EC & AI Commerce News Digest (February 18, 2026)

Today's Top Stories

Mastercard Completes World's First Fully Authenticated Agentic Commerce Transaction in India

Mastercard completes fully authenticated agentic commerce transaction in India

The milestone transaction, executed on Mastercard's payment network in New Delhi, highlights India's growing role in AI-powered commerce.

At the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Mastercard successfully executed the world's first fully authenticated agentic commerce transaction on its payment network. AI agents autonomously handled everything from product selection to payment completion.

Notably, the "Agent Pay" technology combines tokenization and biometric authentication to ensure cardholder security even when AI agents process payments. While agentic commerce has often remained at the proof-of-concept stage, this successful live transaction on one of the world's largest payment networks marks a critical milestone signaling the technology has entered the practical implementation phase.

Deep Dive: Mastercard Completes World's First Fully Authenticated Agentic Commerce Transaction in India

Unilever Partners with Google Cloud to Drive Agentic Commerce

Global consumer goods giant Unilever has announced a strategic partnership with Google Cloud, aiming to pioneer the next generation of agentic commerce by placing AI at the core of operations.

The partnership leverages Google Cloud's generative AI and agentic AI technologies to advance supply chain optimization, consumer insight analysis, and the creation of personalized shopping experiences. Unilever's chief digital and marketing officer stated they "must lead this transformation," symbolizing the full-scale adoption of AI commerce across the CPG industry.

Deep Dive: Unilever Signs 5-Year Strategic Partnership with Google Cloud

Agentic Commerce

PayPal Launches Agentic AI Travel Experience

PayPal has partnered with Sabre and AI travel platform Mindtrip to announce the industry's first end-to-end agentic AI travel experience. Set to launch in Q2 2026, the AI assistant will handle travel search, recommendations, booking, and payment seamlessly through natural language.

PayPal serves as the payment partner, natively integrating identity verification, digital wallet, and BNPL features into the booking flow. Travel is particularly well-suited for agentic AI since it involves coordinating multiple bookings across flights, hotels, and car rentals. The initial phase will cover over 420 airlines and more than 2 million accommodations.

Rothschild Changes Retail Sector Rating Citing "Rise of AI Agents"

Rothschild shifts retailers rating citing rise of AI agents / Shopify called agentic AI winner

Rothschild shifts retailers rating citing rise of AI agents. Shopify stock defended by analysts as Q4 revenue jumps 31%.

French investment bank Rothschild has changed its investment rating for the retail sector, citing the rise of AI agents as a primary factor. The bank determined that the spread of agentic commerce will structurally transform traditional retail business models.

Simultaneously, Shopify has been recognized by analysts as an "agentic AI winner." Beyond Q4 revenue jumping 31% year-over-year to $3.7B, the company's platform strategy for agentic commerce readiness has gained investor support. This marks a symbolic moment where agentic commerce is now influencing investment decisions.

"Voice Is the New Middleware of Commerce"

Why Voice Is the New Middleware of Commerce

Voice AI is becoming the connective tissue between consumers and commerce systems, reshaping how transactions are initiated and completed.

A PYMNTS analysis argues that voice AI is becoming the new "middleware" of commerce — serving as the connective tissue between consumers and commerce systems, fundamentally reshaping how transactions are initiated and completed.

As purchasing behavior through smart speakers and smartphone voice assistants grows, voice interfaces can deliver a more intuitive shopping experience than text-based chat. In agentic commerce particularly, voice may become the most natural interface between humans and AI agents.

Pipe17 Positions Agentic Commerce Readiness as 3PL Competitive Advantage

Commerce operations platform Pipe17 has announced a strategy positioning agentic commerce readiness as a new competitive advantage for third-party logistics (3PL) providers.

As the era approaches where AI agents autonomously handle inventory checks, order processing, and shipping arrangements, Pipe17 emphasizes the importance of 3PL operators building API-first infrastructure. This demonstrates that the agentic commerce wave is now reaching the fulfillment domain.

AI Commerce Tools

True Fit Launches AI Shopping Agent Built on Two Decades of Fit Data

True Fit Launches AI Shopping Agent Built on Two Decades of Fit Data

True Fit's new AI shopping agent uses 20 years of fit, style and purchase data to help consumers find the right products.

Apparel-focused AI company True Fit has announced a new AI shopping agent built on 20 years of fit, style, and purchase data. The system learns consumers' body data and style preferences to autonomously recommend optimal products.

The agent has the potential to significantly reduce returns caused by size mismatches — the biggest challenge in fashion e-commerce — and covers fit data from over 17,000 brands. Unlike general-purpose AI agents, it differentiates itself as a "vertically specialized agent" leveraging industry-specific data assets.

Deep Dive: True Fit Launches AI Shopping Agent Powered by 20 Years of Fit Data

Criteo Launches Self-Service Platform "Commerce Go"

Retail media leader Criteo has announced "Commerce Go," a self-service platform enabling retailers of all sizes to leverage retail media.

While building retail media capabilities previously required significant technology investment, Commerce Go now allows small and mid-sized retailers to generate advertising revenue on their own e-commerce sites. This move is noteworthy as a push toward democratizing retail media.

Global E-Commerce Trends

EU Launches Formal Investigation into Shein over "Addictive Design" and Illegal Products

EU investigates Shein over shopping site's 'addictive design'

Shein, along with other Chinese e-commerce companies, has made inroads in Europe in recent years, drawing scrutiny.

The EU has launched a formal investigation into Chinese fast-fashion platform Shein under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The investigation targets "addictive design" that encourages overconsumption and the sale of illegal products, including inappropriate items for children.

While Shein has rapidly expanded its European market share in recent years, EU regulatory scrutiny has intensified further. The EU has also decided to introduce tariffs on low-value cross-border parcels during the same period, tightening the regulatory net around Chinese e-commerce platforms as a whole. In the worst case, service suspension orders within the EU are possible.

Nigeria Investigates Temu over Data Protection Violations

Nigeria's Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has launched an investigation into Chinese e-commerce platform Temu for suspected violations of the Data Protection Act. Following Europe and the Americas, regulatory action against Chinese e-commerce platforms is now spreading to Africa.

This development occurs at the intersection of growing personal data protection awareness in emerging markets and increasing vigilance from various countries toward the global expansion of Chinese-origin platforms.

Corporate News & Partnerships

Fluent Commerce Raises A$46M from Bain Capital for Global AI-Driven OMS Expansion

Australian distributed order management system (OMS) company Fluent Commerce has completed a A$46 million (approximately $30M USD) fundraise from Bain Capital, accelerating the global expansion of its AI-driven order management platform.

Fluent Commerce offers a SaaS-based OMS that provides unified management of inventory and orders across multiple sales channels and warehouses, with AI-powered real-time inventory allocation optimization as its core strength. As the agentic commerce era approaches, it is attracting attention as infrastructure capable of handling order processing from AI agents.

Deep Dive: Fluent Commerce Raises A$46M from Bain Capital

Radial Launches "Radial Commerce Solutions" Unifying Fulfillment, Technology, and Payments

Radial Launches Radial Commerce Solutions, Combining Managed Fulfillment, Technology and Payments Into a Unified Commerce Platform

Radial launches unified commerce platform combining fulfillment, technology and payments.

Fulfillment major Radial has announced "Radial Commerce Solutions," integrating managed fulfillment, technology, and payments into a single platform. This enables e-commerce operators to build their commerce infrastructure through a one-stop service without combining multiple vendors.

The integration of fulfillment and payments holds significant importance as a foundation for AI agents to centrally control operations in the agentic commerce era.

C&A Partners with Nedap to Enhance Omnichannel Supply Chain with RFID

Major European fashion retailer C&A has partnered with RFID technology leader Nedap to deploy RFID across its entire supply chain. The goal is to strengthen omnichannel capabilities through real-time visibility of store inventory.

RFID deployment improves inventory accuracy, enabling precise fulfillment of online orders from store inventory (BOPIS, Ship from Store). Improving physical inventory management accuracy is also a prerequisite for AI agents to accurately understand inventory status.

Logistics & Fulfillment

Parcel Perform Launches First AI Visibility Index for E-Commerce Logistics

Logistics technology company Parcel Perform has announced the e-commerce logistics industry's first AI-powered "Visibility Index." It uses AI to analyze and benchmark delivery performance, enabling transparent comparisons between logistics providers.

Logistics visibility directly impacts customer experience, and the acceleration of AI-powered prediction accuracy improvements and real-time monitoring enhancements is advancing across the entire logistics industry.

Egypt's Flextock Raises $12.6M Series A to Scale MENA E-Commerce Logistics

Egypt's Flextock raises $12.6M Series A led by TLcom to tackle e-commerce logistics

Egyptian logistics startup Flextock raises $12.6M Series A to scale e-commerce fulfillment across MENA region.

Egyptian e-commerce logistics startup Flextock has raised $12.6M in a Series A round led by TLcom to expand its e-commerce fulfillment operations across the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region.

While the MENA region boasts high e-commerce growth rates, logistics infrastructure development has lagged behind. Flextock offers end-to-end fulfillment services from warehouse management to last-mile delivery, attracting investor interest as a company positioned to bridge this supply-demand gap.

Conclusion

February 18th demonstrated that the EC and AI commerce industry has fully entered the "implementation phase" of agentic commerce. Mastercard's world-first authenticated transaction, the Unilever-Google Cloud mega-partnership, and Rothschild's rating change all show that agentic commerce is being recognized as a real business factor across payments, consumer goods, and finance.

At the same time, companies like True Fit are vertically specializing AI shopping agents, while Pipe17 is advancing agentic readiness in fulfillment, showing that adaptation is progressing across the entire ecosystem.

On the regulatory front, the EU's Shein investigation and Nigeria's Temu probe demonstrate that global scrutiny of cross-border e-commerce platforms is intensifying. Going forward, attention should focus on how Mastercard's agentic commerce technology expands to other companies and the concrete impact of EU regulations.