Imagine landing on a shoe website and, without lifting a finger, being shown only in-stock items in your size. Or visiting your favourite jeans brand’s homepage and instantly seeing your leg length, preferred payment methods, and accurate shipping costs—all tailored to you instantly.

This isn’t a future fantasy. In recent weeks, tech giants like Google have begun rolling out AI-powered purchase flows—intelligent agents that shop on behalf of consumers, using their preferences, behaviours, and history to streamline every step. Leaked strategy documents from ChatGTP this week reveal their objective to create “super-assistants” which help consumers in every aspect of their day to day lives including shopping. These developments have sparked talk of the ‘death of online commerce’ as we know it.

But that headline misses a much bigger opportunity. Rather than replacing brand websites, agentic commerce could supercharge them. With the right infrastructure, retailers can tap into the data collected by these AI agents to create highly personalised, frictionless experiences on their own platforms.

So maybe it’s not about replacing digital storefronts. It’s about evolving it. Because in this new era, it’s better to use these new agents as assistants, before they become assassins.

The Friction-Filled State of Web Shopping

For all the progress in digital commerce, the typical online shopping experience remains riddled with friction. From navigating out-of-stock items late in the journey—or or they won’t ship to you in time—these annoyances persist. Why? Because most retailers don’t know enough about their customers.

Unlike massive brands such as Amazon or Google, who observe consumer behaviour on a daily or even hourly basis, most retail brands only see customers a few times a year. That jeans brand you love – you may only visit it during a summer sale. The trusted department store? Perhaps only when you need to refresh your linen cupboard. As a result, these retailers lack the data necessary to personalise the experience. Instead, they present everything to everyone—every shirt fit, every shoe size, every shipping option—slowing down the shopping process and introducing unnecessary friction.

The friction doesn’t stop there either—currency defaults are often wrong, shipping costs aren’t visible until checkout, and payment options can vary wildly depending on location. In short, a lack of data leads to a lack of relevance—and that’s a recipe for abandoned carts and lost loyalty.

Enter Agentic Commerce

Recent launches from the likes of Google point to a future where AI agents manage shopping flows on behalf of consumers. These agents could fundamentally change how we buy—making experiences more fluid, tailored, and efficient.

At first glance, this might look like the death of the traditional e-commerce website. But that interpretation misses a bigger opportunity. Rather than replacing commerce platforms entirely, agentic commerce can enhance them. The data collected by these AI agents—such as preferred sizes, shipping addresses, and payment methods—could be used by brands to power more intuitive, real-time personalisation on their own platforms. This all helps drive shopper conversion in a digital world where 70% of shoppers still abandon their carts, so this looks like a no-brainer.

Emerging standards like Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol are already being explored to enable this kind of data sharing. With it, a web shop could dynamically adapt based on user preferences carried by the agent—presenting only relevant options and removing the guesswork from the buying journey. AI players can directly monetise these services to merchants, alongside the advertising services which generate consumer click-volume today.

The Real Opportunity: Improving the Experience  

While agentic commerce is exciting, we must be clear-eyed about its implementation. Even with vast customer insight, Amazon’s user experience can still feel clunky. Access to more data is only as useful as what you do with it.

The real challenge—and opportunity—for retailers is this: how do you use this new wave of customer intelligence to actually improve the shopping experience? This is the silver bullet. Not gimmicky tech, not just collecting more data, but using intelligence to reduce friction, enhance relevance, and make buying feel effortless.

The Stakes for Brands

Despite the rise of agents, many consumers will continue to prefer buying directly from brands they trust—especially for complex purchases like travel, where personalisation and input are critical. Companies must therefore rethink their channel strategies, investing in these new flows as seriously as they have in social media or marketplaces.

But there’s a catch. If brands don’t embrace this shift, they risk becoming invisible. They may end up as little more than SKU providers sitting quietly behind the agent’s user experience, with no direct consumer connection. These assistants will become assassins. To avoid this, brands must step up. They need to build the technical capabilities to receive and respond to agent-collected data. More importantly, they must translate that data into meaningful, personalised interactions.

Final Thought: The Next Era of Commerce Is Collaborative

Agentic commerce doesn’t have to mean the end of the online store—it could be its rebirth. If brands are willing to evolve, the future holds the promise of seamless, intelligent, and deeply personal shopping experiences. But to survive, let alone thrive, they must act now. The age of passive retail is over. It’s time for web shops to become active participants in a more agent-driven digital economy.