Agentic commerce gains traction in France

Agentic commerce, a new e-commerce trend, is growing in France, with nearly half of the population expected to use AI agents for shopping by 2030, according to Fevad, the Federation of E-commerce and Distance Selling. About a third of online shoppers already use AI agents to make purchases, signaling a shift in how consumers interact with digital marketplaces.

Product feeds are central to AI integration

Merchants must treat product feeds as the new showcase, as these feeds are the primary way products are cited by AI and appear in generated responses. Each major AI platform—OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Perplexity—requires its own specific format for pushing product data, often through APIs or file uploads, ensuring consistency and accessibility.

Open web and structured data remain important

Despite the rise of AI-driven commerce, the open web and structured data formats still play a crucial role. While some websites block AI crawlers, it is possible to allow access to search robots while restricting training data access. Structured data, such as JSON-LD from schema.org, is recommended by Google to enhance visibility and trust for AI agents, though other platforms have not officially confirmed this practice.

Clear and factual product descriptions are essential

Product descriptions must be factual, concise, and free of misleading marketing language to ensure AI agents accurately represent the products. OpenAI recommends a maximum of 150 characters for titles and 5,000 for descriptions, emphasizing clarity and user intent to avoid exclusion from AI platforms.

Agentic payment protocols are complex and evolving

Implementing agentic payment systems is the most challenging aspect of agentic commerce. While Google is pushing an open protocol called UCP, OpenAI has stopped supporting payments in ChatGPT. Perplexity offers Instant Buy only in the U.S., and Meta's Muse is limited to Shopify stores. Each platform has its own requirements, including specific APIs and payment methods like Google Pay or Shop Pay.

Testing is crucial before full implementation

Merchants are advised to test agentic commerce features on a small scale before expanding. OpenAI recommends starting with around 100 products and verifying that they appear correctly in AI platforms like ChatGPT and Google. Regular testing of the full checkout process is necessary to ensure reliability and prevent issues once the system is live.