E-Commerce & AI Commerce News Digest (February 6, 2026)

Top Stories

Criteo Launches "Agentic Commerce Recommendation Service" for AI Shopping Assistants

Criteo's AI shopping service outperforms text-based rivals by 60% as commerce data trumps semantic matching

Criteo introduces commerce-grade recommendation infrastructure for AI shopping assistants, achieving 60% relevancy gains through transaction data versus product descriptions alone.

Advertising technology giant Criteo (NASDAQ: CRTO) has announced a new service called "Agentic Commerce Recommendation Service" for AI shopping assistants. This API enables AI assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity to access Criteo's commerce data (transaction history, purchase patterns, etc.), significantly improving product recommendation accuracy.

According to Criteo, the service achieves 60% better recommendation relevancy compared to text-based recommendations (semantic matching of product descriptions). This demonstrates that recommendations based on actual transaction data far outperform approaches relying solely on product descriptions.

As agentic commerce expands, the quality of "what to recommend" becomes a key competitive factor for AI assistants. Criteo's service holds an important position as product recommendation infrastructure.

Full Story: Criteo Launches Product Recommendation API "Agentic Commerce Recommendation Service" for AI Shopping Assistants

Google Plans Checkout Experience Inside AI Mode, Senator Questions Privacy

Google plans new checkout experience inside AI mode

Executives see agentic AI as a driver for growth and are working to improve the experience through its Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard for agentic commerce.

Google has revealed plans to add new checkout functionality within AI mode (its Gemini-based search experience). The company is leveraging Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) to build an experience where users can purchase products directly from AI search results.

Meanwhile, Senator Elizabeth Warren has sent written questions to Google regarding privacy protection and consumer data handling in the Gemini checkout feature. Concerns about monopolistic influence in AI-driven shopping as UCP expands are behind this inquiry.

While seamless experiences from AI search to purchase represent a massive opportunity, scrutiny from privacy and competition policy perspectives is intensifying. Balancing convenience with regulation is essential for healthy agentic commerce development.

Full Story: Google Plans Checkout Feature Inside AI Mode — Senator Warren Presses on Privacy and Antitrust

Agentic Commerce

O'Reilly Media Explains "The Agentic Commerce Revolution"

The Agentic Commerce Revolution – O'Reilly

Beyond protocols: How to rearchitect your business for an AI-first world

Technology publisher O'Reilly Media has published an article titled "The Agentic Commerce Revolution" providing a comprehensive overview of agentic commerce. The article discusses "redesigning business for an AI-first world" beyond protocols (UCP, MCP, etc.), outlining actions companies should take.

Agentic commerce is not just a technology trend but a movement transforming e-commerce business architecture itself, entering a stage where the entire industry is paying attention. The fact that a technology media outlet like O'Reilly is publishing comprehensive explanatory articles itself indicates the maturation of this field.

Full Story: O'Reilly Explains "The Agentic Commerce Revolution" — Redesigning Business for the AI-First Era Beyond Protocols

VISA: Agentic Commerce Is the Next Payments Frontier

Visa has stated that "agentic commerce" — where AI agents complete research and purchases on behalf of consumers — will be the next major turning point in the global payments industry.

The fact that the largest payment network positions agentic commerce as "the next frontier" indicates this field is transitioning from experimental to infrastructure development stages. How to authenticate and process agentic payments by AI agents will become a common industry challenge.

cside Launches AI Agent Detection Toolkit

cside Launches AI Agent Detection Toolkit

The solution simultaneously enables website security and agentic commerce by enforcing guardrails on AI agent interactions.

cside has announced a toolkit for detecting and controlling AI agent access on websites. The tool blocks malicious agents (scraping, unauthorized access) while properly guiding legitimate AI shopping agents.

As agentic commerce proliferates, demand is growing for mechanisms that allow websites to identify AI agents and grant appropriate access permissions. This infrastructure tool for balancing security and commerce is gaining attention.

Global E-Commerce Trends

German Federal Cartel Office Bans Amazon's Price Controls on Partners

German watchdog bans Amazon's price controls on partners

Amazon may no longer influence the prices set by sellers on its German marketplace – something the company has been doing.

The German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) has banned Amazon from interfering with seller pricing on its German marketplace. Amazon had been penalizing sellers who set prices higher than on other channels.

This decision is part of strengthening platform regulation in Europe. Combined with the EU-wide Digital Markets Act (DMA) enforcement, the regulatory trend against large platform market dominance is accelerating. For e-commerce operators, this may increase freedom in their own pricing strategies.

TikTok's Rocky U.S. Transition Gives Brands Pause

TikTok's U.S. transition gives brands pause after outage hits sales

TikTok's new U.S. owners have gotten off to a rocky start, after a temporary outage drew scrutiny from brands.

TikTok's U.S. operations transition is showing turbulence. A temporary service outage during the transition under new ownership directly impacted sales for brands operating on the platform.

Some brands are holding back on TikTok Shop advertising and inventory investment, highlighting platform dependency risks once again. Platform stability is essential for social commerce growth.

Mexico E-Commerce Jumps 24%, Surpassing Brick-and-Mortar

Mexico E-Commerce Jumps 24%, Surpassing Brick-and-Mortar

Mexico retail is shifting toward e-commerce, which grew nearly 24% in 2025, outpacing physical stores, ANTAD said.

Mexico's retail industry saw e-commerce grow nearly 24% year-over-year in 2025, outpacing physical store growth. The data comes from the National Retail Association (ANTAD).

The rapid expansion of the Mexican market, which is driving Latin American e-commerce growth, is an important signal for businesses considering cross-border e-commerce entry into the region. Mobile payment adoption and internet infrastructure improvements are driving growth.

Corporate News & Partnerships

Amazon May Soon Outpace Walmart in Total Revenue After Hitting $700B in Sales

Amazon may soon outpace Walmart in total revenue

Amazon may soon outpace Walmart when it comes to total revenue.

Amazon announced Q4 2025 earnings with annual revenue exceeding $700 billion. At this pace, it's on track to surpass Walmart in annual revenue for the first time. Advertising revenue reached $21.3 billion, up 23% year-over-year, and AWS (cloud services) continues to perform strongly.

Meanwhile, concerns about how changes in U.S. tariff policy may impact Amazon's business have been noted. Additional tariffs on imports from China, in particular, could affect the cost structure of third-party sellers.

Meituan Acquires Dingdong for $717M

China's Meituan snaps up Dingdong to deepen push into fresh grocery retail

The US$717 million Dingdong acquisition highlights Meituan's long-term bet on grocery e-commerce and on-demand consumption in China.

Chinese food delivery giant Meituan has announced the full acquisition of fresh food e-commerce company Dingdong Maicai for $717 million. This acquisition marks Meituan's full-scale entry into the on-demand fresh food delivery market.

China's fresh e-commerce market is highly competitive, with many players forced to exit or scale back. Combining Meituan's existing delivery network with Dingdong's fresh e-commerce expertise could create new competitive advantages.

Costco January Sales Jump 9.3% as E-Commerce Soars 34.4%

Costco (COST) Stock: January Sales Jump 9.3% as E-Commerce Soars

Costco stock rises 1.2% after January sales grow 9.3% to $21.33B with e-commerce surging 34.4%.

Costco announced January 2026 sales reached $21.33 billion, up 9.3% year-over-year. E-commerce sales in particular surged 34.4%.

These numbers show that the membership warehouse club's online channel strengthening is steadily producing results. The movement of major retailers with physical store strengths accelerating e-commerce growth reinforces the importance of omnichannel strategy.

Logistics & Fulfillment

ShipBob Releases "2026 State of Ecommerce Fulfillment" Report

ShipBob's 2026 State of Ecommerce Fulfillment Report

ShipBob, a leading global supply chain and fulfillment platform for SMB and Mid-Market ecommerce merchants, released its fifth annual State of Ecommerce Fulfillment report.

Global fulfillment platform ShipBob has released its annual "2026 State of Ecommerce Fulfillment" report. Based on over 200 data points, it analyzes the latest trends in e-commerce fulfillment.

Key findings include "omnichannel is king" and "global network design is the new differentiator for brands." For D2C brands, building integrated fulfillment strategies encompassing not just their own e-commerce but also marketplaces and physical stores is becoming a source of competitive advantage.

Summary

Today's news highlights the advancement of agentic commerce infrastructure across multiple layers. From Criteo's product recommendation API to Google's checkout feature, Visa's payment strategy, and cside's agent detection toolkit — implementation of agentic commerce is accelerating across recommendation, purchase, payment, and security layers.

Meanwhile, regulatory developments are also active, including Senator Warren's privacy inquiry and Germany's Amazon regulation. As agentic commerce moves toward practical implementation, balancing technological evolution with regulation will be a key theme going forward.