) show UX excellence but limited AI-friendly content depth.
4. DIY and home improvement shine
- Screwfix (85) and B&Q (78) perform strongly, driven by how-to libraries and robust structured data.
5. Big brands ≠ AI-ready
- Even household names like M&S (79) and John Lewis (80) risk losing visibility if they don’t expand conversational and educational layers.
Home & DIY and General Retail were the most AI-ready, supported by how-to content and structured data. Marketplaces like Amazon and eBay also scored highly, while Grocery brands showed strong technical setups but lacked broader discovery content.
Fashion and Apparel lagged, with good UX but little evergreen or authoritative content. Health & Beauty fared slightly better but stayed mostly transactional. Overall, technical strength is common – but brands still need evergreen, authoritative content to succeed in AI search.
Sector analysis
Fashion & Apparel
- Common gaps: limited evergreen content, weak Q&A formats, thin authorship signals
- Opportunity: build authority hubs (style guides, care guides, FAQs) optimised for conversational search.
Grocery
Strength: technical readiness, schema on product/recipe content
Weakness: limited broader shopper queries
Opportunity: expand beyond transactional into informational content.
Home & DIY
Strength: strong how-to and advice hubs, schema usage
Weakness: content dispersed
Opportunity: consolidate content into clear topical clusters.
General Retail
Strength: authority and brand trust
Weakness: patchy conversational alignment
Opportunity: structured buying guides and category FAQs.
Summary
The AI Search Readiness Index highlights one simple truth: most UK ecommerce brands aren’t fully prepared for AI-powered discovery. That gap represents risk, but also opportunity.
The brands that embrace SEO (inc. structured data), conversational content, and clear brand authority signals today will be the ones AI engines surface tomorrow.
We will update this Index annually to track progress – and help ecommerce leaders understand how to future-proof their visibility in a Search Anywhere world.
We know the challenges you face
We know your pain – after all, we’ve helped countless marketers with similar issues. Like:
- Organisational misalignment and cross-functional challenges – we’re proven experts in stakeholder management, upskilling teams, and gaining buy-in at all levels for AI.
We help build trust with your stakeholders, working side by side with you to translate the complex into actionable and engaging storytelling around the importance of AI readiness (that your coworkers will be dying to get a piece of!) - Being stretched too thin – we know that you’ve got a broad scope of responsibilities and big goals to hit, but there’s limited resources and time to unlock it. We’re the partner that you can trust – giving you back the time you need to focus on what matters most.
We’re here to help leap the hurdles, cut the red tape, and build the relationships that push forward positive change for you, your team, and the bottom line…
- Building a true partnership, becoming a team you can rely on
- Securing revenue growth - not just traffic, rankings and links
- Enhancing and elevating your brand and market SoV
- Becoming your go-to experts to drive change and gain buy-in
- Helping you navigate and mitigate against industry change
We work with top brands
Team thoughts: What can ecommerce brands do to succeed across AI?
Bringing in expert authors who are active in their industry and well known, or are experienced and/or qualified on a subject are absolutely key here. Beyond the 'who', it's then about understanding the 'why' of each piece before delving into the 'what'.
Make sure your content is compelling by doing your research, seeing what's already performing well and incorporating that approach into your new content.
It's also never been more important to invest in your brand - think links and citations across relevant and/or top-tier outlets. PR, content, and search channels need to work as one in order to win on AI."
Marketing teams of retailers - both large and small - would be wise to invest time in it now, testing tools and categorising the useful, not so useful, and the transformational. This is an ever changing environment, and even when you think you’re on top of the latest technology, you’re often just a day or two away from the next ChatGPT update or new app being released."
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Where UK ecommerce stands
What can ecommerce leaders do?