Ecommerce Trends for 2027: The Key Insights from DMEXCO 2026
Who will decide what to buy tomorrow? Buying triggers increasingly stem from social feeds and AI assistants, while AI shopping agents handle some purchases entirely. Here we share six ecommerce trends from DMEXCO 2026 to get you excited for 2027.
Ecommerce in 2027: Purchase triggers enter new territory
Discovering products outside the search bar is something we’re all familiar with from our own feeds. What’s new is that AI assistants are now often providing the crucial impetus. For brands, this opens up additional ways to reach their customers. Vesselina Markova-Kauffmann, Director of Retail DACH at Pinterest, asked “Which trigger will ultimately prompt the customer to make the purchase?” in the masterclass “The Future of Commerce.”
For retailers and brands, this raises one question above all: How can they shape this new interface? There were plenty of ideas for how to do this at DMEXCO 2026.
Six ecommerce trends that are set to shape 2027
#1 Agentic commerce: Delegating instead of searching
“Consumer behavior is changing so rapidly that we all need to get ready for agentic commerce,” said Karo Junker de Neui, COO of Etribes, in the “Trends in Commerce 2027” panel discussion.
Just how far AI has already penetrated the B2B business was one of the points that Patrick Sostmann, General Manager Europe at Alibaba.com Europe, made in his keynote “From Search to Agent: The New Rules of B2B Commerce”: The platform Accio works as an agentic business team for SMEs, covering everything from sourcing to CRM. Instead of simply asking agents questions, Sostmann recommends assigning real tasks to them and proceeding workflow by workflow.
Action you can take: In order for AI agents to be able to buy from your store, they need up-to-date, machine-readable product data, availability information, and prices. It’s easier to get started than it sounds: Start small internally, for example with reordering. Decide how you’ll measure success and where a human will approve the process.
#2 WhatsApp and brand agents with personality
Victoria Canduela, Enterprise Client Partner at Meta, has two favorites: “My top trends for next year are WhatsApp and agentic.” She expects more brands to roll out their own agents with character in 2027. WhatsApp is still in its early days as a commerce channel. The companies that get on board now will be able to help shape it.
Action you can take: Get started on WhatsApp where your customers need advice: with products that require explanations or with post-purchase support. Before building your own agent, write down what it should sound like, what it must never say, and when it will hand over to your customer service team. These rules should be as binding as your brand guidelines.
#3 AI is evolving into a product recommendation engine
Verena Gründel, Brand and Communications Director at DMEXCO, recorded a live episode of the Social Media Schau podcast with Nemo Tronnier (Social DNA). Gründel’s thesis: “ChatGPT is turning into a product recommendation engine.” She expects that “we’ll see something like Google Shopping appearing in LLMs in the medium term.”
For brands, the implications of the rise of conversational commerce are clear: Going forward, being visible will also mean appearing in AI responses. And it will pay off: According to Dan Glock, Head of Enterprise EMEA at Shopify, agentic discovery yields 2.5 times more visits to product detail pages than organic search.
Action you can take: Regularly ask ChatGPT or Perplexity questions like your customers would and see whether your brand is mentioned in the response. Update citable product data, reviews, and FAQs. And report AI traffic separately in your analyses.
#4 Clean product data beats big catalogs
“I think 2027 is still going to be the year for standardizing your data,” said Glock in the “Trends in Commerce 2027” panel discussion. In his view, digital-native companies that structured their product data clearly from the outset have an almost unfair advantage over brands with a history and big catalogs. Glock also mentioned an encouraging number: 75 percent of purchases from AI traffic are products outside the top 100 categories.
Action you can take: Get to work on your catalog. Are the attributes, variants, and use scenarios complete and up to date? Start with the long tail: That’s where there’s lots of potential and where the quality of the data will determine whether an agent finds your product.
#5 Content is becoming the digital shelf
Many consumers are discovering products on TikTok because creators show them casually as part of their daily lives. David Roland, General Manager GBS DACH at TikTok Germany, explained this phenomenon in the “Closing the Measurement Gap” session: “Content isn’t just a colorful ad anymore; it’s evolving into the digital shelf.” He continued: “And if the comments say, ‘I cooked it, tastes delicious,’ a fleeting idea turns into a purchase decision. That’s what we call discovery commerce at TikTok.”
Things get really exciting at the supermarket cash register. TikTok and Unilever discussed how the impact of content can be measured all the way through to this point of sale, taking a Knorr activation as an example. Retailer insights and closed-loop measurement should link media investment to incremental sales in stores.
Action you can take: Treat content like shelf space. Show your products in real-life use and get creators to talk about them. Sales data from stores will give you a better indication of whether a social media campaign is working than any view count.
#6 Social or AI commerce? You need both
Where should you invest your budget and attention: in social commerce or AI commerce? The BVDW’s Social & Discovery Commerce Lab and its AI Commerce Lab discussed this question together for the first time in the masterclass “The Future of Commerce: Who Will Decide What to Buy Tomorrow? Social, Discovery & AI Commerce Get a Reality Check.” Bastian Scherbeck, Managing Director of segmenta experience, doesn’t think much of the either/or approach: “It’s not just about social commerce or just about AI commerce.”
To provide orientation, the labs presented the new AI commerce layer model, which covers everything from the AI-optimized store to agentic commerce. In the “Trends in Commerce 2027” panel discussion, Clemens Bauer, Director of Ecommerce at REWE Markt GmbH, reminded attendees: “Our big trend is still omnichannel commerce.” The new channels are creating additional opportunities without replacing the established ones.
Action you can take: Scherbeck recommends doing a quick audit: In your three highest-revenue categories, where does the buying trigger come from – search, social, or AI? If it mainly comes from social, it’s worth collaborating on more content with creators. If AI agents are contributing to the conversation, invest your budget in product data and AI visibility.
Your takeaway from the 2027 ecommerce trends: Shaping the interface will be the key to success
Purchase triggers are appearing in more and more places, and algorithms are preselecting products increasingly frequently. The companies that clean up their product data, create inspiring content, and appear in AI answers will be able to get off to a flying start in 2027. And what about Vesselina Markova-Kauffmann’s question? The trigger that leads to a purchase is the one that reaches customers where they happen to be browsing – regardless of whether they’re conducting the search themselves or using ChatGPT shopping or another AI assistant.
Want to learn more about the ecommerce trends and highlights from DMEXCO 2026? Numerous sessions are now available for you to view in the DMEXCO Video-on-Demand Library.
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