NRF 2026: 4 Key Organic Search Takeaways That Will Impact Online Revenue Growth
Every year, brands from around the globe gather for Retail’s Big Show, hosted by the National Retail Federation (NRF). This year’s conference featured presentations from major leaders in retail and e-commerce, including Walmart, Google, Shopify, Abercrombie & Fitch, and others.
While many presenters focused exclusively on in-store shopping experiences, there were plenty of relevant takeaways regarding Organic Search, paid media, and, of course, AI search and agentic shopping.
Many of these takeaways support VELOX’s proven strategies for Organic Search, GEO, and conversion rate optimization, and major retail brands are finally realizing the unmatched ROI of Organic Search investments. If you’ve already heavily invested in Organic Search, consider yourself ahead of the curve.
Here are the most essential e-commerce takeaways from NRF 2026.
Agentic Shopping: The Revenue Channel of the Future
From a digital marketing perspective, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, delivered one of the more exciting keynotes of the event, highlighting the recently-launched Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), explicitly designed for agentic e-commerce. This new protocol enables AI agents to purchase products on a user’s behalf, effectively connecting AI surfaces to e-commerce systems.
This comes as Google has accelerated its investments in AI, from technical infrastructure to new products.
What does this mean for retailers and e-commerce brands? It means that agentic shopping is finally here, and brands must prepare and adapt to this new shopping experience.
At its core, agentic shopping is less about browsing and more about delegation. A shopper tells their AI tool what they want to buy, and the AI tool handles the research, selection, and purchase actions on their behalf.
This compresses the funnel. Discovery, decision, and checkout will happen in fewer steps with less user input (as long as users trust AI to shop for them, which remains to be seen). This means that product data becomes just as valuable as product descriptions and sales copy.
Brands must effectively balance selling with AI tools without compromising the on-page user experience.
Change can be scary, but Pichai has an optimistic view on this agentic future, stating, “When we do get this right, shoppers will be able to find exactly what they’re looking for, get inspired by new ideas and transact more easily than ever before.”
How to Prepare for Agentic Shopping
- If using Shopify, opt in to agentic storefronts.
- Audit and clean up product data to ensure AI agents retrieve the most accurate, consistent information.
- Ensure decision-critical information, such as pricing, availability, specs, and sizing, is up to date and clarified.
- Utilize expanded FAQs on product pages to handle pre-purchase objections from agents and users.
- Implement structured data so AI crawlers better understand the page’s content and purpose.
Agentic shopping is relatively new, but having a strong technical foundation has and will always be crucial for online success. VELOX can conduct a thorough site audit, identify areas for improvement, and make recommendations to improve your site’s speed, user experience, and structured data so you’re ready for this new era of online shopping.
Generative Engine Optimization: Establish Relevancy with High-Intent Shoppers and Create New Conversion Paths
The last few years have seen marketers, retailers, and even shoppers question the relevance of Organic Search rankings. To be clear, Organic Search remains valuable and delivers the best long-term ROI. However, user discovery has expanded beyond the classic blue links in Google Search and now includes AI Overviews and other surfaces.
Leaders from Lowe’s and Abercrombie & Fitch discussed this topic in a session at NRF 2026.
Specifically, they highlighted how AI can better match a user’s language, context, and intent than simple keywords can, leading to more relevant results.
As Samir Desai, executive vice president, chief digital and technology officer for Abercrombie & Fitch, put it, “When someone walks into a store looking for something, they don’t shout keywords at an associate. They speak in natural language, including context and sharing intent.”
AI is bringing that natural in-store experience to e-commerce, so it’s no wonder many people are using AI at least at some point in their shopping journey. Brands can’t afford to ignore AI visibility or think that it will come naturally. Even category leaders must optimize their sites, content, and reputation to compete in these condensed answer boxes.
Enter Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). This strategy helps ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude, and AI-powered search elements discover, feature, and cite your content.
When implemented correctly, you increase the likelihood of being sourced and cited in AI experiences, creating another touchpoint for users to discover and engage with your brand.
Think of GEO as an extension of Organic Search, as it shares many of the same fundamentals, including technical optimizations, content quality, and authority.
Just like Organic Search, GEO helps your brand own a topic or product category, resulting in sustainable revenue growth.
How to Incorporate GEO Strategies
- Identify top revenue-driving pages, such as PDPs, category pages, and buying guides, and prioritize them by traffic and conversions.
- Optimize and write content that directly answers high-intent questions, using definitions, consistent terminology, and clear responses.
- Format with extractability in mind, utilizing Q&A formatting, bullet points, and decision blocks. The goal is to make it easy for AI tools to extract defined chunks of content.
- Strengthen technical foundations by confirming pages are crawlable and indexable, utilizing clear headings and titles, and adding relevant structured data.
- Consistently update your site’s content to ensure it remains timely and accurate.
If you’re ready to start targeting these AI-powered search results and features, partner with VELOX. We’ll help establish your Organic Search foundation while implementing GEO strategies to expand your brand’s reach across all surfaces.
Trust Is the New Competitive Advantage
In this new AI-fueled digital frontier, all brands are effectively operating on a more level playing field. We all have access to the same tools, and no one has found a repeatable way to box out competitors in AI search.
That leaves trust and authenticity as the primary differentiators. They’ve always been essential for separating your brand from a competitor, and are now even more critical. While AI might change the customer journey, it doesn’t change your relationship with customers.
Authenticity was a key topic discussed by Ryan Reynolds, actor, producer, and entrepreneur, at Retail’s Big Show. In his keynote speech, Reynolds highlighted how even small moments of “micro-authenticity” can build trust and cement emotional bonds with customers. If you’ve ever seen a Mint Mobile ad, you’ve seen how Reynolds implements this approach.
Customers want to be seen, heard, and understood. They want to shop with brands that represent their values and deliver on their promises. While you certainly shouldn’t fake any of these things, brands could do more to demonstrate this authenticity across their platforms.
From your site to your social media or in-store presence, a renewed shift to authenticity, transparency, and relationships is a must in 2026.
How to Make Trust Your Competitive Advantage
- Emphasize proof over persuasion by prioritizing UGC, reviews, expert validations, and certifications.
- Treat “trust pages” like any other revenue-driving page. Ensure your shipping and return policies, warranty information, pricing, and support pages are clear and easy to find.
- Don’t hide the ball, and be upfront about customer concerns and address potential objections directly.
Communicating authenticity and building trust while maintaining a brand’s voice and values is a struggle for many businesses. VELOX’s content experts can help you optimize your content strategy to put your customers first with targeted content that supports your brand’s Organic Search results while differentiating you from competitors.
Multimodal Content Helps Brands Own More Organic Surfaces and Boost Conversions
A central theme throughout NRF 2026 was the fragmented user journey and how brands can bridge the gap. From social media to AI chatbots, users no longer discover brands on a central platform, but how can brands be everywhere at once?
Multimodal content lets you own more real estate across these surfaces and platforms, so you can engage with and convert more high-intent traffic.
As many presenters noted, e-commerce has moved beyond just ranking a few select keywords.
With agentic shopping on the horizon, users will count on AI to do more of the work for them. That means brands must raise the bar regarding content. Text isn’t enough anymore, and brands should consider how their images, videos, and infographics can support their broader Organic Search performance and revenue goals.
More on-site content is good, but strategically implementing multimodal content into your strategy is what helps brands own a category across nearly every surface.
Whether you’re purely D2C or have a physical retail presence, expanding your online visibility should be your top goal in 2026. Multimodal content is a part of that mission.
How to Start Implementing Multimodal Content Strategies
- Create a multimodal kit for your top-performing categories and products. This kit should include images, short videos, charts, and assets that build trust with users.
- Optimize your assets for multiple surfaces, including Google Search, Images, and AI features. Focus on the surface, not the outcome.
- Ensure technical optimizations are in place with a strong foundation that includes structured data, internal linking, and consistent semantics. These elements ensure AI and other crawlers can accurately interpret your multimodal content.
- Treat multimodal content as an ongoing system rather than a single project. It requires consistent optimization and refinements.
Turn These Takeaways Into Revenue Opportunities with VELOX
If there’s one thing we learned from Retail’s Big Show, it’s that AI is set to disrupt the entire shopping experience, both in-store and online. Even major category leaders are struggling to adapt to these changes, creating new opportunities for legacy and growing brands.
VELOX helps brands grow their visibility online through Organic Search campaigns, GEO strategies, and proven on-site technical optimizations. With our help, you can appear in more high-intent results across Search, AI, social media, and paid media.
Contact us to learn more about our unique approach and how we can help beat your brand’s revenue expectations.
