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- Google brings shopping ads into AI Mode 🛍️
Google brings shopping ads into AI Mode 🛍️
Plus: Adobe commits to standardizing agentic commerce 🤖, while eBay Live launches in Canada 🇨🇦.
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OpenAI may have set the pace… but Google clearly picked up the baton 🏃♂️.
Hi there, and welcome to another issue of The Ecom Press 🗞️!
This week, Google rolls out shopping ads inside AI Mode, pushing conversational commerce one step further 🤖.
Also, Adobe doubles down on agentic standards to help brands plug into this new buying flow. And eBay Live officially lands in Canada, bringing real-time, community-driven shopping into the spotlight 💡.
Plus, we’ve got a fresh batch of tools worth adding to your radar this week 🧰.
Let’s get into it 👇
In a rush? Here's the juice🤭:
🛍️ Google brings shopping ads into AI Mode.
🤖 Adobe commits to standardizing agentic commerce.
🇨🇦 eBay Live launches in Canada.
🧰 Tools spotlight: Smart tools worth your attention this week
⚡️Worthy Mentions
Source: Google
Google is rolling out a new shopping ad format in AI Mode, allowing retailers to appear as sponsored options within conversational search results. The format is expected to run through Shopping and Performance Max campaigns, positioning paid placements closer to the moment shoppers are comparing and deciding.
Here’s the lowdown ⬇️:
🛍️ A new paid slot inside conversational search: Google says the format is built to let retailers “fit naturally into the conversation,” showing up when users are exploring options across brands and stores in AI Mode.
🏷️ Sponsored is clearly labeled: These placements are designed as marked sponsored options alongside AI Mode’s product recommendations, so users can distinguish ads from organic suggestions.
📢 It connects to existing ad buying paths: Google says rollout will come to Shopping and Performance Max campaigns, meaning retailers may not need a new campaign type, but they will need strong Shopping/PMax foundations to compete for this inventory.
🤝 AI Mode is also gaining native checkout rails: In parallel, Google says UCP-powered checkout is rolling out in the U.S., letting shoppers buy from Etsy and Wayfair directly inside AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app, with Shopify, Target, and Walmart coming soon.
Why it matters 🤔
“Search results” is gradually becoming a guided shopping flow, and ads are being designed to sit inside that flow rather than around it. As checkout moves closer to discovery, the distance between influence and purchase shrinks. This means retailers will increasingly compete on who can show up right at the exact comparison moment, not who can win the click and nurture leads later.
Source: Adobe
Adobe Commerce says it will support Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), building on its earlier commitment to Agent Payments Protocol (AP2).
It aims to help brands participate in AI-led shopping environments while keeping control of customer relationships and commerce data. Adobe also points to new performance data suggesting AI-referred traffic is converting better and spending more.
Here’s the scoop 🍨:
🤝 Adobe backs the emerging agent standards: Adobe Commerce is committing to support UCP and ACP, adding to its earlier support for AP2. The stated aim is interoperability across AI shopping surfaces without forcing brands into one-off integrations.
📈 Adobe is using performance data to make the case: Adobe cites a 693.4% spike in AI-driven traffic during the 2025 holiday season, and January 2026 metrics showing AI referrals:
Convert 31% higher
Generate 254% more revenue per visit
Keep shoppers 45% longer on-site
🧾 What changes technically for merchants: Adobe says it’s working to make catalogs, pricing, and inventory machine-readable, so agents can use real-time data inside LLM interfaces and enable secure in-agent checkout through protocol-aligned payment flows, connected back to existing order management for fulfillment.
🧠 Three-layer strategy for the agent era:
🔎 Discovery: LLM Optimizer to improve how products and brand info appear in AI discovery
🤖 Action: protocol support so agents can check availability and transact
🏪 Owned experience: Brand Concierge and optimizers to keep human journeys strong
Why it matters 🤨
This is a bet that “integration” becomes the new competitive advantage. If AI surfaces multiply, winning won’t be about picking the right chatbot but about plugging into many surfaces quickly, without rebuilding checkout and catalog logic every time.
🤑 Sponsored tip of the week
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Source: ChatGPT Image Generator
eBay Canada has officially launched eBay Live, bringing livestream shopping into its Canadian marketplace with a collectibles-led debut tied to Fan Expo Vancouver and the Collectors Supershow in Toronto.
Here are the deets ⬇️:
📍 Launch anchored to major fan events: eBay aligned the debut with Fan Expo Vancouver and the Collectors Supershow in Toronto, with marquee programming which ran Feb 13–16 to lean into community-driven commerce.
🎥 What eBay Live is in practice: Shoppers can interact with sellers in real time, ask questions, view items up close, and purchase instantly across mobile, desktop, and the eBay app.
🌟 Celebrity guest programming: The Canadian kickoff included guest appearances such as Doug Gilmour and Joseph Woll, with users able to preview schedules and set reminders via ebay.ca/ebaylive.
🃏 Two headline auctions at $1: To mark the launch, eBay auctioned two rare cards (each valued at thousands) with $1 starting bids and 30-second extended bidding, available only on eBay Live.
🏒 Macklin Celebrini Rookie Auto /36 with searches up 800%+ in 2025 vs 2024
🔥 Charizard Gold Star PSA 7 with Pokémon searches up 70%+ in 2025 vs 2024
🌍 Not a first experiment for eBay: eBay Live launched in the U.S. in 2022 and has expanded to Australia and multiple European markets, with a history of major celebrity-driven streams.
Why it matters 🤷
Livestream commerce is becoming a big deal, especially for collectibles. It's all about building trust, creating scarcity, and engaging with the community to drive sales. eBay thinks live interactions can bring in serious buyers and help sellers create demand, rather than just relying on search rankings.
🛎️ The Ecom Press Insider
Source: ChatGPT Image Generator
Ecom Fact: U.S. ecommerce sales are projected to hit $1.8 trillion by 2030. Even then, ecommerce will account for just 29% of total retail sales, while the remaining 71% (roughly $4.4 trillion) will still happen in physical stores. (Source: Forrester)
💡 Takeaway: Online growth is real, but retail is not becoming fully digital anytime soon. For ecommerce operators, this means thinking beyond pure-play online strategies. Partnerships with retail, pickup models, pop-ups, wholesale distribution, or omnichannel integrations may still matter over the next five years.
🧰 Tools spotlight: Smart tools worth your attention this week
AI tools are no longer just assistants. Some are building stores, others are fixing them, and a few are quietly reshaping how sellers operate behind the scenes. Here are five worth knowing this week 👇
1️⃣ Genstore – AI That Builds and Runs Your Store 🤖: Genstore positions itself as an AI-native ecommerce platform that deploys coordinated AI “agent teams” to build and operate full stores from scratch in minutes. It handles layout, branding, motion design, marketing syncs with Klaviyo and Mailchimp, plus operational tools like stock alerts and translations.
2️⃣ Claude Connector for WordPress – Real Data AI Insights 📊: WordPress.com now integrates directly with Anthropic’s Claude via MCP and OAuth, allowing secure, read-only access to your site’s real data. Claude can analyze traffic summaries, flag outdated content, identify engagement gaps, suggest internal linking opportunities, and even align with your style guide.
3️⃣ Prolisto Lite – Turn Photos into eBay Listings 📸: Prolisto Lite generates complete eBay listings from a product photo. Upload an image and it creates optimized titles, compliant specifics, and SEO-ready descriptions. Sellers can review and list directly.
4️⃣ EcomHint – CRO Scanner for Shopify and WooCommerce 🔍: EcomHint scans stores for conversion blockers across 40+ checks covering SEO, UX, performance, trust signals, and urgency. It delivers prioritized reports with benchmarks and step-by-step fixes. Built for SMBs already driving traffic and looking for structured optimization guidance.
5️⃣ Cartpanda – Built for High Volume Sellers 🌍: Cartpanda focuses on performance commerce at scale. It offers customizable high-converting checkouts, order bumps and upsells, support for 135+ currencies, anti-fraud systems, and a unified back office for analytics and orders.
⚡️Worthy Mentions
Wrapping up…
Ads inside AI conversations are no longer experimental. As more major players integrate commerce directly into conversational interfaces, the line between discovery and transaction keeps shrinking 🤔.
Adobe’s move toward standardizing agentic commerce signals something bigger as well. And with eBay Live expanding into Canada, it’s clear that interactive commerce isn’t cooling off either.
That’s it for this week. If this was useful, share it with someone building in ecommerce 📬. Subscribe if you haven’t already, and we’ll be back next week with more buzz in this space 🚀.