AI in Retail Part 3: Agentic Commerce and OMS
Introduction
In today’s digital-first marketplace, customers expect seamless, personalized, and fast shopping experiences across multiple touchpoints. For retailers, staying competitive requires more than traditional automation – it calls for Agentic Commerce. This emerging model leverages autonomous AI agents that perceive their environment, process information, and take action with a specific goal in mind.
What Is Agentic Commerce?
Agentic Commerce is the evolution of traditional e-commerce. In this model, autonomous AI agents act on behalf of customers or businesses to independently perform tasks such as:
- Product search and discovery
- Price comparison
- Decision-making
- Completing purchases
Unlike traditional recommendation systems, AI agents in Agentic Commerce go beyond suggesting products – they take ownership of the entire process, from inquiry to transaction.
How does Agentic Commerce work?
Let’s imagine a simple example: buying new hiking boots.
- Perception: The customer tells the agent: “I want water-proof hiking boots, size 42, under €250, delivered within five working days. I want to use them for a 5-day hiking trip in Peru. I prefer muted colors but this is not decisive.”
- Information Processing: The AI agent processes these requirements and evaluates all other information that it has about the customer, scanning online stores for hiking boots and comparing results.
- Action: Based on its findings, the agent selects suitable products, decides on delivery options, and either requests approval before payment or completes the transaction automatically.
- Feedback: The agent compares outcomes with expectations, learns from experience, and continuously improves future decisions.
What are the benefits of Agentic Commerce for customers?
Agentic Commerce offers several advantages to consumers:
- Convenience: The agent handles the full transaction journey, saving time and effort.
- Personalization: By analyzing user preferences, behavior and previous purchases, agents deliver tailored solutions and offers.
- Proactive Engagement: Agents can detect the customer’s hesitation and suggest relevant discounts or product alternatives.
What are the challenges of Agentic Commerce for retailers?
For businesses, the shift toward Agentic Commerce translates into:
- Less customer loyalty: Customers interact with the agent rather than with the online shop itself
- Retailers must ensure their product data is crystal clear, well-structured, and always up to date so that AI agents can easily find and interpret it
However, if retailers do it right and are able to take advantage of agentic commerce, they will be rewarded with higher conversions because Agents remove friction, making transactions faster and easier. To achieve this, they need solid and clean data. This can be achieved with an Order Management System.
What is the role of Order Management in Agentic Commerce?
An Order Management System (OMS) is the key for enabling Agentic Commerce. It ensures that AI-driven transactions are seamlessly integrated into back-end systems by:
- Synchronizing inventory across channels
- Supporting multiple delivery and payment options
- Enabling real-time updates for AI agents to make accurate decisions
To fulfill the customer’s expectations and make comprehensible suggestions, the agent needs information regarding shipping and inventory that is up-to-date. Only shops with complete and reliable information will be contacted by the agent. With accurate promising, retailers can provide the AI agents with comprehensive information about product availability, delivery options, timings, costs, and services. In order to offer this information, reliable and accurate real-time inventory visibility across the retailer’s entire network is needed.
Only with a strong OMS that manages and orchestrates orders, inventory, and delivery options across the retailer’s whole network, agent-driven commerce can achieve its full potential.
Conclusion: How Agentic Commerce Will Change the World of E-Commerce
Agentic Commerce has the power to reshape the industry by:
- Driving conversions with frictionless shopping journeys
- Strengthening the retailers’ visibility through consistent data that the agent can evaluate
- Encouraging businesses to adopt AI-ready product data structures
Agentic Commerce represents the next stage of e-commerce evolution. And it is not some far-away trend but is already being implemented by big players like Amazon and Shopify.
Early adopters who invest in AI-ready infrastructures and a strong OMS that allows to display structured product and inventory data will be the ones to lead in this new era.
FAQ´s
Agentic Commerce uses autonomous AI agents to actively execute tasks like product search, decision-making, and purchases. Traditional e-commerce relies on customers to manually navigate and complete these steps.
Yes. Transactions made by AI agents follow strict security protocols and can be configured to require customer approval before completing payments, ensuring transparency and control.
Key components include AI-driven agent systems, well-structured product data, an integrated Order Management System (OMS), and secure payment infrastructures.
By removing friction and personalizing the buying journey, AI agents reduce abandoned carts and speed up decision-making, resulting in higher conversion rates.