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Agentic Commerce: The Next Major Shift in eCommerce (After Mobile and Marketplaces)

Agentic commerce is the next “distribution change” in online selling.

For the last 20 years, eCommerce has been optimized for humans: search, category pages, filters, PDPs, carts, and checkout flows. But the next wave is optimized for AI agents—software that can understand intent, evaluate options, and execute purchases on someone’s behalf.

IBM defines agentic commerce as buying and selling where AI agents research, negotiate, and complete purchases—often with minimal human involvement.
McKinsey breaks it down into “agent-to-site” and “agent-to-agent” interactions, where agents either transact directly on merchant sites or negotiate with merchant-side agents.

In plain English: customers won’t always “shop” your website. Their agent will.

And that changes everything about visibility, conversion, merchandising, and loyalty.

What is agentic commerce?

Agentic commerce is commerce mediated by autonomous AI agents that can:

• interpret a buyer’s goal (“Find a durable, quiet shop vac under $250 that fits my space and ships this week”)

• compare products across sources

• validate constraints (availability, delivery windows, compatibility, warranty)

• negotiate bundles/terms (in some workflows)

• execute checkout and post-purchase actions (tracking, returns, reorders)

This is already moving from concept to implementation. For example:

• Shopify announced the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) co-developed with Google to connect merchants to AI-driven shopping surfaces, including Google’s AI experiences and integrations like Microsoft Copilot.

• Google also announced “new tech and tools” and an open standard aimed at enabling agentic commerce for retailers.

• Amazon describes its shopping assistant (Rufus) and broader use of “agentic AI” in shopping experiences.

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Why it will fundamentally change eCommerce

1) Discovery shifts from “search results” to “agent recommendations”

Historically, you fought for rankings:

• SEO rankings (Google)

• onsite search rankings

• marketplace rankings (Amazon/Walmart)

• paid placements and retail media

In an agentic world, a buyer may never view a traditional results page. Their agent will shortlist 3–5 options and ask: “Which one do you want?” (or just buy, if pre-authorized).

That means your future “shelf space” is:

• what your product data says

• how consistent and trusted your information is

• whether the agent can validate availability, shipping, and returns instantly

• whether third-party signals confirm your claims

The Financial Times recently highlighted how “agentic AI” shopping chatbots could reshape retail and disrupt existing eCommerce mechanics.

2) Product data becomes your #1 growth lever

Agents can’t “infer” missing details like humans do. If your product content is inconsistent, incomplete, or trapped in PDFs, you become invisible or unselectable.

In agentic commerce, great data doesn’t just improve conversion.
It becomes conversion.

Expect winners to have:

• structured attributes (dimensions, compatibility, materials, certifications)

• clean variants and parent/child relationships

• accurate inventory & lead times

• clear warranty and returns policies

• consistent brand claims across channels

3) Checkout becomes “API-first”

Agents don’t want your 9-step UI flow. They want reliable transactions:

• identity / authorization

• pricing

• tax/shipping

• payment

• confirmation

• tracking

• returns

Standards like Shopify’s UCP signal the direction: commerce that can happen inside AI experiences, not just inside your website.

4) Trust, fraud, and policy become board-level problems

More automation increases risk:

• bot abuse

• unauthorized purchases

• returns fraud

• data privacy issues

• brand impersonation

Reuters reported on legal conflict around agentic shopping tools and account access, highlighting the real security tensions emerging in this space.

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What brands and manufacturers should do now (the practical checklist)

At Bridge Road Marketing, we look at agentic commerce as a readiness program—because it touches data, systems, storefront UX, and operational truth.

Step 1: Build a “single source of product truth”

Whether that’s a PIM, ERP-centric model, or a hybrid approach, your product content must be:

• structured (not just narrative)

• version-controlled

• easily syndicated to every channel

Step 2: Upgrade content syndication and taxonomy

Agents need predictable categorization and attributes:

• normalize naming conventions

• enforce required attributes by category

• use consistent units and controlled vocabularies

• align taxonomy across site + marketplaces

Step 3: Implement structured data (Schema.org) on PDPs

At minimum:

• Product

• Offer

• AggregateRating (if applicable)

• ShippingDetails / ReturnPolicy (where supported)

• GTIN/MPN/brand

This helps both search engines and agentic systems interpret your products reliably.

Step 4: Make pricing, availability, and lead times machine-readable

If your “in stock” is wrong, agents learn not to trust you.

Tie into:

• ERP/OMS/WMS inventory truth

• shipping cutoffs

• carrier SLAs

• regional availability rules

Step 5: Prepare your storefront for agent-assisted UX

Even when an agent drives the session, humans will still:

• validate details

• compare options

• check trust signals

• contact support

So the site still matters—but it must be fast, clear, and conversion-focused.

Step 6: Decide your “agent strategy”

Most companies will need both:

1. Be discoverable to third-party agents (Google / assistants / procurement tools)

2. Deploy your own on-site agent (guided selling, support, reorder, quotes)

McKinsey’s “agent-to-site” vs “agent-to-agent” framing is a useful way to plan this.

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The business impact (what changes in your KPIs)

In the agentic era, your scorecard expands:

• “Agent visibility rate” (how often agents shortlist your SKUs)

• “Data completeness score” by category

• “Attribute accuracy” and policy clarity

• “Time-to-confirm” (inventory + ship date + total cost)

• “Agent conversion rate” (sessions where an agent completes a purchase)

• “Return reason quality” (agents will prefer lower-friction brands)

A Business Insider report (Jan 2026) even described tooling designed to measure and optimize brand performance for AI agents—hinting at a new analytics category forming now.

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What Bridge Road Marketing does for agentic commerce readiness

We help manufacturers, distributors, and multi-channel brands do three things:

1. Make product content “agent-ready”

• attribute strategy

• taxonomy + categorization

• syndication workflows

• structured data implementation

2. Make operations “automation-proof”

• ERP/OMS/WMS alignment

• inventory truth and lead-time logic

• returns and policy clarity

3. Make storefronts convert in an agent-assisted world

• speed and performance

• UX that reduces uncertainty

• frictionless checkout paths

• content that answers the questions buyers (and agents) actually ask

If you want, we’ll run an Agentic Commerce Readiness Audit and give you a prioritized 30/60/90-day plan.