VantagePoint Research Hub™
The 2026 Zero-Click Commerce Index™
Category analysis covering 57+ brands, 6 consumer categories, and 1,056 identified citation gaps. Discover how AI-powered search reshapes purchase decisions and which publishers drive measurable influence without clicks.
What’s Inside:
- HaloIndex™ methodology and category benchmarks
- Publisher and brand rankings by industry
- 1,056 citation gaps prioritized by contribution, including 47 critical priority gaps
- Strategic implications for advertisers, publishers, and partnership program leaders
Download full report Read the launch blog
Meet the technology behind the research
VantagePoint™ is the measurement and governance layer that forms the economic infrastructure for machine-mediated commerce. It measures influence beyond clicks, quantifies fractional contribution, and establishes a shared, verifiable source of truth between advertisers and publishers in an era of AI-mediated discovery.
Then it converts that verified influence measurement into standardized compensation logic, applies enforceable, auditable compensation rules under the VantagePoint Fractional Compensation Standard™, and enables AI-Influenced Commissions to be executed through Partnerize's payment rails. The methodology behind this research tracks which editorial properties are cited in AI-generated answers to real commercial search queries, and connects that citation activity to downstream conversions to surface measurable, clickless influence.
HaloIndex™ by Category.
The HaloIndex™ is a metric that quantifies how much partner influence is undercounted by last-click attribution by comparing AI-influenced outcomes to traditional click-based outcomes. This year's index spans from 1.54x to 10.94x. Explore the specific publishers, brands, and shopping behaviors driving conversions in your industry.
Consumer audio devices
1.54 HaloIndex
EMERGING
Audio buyers are spec-driven and review-reliant, leaning on trusted testing publishers before committing. Even the lowest score in the index means 54% more publisher influence than last-click registers — with brand-level multipliers like Sony at 5.01x hiding inside the average.
Memory & storage
2.27 HaloIndex
SIGNIFICANT
The most spec-driven category in the index still scores well above parity. Compatibility and performance questions are increasingly answered by AI-synthesized editorial content, generating more than twice the publisher influence that clicks capture.
Beauty & personal care
2.96 HaloIndex
SIGNIFICANT
Beauty is a deeply personal, research-intensive buying experience built on ingredient research, shade matching, and trusted reviews. Across 57 brands analyzed, publishers are driving nearly three times more influence than clicks suggest.
Jeans & apparel
3.2 HaloIndex
SIGNIFICANT
Style and fit research runs through editorial guides and best-of roundups long before a buyer reaches a product page. For every conversion tracked through traditional clicks, apparel publishers are driving 3x more through clickless influence.
Smart watches & smart rings
7.33 HaloIndex
TRANSFORMATIVE
Wearables purchases are comparison-heavy and identity-driven, and AI-powered search answers those questions with editorial content. Publishers like CNET drive nearly 7% of category purchase influence with zero click-based credit.
High-end luxury & fashion
10.94 HaloIndex
TRANSFORMATIVE
The highest HaloIndex™ ever measured. Luxury discovery is aspirational, editorial, and happens far upstream of any click, making nearly all publisher influence invisible to last-click attribution — an 11x gap between influence and credit.