Agentic commerce is reorganizing retail around five ecosystem layers. As AI agents gain influence, retailers and brands must decide where to compete, where to partner, and who controls the customer relationship.

Shoppers embrace AI platforms for discovery and research, but most still make purchases on retailer websites and apps.

Agentic retail has moved fast. Twelve months ago, most brands treated it as an experiment worth watching. Today the question is no longer whether AI agents will reshape how consumers discover and buy, but how quickly commerce infrastructure can catch up.

A successful takeover could reorder the balance of power for digital wallets and agentic commerce.

As social networks lean into the roles they play in the ecommerce journey, they are flooding their pipes with commerce content they hope will help them in the emerging agentic era.

AI is increasingly shaping how consumers discover and evaluate products before they buy. As agentic commerce gains momentum, brands are rethinking what it takes to turn AI-driven discovery into completed transactions.

AI is reshaping how consumers in Australia discover, research, and buy products. As shoppers embrace the technology, brands must balance convenience and personalization with transparency and trust.

Faith in AI stops short of checkout: Consumers trust AI for product research, suggesting brands should prioritize discoverability over autonomous buying.

Nearly all (92%) commerce media leaders in the US, UK, and Germany are likely to invest in agent-specific measurement and diagnostics in the next two to three years, the leading agentic AI use case among those surveyed, according to April 2026 data from Koddi.

Fraud detection tools race to keep pace with AI-generated refund claims.

AI, sports partnerships, BNPL, Gen Alpha, and digital asset infrastructure will be top of mind for payment providers in H2 2026.

In making an early move for AI discoverability, Square launches an app and plugin to boost its merchants’ AI visibility.

Social commerce gains value: One-third of Western consumers shop via social as AI referrals convert 31% better, rewarding structured product data.

Last week, Ace Hardware held its annual Ace Rewards Day sales event, designed to capture the surge in shopping activity that Amazon's Prime Day helps create each summer. The preparation behind the event offers a playbook retail media leaders can apply to major retail moments throughout the rest of the year, including the holiday season.

Payment providers must improve chargeback detection or risk higher losses and weaker trust in agentic commerce.

Europe’s retail media market is growing rapidly, but fragmentation remains the defining challenge. Local market dynamics, new media channels, and AI-driven operations are reshaping how brands scale across the region.

BNPL providers must focus on engagement over acquisition as the space matures. As installments become a budgeting tool and expand into higher-ticket categories, providers face rising competition to own more of consumers’ everyday spending.

For years, retail media potential seemed limitless as growth skyrocketed while retail media networks launched one after the other. Today, retail media is entering a fundamentally different growth phase. During an afternoon eventat Cannes produced by EMARKETER and Sensor Tower, our analyst Sarah Marzano described an industry transitioning from expansion at all costs to a greater focus on efficiency, differentiation, and measurable outcomes.

Browser dominance could help autofill features chip away at Apple Wallet’s market share.

AI shopping assistants such as Amazon's Alexa for Shopping (formerly Rufus), Walmart's Sparky, ChatGPT, and Google Gemini are reshaping how consumers discover and evaluate products. Retailer-owned assistants are already lifting order values and conversion, while standalone AI platforms struggle to convert recommendations into purchases. This FAQ covers how AI shopping assistants work, what they mean for brand loyalty, and how brands earn a place in AI-generated recommendations.