Customer behavior is changing, powered by rapid advances in agentic commerce. Consumers are increasingly discovering and evaluating products through AI-enabled shopping experiences, whether that’s a retailer site, marketplace, search platform, or AI assistant. The brands that adapt fastest will be best positioned to capture demand as it grows. Those that don’t risk losing visibility, traffic, revenue, and ultimately market share. 

We’re already seeing that shift in the data. ESW Signals, based on more than 23,000 consumer interviews across 18 markets, found that consumers are increasingly comfortable using AI to discover products, compare options and find deals. At the same time, Adobe reported a 693% increase in AI-referred retail traffic in 2025, with conversion rates running 31% higher than other traffic sources. 

What started as experimentation is becoming a meaningful commerce channel. 

Most retailers recognize the opportunity, but many are still in research mode while customer behavior moves quickly. 

Many AI initiatives focus on recommendations, search, content generation, and customer service. Those use cases can improve engagement, but they often sit too far from the decisions that determine whether a shopper completes a purchase. In international ecommerce, performance is won or lost at the point of transaction. 

Customers want clear pricing, familiar payment methods, and confidence in delivery and returns. ESW Signals found that shipping costs are the biggest barrier to international purchases, cited by 41% of consumers, followed by duties and taxes at 35%. These are the factors that determine whether a shopper completes a purchase. 

A customer may discover the right product through AI, but the purchase can still fail if duties appear unexpectedly, the preferred payment method isn’t available, or the delivery promise doesn’t match expectations. Many AI strategies fall short. 

Agentic commerce only works when AI can access the information it needs and act across the systems that support a transaction. Otherwise, you get product recommendations that still rely on disconnected systems to complete the purchase. 

Discoverability is only part of the challenge. Many retailers discover the operational reality behind AI-driven commerce when they realize that turning that visibility into revenue requires payments, duties, tax, localization, and fulfillment to work together. 

For DSQUARED2, improvements across localization, payments, and checkout contributed to a 16% increase in conversion. Long Tall Sally increased checkout order volume by 60% and order value by 52% after adopting a more localized operating model. These results came from improving how transactions work across markets. 

As AI becomes more influential in commerce, retailers face a broader challenge. Discovery is fragmenting across search engines, marketplaces, retailer sites, and AI-powered shopping experiences. Yet conversion still follows trust. The brands that succeed will move from experimentation to execution, connecting discovery, transaction, and fulfillment as one coordinated experience. Payments, compliance, localization, delivery, and AI integrations all need to work together if agentic commerce is going to move beyond recommendation and become a meaningful commerce channel. 

For more insights into how AI, trust, payments, and international shopping behaviors are reshaping ecommerce, explore ESW Signals 2026.