Agentic Commerce and Retail: How AI Is Transforming Shopping
Agentic commerce It's the new paradigm revolutionizing retail. Agentic commerce combines generative AI, natural conversations, and hyper-fast logistics to transform digital shopping into an AI-driven experience.
The integration between Gemini and the Walmart ecosystem is one of the first concrete examples of this evolution. From conversational search to automatic cart creation, to delivery in under three hours, the commerce model is shifting from simple online catalogs to true digital assistants that guide users throughout the entire purchasing journey.
Agentic commerce: the Gemini–Walmart case
Walmart and Google have unveiled a new shopping experience accessible directly within Gemini, Google's artificial intelligence model. Users can discover, select, and purchase Walmart and Sam's Club products through natural language conversations, without leaving the AI environment.
The Gemini–Walmart experience is initially planned to debut in the United States, with international expansion to follow. The initiative was publicly announced and presented on stage at the NRF Big Show in New York, one of the leading events for the global retail industry.
This integration goes beyond the evolution of traditional eCommerce. It represents an exemplary case of agentic commerce, or agent-led commerce: a model in which artificial intelligence does not simply respond to simple queries, but actively builds a personalized discovery and purchasing journey, adapting to the user's context, preferences, and habits.
How Agentic Commerce Works in Gemini
In the model of agentic commerce Offered by Gemini and Walmart, the experience starts with a conversational request. When a user asks Gemini for a product recommendation, the AI can automatically include items available both online and in-store, if relevant to the context of the conversation.
The logic isn't simply a static catalog display. The conversation evolves dynamically: the user can ask follow-up questions, request comparisons between alternatives, refine their budget or features, or explore complementary products. It's through this ongoing exchange that AI progressively builds the shopping cart.
The AI agent can suggest alternative products, matching bundles, or solutions better suited to the user's needs, transforming the search into a guided and progressive process. When the user decides to purchase, the transaction takes place within the Walmart and Sam's Club digital environments, maintaining consistency with the retailer's familiar customer experience.
This replaces the traditional linear funnel with a flexible conversational path. In terms of user experience, this means reducing steps, eliminating friction between inspiration and purchase, and maintaining a seamless context, without switching between different platforms.
Continuous personalization, no disruption of the experience
One of the most interesting elements of the’agentic commerce In the case of Gemini–Walmart, it's personalization management. By connecting your Walmart or Sam's Club account to Gemini, you allow the system to track your purchase history, both online and in-store.
This allows AI to suggest items consistent with past habits, integrate new products with those already in the cart, and automatically apply membership program benefits. Personalization thus becomes a natural continuation of the experience, not a break from traditional channels.
AI doesn't replace the Walmart brand, but extends its presence into a new interaction space. This preserves familiarity, trust, and brand consistency, reducing one of the historical frictions of conversational e-commerce: the feeling of having to start from scratch every time you move from one platform to another.
For the customer, this means finding preferences, history, lists, and membership benefits even within the conversation with Gemini. For the retailer, it means enabling an additional relationship channel while maintaining control over pricing, product selection, and the overall customer experience.
Logistics as the invisible engine of agentic commerce
As conversation becomes the new entry point to shopping, logistics remains the key to its credibility. Walmart brings to this partnership an extremely extensive distribution network, with hundreds of thousands of locally selected products.
These products can be delivered in less than three hours, and in some areas, even in about 30 minutes. This is not a minor detail: without the ability to translate inspiration into almost immediate satisfaction, the risk of’agentic commerce would be to remain confined to an exercise in technological style.
In this case, however, the promise of speed becomes an integral part of the conversational experience. The gap between the need expressed to the AI agent and its actual resolution is dramatically reduced, strengthening the perceived value and reliability of the service.
For retail, this integration of AI, data, and ultra-fast logistics is a strategic asset. It demonstrates how conversational innovation requires a solid physical infrastructure, in line with what is happening in the advanced omnichannel space described by sources such as Wikipedia on e-commerce and industry analysts.
A paradigm shift for global retail
John Furner, president and CEO of Walmart US and the incoming CEO of Walmart Inc., described this shift as the natural evolution from a traditional search engine to an agent-led commerce model. In his view, it's not just about changing the interface, but about rethinking the very way retail builds customer relationships.
The integration with Gemini is part of a broader strategy in which Walmart is experimenting with proprietary AI tools like Sparky, the assistant for consumers, and Marty, for suppliers and sellers. These internal agents are complemented by partnerships with external platforms to reach users in the digital spaces they already frequent.
From Google's perspective, the move goes beyond the single agreement with Walmart. The launch of the Universal Commerce Protocol responds to the need to create an open infrastructure capable of supporting an ecosystem of retailers and services that communicate with AI agents in a structured and scalable way.
According to data shared by Google, the last year has seen significant growth in the adoption of its AI solutions by retailers. The stated goal is to make the entire technology stack available to guide the industry into a new phase, where conversation becomes the primary interface of commerce, as also highlighted in several reports on the future of retail published by McKinsey and international observers.
Agentic commerce: Impact on Marketing and Business
THE'agentic commerce It has a direct impact on retailers' digital marketing strategies and business models. AI-driven conversations become a new, high-quality touchpoint, capable of gathering deep insights into customer needs, intentions, and objections in real time.
For marketing, this means moving from static campaigns to dynamic, personalized, and contextual interactions. AI agents can suggest relevant promotions, cross-sells, and up-sells based on actual conversations, not just historical data. This approach enables a more seamless customer experience, closer to the immediacy expected of channels like WhatsApp and messaging apps.
From a business perspective, the’agentic commerce It opens up new monetization opportunities: branded digital assistants, conversation-integrated memberships, premium services linked to ultra-fast delivery or personalized consultations. Retailers can differentiate themselves not only through product selection and price, but also through the quality of the AI assistant and the continuity of the experience throughout the customer journey.
For companies that also operate in Europe and Italy, this transformation is directly linked to omnichannel strategies and the need to integrate physical and digital touchpoints in a coherent way, as also recalled by the guidelines of institutions such as the European Commission / Eurostat on e-commerce trends.
How SendApp Can Help with Agentic commerce
For brands that want to bring logics of agentic commerce Even within its own direct channels, WhatsApp Business and conversational automation are key levers. SendApp was created specifically to help companies integrate AI, automation, and messaging into a single, conversion-focused strategy.
With SendApp Official, companies can use the official WhatsApp APIs to build advanced conversational flows, with intelligent chatbots that guide users from product discovery to purchase or booking. This is the first step towards replicating, at scale, dynamics similar to those seen in the Gemini–Walmart case.
SendApp Agent It allows you to manage customer conversations as a team, centralizing requests, quotes, support, and follow-up within a single interface. This way, the AI agent can coexist with human operators, ensuring continuity and quality of response throughout the customer journey.
For those who want to push automation to the maximum in key agentic commerce, SendApp Cloud It offers advanced integration features with CRM, payment systems, and logistics. You can activate automatic campaigns on WhatsApp based on events (cart abandonment, repurchase, reminders) and connect conversations to broader marketing automation processes.
Looking ahead, combining AI agents, WhatsApp Business and platforms like SendApp allows retailers, eCommerce and B2C and B2B brands to build their own ecosystem of agentic commerce. From the customer's first inquiry to delivery, every step can be orchestrated by intelligent automation, reducing response times, increasing conversions, and improving customer satisfaction.
For companies looking to take the next step, we recommend a gradual roadmap: starting with the official APIs, integrating support via human agents and chatbots, and finally connecting logistics, payments, and CRM for a truly end-to-end conversational experience. SendApp can guide you through every step, with specific solutions for SMEs, retailers, and large brands.
