Acquiring a single e-commerce app install in the United Kingdom and Ireland cost $3.85 in the first half of 2026, an 80 percent increase over the previous year and the most expensive market in the dataset, according to the Shopping app insights report: 2026 edition, published today by Adjust.

The measurement company, part of AppLovin, released the benchmark study through its Adjust Intelligence newsletter on August 27, 2026. It draws on aggregated and anonymised data from a mix of Adjust's top 5,000 apps and the total set of apps the company measures, spanning January 2024 through June 2026. One data source covers 45 countries; the other covers roughly 250 countries and territories under the ISO 3166-1 standard. All figures are in United States dollars, and Adjust notes the sample may not reflect the entire global app market.

That caveat matters when reading the headline numbers, because the most striking findings in the report are not about growth at all. They are about price.

Acquisition costs split sharply by market

Global median cost per install barely moved, landing at $1.08 against $1.06 in 2025. Beneath that flat aggregate, the spread between markets widened considerably.

India recorded the largest saving of any country, with cost per install falling 57 percent to $0.10. Türkiye eased 5 percent to $0.37 and DACH, covering Germany, Austria and Switzerland, slipped 1 percent to $3.13. Everywhere else, the direction was upward. North America became the most expensive region for acquiring installs at $3.12, a 14 percent rise. Europe added 4 percent to $2.17. France increased 24 percent to $1.73, and the United States climbed 22 percent to $3.28. The 80 percent jump in the United Kingdom and Ireland put that market at the top of the table.

Cost per mille followed a similar geography. Globally, CPM rose from $2.42 in 2024 to $3.19 in H1 2026, a 32 percent increase across the two-year window. North America climbed 53 percent to $18.77, with the United States alone reaching $20.54, the highest figure in the dataset. Three markets moved against the trend: India dropped 16 percent to $0.67, Japan fell 12 percent to $4.73, and Saudi Arabia eased 2 percent to $2.79. Europe's regional CPM was essentially unchanged at $5.87, 1 percent below 2025, even though France and the United Kingdom and Ireland both saw increases.

Cost per click went the other way. The global figure decreased 17 percent to $0.10 from $0.12. Japan recorded the largest fall, down 67 percent to $0.09, and India dropped 40 percent to $0.03, pulling the APAC regional average down 38 percent to $0.05. Europe eased 4 percent to $0.22 and North America 13 percent to $0.14. France and the United Arab Emirates were the exceptions, with CPC rising 27 percent to $0.19 and 41 percent to $0.24 respectively.

Cheaper clicks alongside dearer installs points to weaker click-to-install conversion in the markets where costs rose. The pattern is clearest in deal discovery, where CPC dropped 65 percent from $0.17 in 2024 to $0.06 while cost per install rose 30 percent to $2.69, the highest of the three subverticals. Install-per-mille for deal discovery fell from 2.42 to 2.03, the only subvertical to decline on that measure while the global figure rose from 3.06 to 3.42.

Growth concentrates in shopping apps and two regions

Global e-commerce app installs increased 2 percent year over year in H1 2026 and sessions rose 0.3 percent. Those aggregate numbers conceal a wide subvertical gap. Shopping apps posted 6 percent install growth and 15 percent session growth. Deal discovery sessions rose 10 percent. The report's chart for that comparison shows a sessions figure for deal discovery but no corresponding install figure.

Shopping apps supplied nearly three-quarters of all e-commerce installs, at 72 percent, with marketplace and classifieds at 18 percent and deal discovery at 10 percent. Sessions divided differently: shopping and marketplace and classifieds each contributed 45 percent, with deal discovery again at 10 percent. Marketplace and classifieds apps therefore match shopping on engagement while drawing a quarter of the installs.

Regionally, North America recorded install growth of 46 percent and session growth of 26 percent. LATAM installs rose 25 percent. Europe grew 2 percent on installs, matching the global rate. The regional chart provides no session figure for LATAM, though country-level session growth is given for Brazil at 35 percent and Mexico at 25 percent.

Singapore led every market on installs, up 67 percent. The United States followed at 49 percent, Vietnam at 42 percent, India at 37 percent and Indonesia at 36 percent. Double-digit gains also came from the Philippines at 16 percent, Malaysia at 14 percent, and France and South Korea at 12 percent each. On sessions, Indonesia and Singapore led at 62 percent and 58 percent. Brazil, India and Malaysia each grew at least 35 percent, while the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Mexico, South Korea and Vietnam landed between 21 and 27 percent. DACH, Thailand, France and Türkiye ranged from 4 to 14 percent.

The picture differs materially from the position Adjust reported six months earlier. Its Mobile App Trends: 2026 Edition, published on February 18, 2026, recorded e-commerce installs declining 10 percent in 2025 even as sessions rose 5 percent. The new report covers a different window and a narrower vertical definition, but the reversal in install direction is the single largest change between the two editions.

The global paid/organic ratio reached 0.72 in H1 2026, up 26 percent from 2025 and 47 percent from 2024. Adjust expresses the measure as a ratio in which a value of 3 means 300 paid installs for every 100 organic ones.

Shopping apps carried the highest ratio at 0.76, up 25 percent from 2025 and 46 percent from 2024. Marketplace and classifieds recorded the largest relative increase of any subvertical, up 30 percent since 2025 and 50 percent since 2024 to reach 0.57. Deal discovery reached 0.66.

At country level, Malaysia topped every market at 1.11, with Türkiye close behind at 1.08. South Korea posted the biggest increase of any country, rising 42 percent to 0.81, ahead of France at 36 percent to 0.79 and Türkiye at 35 percent. Europe and MENA grew the most regionally, up 20 and 19 percent to 0.59 and 0.80.

Four markets went the opposite way. Vietnam's ratio decreased 54 percent to 0.89 from 1.92 in 2025, nearly halving its reliance on paid installs. The Philippines fell 34 percent to 0.73, Brazil 20 percent to 0.43, and India 17 percent to 0.55.

Greg Wang, Regional VP, Americas at Adjust, framed the consequence in the report. "E-commerce apps had a strong first half of 2026 and major shopping events keep getting bigger. But acquisition is getting more expensive and paid installs are carrying more of the growth. The marketers who will grow most efficiently are those who can see which channels, markets, and campaigns are producing shoppers with strong LTV. Reliable measurement is what makes that possible," he said.

The characterisation of a strong first half sits against a global session growth figure of 0.3 percent. The strength is concentrated in the shopping subvertical and in North America and LATAM rather than distributed across the vertical.

Retention holds flat, sessions get shorter

Global day 1 retention for e-commerce apps came in at 13 percent, matching 2025. Marketplace and classifieds recorded 19 percent, recovering the point it lost in 2025 and returning to its 2024 level. Deal discovery gained a point to 14 percent, its best mark across the three-year stretch. Shopping stayed at 13 percent, unchanged since 2024.

Japan led all markets at 17 percent, with Singapore and the United Kingdom and Ireland at 16 percent. Nine markets gained a percentage point: Europe at 14 percent, DACH at 15 percent, the United Kingdom and Ireland at 16 percent, LATAM at 13 percent, Mexico at 13 percent, Saudi Arabia at 11 percent, the UAE at 13 percent, North America at 12 percent and the United States at 12 percent.

Those retention figures land days after separate research pointed at the same problem from the consumer side. Adobe research distributed on August 21, 2026 found that 72 percent of surveyed United States shoppers delete retail apps after a single use. Adjust's measured 13 percent day 1 retention and Adobe's self-reported deletion rate describe the same funnel from opposite ends.

Average session length fell from 11.11 minutes in 2025 to 10.32 minutes, a 7 percent decline. Marketplace and classifieds held the longest average at 12.52 minutes despite a 5 percent drop. Shopping was flat at 7.93 minutes. Deal discovery declined most, down 17 percent to 11.09 minutes. APAC recorded the largest regional decline at 11 percent to 9.98 minutes, and Europe fell 8 percent to 11.79 minutes. The UAE was the only market with double-digit growth, up 10 percent to 9.99 minutes.

Day 0 engagement barely moved. Sessions per user on install day held at 1.38 globally across three years. Marketplace and classifieds led at 1.57, deal discovery reached a three-year high of 1.39, and shopping stayed at exactly 1.36 throughout. Japan again led at 1.51, with Singapore and the United Kingdom and Ireland at 1.45.

Seasonal peaks widen

Q4 2025 grew year over year across every subvertical measured. E-commerce overall recorded installs up 0.5 percent and sessions up 7 percent. Deal discovery installs rose 35 percent and sessions 15 percent. Marketplace and classifieds gained 7 percent on both. The shopping row carries a session gain of 6 percent and no install figure.

Within 2025, November was the standout month, with sessions 9 percent above the year's average and installs 5 percent higher. October sessions rose 7 percent, and December closed with both metrics 3 percent above average.

Event-level spikes were sharper still. Against the yearly average, Black Friday drove shopping app installs 56 percent higher in North America and 53 percent higher in Europe, while shopping sessions climbed 69 percent in North America and 62 percent in Europe. The largest single figure in the table belongs to deal discovery sessions in LATAM, up 145 percent. Cyber Monday lifted deal discovery installs 66 percent in APAC. Amazon Prime Day pushed marketplace and classifieds installs 64 percent higher in North America.

Partner counts diverge by subvertical

Deal discovery apps expanded their partner mix the most, averaging 8 partners per app against 7.5 in 2025 and 6.9 in 2024. Shopping and marketplace and classifieds moved the other way, narrowing to 6 and 6.7 partners per app. The global average eased from 6.8 in 2024 to 6.5.

Mexico and LATAM overall added the most partners, both reaching 7.8 per app, up 20 percent from 6.5. North America grew to 9 per app, with the United States at 9.3. DACH reached 7.4 and the United Kingdom and Ireland 8.5, while Europe overall held at 7. Several APAC markets cut partner counts, including Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore.

Naming and sourcing points

The report describes agentic commerce infrastructure using the phrase "Google's Universal Cart Protocol," a construction that merges two separate Google products. The Universal Commerce Protocol launched on January 11, 2026 at the National Retail Federation conference, co-developed with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart. The Universal Cart is a separate consumer-facing layer unveiled at Google I/O on May 19, 2026. The report attributes to the combined name the connection of Walmart, Target and Shopify and the ability for Gemini to complete a purchase without a retailer app opening.

Adoption of that infrastructure remains limited. A tracking dashboard published in May 2026 found only 26 websites out of more than 3 million scanned had publicly implemented the protocol, four months after launch. The report also cites ChatGPT Instant Checkout, which went live with Etsy and Shopify merchants on September 29, 2025, and eMarketer projections of more than $20 billion in United States e-commerce sales from agentic commerce in 2026 and $144 billion by 2029. Those forecasts are third-party estimates carried in the report rather than Adjust measurements.

Top-10 download rankings by region are credited to Sensor Tower. Temu ranked first globally and in four of five regions, with Whatnot second in North America. Those rankings cover H1 2026, before the full effect of European customs changes worked through. The European Union ended its 150 euro duty exemption on July 1, 2026, applying a flat 3 euro charge per imported item, and auction data published a week later showed Temu's Google Shopping presence halving while SHEIN neared a full exit from European advertising.

The report includes commentary from executives at seven companies alongside Adjust. Dan Lapinski, Director at Roku, addressed connected television. "Connected TV has become a true performance channel for shopping app marketers. At Roku, we're seeing brands move beyond awareness and use the biggest screen in the home to drive measurable commerce outcomes, powered by shoppable ad formats, deterministic identity, and closed-loop measurement. As acquisition costs rise, the advertisers winning in 2026 are the ones connecting streaming exposure directly to results," he said.

Ryan Angerami, Senior Director of Mid-Market Sales at Reddit, cited platform research: "In fact, 71% of people who discovered a brand online or offline researched it on Reddit." That figure sits alongside Reddit's Path to Purchase 2026 survey, published on June 22, 2026, which found half of United States shoppers verify AI product recommendations on the platform before buying. Statistics attributed to Snap, Pinterest, TikTok and RZR in the report come from those companies rather than from Adjust's measurement data, and are not independently verified in the document.

Why this matters for the marketing community

The costs recorded here compound with pressures documented elsewhere in the same auctions. Channable analysis of 1.38 billion euros in verified Google Ads spend found cost per click on Shopping and Performance Max campaigns rose 15 percent between June 2025 and June 2026, while return on ad spend fell 46 percent on Performance Max. United States programmatic CPMs gained 51 percent year over year in June 2026. An 80 percent rise in United Kingdom and Ireland cost per install lands in the same budget cycle as those figures, and ahead of the fourth quarter in which Adjust's own data shows install and session spikes running above 50 percent.

The widening paid share sharpens the attribution question. With the ratio at 0.72 globally and 0.76 for shopping apps, a larger portion of every acquired user now carries a traceable media cost, which raises the value of knowing which channel produced that user. That is the same gap measurement vendors have been moving to close across surfaces: connected TV inventory gained measurement partner integrations including Adjust in July 2026, and ChatGPT Ads gained app attribution in seven markets through AppsFlyer and Adjust integrations announced on July 26, 2026.

For media buyers running retail and marketplace accounts, the regional split is the operational finding. Install volume growth clustered in Singapore, Vietnam, India and Indonesia, where CPI and CPC fell. Cost growth clustered in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States, where install growth was also strong. The two sets overlap only in the United States, which combined 49 percent install growth with a 22 percent CPI increase and the highest CPM in the dataset.

Adjust distributed the report alongside notice of three September appearances: Appsforum and Gamesforum in London on September 7 and 8, Vibe Martech Fest in Dubai on September 9 and 10, and Business of Apps in New York on September 17. The same newsletter recorded finance app sessions growing 29 percent year over year in H1 2026, with month-on-month growth against 2025 never dropping below 21 percent and March peaking at 36 percent.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Adjust, a mobile measurement, analytics, deep linking and fraud prevention company owned by AppLovin and headquartered in Berlin, published the report. Greg Wang, Regional VP, Americas, provided the company commentary. Executives from Sensor Tower, Roku, Google, RZR, Snap, Reddit, Pinterest and TikTok contributed additional statements, and Sensor Tower supplied the regional download rankings.

What: The Shopping app insights report: 2026 edition, a benchmark study of installs, sessions, retention, session length, paid/organic ratio, install-per-mille, cost per click, cost per install, cost per mille and partners per app across e-commerce, shopping, marketplace and classifieds, and deal discovery apps. Headline findings include global installs up 2 percent and sessions up 0.3 percent year over year in H1 2026, shopping app sessions up 15 percent, cost per install in the United Kingdom and Ireland up 80 percent to $3.85, United States cost per mille at $20.54, India cost per install down 57 percent to $0.10, and a global paid/organic ratio of 0.72.

When: The report was published on August 27, 2026, covering data from January 2024 through June 2026, with H1 2026 compared against H1 2025 and Q4 2025 compared against Q4 2024.

Where: Global, with regional breakdowns for APAC, Europe, LATAM, MENA and North America, and country-level data for Brazil, DACH, France, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam.

Why: Acquisition costs are rising fastest in the same markets where install competition is most intense, while the share of installs carried by paid media has increased 26 percent in six months. That combination narrows the margin for error on spend decisions entering the fourth quarter, a period in which the report's own event data shows shopping app installs running more than 50 percent above the yearly average in North America and Europe.