During this holiday season, 58% of Gen Z and millennials say they would trust an AI agent to compare prices and recommend the best option. This marks the beginning of a monumental shift in how consumers shop and a new challenge for retailers in creating customer loyalty.
Deliver AI-enhanced unified commerce experiences that drive profitable growth
Seismic shifts are not new for retailers—back in 1999, e-commerce was still an afterthought. By 2000, everything changed as retailers went all-in on digital.
In 2025, we are living in yet another pivotal year. This holiday season might feel familiar as you scroll through deals, compare brands, and race to beat shipping deadlines. But beneath the surface, something far more transformative is happening. The year 2025 will likely be the last consumers shop as they do now.
Agentic AI is reshaping commerce by making shopping faster, smarter, and effortless. Discovery is moving from people browsing their favorite brands to intelligent orchestration. Instead of opening 10 tabs to hunt for the right deal, shoppers will simply ask: “Find me the highest rated black, puffy winter coat, size 10, under $200 that ships in two days.”
The agent will handle the rest—scanning thousands of options, validating reviews, confirming delivery timelines, even factoring in loyalty perks. That future isn’t tomorrow; it’s already here, and by next holiday season, most shopping journeys will begin, evolve, or end with AI agents.
While this type of shopping creates convenience for shoppers, it creates a challenge for retailers that have focused on brand campaigns and poured millions of dollars into advertising to be the “brand of choice” in the discovery process. Decades of investment into SEO, paid traffic, and brand recognition are losing their edge. While not abandoning these strategies entirely, they must evolve for the AI-first world.
However, there is something that hasn’t changed over the course of decades: the need to create loyal customers who make repeat purchases and give the greatest share of their wallets. This, too, is more challenging than ever. In fact, 72% of consumers report that this holiday season they will only stay loyal to brands that consistently meet their needs in the moment.
Creating customer loyalty in the age of agentic commerce means conquering two critical fronts:
- Optimizing for discoverability: Agents will favor retailers that make buying seamless.
- Creating customer loyalty post-purchase: With discovery being augmented by AI agents, humans will now give their ongoing loyalty based on post-purchase experiences. On-time delivery, easy returns, and rewards that feel personal are the new battleground for brand equity. And with agents learning from human behavior, exceeding shopper expectations post-purchase can ultimately impact a brand’s likelihood of being recommended in the discovery phase.
The question remains: how do we move from esoteric AI conversations to practical strategies?
Discovery and loyalty: How to win in the age of agentic AI
- Make your catalog agent-ready: Treat AI as a new kind of shopper. Ensure product feeds are rich, structured, and machine-readable, complete with attributes, use-case-driven descriptions, real-time pricing, and accurate inventory. Clean, structured product data is now the foundation of intelligent discovery.
- Create solutions, not just SKUs: AI-driven traffic behaves differently. Design bundles, add-ons, and value stacks that solve specific problems and allow agents to match shoppers with outcomes, not just product lists.
- Build trustworthy, accessible information: Operationalize trust by surfacing verified reviews, transparent pricing, sustainability details, and clear return policies. Make this data accessible through well-structured APIs, not scraping, so agents and humans see the same reliable truth.
- Let prediction power personalization: Use unified data and AI to predict what customers want before they act, enabling real-time next-best-actions across email, SMS, push, in-app, and other emerging channels. This predictive intelligence turns fragmented campaigns into connected, personalized experiences that deliver higher engagement and revenue.
- Make loyalty the thread that ties every experience together: Loyalty is no longer a program. It’s a relationship. Use every interaction to tailor meaningful, emotional moments that adapt, remember, and feel consistent across channels in order to help convert agent-driven traffic. Then, use personalized exclusives and perks to foster high-value relationships with those new customers.
- Deliver on your promises, every time: Eighty-eight percent of customers leave a brand after one bad experience. That’s why operational reliability is the new loyalty. Bring order, inventory, payments, and fulfillment into alignment, so customers receive what they were promised, when they were promised. Loyalty now begins at checkout.
- Prepare for the new return economy: Agent-driven buying makes it easy for consumers to purchase first and decide later. Set clear limits to protect margins and reduce friction in the returns journey because a seamless return can build more loyalty than the purchase itself.
SAP is already helping brands prepare for this future with AI-enabled technologies across commerce, loyalty, order management, and customer engagement.
A brand already building for the future
Global sports brand Mizuno offers a glimpse ahead. Historically reliant on seasonal campaigns, Mizuno wanted a more sustainable way to engage its diverse customer base across 10 product categories and multiple channels. Mizuno unified its customer data and used AI to create personalized journeys, turning one-off interactions into long-term relationships.
The results speak for themselves:
- 52% year-over-year (YoY) increase in active customers
- 62% increase in revenue from premium customers
- 35% increase in customer win-backs
- 33% increase in the number of orders
SAP: A partner built for scale, stability, and growth
As customer behavior evolves and AI reshapes what’s possible, one thing remains constant: SAP’s commitment to helping brands win their biggest commercial moments. This year’s holiday results make that clearer than ever. We’re not just helping brands plan for peak season—we’re helping them execute it with precision, intelligence, and confidence.
Nearly 20% YoY growth in total messages sent underscores the trust brands place in SAP Emarsys to deliver at scale. Mobile and emerging channels surged—in-app (+61%), SMS (+32%), push (+27%), and inbox (+91%) all saw significant YoY gains—as brands met customers exactly where they were browsing and buying. Omnichannel maturity accelerated with brands using a richer mix of channels to create connected, high-value experiences across every stage of the shopping journey. And with 100% uptime and flawless reliability, teams executed independently and confidently, even during their highest-volume moments.
Paired with exceptional commerce performance, the story becomes even more compelling: brands used more intelligent engagement to guide shoppers toward higher-value purchases (+18% YoY average order value) and ultimately drove substantial YoY revenue growth (+40% gross merchandise value)—all powered by a CX portfolio that delivered uninterrupted performance with 100% uptime through the holiday shopping rush, ensuring we’re here for our customers when it matters most.
This is what partnership looks like: scale, intelligence, reliability, and results so brands can focus on creating exceptional customer experiences, not managing technology.
Looking ahead
The year 2025 will be remembered as the last holiday season where brand mattered more than the overall experience.
This year, 39% of shoppers report a positive impact of AI on their retail experience and 48% of shoppers would support brands bringing more AI into their buying experience. This sets the stage for growth in 2026 as AI agents deliver relevance, trust, and immediacy, making shopping simpler, smarter, and more satisfying for people everywhere.
The brands that win won’t be the ones shouting the loudest. They’ll be the ones using SAP to be most discoverable, dependable, and unforgettable.
By anticipating needs and creating better, personalized journeys, AI will enhance every stage of commerce. And SAP is here to make that future happen.
Balaji Balasubramanian is president and chief product officer for SAP Customer Experience.
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