EC & AI Commerce News Digest (March 5, 2026)

Key Takeaways

Best Buy declares its intent to lead agentic AI-powered product discovery
Shopee begins testing AI-generated celebrity live commerce
Agentic commerce infrastructure accelerates across both payments and platforms

Agentic Commerce

Stripe Expands Agentic Commerce Payments Through Affirm and Klarna

Stripe expands agentic commerce offerings through Affirm, Klarna

Stripe expands agentic commerce offerings through partnerships with Affirm and Klarna using Shared Payment Tokens.

Stripe has expanded its partnership with Affirm and Klarna through Shared Payment Tokens, enabling BNPL (buy now, pay later) payments via AI agents. While AI agent-driven payments were previously limited to registered cards, SPT now allows agents to process diverse payment methods including BNPL.

Merchants with existing Stripe integrations can use this feature without additional development, significantly lowering the barrier to agentic commerce adoption for e-commerce businesses.

PwC Analyzes the Agentic AI Revolution in Retail

The agentic AI revolution in retail

Strategy& has analyzed how agentic AI drives retail reinvention. Learn how autonomous agents reduce costs by 30% while driving revenue growth.

PwC's Strategy& has published an analysis report on the agentic AI revolution in the retail industry, demonstrating how autonomous AI agents can reduce costs by 30% while driving revenue growth.

As a comprehensive report from a major consulting firm systematically examining agentic AI's impact on retail, it serves as a valuable reference for understanding the industry's direction.

Spreedly Makes Agentic Commerce a Live Channel for Merchants

AI agents have advanced from recommending products to completing purchases at checkout. Spreedly today announced that agentic commerce is now a live channel for merchants.

Payment orchestration platform Spreedly has launched agentic commerce as an official live channel for merchants, enabling AI agents to complete not just product recommendations but full checkout processes on existing payment infrastructure.

By positioning AI agent support as a "channel," payment orchestrators enable merchants to operate agentic commerce as a new sales channel alongside web and mobile.

AgentPass Rebrands as Paz.ai, the Agentic Commerce Platform for Retailers

AgentPass, Inc., the agentic commerce infrastructure company, today announced it has rebranded as Paz.ai.

Agentic commerce infrastructure company AgentPass has rebranded as Paz.ai, offering retailers a platform where AI agents handle the purchasing process on behalf of consumers.

The emergence of dedicated agentic commerce platform companies indicates that this space is establishing itself as an independent market category.

Full Article: AgentPass Rebrands as Paz.ai, Launching as the Protocol Unification Platform for the AI Shopping Agent Era

Payments & Fintech

Nexi and Google Cloud to Build Agentic Payment Infrastructure

Nexi and Google Cloud to build infrastructure for agentic payments

Nexi Group and Google Cloud plan to develop infrastructure for the next generation of digital commerce, built around AI agents that can manage purchases and payments on behalf of consumers with explicit consent.

European paytech leader Nexi Group and Google Cloud have partnered to build infrastructure for AI agent-driven proxy purchasing and payments. The partnership aims to develop next-generation digital commerce infrastructure where AI agents manage purchases and payments with explicit consumer consent.

With Nexi's payment network covering more than 25 European countries integrating AI agent capabilities, the groundwork is being laid for agentic commerce deployment across Europe.

DBS Becomes First Asia-Pacific Bank to Pilot Visa Intelligent Commerce

DBS is First Bank in Asia Pacific to Pilot Visa Intelligent Commerce for Everyday Payments

DBS Bank, Southeast Asia's largest bank and Visa, a global leader in digital payments today announced their ongoing collaboration to drive the future of digital payments.

DBS, Southeast Asia's largest bank, is piloting Visa's Intelligent Commerce framework as the first institution in the Asia-Pacific region. The initiative aims to enable secure payment flows when AI agents handle everyday shopping on behalf of consumers.

This development signals that Visa's agentic payment infrastructure is entering the deployment phase in Asia, underscoring the progress of global infrastructure development.

Citi Pushes Fintech Co-creation Strategy in E-commerce

Citi pushes client co-creation in e-commerce

The bank has endeavored to work hand in glove with fintechs, rather than build tools thinking it will beat them, an executive said.

Citi is advancing a co-creation strategy with fintech companies in the agentic AI space, taking an approach of working closely with fintechs rather than building everything in-house.

A major bank clearly articulating an open partnership strategy in the EC and AI commerce space signals the broader trend toward openness across the payments ecosystem.

AI Commerce Tools

Criteo Begins Offering Display Ads in ChatGPT Replies

Criteo begins offering display ads in ChatGPT replies

French display advertising firm Criteo is to deliver advertising for online shops in ChatGPT's search results.

French adtech giant Criteo has begun delivering display ads for online shops within ChatGPT responses, targeting US users on ChatGPT Free and Go plans. According to Criteo, users coming through LLM platforms show approximately 1.5x higher conversion rates compared to other channels.

In-conversation AI advertising represents a new frontier for commerce media, suggesting that product visibility on AI assistants could become a critical customer acquisition channel for e-commerce businesses.

Corporate News & Partnerships

Cart.com Raises $180M for E-commerce Logistics and Services

E-commerce startup Cart.com raises $180M to support growth plans

Cart.com, an e-commerce services company, has raised $180 million in growth capital from Springcoast Partners.

E-commerce services company Cart.com has raised $180 million in growth capital from Springcoast Partners. The funding will be used to expand its integrated service platform for e-commerce businesses, covering fulfillment, marketing, and marketplace management.

Continued large-scale investment in infrastructure companies supporting e-commerce operational efficiency demonstrates that the e-commerce services market's growth is being recognized by investors.

Logistics & Fulfillment

UPS Offers Buyouts to Over 100K Drivers as It Unwinds Amazon Business

UPS offers buyout to more than 100K drivers as it unwinds Amazon business

The logistics provider is making a move to push out drivers as it restructures business to be less reliant on Amazon and e-commerce.

Logistics giant UPS is offering buyout packages to over 100,000 drivers as part of its business restructuring to reduce dependence on Amazon and e-commerce operations.

This large-scale restructuring by a leading e-commerce logistics provider symbolizes structural changes in the industry. As Amazon's proprietary logistics network expands and reduces reliance on third-party logistics, UPS's strategic pivot will be closely watched for its impact on e-commerce delivery costs and service levels.

Consumer Trends

71% of US Consumers Encounter E-commerce Scams, Clutch Report Finds

Some 71% of Consumers Encounter E-commerce Scams, a Clutch Report Finds

As U.S. consumers take to e-commerce for more and more of their shopping, so too are scammers eyeing opportunities.

A Clutch research report reveals that 71% of US consumers have encountered e-commerce fraud, with scam tactics growing increasingly sophisticated as e-commerce usage expands.

As AI agent-driven proxy purchasing becomes more widespread, fraud prevention is a critical challenge for building trust in agentic commerce. The need for fraud detection and trust evaluation mechanisms that enable AI agents to make safe purchasing decisions is growing.

Summary

Today's news clearly shows that the agentic commerce ecosystem is advancing on multiple fronts. From the Stripe-BNPL integration and PwC's report to the emergence of dedicated platforms like Spreedly and Paz.ai, activity spans from payment infrastructure to the service layer.

Meanwhile, major retailers like Best Buy are explicitly positioning agentic AI readiness as a management priority, and Shopee is experimenting with AI celebrity live commerce as a new format, demonstrating that AI adoption is becoming tangible on the retail front lines.

Looking ahead, key areas to watch include the detailed analysis of PwC's report, Best Buy's specific AI initiatives, and response data from AI celebrity live commerce sessions.