What is Agentic Commerce

Instead of a chatbot that answers questions, an agent can plan, compare, and complete tasks across systems. That can include building a basket, choosing the best option for your needs, and checking out, with the human setting the rules and giving approval at the right moments. In plain English: shopping becomes a workflow, and AI becomes the operator. **The quick definition** Agentic commerce is an approach to buying and selling where AI agents act on behalf of a shopper or a business to research, decide, and complete purchases, often with limited manual input. That “act on behalf of” part is the whole thing. Traditional eCommerce: you do the clicks. Assisted commerce: AI helps you decide. Agentic commerce: AI can do the work, inside guardrails. **Why everyone is talking about it now** Two big things changed in the last 12 to 18 months: 1) AI moved from answers to actions We have gone from “here are some product options” to experiences where the assistant can actually pass information between you and a merchant to complete a purchase. OpenAI’s Instant Checkout positioning is explicit: ChatGPT acts as an agent, while merchants handle payments and fulfilment in their existing systems. 2) The platforms are building agent rails Amazon has been pushing Rufus beyond Q&A into more proactive shopping capabilities, including adding items to cart and price tracking features in certain experiences. Shopify has also framed the next era as “agentic commerce”, focused on enabling commerce inside AI conversations at scale. This is why the conversation has moved from “product discovery” to “end-to-end buying”. __Agentic commerce vs AI product discovery__ A lot of articles still mix these up, so let’s separate them. AI product discovery (helpful, but passive) You ask: “What’s the best moisturiser for dry skin?” The AI explains options, maybe shows products. You still browse, compare, and check out. Agentic commerce (active, workflow-based) You ask: “I need a moisturiser under £20 that is fragrance-free, arrives by Friday, and works under makeup.” The agent: narrows choices checks delivery promise compares value builds the basket asks for approval (or follows your pre-set rules) completes checkout That is not just discovery. That is delegation. **What an “agent” actually is in commerce** In commerce terms, an agent has three capabilities: Context Your preferences: sizes, budget, allergens, brand dislikes Your constraints: delivery dates, subscription rules, return preference Planning Breaks the goal into steps: shortlist, evaluate, select, purchase Can call systems: catalogue, inventory, pricing, promos, payments, shipping, returns And this is where a lot of brands will feel pain: if your data is fragmented, the agent cannot act confidently. That is why unified commerce keeps showing up in the same conversations as agentic AI. **Real-world examples (what it looks like in 2026)** You are already seeing early versions of agentic behaviour across the market: In-chat checkout experiences where the assistant is the “front door” and the merchant still runs fulfilment. Retailer and marketplace assistants that push past recommendations into cart-building and deal finding. Platform pushes to make every AI conversation a potential checkout surface. Whether consumers fully adopt it is still playing out, but the direction is very clear. __What we believe agentic commerce changes for brands__ 1) Your homepage matters less, your “product truth” matters more If an agent is making the shortlist, it is not admiring your storytelling. It is pulling from structured and semi-structured signals: **attributes!!** compatibility stock and delivery promises returns and warranty reviews and Q&A language price and value cues So your competitive advantage becomes clarity, coverage, and consistency. **2) SEO becomes “answer-ability”** Classic SEO was “rank for a query”. Agentic commerce is “be the best fulfilment of an intent”. That means you win by being the best match for: use case (“small kitchen”, “sensitive skin”, “commuter backpack”) constraints (“next day delivery”, “under £50”, “works with iPhone 15”) outcomes (“stops leaks”, “reduces frizz”, “fits airline carry-on”) **3) Merchandising becomes rules-based** Humans browse. Agents apply rules. So merchandising shifts towards: bundles that match real missions (“new puppy starter kit”) variants that are unambiguous offers that can be expressed as logic (“save 10% when X and Y”) inventory accuracy you can actually trust **The new funnel: from browse to delegate** Here is a simple way to think about the evolution. __Browse-led shopping__ the shopper explores discovery happens visually __Search-led shopping__ the shopper types keywords the best keyword match wins __Conversation-led shopping__ the shopper explains the problem the best answer wins __Agent-led shopping__ the shopper sets the goal the best workflow wins If you are a brand, you should be designing for stage 4 while still performing in stages 1 to 3. This is the kind of work we help brands implement at Lmo7, usually starting with product truth, feed quality, and the “use case coverage” that makes you the obvious choice when an agent is making decisions. **FAQ** Is agentic commerce the same as automation? Not quite. Automation is “if X then Y”. Agentic commerce is goal-driven. It can plan steps, choose between options, and take actions using tools, within constraints. Will agents buy things without permission? In most mainstream designs, the user remains in control, either through explicit approval steps or pre-set guardrails like budgets and trusted merchants. Many industry explainers also suggest fully autonomous purchasing will take longer to scale than assisted or approval-based purchasing. Does this replace marketplaces like Amazon? Not necessarily. It changes the interface layer. Marketplaces, platforms, and assistants are competing to be the place where the agent lives. What should brands do first? Get your product truth right: structured data, clear use cases, reliable operations. Everything else stacks on top. __Our final thoughts__ Agentic commerce is not a trend word. It is a shift in how buying decisions get made. When customers can delegate shopping to an agent, the winners will be the brands that are easiest to evaluate, easiest to trust, and easiest to fulfil. Your site experience still matters, but your “agent readiness” will increasingly decide whether you even get considered. If you want a simple internal question to start with, make it this: If an AI agent had to buy our product for a customer tomorrow, would it have enough clear, trustworthy information to choose us confidently?