The State of Agentic Commerce and Storefronts

What is agentic commerce?

Agentic commerce is a form of online shopping in which AI agents guide customers through every step of the journey, from discovery to virtual try-on to checkout, in a single conversation. It goes beyond product discovery inside tools like ChatGPT or Gemini. The agent evaluates options, answers questions in context, and completes the purchase.

What is an agentic storefront?

An agentic storefront is a second storefront that runs alongside a brand's existing site, where a shopping agent guides customers through discovery, product questions, and purchase in one conversation. It typically sits on a brand-owned .ai domain. The brand sets the agent's voice, rules, and priorities, and keeps the first-party intent data every conversation generates.

Learn more about Swap's agentic storefront.

How many brands are using agentic commerce?

Seventy percent of brands, retailers, and agencies are currently experimenting with or using an agentic storefront, including 40% actively deploying one, according to a 2026 survey of 80 respondents conducted by Swap and Glossy. A further 23% plan to adopt within 12 months, and only 7% have no current plans.

What's inside the report

1. Where adoption actually stands

Ninety percent of respondents are already using AI to improve customer shopping experiences, and 71% report their sites are discoverable by AI agents. The gap between experimentation and deployment is narrower than the coverage suggests.

2. What brands are building, and why

Improved brand discovery leads the goal list at 62%, ahead of increased conversions at 57% and improved personalization at 56%. Lowered acquisition cost and reduced returns follow, pointing to full-funnel expectations rather than a discovery-only bet.

3. What is holding the rest back

Data requirements and ROI measurement tie as the leading anticipated challenges at 57% each. Among non-adopters, cost and bandwidth are the main obstacles, while insufficient data quality was cited by only 8%.

4. What the results look like in practice

Merchants implementing Swap's Agentic Storefront have seen 2x conversion, a 22% increase in monthly average order volume, a 20% increase in daily total orders, 3x time on site, and 20% fewer returns. 58% of virtual try-on sessions end in an add-to-cart. See more merchant results.

For an introduction to the category, read agentic commerce fundamentals.

Last updated: August 2026