Heading into 2026, online retailers could already see that artificial intelligence (AI) and agentic commerce would play significant, growing roles in the ecommerce trends that shape how shoppers discover products and make purchases.

As the year reaches its halfway point, the platforms, strategies and habits that underpin these trends are coming into focus, with retailers such as Amazon and Walmart, as well as technology companies such as Google and OpenAI, making key decisions about their AI priorities for ecommerce going forward.

So far, each of these developments has made an impact, setting the stage for more disruptions and change in the second half of 2026. Here are the big ideas that online merchants need to follow as they prepare for Q3 and the 2026 holiday season:

1. Improving conversion rates for AI in ecommerce

Adobe released data in March 2026 showing that AI-driven traffic to retailers’ websites converted 42% more often than non-AI traffic. A year ago, that relationship had been flipped. Visitors from AI sources converted at nearly half the rate associated with non-AI traffic. If conversion rates for AI traffic continue on this path, the trajectory has implications for how retailers optimize content on their websites, as well as how they invest in technology stacks for their ecommerce platforms.

2. Payments leaders, including Visa and Mastercard, choosing agentic commerce partners

In 2026, Visa, Mastercard and American Express have all weighed in on how they want to be relevant in transactions facilitated by AI platforms. Their choices echo shifts during the early years of online payments, demonstrating that they value being involved in this emerging area of digital commerce activity. For Visa and Mastercard specifically, this has meant supporting Stripe’s agentic payment capabilities, as well as Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP).

3. How Amazon and Walmart’s agentic commerce strategies continue to diverge

One of the most interesting stories to watch in online retail is how Amazon and Walmart have chosen very different agentic commerce approaches, playing to their individual strengths. The two Mass Merchants are No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 2000 Database. That database ranks online retailers in North America by annual web sales. However, Amazon has chosen in many cases to restrict third-party AI agents and instead invest in its first-party tools. Meanwhile, Walmart has actively pursued relationships externally, even as it provides agentic help to shoppers with its own creation, Sparky.

4. Walmart’s use of AI agents

In Walmart’s case, the company relies on so-called “super agents” that are put in charge of lesser agents across certain operations. Walmart’s AI work with those agents, as well as with OpenAI and internal Walmart technology teams, characterizes its multi-pronged approach to collaboration and proprietary technology that it can leverage for growth.

5. Mass Merchants and Health & Beauty merchants lead fastest-growing online retailers

Among the fastest-growing online retailers in 2025, two categories saw breakaway results. Mass Merchants as a group saw web sales increase by 14.4% year over year. During that period, Amazon alone accounted for 40% of all ecommerce sales among Top 2000 companies.

6. New omnichannel experiences

From Hardware & Home Improvement leaders such as Home Depot and Lowe’s to Mass Merchants including Walmart and Target, retail chains remain focused on investing in new omnichannel options to add convenience to digital experiences while taking advantage of capabilities made possible by their physical stores. The outcomes can range from boosted loyalty to improvements in satisfaction and order volume.

7. AI fueling online resale growth

As online resale sites experience renewed interest from young consumers with budgets under pressure, online marketplaces and resale platforms are finding new ways to be more relevant with AI tools. Among those benefiting from AI use are names such as Gone.com, Phia and ThredUp. Each of them has use cases that enable online resale outcomes with AI.

8. LLMs adjusting their commerce strategies

Agentic commerce strategies at Anthropic, OpenAI and Google vary widely in noteworthy ways. And in each case, these tech companies, which operate their own large language models (LLMs), have made new commerce-related moves over the past year. Their latest efforts frame how much they care about ecommerce. In addition, they show how the platforms hope to monetize their involvement in online shopping.

9. New AI features from ecommerce platforms

As leading ecommerce platforms add features to grow adoption and convince online retailers to invest in their technology, the latest options tend to incorporate AI use cases. Among the commonly seen in 2026 are agentic services for shoppers, integrations to facilitate discovery or checkout, and automation for operations on the backend.

10. Online shoppers’ evolving agentic commerce habits

Nothing will be more important to the future of agentic commerce than how and if online shoppers decide to use it. So far, the volume of purchases attributed to discovery through AI platforms remains small relative to purchases associated with traditional discovery channels. However, shoppers’ agentic commerce habits are starting to crystallize as adoption continues. New research published by Digital Commerce 360 this year has shown that some product categories (and retailer types) are more successful on platforms such as ChatGPT and Perplexity than others.

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