EC & AI Commerce News Digest (January 23, 2026)

Today's Top News

PayPal Acquires Cymbio, Strengthening Agentic Commerce Infrastructure

PayPal to Acquire Cymbio, Accelerating Agentic Commerce Capabilities

Cymbio will enable tens of millions of merchants to become discoverable on leading AI platforms.

PayPal announced on January 22 that it has agreed to acquire Cymbio, an Israeli company providing multi-channel orchestration platform. While the acquisition amount was not disclosed, Israeli media estimates it to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Cymbio possesses technology that helps brands sell products on AI platforms such as Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity. PayPal had partnered with Cymbio in October 2025 to launch "agentic commerce services," and this acquisition will fully integrate the technology and talent.

Following the acquisition, Cymbio's team will enhance PayPal's "Store Sync" service. Store Sync makes merchant product data discoverable on AI channels and seamlessly integrates with existing fulfillment systems. Currently, Abercrombie & Fitch, Fabletics, Ashley Furniture, Newegg, and Aadorama are using Store Sync on Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity.

Support for OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini is planned in the near future, as PayPal seeks to solidify its leading position in the agentic commerce market.

Full Article: PayPal Acquires Cymbio, Strengthening Agentic Commerce Infrastructure

4% Fee on ChatGPT Purchases, A New Revenue Model for AI Commerce

OpenAI's 4% ChatGPT checkout fee signals a shift in agentic commerce

Shopify will enable merchants to sell through AI chatbots, with OpenAI charging a 4% fee on sales made via ChatGPT Instant Checkout.

OpenAI has revealed it will charge a 4% fee on sales through the ChatGPT Instant Checkout integration with Shopify. This fee structure is attracting attention as a new revenue model for AI shopping platforms.

Chris Jones of PSE Consulting evaluates that "4% is a reasonable level equivalent to standard card processing fees for small and medium-sized merchants in the US." Meanwhile, Max Sinclair of Azoma.ai pointed out that "compared to Amazon's 8-15% referral fee, it's actually cheap."

According to Adobe data, conversion rates for purchases through AI have improved by about 30%, with AI-driven traffic to Shopify stores increasing 7-fold and orders increasing 11-fold. This 4% fee is a symbolic move indicating that commerce value capture is shifting upstream from marketplaces to AI platforms.

Full Article: OpenAI Sets 4% Fee on ChatGPT Purchases

Agentic Commerce

eBay Bans AI Shopping Bots in Terms of Service

eBay updates legalese to ban AI-powered shop-bots

This establishment does not serve agents, says digital tat bazaar.

eBay updated its terms of service on January 20, explicitly excluding autonomous shopping agents from the platform. The new terms prohibit "buy-for-me agents, LLM-driven bots, or any end-to-end flow that attempts to place orders without human review" without explicit authorization.

Behind this regulation is the impact on eBay's business model. eBay collects "final value fees" from sellers based on product prices, and if bot-driven purchases increase, average selling prices may decline, potentially reducing revenue.

Amazon has also sent legal warnings to shopping bots, and tensions are rising between major EC platforms and AI agent proponents. Autonomous agents could bypass human website operations, lose cross-sell opportunities, and place excessive load on servers.

Full Article: eBay Completely Bans AI Shopping Bots in Terms of Service

SAP: "For Retailers, Agentic Commerce Is Here"

For Retailers, Agentic Commerce Is Here

AI agents are reshaping how consumers research, discover, and buy products.

As "agentic commerce" became a major theme at NRF 2026, SAP proposed response strategies for retailers. According to McKinsey's report, a market size of $1 trillion in US B2C alone and $3-5 trillion globally is expected by 2030.

SAP proposes three response strategies. First, structuring data to be machine-readable. Second, adding semantic summaries for LLM inference. And third, product tagging based on problem-solving capabilities.

Many retailers are still unprepared for AI tool adoption, and essential integration rather than simple "bolting on" is required.

Retailers Positive About Agentic Shopping, Prioritizing Discovery Over Payments

Retailers like agentic shopping more than AI payments

Tech giants such as Google and OpenAI are pushing to bring commerce and checkout into their platforms.

While tech giants like Google and OpenAI actively promote the agentic commerce ecosystem, retailers are showing strong interest in AI-driven product discovery rather than AI payments.

"Brands are showing 10 out of 10 excitement about using AI as a product discovery tool," experts point out. On the other hand, there is a cautious attitude toward agentic checkout within AI sessions.

Retailers' priority issues are ensuring real-time product data accuracy (price, dimensions, inventory status) and building middleware that exposes inventory to large language models through standardized protocols. While there are concerns about losing direct customer relationships, brands like Pacsun are focusing on AI's potential to maintain merchant-of-record status and first-party data ownership.

Corporate Developments & Partnerships

Shopify Makes Additional Layoffs in Partnership Division

Shopify makes more job cuts, this time targeting partnerships team

Canadian e-commerce giant Shopify has conducted layoffs in its partnerships division.

Shopify has conducted layoffs in its Partnership AI division. This marks the second round of layoffs in three months. Affected employees were informed that their "positions had been eliminated" as part of a broader organizational restructuring.

The company is refocusing its partnership program on AI and agentic commerce initiatives. VP Atlee Clark announced that "a new chapter" is beginning for partners.

Shopify distributed over $1 billion to partners in 2025, and will prioritize AI investment and universal protocols for agentic commerce going forward.

Airwallex Acquires Paynuri to Enter Korean Market

Airwallex Buys Paynuri

Airwallex acquires Korean fintech to secure payment gateway and FX licenses.

Global payments platform Airwallex has acquired Korean company Paynuri Co. Ltd., obtaining payment gateway, prepaid electronic payment instrument licenses, and foreign exchange business registration. This establishes their business foundation in the Korean market.

APAC General Manager Arnold Chan stated they would "leverage opportunities in Korea's rapidly growing e-commerce and creative industries." The company achieved 85% annual revenue growth in the APAC region in 2025 and plans to expand the Korean team to approximately 20 people by the end of 2026.

Logistics & Fulfillment

TikTok Launches European Fulfillment for Asian Sellers

TikTok offers European fulfillment for Asian sellers

TikTok has expanded its fulfillment services to Asian merchants selling on TikTok Shop in Europe.

TikTok has expanded its fulfillment service "Fulfilled by TikTok (FBT)" for Asian sellers operating TikTok Shop in Europe. With warehouses in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, they provide services combining logistics with creator marketing.

Sellers can outsource warehouse storage and delivery, and can also send product samples to creators through matching with local influencers.

Meanwhile, in the US, TikTok has discontinued "Seller Shipping," requiring sellers to use platform-managed logistics. This has effectively "suppressed dropshipping." Industry forecasts predict TikTok Shop will surpass Shein, Temu, AliExpress, and eBay to take the top spot in global GMV this year.

Summary

Today's EC and AI commerce industry saw active movement around agentic commerce. PayPal's acquisition of Cymbio and OpenAI's 4% fee setting indicate that AI platforms are seeking to secure important positions in the commerce value chain.

On the other hand, eBay's explicit ban on AI shopping bots demonstrates that existing EC platforms are taking a defensive stance toward this change. Retailers showed ambivalence, being positive about AI product discovery while cautious about AI-enabled payments.

Key things to watch going forward are how PayPal's agentic commerce services will expand to ChatGPT and Gemini, and how eBay's regulations will affect AI agent developers.