ICYMI, everyone’s talking about agentic commerce.

And a big reason is because agentic commerce has the potential to completely change how consumers shop, from the products they buy to the retailers they buy from.

As more people turn to LLMs to shop, a focus on product assortment and innovation could be key for some retailers and brands to continue to land in shoppers’ carts, especially in a crowded retail segment like beauty.

“Competition is real, especially in this category,” Ulta Beauty CEO Kecia Steelman said on stage at NRF this year during her keynote session. And for Ulta, a strategy for edging out that competition in the age of AI is working with brands to create exclusive products or launching brands that are only sold at the retailer.

“We are really getting into Only at Ulta, which I think is going to be really important as you’ve been hearing a lot about agentic AI,” Steelman said. “The more that you can have that’s exclusive in your assortment, the more engaged the customer, the agent, or the guest is going to be coming into your specific brand.”

Could strategies like these be increasingly important in the age of agentic commerce?

Keep reading here.—EC

Shoppers may forgive high prices, but poor customer experience…is far less negotiable. Havas CX’s X Index Report suggests consumers are now more likely to walk away over how a brand makes them feel than how much it charges.

The global study, which surveyed more than 59,000 consumers across eight countries, found that 59% of shoppers reported “abandoning a brand” after a single bad experience, compared to 55% who said they’ve left due to price increases, signaling that experience quality now outweighs cost sensitivity.

And when it comes to what defines a seamless customer experience, consistency tops the list. Uniform experiences across physical and digital channels ranked as a leading driver in markets including the UK (25%), the US (22%), and Germany (21%).

Personalization and emotional connection also played an outsized role.

Keep reading here.—JS

Cargo theft can be a real financial headache—and not the localized tension type of headache. We’re talking about a financial-migraine situation.

Beyond the obvious potential losses incurred when products are stolen, cargo theft can have downstream effects such as raising insurance costs or more restrictive coverage.

So the fact that losses from cargo theft shot up 60% year over year in 2025, according to one firm’s estimate, should have CFOs reaching for some extra-strength Tylenol.

This uptick is according to new analysis from cargo-theft prevention and recovery network Verisk CargoNet, which reported that estimated cargo-theft losses totaled about $725 million last year in the US and Canada.

Keep reading here on CFO Brew.—AZ

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