Agentic Commerce Is Rewriting The Rules Of Product Search

"AI shopping agents are reshaping digital commerce, autonomously influencing consumer purchasing decisions, and redefining online shopping transactions. Call it Commerce 3.0. With agentic commerce, retailers face significant threats, including the loss of direct customer engagement, diminished brand loyalty, and growing reliance on third-party AI platforms. To succeed, retailers must optimize their visibility on third-party AI platforms, develop proprietary AI-driven customer experiences, and build robust operational foundations for AI integration."

"Welcome to the brave new world of agentic commerce, the next big thing after the web and mobile and marketplace-type platforms. In agentic commerce, agents complete searches for consumers, uncovering more precise product selections with the assistance of artificial intelligence and richer descriptions from shoppers. Retailers can ignore the trend at their own peril, said Scott Eckert, CEO of Mirakl for the Americas, a retail software company."

""Today we're very much in the early stages of AI agents being the place customers are starting to go in order to do their e-commerce shopping search," said Eckert. "In the historical world, people would type a three-word search such as 'Halloween Table Decorations' on a Google search or others. In the AI world, we're seeing people typically typing 11 words or more.""

Agentic commerce empowers AI agents to conduct complex, intent-rich searches and deliver precise product selections based on detailed shopper prompts. AI shopping agents autonomously influence purchasing decisions and redefine online transactions, creating a shift labeled Commerce 3.0. Retailers face threats including loss of direct customer engagement, diminished brand loyalty, and dependence on third-party AI platforms. Success requires optimizing visibility on external AI platforms, building proprietary AI-driven customer experiences, and strengthening operational foundations for AI integration. Rich search prompts enable far more personalized recommendations than traditional short keyword searches, altering how consumers discover and buy products online.

Read at Forbes