Agentic Commerce News for the Week of 11/30-12/6 (Week 49/52): Webinars, NRF Innovators Showcase, Sam Orders The Code Red and More...
Here's the non-CyberFive Agentic Commerce news this week plus a bonus for your viewing pleasure.
Welcome back! It’s been 21 days since we last posted a news update (due to the holiday break plus CyberFive coverage takeover). In that time we had a flurry of releases plus the CyberFive. Instead of recapping all that which is always available in our Retailgentic Archive here and searchable via the magnifying glass in the magnifying glass to the right of ‘Latest/Top/Discussions’→
ChatGPT Instant Checkout /ACP Webinar
If you missed our webinar with our payment-guru friends at Nekuda where we did a technical deep-dive into what it takes to implement ChatGPT Instant Checkout including details on the datafeed as well as how to implement ACP and leverage the cool functionality to bring your own payment service provider (PSP) along
You can watch the replay here.
One chart we got positive feedback on was this new diagram that ties in everything:
Datafeed - On the left side we have the Merchant and their back-end (ecommerce infrastructure including: ecommerce platform, PIM, OMS/WMS, etc) The first step with the circle '(1)’ is the merchant sends a regular datafeed to ChatGPT. ChatGPT takes that datafeed and adds it to their giant MEGA product catalog. In doing that they match each of your ‘offers’ to a SKU in there (what I call canonicalization). Over on the right, we have a shopper. She’s using ChatGPT and ends up in a conversation where product cards pop (SKUs out of the MEGA product catalog) and she looks at an offer that has Instant Cart enabled from the merchant’s datafeed. She clicks ‘buy’
Payment Processor - A checkout is initiated via the ACP protocol and if the merchant is using a non-stripe PSP, the buyer’s card is transmitted via a tokenized secure vault (explained in more detail in the webinar)
ACP/PSP - The flow detailed in the OpenAI docs kicks in, inventory is checked, magic happens and the card is charged
Instant Checkout - The Checkout is the front-end for the buyer that, married with the ACP back-end orchestrates the 4-party transaction (ChatGPT, Merchant, Shopper, PSP).
As I explain to people all the time, in ecommerce whenever something is elegant and simple on the front-end, you can expect the backend to be extremely complex.
Interesting open questions
We had a TON of questions in the webinar, the two that were interesting as everyone is still figuring out how this system works in practice:
ChatGPT Payment - Because this system is merchant-of-record, it’s not clear how ChatGPT receives their take rate. Typically the TR is ‘skimmed’ from the payment, but here, because ChatGPT never sees/touches the transaction, the payment must be invoiced or somehow charged after the transaction is cleared. It’s also not clear how the returns process is reconciled.
Order Management - There is a webhook where the checkout delivers the order information to the merchant. It’s not entirely clear in the spec how this order comes and how fast the merchant has to respond.
NRF Big Show - Innovator’s Showcase
We got exciting news this week - ReFiBuy was invited to exhibit in the prestigious NRF Big Show’s Innovators Showcase area. Details here. 4-5 members of the team will be at NRF and if you’d like to do a Retailgentic meetup or lunch/breakfast just to talk Agentic Commerce shop, shoot me a mesage. If we get 10+ we’ll make it happen!
NRF Big Show is Jan 11-13, 2026 at the Javits center in NYC.
International Housewares Association Agentic Commerce Webinar
December 15th, I’m partnering with Circana (formerly NPD) to discuss Agentic Commerce - details here. If you are a member of an industry association that’s interested in learning more, this is a presentation we’re happy to help with! Come join us on December 15th if you’d like to learn more.
Walmart Marketplace (3P) Live on ChatGPT Instant Checkout
This week we found our first instance of a Walmart 3P listing live on ChatGPT Instant Checkout:
Here we’re looking for a blender, get a product card and in the offer card, we have Walmart, but underneath, just like the Etsy implementation, we also see the ‘sub-title’ that is the seller (USConsumerGoods in this example). When you hit the Buy button→
You are taken to the checkout - at the top of the checkout it is clear that USConsumerGoods is the seller and in the buy button Walmart is the Merchant of Record.
Here’s the SKU on Walmart.com→
AP Article Featuring JasonG
The AP had a good article this week recapping the Agentic Commerce trends. The highlight was this quote from some big-wig at Publicis:
Jason Goldberg, chief commerce strategy officer at Publicis Groupe, said he thinks the new pricing tools will add more pressure on retailers to make sure their prices are competitive.
“A lot of consumers that weren’t even looking for price alerts are going to discover price alerts for the first time,” Goldberg predicted.
🚨Sam Calls Code Red🚨
In overall AI news, the big news this week outside of our Agentic Commerce world and in the broader AI/mainstream press is the internal leak that Sam Altman called a Red Alert at a company meeting. Details here.
Investor Coutue (an OpenAI investor I believe) put out this chart to try and calm the naysayers that ChatGPTs growth slowing is a seasonal thing as demonstrated by this chart they published→
This is NOT an Ad!
Several folks have msg’d me with screenshots like this one: (source)
As a dunk that ChatGPT is running ads. This is not an ad, this is ChatGPT promoting the Target App internally. I doubt Target is paying for the promotion (but I’m sure ChatGPT is paid by Target for the app).
Chinese Ecommerce Article: Agentic Commerce Collapses Discovery Into One Step
This piece in Jing Daily is really awesome, I recommend the whole thing. It tells the story of a consumer in China looking for a beauty product and she ends up buying a challenge brand that was not a top seller.
Agentic Commerce: GREAT for brands
I’ve had this ongoing discussion with brands lately that are worried that Agentic Commerce is a race to the bottom - usually they are reading some articles that talk about someone using it to price compare. That misses the big picture. The big picture is that because GenAI is not keyword based, it’s a complete reset. Agentic Commerce’s focus on Content and Context it is a fresh opportunity for a brand to merchandise and sell on the merits and outcomes. This article is a perfect case study of this happening in practice.
Some Highlights
The consumer on why she uses agents for shopping:
"There are too many ads,” she wrote. “I just want an honest answer.” Struggling with oily, acne-prone skin, large pores, and persistent dark spots, she turned instead to ByteDance’s AI assistant Doubao, asking it to design a full routine within her student budget.
A marketing guru (UK based) is quoted:
“AI shopping assistants are driving a significant shift by removing friction from product discovery,” says Melissa Alcocer, founder and director of market intelligence agency Inluxury. “Instead of navigating hundreds of SKUs, consumers receive an immediate, ranked shortlist that aligns with their specific needs. For Gen Z, this feels natural — it delivers the relevance of a one-to-one consultation with the neutrality and privacy of a digital interface.”
An ex-executive from L’Oreal:
For Guilhem Souche, senior advisor at Sthrive.AI and a former executive at L’Oréal, Dior, and Coty, this case reveals the new mechanics of AI influence. “Algorithms are beginning to reward credibility and relevance more than brand awareness,” he says. “If an independent product generates strong trust signals, the AI will push it forward.”
Finally:
“Beauty brands need to think like data companies,” Alcocer says.
“Consumers everywhere want personalized shortlists and faster decision-making,” she says. “China is simply showing the future at speed.”
“Regardless of how consumers discover a product — through AI or influencers — loyalty depends on actual usage experience,” she says. “If a product fails, no algorithm can preserve trust.”
Alcocer believes brands must “think like data companies,” ensuring ingredient lists, clinical claims, and usage guidelines are structured in formats LLMs can ingest. Souche argues that emotional storytelling must evolve alongside AI optimization. In his words, “AI will handle convenience. Emotion and cultural depth will keep brands desirable.” Gu emphasizes integrity and authenticity, noting that no degree of AI optimization can compensate for poor efficacy.
YES! This IS the future, YES, this is a huge new opportunity for brands and YES the Product Catalog is the key.
BONUS: The Thinking Game!
Slow weekend and want to learn some history that ties to the present? Google has made the award winning documentary: “The Thinking Game” on Youtube here→
This documentery tells the story of Demis Hassabis and DeepMind. How’s that tie into today’s world? Well in October of 2025, Google moved all of Gemini to be directly under Demis’ management.
That’s a Wrap
That’s the highlights of the non-Cyber-Five datapoints for this week.
Next week on Retailgentic, we dig into why your Agentic Commerce doesn’t map to SEO strategy and why this matters and on the podcast we dig into a really interesting paper that the digital marketing folks that subscribe are going to enjoy.
Happy Agentic Commercing!