Technology

We're moving rapidly into the era of agentic commerce — a shift in which AI-powered digital agents shop, compare, and purchase on behalf of consumers, making the transaction itself nearly invisible. Rather than manually browsing websites, filtering options, and navigating checkouts, customers increasingly delegate these tasks to smart assistants that handle the entire purchase journey.…

Retail has always been about conversation. Long before artificial intelligence, the best store associates knew the real sale happened in the exchange — the “what are you looking for today?” that turned a browser into a buyer. Yet somehow, as the industry raced to digitize everything, that conversational instinct got lost and replaced with menus,…

Retailers have spent the last decade racing toward speed. Faster checkouts. Faster deliveries. Automated personalization. Shoppers want it, and retailers have been more than happy to oblige. For years, that speed helped build loyalty. Brands could keep up with consumer expectations while rewarding customers with convenience they could count on. But it’s no longer enough:…

The retail industry has entered a new era, one in which fragmented omnichannel strategies are no longer enough to meet rising consumer expectations and mounting operational pressures. According to Manhattan Associates’ latest report, Unified Commerce Powers Future Retail Success, the retailers pulling ahead are those that have moved beyond omnichannel and embraced unified commerce: a…

The retail industry spent the past decade building big. Scale was every CIO's mantra — massive systems designed to support millions of users and petabytes of data. And for a while, that strategy worked. E-commerce platforms handle holiday spikes. Cloud infrastructure powers businesses of every size. The engineering challenge of scale has largely been solved.…

The 2025 holiday season may be behind us, but the pressures that shaped it like persistent inflation, cautious consumer sentiment, and shifting expectations are carrying directly into the summer 2026 retail season. According to the National Retail Federation, consumers remain value-conscious, with spending growth expected to be modest as households continue to prioritize essentials and…

At Shoptalk in Las Vegas last month, Total Retail Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviewed Tom Verrilli, chief product officer at Whatnot, the largest livestream shopping platform in the U.S., UK, and Europe. They explore the rise of live commerce and the customer experience within the Whatnot platform that combines the ease of e-commerce with the personal…

David's Bridal has launched Shopify's Agentic Storefronts across ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, further cementing its reputation as the leading artificial intelligence-powered marketplace, media network, and planning ecosystem for life's most meaningful celebrations. The move unlocks a new, high-growth commerce channel where products are discovered, recommended, and purchased through AI conversations. David's is among the first…

Retail technology teams face a paradox: artificial intelligence is transforming how software gets built, yet the very tools that accelerate delivery are outpacing the security processes designed to protect it. For retailers competing on digital experience, faster development is essential. However, as the use of generative AI to create code and automate features becomes standard…

Products from Ace Hardware are now available on Uber Eats nationwide as the hardware cooperative becomes the latest retailer to dive into on-demand delivery services and Uber Eats works to recast itself from the "Eats" part of its brand. The two companies announced the partnership Tuesday, saying it would allow customers who already shop locally…