If online retail brought shopping to our fingertips, agentic shopping removes it altogether—automating purchases in the background while humans get on with life.
- Morgan Stanley estimates that Agentic shoppers could account for $190 billion to $385 billion in U.S. e-commerce spending by 2030.
- Agentic shoppers scour the web for hard-to-find items, compare prices in real time, and anticipate recurring purchases.
- Walmart introduced its GenAI-powered shopping assistant, Sparky, in June, giving customers access to it across all categories via the smiling “Ask Sparky” button in the Walmart app.
With AI driving today’s world, consumer shopping is no different. It has evolved in various ways, even letting consumers choose products through AI apps such as ChatGPT and Gemini, which recommend favourable products, building on the virtual trials that many retailers are offering, making shopping, all in all, a technology-based experience.
Now, AI is redefining shopping again with “agentic shopping,” in which autonomous buying agents make purchases on your behalf. Agentic shoppers not only recommend products but also make purchase decisions with you, compare options, and even let you complete the buying process.
According to Morgan Stanley, Agentic shoppers could represent $190 billion to $385 billion in U.S. e-commerce spending by 2030. The forecast translates to a likely 10% share of online retail among agentic shoppers, and, in a best-case scenario, the share could rise to 20%, the firm noted.
A New Shopping Era
Ushering in a new age of shopping that allows buyers to operate in the background, Morgan Stanley said agentic shoppers scour the web for hard-to-find items, compare prices in real time, and anticipate recurring purchases, such as groceries and daily essentials, with minimal user intervention.
“Agentic will be a paradigm shift for e-commerce,” says Nathan Feather, who covers small- and mid-cap internet companies at Morgan Stanley Research.
“With greater digitization of consumers' wallets, this could shake up the e-commerce funnel with implications across retailers and digital advertising players,” he added.
Walmart's Sparky: The Agentic Tool
In June, Walmart introduced its GenAI-powered shopping assistant, Sparky. Since then, customers have been able to use Sparky across all categories via the smiling “Ask Sparky” button in the Walmart app.
The retailer said Sparky helps customers search to find items, synthesize reviews, and offers insights to prepare for any occasion. The company envisions the Agentic tool doing more, giving customers the option to customize their experience, from automatically reordering household essentials to booking services that simplify even the most complex shopping tasks.
Building on the growing demand for consumers using AI to shop, Walmart said in October that OpenAI will soon allow customers and members to shop at Walmart through ChatGPT using Instant Checkout.
Whether it is planning meals, restocking household essentials, or finding something new, customers can simply chat with ChatGPT and buy, and Walmart said it would handle the rest of the process.
Amazon's Rufus and Buy For Me options
Last year, Amazon introduced Rufus in the U.S. and has now made it available in various countries, including India. According to the e-commerce giant, Rufus is designed to help customers save time and make more informed purchase decisions by answering questions about a variety of shopping needs and products, like a shopping assistant anytime one is in a store.
In April, the company began beta-testing a new feature, “Buy for Me” in the Amazon Shopping app. Buy for Me helps customers discover and seamlessly purchase select products from other brands’ sites if those items are not currently sold in Amazon’s store.
The Buy for Me option allows Amazon to purchase an item on a customers behalf from a third-party seller. Using agentic AI capabilities, Amazon said it then purchases by securely providing the customer’s encrypted name, address, and payment details to complete checkout on the brand’s website.
Etsy’s ChatGPT Partnership
Etsy also jumped onto the AI bandwagon through an OpenAI tie-up. In September, OpenAI said that U.S. ChatGPT users can now buy directly from U.S. Etsy sellers right in chat, with over a million Shopify merchants, like Glossier, SKIMS, Spanx and Vuori, coming soon.
According to OpenAI, users can buy through Instant Checkout with orders, payments, and fulfilment handled by the merchant using their existing systems. ChatGPT simply acts as the user’s AI agent, securely passing information between the user and the merchant, just like a digital personal shopper would.
What Is Retail Thinking?
Retail sentiment on Walmart was in the ‘bearish’ territory compared to ‘neutral’ a week ago, while sentiment on Amazon slipped to ‘bearish’ from ‘bullish’ seven days ago. Sentiment on Etsy, however, jumped to ‘bullish’ from ‘bearish’ territory a week ago, according to data from Stocktwits.
Shares of Walmart have gained nearly 28% this year, while Amazon’s stock has jumped 5% and Etsy’s shares have risen over 1% year-to-date.
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