What is agentic commerce?
The landscape of online buying is on the cusp of a significant transformation, driven by the emergence of agentic commerce.
This concept moves beyond traditional eCommerce, introducing sophisticated artificial intelligence systems that act autonomously on behalf of users within defined parameters.
Agentic commerce leverages AI-powered agents to autonomously identify options, compare them against user objectives, and, with authorization, finalize purchases and manage post-sale logistics.
In a fully developed model, post-sale logistics includes comprehensive order tracking, return or exchange initiation, and refund processing. These are not basic chatbots; they are advanced AI systems capable of understanding nuanced requirements, orchestrating multi-step tasks like negotiating terms and executing purchases.
Imagine having a highly intelligent personal shopper that operates around the clock, processes vast amounts of data instantly and learns from every interaction.
These agents could function as:
Personal shopping assistants that automatically reorder household essentials.
B2B procurement agents that source materials and manage complex purchasing workflows.
Enterprise purchasing systems that handle routine procurement across multiple categories.
Specialized buying agents for categories like travel, insurance or professional services.
The crucial difference from current AI tools is agency.
These systems do not just recommend; they act independently on behalf of humans, with user‑defined guardrails (budgets, brands, frequencies, approvals), they can act on your behalf.
Amazon's "Buy for Me" feature, currently in beta for a subset of US customers, exemplifies this shift.It lets Amazon’s agent complete encrypted checkout on participating brand sites while shoppers remain in the Amazon app; brands handle fulfillment and support.
The power of agentic commerce: Beyond recommendations
The core of agentic commerce lies in its ability to execute actions.
While today's AI might suggest the best flight or product, an agentic system will book that flight or buy the product once criteria are met and the user grants permission.
This level of autonomy is powered by advancements in large language models and their ability to understand natural language requests, reason through complex scenarios and interact with various digital interfaces.
This shift promises a new era of convenience for consumers, freeing up time spent on repetitive or complex purchasing decisions. For businesses, it opens doors to hyper-efficient procurement and personalized customer experiences at scale.
Impact on the commerce ecosystem
Agentic commerce presents both opportunities and challenges for various players in the online buying ecosystem.
Marketplaces (like those powered by Mirakl) are poised to lead the agentic commerce era
Marketplaces are uniquely positioned to thrive in an agentic future.
By offering a vast array of products and services from numerous sellers, they can become preferred hubs for AI agents seeking diverse options.
Marketplaces will need to ensure their data is clean, structured and easily discoverable by AI agents. This might involve enhancing APIs to allow agents to seamlessly query product information, compare prices and execute transactions.
Marketplaces could also develop their own agentic features or integrate with third-party agents, further solidifying their role as central commerce platforms. The key to winning agentic demand is broad connectivity: clean, structured data and open, secure APIs so agents can surface exactly what shoppers are looking for across your entire assortment.
Merchants will need to adapt to keep pace and excel in an AI-powered, agentic commerce future
Merchants will need to adapt their digital strategies for the agentic commerce future.
Optimizing product listings for AI readability, ensuring competitive pricing and providing clear product information will be paramount. Investing in robust APIs that allow agents to interact directly with inventory and pricing systems will also be crucial.
Brands might also explore developing their own specialized agents to enhance customer loyalty or manage direct-to-consumer sales. The focus will shift from just attracting human eyeballs to attracting intelligent agents.
Agentic platforms will succeed once they figure out the connective layer
Agentic platforms are the software frameworks that power the intelligence and autonomy of commerce agents. They enable agents to interpret user needs, make decisions, and initiate actions using advanced AI and automation. These platforms are responsible for the reasoning, natural language understanding, and orchestration required to deliver autonomous shopping and procurement experiences.
However, even the most sophisticated agentic platforms need a way to interact with the complex, real-world commerce ecosystem.
The critical role of Mirakl Nexus in agentic commerce
This is where Mirakl Nexus comes in as the agentic commerce brain for the ecosystem. Nexus is the neutral connective layer that enables agentic platforms to move from intent to action, bridging the world of AI agents with a vast network of merchants, shoppers and commerce services.
With Mirakl Nexus, agents can:
Instantly access thousands of sellers and brands through unified APIs.
Retrieve real-time product data, pricing, and inventory from across the ecosystem.
Orchestrate transactions and manage all post-purchase workflows (fulfillment, returns, refunds) securely and at scale.
Mirakl Nexus makes agentic commerce possible and scalable. As the agentic commerce brain, Nexus is the essential foundation for the future of agentic commerce.
Navigating the future of agentic commerce
As agentic commerce transforms digital buying, it brings not just new possibilities but also new responsibilities. Trust, transparency, data privacy and security are fundamental to this future. Mirakl Nexus is built with these principles at its core, ensuring actions agents take are transparent, secure and aligned with user intent.
Agentic commerce represents the next frontier in online buying and promises a more efficient, personalized and autonomous purchasing experience for everyone.
Businesses that embrace this evolution and prepare their systems for AI interaction will be best positioned to lead in this new era of digital commerce.
Learn more about agentic commerce, and how Mirakl is playing a key role in its development, here.
Agentic Commerce FAQs: Everything you need to know about AI-powered shopping
As agentic commerce reshapes digital buying, many businesses and consumers have questions about what it means, how it works, and what’s next. Below, we answer some of the most common questions about agentic commerce and Mirakl’s role in this emerging landscape.
What is agentic commerce?
Agentic commerce is a new type of online buying that uses advanced AI systems, known as agents, to act autonomously on behalf of users. These agents can autonomously identify and compare options, and with a user's permission, complete purchases and handle post-sale logistics like order tracking and return processing. Unlike basic chatbots, these are advanced AI systems that can understand nuanced needs, negotiate terms and perform multi-step tasks.
How is agentic commerce different from traditional eCommerce?
Traditional eCommerce relies on users to manually search, compare products, and complete purchases. Agentic commerce uses AI agents to automate these processes, acting on behalf of users according to defined parameters. This enables more efficient, personalized and autonomous online buying experiences.
How is agentic commerce different from current AI tools?
The current deployment of AI in eCommerce is primarily reactive and assistive: chatbots answer questions, recommendation engines suggest products and search tools help you find items.
However, humans still drive every transaction decision and execute every purchase.
Agentic commerce represents a fundamental shift to proactive and autonomous systems that can complete entire commercial workflows independently.
For example, today's AI might show you the best price for office chairs across different suppliers, while agentic commerce monitors your inventory levels, detects when stock is running low, researches current market options, negotiates with preferred suppliers, places the order, and tracks delivery — all while you focus on other strategic work.
What are some examples of agentic commerce agents?
Agentic commerce agents can serve various purposes. Examples include personal shopping assistants that automatically reorder household essentials, B2B procurement agents that source materials and manage complex purchasing workflows, and specialized buying agents for categories like travel or insurance. Amazon's "Buy for Me" feature, which allows Amazon's agent to complete encrypted checkout on participating brand sites, is an example of this shift.
How will agentic commerce impact businesses?
Agentic commerce presents both opportunities and challenges for businesses. For businesses, it offers a way to achieve hyper-efficient procurement and deliver personalized customer experiences at scale. Businesses will need to adapt their digital strategies by optimizing product listings for AI readability, ensuring competitive pricing and providing clear and detailed product information. The focus will shift from attracting human shoppers to attracting intelligent agents.
What is the role of marketplaces in agentic commerce?
Marketplaces are well-positioned to thrive in the agentic commerce era because they offer a wide range of products and services from many sellers, making them ideal hubs for AI agents seeking diverse options. To succeed, marketplaces must ensure their data is clean, structured and easily discoverable by AI agents. This can be achieved by enhancing APIs to allow agents to seamlessly query product information, compare prices and execute transactions.
What is the impact of agentic commerce on merchants?
Agentic commerce shifts merchants from attracting human shoppers to being discoverable by AI agents that make autonomous purchasing decisions. Merchants must optimize product data for AI readability, invest in API connectivity and, crucially, maximize their presence across multiple marketplaces, since agents search broadly for the best options. This creates opportunities for reduced marketing costs and automated customer relationships, but requires treating AI agents as the primary customer. The winners will be merchants who optimize for AI interaction and ensure wide marketplace distribution.
What is Mirakl Nexus and why is it important for agentic commerce?
Mirakl Nexus is the agentic commerce brain — the only neutral infrastructure that seamlessly connects shoppers, merchants and agentic platforms. Nexus enables autonomous product discovery, secure transactions and comprehensive post-sale management at scale. By empowering agents to access real-time product data and orchestrate transactions across the entire ecosystem, Mirakl Nexus makes large-scale, AI-powered commerce possible for businesses and consumers alike.
