Herald is in early access. Plans and prices may change before launch. Agori Labs
Guide 07

Agentic commerce: getting ready for AI shopping agents

More and more, the next shopper is an agent that researches, compares and buys on someone's behalf. It acts on your store instead of browsing it, so your store has to be operable as well as visible. The readiness that gets you recommended today gets you most of the way there.

~5 min readWhat's coming nextUpdated 2026
An agent can hand you a finished sale
shopping for a buyer ★ an AI agent, shopping AGENT-READY DATA price $28.00 · in stock ships 2 days · returns 30d variants 3 · size checkout endpoint ✓ it reads and acts on your data YOUR CHECKOUT $28.00 ✓ order placed the sale & customer stay yours
shopping for a buyer ★ an AI agent, shopping AGENT-READY DATA price $28.00 · in stock ships 2 days · returns 30d variants 3 · size checkout endpoint ✓ it reads and acts on your data YOUR CHECKOUT $28.00 ✓ order placed the sale & customer stay yours

Swipe the diagram to see all of it →

Give an agent clean, machine-readable data and a path to your checkout, and it can complete the purchase on a person's behalf, on your own store.

The shift ahead

From visible to operable

Getting recommended is about being readable. Selling through an agent goes a step further. Your store has to be operable, meaning an agent can act on your offers as well as read them.

Today

Visible

An assistant can read and recommend you, so you make the shortlist when a person asks.
◦ readable
Next

Operable

An agent can act on your store: parse your offers and policies, check live stock, and route a purchase to your checkout.
✓ actionable
Operable builds on visible: it adds the ability to be acted on.
The readiness

What an agent expects from your store

None of this is exotic. It's the boring, durable stuff. Get it right and you're ready for the agents arriving now and better placed with the assistants already here.

Stable URLs
Durable links an agent can return to and trust over time.
Machine-readable offers & policies
Price, shipping and returns as data instead of fine print.
Live availability
Real-time stock and variants, kept in sync automatically.
Clean checkout routing
A clear path to your own store's checkout, so the sale stays yours.
Herald is designed to roll these up as agent-operable catalog data (the AUX layer) so your catalog is ready to be acted on.
Where Herald comes inHerald is designed to publish your catalog as agent-operable data: stable pages, machine-readable offers, live availability, checkout routing to your store, so you're ready for agents early. Join early access →
The through-line

Do the readable work once, and you're ready for both.

The same clean, complete, structured data that gets an assistant to recommend you is what lets an agent act on your store. There's no separate "agent project." Get AI-ready now and you'll be ready when the agents arrive. We think every seller, whatever their size, deserves a place in AI answers today and in the agentic marketplace next.

Keep reading

Where to go next

Guide 01 · the pillar
What is AEO? The whole picture
All guides
Back to the guide hub

Be ready before the agents arrive.

Herald is in early access. Tell us about your store and we'll be in touch.

Join early access →