Google Cloud rolls out a new ecommerce agent 🤖

It finally feels like customers are getting AI agents built for them 🤖.

Hi there, and welcome to another issue of The Ecom Press 🗞️!

This week, Google rolls out Gemini Enterprise for CX with big promises around smoother shopping and support, Alibaba gives Qwen a full agentic upgrade 💅, and ads are starting to make their way into ChatGPT conversations 📣.

We’re also spotlighting a few tools worth keeping on your radar as things shift.

Grab a coffee, get comfortable, and let’s dive in 👇

In a rush? Here's the juice🤭:

🤖 Google Cloud rolls out a new shopping agent for ecommerce.

🛒 Alibaba’s Qwen gets agentic upgrades for shopping.

📣 OpenAI tests ads in ChatGPT.

🧰 Tools spotlight: Smart tools worth your attention this week

⚡️Worthy Mentions

🤖 Google Cloud rolls out a new shopping agent for ecommerce.

Google Cloud rolled out Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience at NRF 2026, pitching it as an agentic layer that connects shopping and customer service into a single flow. The goal is to replace disconnected chatbots with agents that keep context and can complete multi-step tasks.

Here’s the lowdown ⬇️:

🧠 One journey from browse to resolution: Gemini Enterprise for CX is built to carry context across channels so customers don’t repeat themselves as they move between web, app, and phone support. Google frames it as a proactive concierge that can reason through intent and act with user consent.

🛒 A new Shopping agent that can actually do things: Google’s Shopping agent connects chat and voice interfaces to backend systems. It supports complex queries (specs, constraints, budget), multimodal inputs (image, video, voice), and consented actions like adding items to cart, applying discounts, and completing checkout.

🧰 Agent Studio for building support workflows fast: Customer Experience Agent Studio lets teams build and deploy support agents with a drag-and-drop approach, using existing transcripts and documents to create working agents. It also links to shopping history so support is informed by prior context.

🍕 Restaurants are included too: Google also folded an enhanced Food Ordering agent into the platform, with Papa Johns first to deploy omnichannel ordering and operational tooling for menus and pricing.

Why it matters 🤔

Retailers usually optimize shopping and support separately, then wonder why customers drop off after purchase problems. If these agents work as promised, customer service will become a growth lever, because resolution speed and continuity will start shaping repeat purchases.

🛒 Alibaba’s Qwen gets agentic upgrades for shopping.

Alibaba is upgrading its Qwen App with agentic AI features that move beyond product answers to completing tasks, including shopping-related actions that run across Taobao, Instant Commerce, and Alipay. The new capabilities are now in public testing in China, as Alibaba pushes Qwen deeper into everyday transactions.

Here’s the scoop 🍨:

🛍️ New shopping capabilities: Alibaba says Qwen can coordinate multi-step actions from one prompt, reducing the need to hop between apps to search, choose, and place an order.

⚡ Instant Commerce gets the first “agentic” lift: In quick commerce, Qwen can place real-time food and beverage orders through Taobao Instant Commerce, automatically apply promotions, and complete payment inside the conversation. Alibaba even demoed a bulk bubble-tea order to show the flow end to end.

💳 In-chat payments powered by Alipay: Qwen now supports native AI payments via Alipay. After explicit user confirmation, checkout can happen without leaving the chat. Alibaba says this begins with Instant Commerce and expands over time.

🔎 Product discovery backed by Taobao data: For shopping discovery, Qwen uses Taobao’s product data and reviews to handle vague or complex requests (starting with select categories during the initial test).

Why it matters 🤨

With how dynamic online shopping has become, it’s clear that the buying decision happens earlier, and often before a shopper ever sees a traditional product page. As such, it’s best to optimize, accordingly. Clear product data, consistent pricing logic, reliable promos, and accurate availability now matter more than page design. 

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📣 OpenAI tests ads in ChatGPT.

OpenAI says it will soon start testing ads inside ChatGPT in the U.S., placing clearly labeled sponsored results at the bottom of answers when they match a user’s current conversation. The tests will run for logged-in adults on the Free and $8/month Go tier, while Pro, Business, and Enterprise stay ad-free.

Here are the deets ⬇️: 

🧾 Ads appear after the answer, not inside it: OpenAI says ads won’t influence responses and will be separated from the organic output, aiming to protect trust in the assistant.

🔒 Conversation data isn’t sold to advertisers: OpenAI says chats remain private from advertisers, and users can turn off personalization and clear ad-related data at any time.

🧑‍🦱 Limits around teens and sensitive topics: The company says it won’t show ads to users it believes are under 18, and ads won’t run near sensitive areas like health, mental health, or politics.

🛒 Commerce-style ad formats are the starting point: OpenAI’s early examples focus on sponsored products and services that match intent in the chat, with options to ask follow-up questions on the ad to help decide.

Why it matters 🤷‍♂️

This certainly presents a new kind of funnel. It also puts pressure on what your product data “signals” (pricing, availability, reviews, value props) because the ad has to match intent instantly. Again, it changes measurement expectations to product visibility for the right intents within a conversation.

🛎️ The Ecom Press Insider

Ecom Fact: U.S. ecommerce orders surged 147% in 2025, but growth wasn’t evenly distributed. The top 5% of brands drove more than half of that growth, as shoppers placed orders 51% more frequently while engaging less with traditional promotions (Source: Omnisend).

💡 Takeaway: The brands that grew fastest were faster to adapt. Tight operations, reliable fulfillment, clear value, and timely responses to demand changes mattered more than constant discounts. For ecommerce teams, consistency and responsiveness are becoming stronger growth levers than promo intensity.

🧰 Tools spotlight: Smart tools worth your attention this week

As ecommerce gets busier and buyer journeys get messier, the tools doing well right now aren’t flashy. They’re the ones quietly removing friction, saving time, and helping stores sell without adding headcount. Here are five worth knowing this week 👇

🔍 Klevu – Search That Understands Shoppers: Klevu upgrades on-site search with natural language processing, helping shoppers find what they mean, not just what they type. With personalized results, merchandising controls, and Shopify Markets support, it’s built for mid-sized catalogs that need better navigation without heavy dev work.

🧠 Octane AI – Turn Questions Into Sales: Octane AI uses product quizzes to guide shoppers toward the right purchase while capturing zero-party data along the way. Its CORE-1 AI handles recommendations and copy, while the Smart Code Builder lets teams customize pages without touching code. Great for DTC brands focused on engagement and upsells.

✨ Clerk.io – Personalization From Day One: Clerk.io delivers AI-driven recommendations using both historical and real-time data, with no long learning period. It plugs into search, email, and on-site experiences, making it useful for SMBs that want instant relevance without complex setup or cookies.

📬 eDesk – Support Without the Chaos: eDesk centralizes customer support across 250+ channels, using AI-powered inboxes, auto-replies, and sentiment analysis to keep things efficient. It’s especially useful for marketplace sellers and lean teams that need visibility and faster responses without growing support costs.

💬 Gorgias – Customer Support That Sells: Gorgias connects directly to your store data so support conversations can handle returns, edit orders, and recommend products in real time. Built for growing DTC brands, it turns support from a cost center into a revenue-touching channel.

⚡️Worthy Mentions

• Amazon CEO confirms tariffs are increasing prices on Amazon products.

• Walmart Marketplace now offers high-end musical instruments.

• Google Ads pilots A/B testing specifically for Shopping campaigns.

• TikTok Shop adds AI for video creation, listings, and dubbing.

• Google's parent company Alphabet hits historic $4 trillion market cap Apple AI deal.

Wrapping up…

Another week, another clear signal that AI in ecommerce is moving fast. Agents are getting more capable, checkout is creeping into new places, and even conversations are becoming monetized 💸.

We’ll keep tracking what actually matters as it unfolds. Stay subscribed to remain in the loop, and if you’re new here, hit that button below. We’ll see you next week 😉.