Google launches Universal Cart for cross-retailer shopping
Google introduced Universal Cart in the U.S., a feature that consolidates items from multiple retailers into a single cart and provides price-drop alerts using its Shopping Graph.
Shopping Experiences News
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).
Walmart embeds Sparky assistant in ChatGPT for end-to-end shopping
Walmart has integrated its Sparky shopping assistant into ChatGPT, allowing users to complete purchases within a Walmart-managed environment that supports account linking and native payments.
Commercetools launches InStore for unified online and physical retail
Commercetools introduced InStore in January 2025, a unified-commerce application that integrates online and physical retail operations using AI-driven personalization and real-time inventory.
AI agents drive 17% of holiday retail orders
Salesforce data indicates that AI and agents influenced 17% of holiday orders, totaling approximately $13.5 billion, during the Thanksgiving weekend.
U.S. livestream e-commerce sales reach $14.64 billion in 2025
U.S. livestream e-commerce sales grew nearly 50% in 2025 to reach $14.64 billion, with buyers up 21.5% year-over-year as brands adopt creator-led streams that blend entertainment with instant purchasing.
Social commerce growth outpaces platform checkout changes
Social commerce is projected to grow from $683 billion in 2024 to over $1 trillion by 2029, even as Meta removed native in-app checkout in 2025 to direct shoppers to brand websites.
Apple opens NFC ecosystem to third parties in US and other markets
Apple has expanded its NFC and contactless payment ecosystem to third parties in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Japan, and New Zealand, enabling digital wallets like PayPal and Curve to operate on iPhones.
Checkout.com adopts ACP for instant AI platform checkout
Checkout.com has adopted the Agentic Commerce Protocol to enable enterprise merchants to process instant checkouts within AI platforms.
Visa launches protocol to verify AI shopping agents
Visa launched the Trusted Agent Protocol on October 14, 2025, enabling merchants to verify the legitimacy of AI agents by signing their identities into HTTP request headers.
Salesforce launches AI agents for retail commerce
Salesforce released general availability for Shopper, Buyer, and Merchant Agents that integrate natively with ChatGPT and Google Search, reporting that AI influenced 20% of global online holiday sales.
NewStore launches embedded payments for unified commerce
NewStore has introduced NewStore Payments, an embedded solution that integrates payment processing directly into its unified commerce platform to support omnichannel and endless aisle transactions.
Google launches open standard for AI agent commerce
Google introduced the Universal Commerce Protocol at NRF in January 2026, an open standard co-developed with major retailers and payment networks to enable AI agents to manage the full buying journey.
Commercetools launches InStore to unify physical and digital retail operations
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 targets broad commercial deployment of AI imaging platform
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 becomes standard consumer expectation in retail
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 launches agentic checkout in US Search
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 launch AI assistants for grocery cart building
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 rolls out unified AI shopping assistant to all U.S. customers
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 sells AI shopping tools to rival retailers
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 launch agentic commerce protocol for retail
Stripe and OpenAI's Agentic Commerce Protocol is now live, integrated into ChatGPT and supported by merchants on Etsy, Shopify, and Instacart.
Digital wallets consolidate payments, loyalty, and identity into single apps
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 launches agentic commerce services for AI-driven shopping
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.
AI agents drove 17% of Thanksgiving holiday retail sales
Salesforce data indicates that AI and agentic tools influenced 17% of holiday sales, totaling approximately $13.5 billion, during the 2025 Thanksgiving weekend.
AI and AR reshape retail personalization and immersive shopping experiences
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.
AR retail market projected to exceed $10 billion by 2029
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.
AR and 3D media drive higher conversion and lower returns
Retailers report that 3D and AR product media correlate with significantly higher conversion rates and reduced return volumes.
Amazon's AI shopping assistant boosts purchase completion rates by 60 percent
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.
NRF: 40% of Consumers Use AI for Product Research
A 2025 National Retail Federation study indicates that 40% of consumers now rely on AI assistants for product research before purchasing.
TikTok Shop expands livestream commerce into luxury retail markets
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 raises $490M, doubling valuation to $11.5B
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 launches agentic shopping assistant for third-party retailers
Amazon (AWS) launched the Agentic Shopping Assistant, allowing third-party retailers to deploy a branded conversational shopping tool in approximately 60 days.
Gartner forecasts 60% of brands will use agentic AI for personalization by 2028
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.
AI shopping agents expand checkout capabilities across major platforms
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.
Whatnot acquires Shaped for live shopping recommendations
Live-commerce marketplace Whatnot has acquired AI recommendation engine Shaped to provide real-time, personalized product suggestions during live shopping sessions.
Bain Capital Ventures backs two major AI shopping startups
Bain Capital Ventures has invested in both Bloomreach and ShopMy, two leading AI-driven shopping platforms.
AI Shopping Assistant Phia Raises $35 Million Series A
Phia, an AI shopping assistant that identifies cost-effective alternatives, has secured $35 million in Series A funding.
Pinterest and Roku enable shoppable content on connected TVs
Pinterest has partnered with Roku to allow viewers to purchase products directly through their TV remote or app.
AI Shopping Assistants Capture 40.89% of Disclosed Consumer AI Funding
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 invests in AI platform for real-time personalized storefronts
Salesforce has provided strategic investment to Callimacus to expand its technology that generates highly personalized digital shopping interfaces in real time.
Whatnot raises $225M Series F for livestream collectibles marketplace
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.