Why agentic commerce is good news for physical retail

Isn't AI the end of the high street?

That was said about the internet, and it was half right. Online accounted for 29.4% of all UK retail spending in June 2026, according to the ONS figure reported by Parcelhero. The other 70.6% still happened somewhere else.

Agents will move more of the routine online, and faster: the reorder, the like for like swap, the thing you know the size of. Our read is that this is the part of shopping nobody loved anyway.

What is an agent good at, and what isn't it?

An agent is good at errands. It compares prices, checks stock, remembers your size and keeps watching. It isn't good at occasions: trying a jacket on with a friend, getting a bike fitted, standing at the start line of a group ride.

We think of it as a split. Machines take the errands. People keep the occasions. A store that is mainly an errand, the place you collect a thing you've already chosen, has the most to worry about. A store that is an occasion has the most to gain.

There's a practical reason too. When an assistant can answer what a product is, what it costs and whether it's in stock, a shopper walks into a store for a different reason. They come to see it, to ask someone who knows, or to be around people who care about the same thing. A store that is ready for that visit will feel busier than one that is only waiting to be a pickup point.

Are people already looking for things to do in the real world?

Yes, and the evidence is in how people move. Strava's 2025 Year in Sport report found new clubs on the platform nearly quadrupled in 2025, reaching a million. Running clubs grew 3.5 times and hiking clubs 5.8 times. Club organized events rose 1.5 times year on year.

Younger people lead it. Strava found Gen Z are 75% more likely than Gen X to say their main motivation for exercise is a race or event, and 39% more likely to use fitness to meet people who share their interests.

Run, ride, hike. These are things you do with other people, in a place, with kit. People are seeking out experiences, and a brand that hosts them has a reason to be visited that no assistant can supply.

What does a store need to become?

More than a counter. Four things we'd look for:

1. A place to start something.A group run from the door on Tuesday evenings, a Saturday ride, a workshop, a talk. The store is where the group meets.
2. A place to try.Fit, feel, a fitting, a repair, someone who knows the product. What a screen can't give is the reason to come in.
3. A place that remembers you.The visit should connect to the rest of your relationship with the brand: who you met, what you joined, what you bought. An account and a community app the brand owns do that.
4. A place agents can send people to.Opening hours, local stock and the events calendar written as data, so an assistant can say that a shop has a ride on Saturday at nine and the jacket in your size. Stores that are readable will get the visit.

Where do we fit?

We build both sides. Storefront makes a brand's range readable to agents. Community gives a brand its own app, with events, a feed and chat for the people who buy from it, so a shop's best moments don't depend on someone else's platform.

Neither replaces a good shop. They make sure the shop gets found, and that the people who turn up are remembered afterwards.

Why do we think it's a boon?

Because it strips the transaction out of the shop and leaves the reason to visit. The brands that have always understood that, because they had a ride, a club, a counter with people who care, are the ones best placed. Everyone else gets an invitation to work it out.

Your next customer is AI. Your best is still human, and they'd quite like to meet you.