How Retailers Can Reinvent the Digital Flywheel for Agentic Commerce
BCG examines how shopping agents could change retailers’ marketplaces, loyalty programmes and retail-media businesses. Its survey covers 50 of the top 300 global retailers and 100 large brands, alongside leader interviews. In its retail-media section, BCG reports that 65% of surveyed brands expect to spend more as shopping agents become common. That is a stated expectation, not observed future spend. The practical question for advertisers is whether agent-mediated discovery can be linked to incremental purchases rather than merely credited sales.
BCG · Published
Why make time for it?
This research connects agent-led product discovery to retail-media investment and measurement. It offers a structured way to question product-data access, sponsored visibility and proof of incremental value.
What to look for
- Distinguish survey expectations from measured changes in advertiser spend.
- Ask how a retailer will connect agent-mediated exposure to incremental purchases.
Keep in mind
BCG surveyed selected large retailers and brands, so its percentages should not be generalized to all advertisers. The article’s future-facing scenarios and strategic recommendations are not causal evidence of campaign performance.
Take this question into the article
What would show that sponsored visibility through shopping agents created sales that would not otherwise have happened?
The people behind the article
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Read the original sourceReading notes reviewed 25 Oct 2026. The publication date above belongs to the original source.