Ulta Beauty is leveraging its loyalty program and AI to enhance personalization across its customer journey. With a 5% increase in loyalty membership to 46.7 million in 2025, the company aims to use first-party data and omnichannel capabilities to drive AI efforts, according to President and CEO Kecia Steelman. Ulta's strategy has improved digital engagement and in-store experiences, and it is also exploring AI-enhanced commerce platforms and conversational AI for customer service.

Colgate-Palmolive is utilizing AI-enabled tools to enhance its omnichannel demand generation strategy, bridging the gap between physical and online retail. CEO Noel Wallace highlights the company's use of AI in testing product ideas, such as Colgate's purple toothpaste, and optimizing them for global markets. AI tools also help create promotional roadmaps that improve sales and margins by analyzing vast amounts of data, allowing Colgate to quickly adapt and succeed in diverse markets.

Online fashion retailer Zalando projects a 12-25% operating profit increase for 2026, driven by advancements in AI, which is enhancing productivity by generating product images and facilitating virtual try-ons that help reduce returns. Zalando also announced a new partnership with Levi's to manage its global ecommerce operations. While AI presents both opportunities and challenges, Co-CEO David Schroeder highlighted its role as a catalyst for growth, with Zalando's energy costs hedged to counteract potential impacts from rising oil prices.

Retailers this year are redefining the in-store experience by turning physical locations into destinations for discovery, hospitality and entertainment, with brands such as Coach, Nike and Dyson creating immersive environments where customers can test products, customize products and try branded food and drinks. Technology-driven setups, like Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses stores and IKEA's flexible pop-ups and shop-in-shops, illustrate how digital and physical experiences are being blended. These efforts reflect a shift away from simple transactions, with retailers prioritizing memorable, interactive experiences that foster loyalty and repeat visits.

Thrive Market is leveraging AI for personalized shopping, embracing EU-inspired ingredient bans and offering a highly curated selection of around 7,000 products to simplify healthy living for consumers. Chief Marketing Officer Amina Pasha discusses how these strategies have built trust and driven growth, emphasizing the importance of reducing decision fatigue and maintaining high standards. The curation process includes vetting brands before they go live, and treats the meaning of "healthy" as a dynamic, evolving concept, a flexible approach that enables quick adaptation as consumer needs shift.

Surveys from IBM and eMarketer revealed that more than half of consumers use AI tools to research products, read reviews or find deals and, as industry standards shift, Furniture.com is leveraging both its historical strengths and new approaches to remain authoritative. The platform is refining and standardizing its product data, ensuring AI chatbots can accurately recommend its offerings. The company is also investing in richer content, such as images and videos, and monitoring social media conversations to help AI systems generate more accurate and positive brand responses.

Amazon is struggling to address trust issues surrounding AI, particularly regarding its environmental impact and workforce implications. In response, Amazon recently hosted an event in Seattle to showcase its sustainability and workforce development efforts, with executives emphasizing water-conservation measures at its data centers. The event comes amid reports of Amazon's expanding data center footprint. Other companies, including Microsoft and OpenAI, also face public skepticism about AI's environmental and social effects.

Shopify will soon allow merchants to have their products discovered and purchased through ChatGPT via a feature called Agentic Storefronts. The integration will have buyers complete purchases on the merchant's online storefronts, using Shopify's checkout and payments infrastructure. "We're prioritizing making ChatGPT search and product discovery great, with the Agentic Commerce Protocol serving as the infrastructure that connects users to merchants across the full shopping journey," an OpenAI spokesperson said.

Brands are ramping up efforts to solicit consumer reviews to boost their presence in AI-powered search results. Fireclay Tile has adopted a more proactive approach, with personalized review requests, direct outreach from the CEO, and even employee contests designed to encourage review collection. Pet food brand Pawco times its review requests to maximize authenticity, waiting until consumers have had time to experience the product. Both brands are also encouraging consumers to post reviews across multiple public platforms.

Autonomous AI agents are changing the ecommerce game by enabling autonomous, goal-driven actions without human prompts, with experts forecasting that one-third of enterprise software applications will include agentic AI by 2028. These agents can independently manage tasks such as inventory replenishment and customer service, providing real-time insights and improving efficiency. The technology allows for seamless multichannel support and advanced fraud detection, freeing customer service representatives to focus on strategic roles.