Agentic commerce and shopping assistants including voice, AI personalization, search and discovery including visual commerce and AR try-on, payments, wallets and loyalty, social and live commerce, unified commerce platforms and composable storefronts, and the connected store experience (clienteling, endless aisle, in-aisle digital).
Commercetools introduced InStore, a unified-commerce application that brings its Composable Commerce platform to physical stores for real-time inventory and cross-channel workflows.
Jiuzi Holdings is evolving its AI smart imaging platform into a comprehensive enterprise solution for smart retail and security, anticipating an initial profit contribution of approximately $1.55 million.
AI virtual try-on has shifted from a novelty feature to a mass consumer expectation, with 98% of AR-using shoppers reporting it directly influenced their purchase decisions.
Google’s agentic checkout feature is now live in US Search, allowing AI to complete purchases on eligible merchant sites via Google Pay based on shopper-set budget thresholds.
Instacart and Shipt have launched live AI shopping assistants that build grocery carts from conversations or uploaded photos, with Instacart’s tool currently live at Food Bazaar, Heritage Grocers Group, and Woodman’s Markets.
Amazon has made its combined Rufus and Alexa+ shopping assistant available to all U.S. customers across its app, website, and Echo Show devices without requiring Prime membership or specific hardware.
Amazon is commercializing its internal 'Alexa for Shopping' technology via AWS, enabling other retailers to launch custom AI shopping tools in as little as 60 days.
Stripe and OpenAI's Agentic Commerce Protocol is now live, integrated into ChatGPT and supported by merchants on Etsy, Shopify, and Instacart.
Global digital wallet users surpassed 4.3 billion by mid-2025, with 65% of US adults now using a wallet and 51% refusing to shop at retailers that do not accept their preferred app.
PayPal introduced 'agent ready' and 'store sync' services on October 28, 2025, enabling merchants to accept payments and expose catalogs on AI surfaces like Perplexity.
Salesforce data indicates that AI and agentic tools influenced 17% of holiday sales, totaling approximately $13.5 billion, during the 2025 Thanksgiving weekend.
The AI-enabled e-commerce market is estimated at $9.0 billion in 2025, while the AR/VR retail market is projected to reach $1.6 billion in 2025.
The global augmented reality market in retail is projected to grow from approximately $3.52 billion in 2025 to over $10 billion by 2029, driven primarily by virtual try-on features.
Retailers report that 3D and AR product media correlate with significantly higher conversion rates and reduced return volumes.
Amazon's 'Rufus' AI shopping assistant, built on Amazon Bedrock and Claude, is projected to generate over $700 million in profit in 2025 and has increased purchase completion rates by 60% for its users.
A 2025 National Retail Federation study indicates that 40% of consumers now rely on AI assistants for product research before purchasing.
TikTok expanded its Shop platform and livestream shopping to additional regions in February 2025 while beginning to include high-end luxury goods and tightening quality controls.
Whatnot secured $490 million in Series E and F funding rounds in 2025, increasing its valuation to $11.5 billion as live shopping adoption grew in the United States.
Amazon (AWS) launched the Agentic Shopping Assistant, allowing third-party retailers to deploy a branded conversational shopping tool in approximately 60 days.
Gartner forecasts that 60% of brands will utilize agentic AI to provide one-to-one customer interactions by 2028, signaling a transition from rules-based to AI-native personalization.
Major technology and retail firms integrated direct purchasing features into AI assistants in 2025 and 2026, with shopping queries reaching approximately 50 million daily on one leading platform.
Live-commerce marketplace Whatnot has acquired AI recommendation engine Shaped to provide real-time, personalized product suggestions during live shopping sessions.
Bain Capital Ventures has invested in both Bloomreach and ShopMy, two leading AI-driven shopping platforms.
Phia, an AI shopping assistant that identifies cost-effective alternatives, has secured $35 million in Series A funding.
Pinterest has partnered with Roku to allow viewers to purchase products directly through their TV remote or app.
AI Shopping Assistants accounted for 40.89% of disclosed consumer AI funding in the past 12 months, representing $133.37M across 14 deals in the broader AI Shopping and Conversational AI sectors.
Salesforce has provided strategic investment to Callimacus to expand its technology that generates highly personalized digital shopping interfaces in real time.
Collectibles livestream marketplace Whatnot raised a $225M Series F in October 2025, demonstrating that niche, high-engagement livestream verticals can still attract late-stage, billion-dollar-valuation capital.
Livestream shopping platform Whatnot closed a $265M Series D+ round in January 2025 and a $225M round in October 2025, reaching a valuation of nearly $11.5 billion.
Whatnot secured a $225 million Series F round in Q4 2025, representing 42.3% of total social commerce funding over the preceding five quarters.
ShopMy has secured $70 million in funding at a $1.5 billion valuation, reporting $1 billion in annual platform sales and 200% year-over-year revenue growth.
Whatnot has reached an $11.5 billion valuation, highlighting the significant market potential of niche social commerce verticals focused on collectibles and unique items.
