Newly launched AI modes and Agentic tools Push E-commerce into a new Era

New ecommerce tools are flooding the market as brands race to keep up with AI‑driven shopping, cross‑border demand, and new payment options. A fresh batch of launches spanning 3D visuals, duties and taxes, agentic commerce, social ads, returns data, and more shows how quickly the ecommerce stack is evolving end‑to‑end.

VisualScale.ai brings AI 3D visuals to Google Cloud

Imagine.io’s VisualScale.ai is now available on Google Cloud Marketplace, giving brands a way to turn a single product image or 3D model into realistic lifestyle visuals using AI prompts. Merchants can start from a cutout, an existing scene, or an eligible 3D asset and refine the output with natural‑language instructions, while also uploading brand guidelines so content stays on‑brand.

This kind of tool aims to cut the cost and time of traditional photo shoots, especially for retailers that need high volumes of differentiated imagery across PDPs, social, ads, and marketplaces.

ShipStation simplifies duties and taxes for cross‑border

Shipping platform ShipStation has introduced a guaranteed prepaid duties and taxes feature to help U.S. merchants ship internationally with fewer surprises. Sellers can now confirm duty and tax costs inside ShipStation when purchasing a label, and end customers pay all fees upfront to avoid unexpected post‑delivery charges.

For brands scaling cross‑border, this tackles one of the biggest friction points in international ecommerce: unclear landed costs that lead to refusals, returns, and unhappy buyers.

Agentic AI and returns from Amazon and others

Amazon has launched a new returns dashboard called “Returns and Recovery: Insights and Opportunities” that gives sellers ASIN‑level visibility, trend metrics, recovery data for Grade and Resell, and tools to manage returns settings for both FBA and FBM. The goal is to help merchants understand why items come back, how recovered inventory performs, and where policies or listings need to change.

Meanwhile, analytics platform MikMak is preparing MikMak 3.0 with Model Context Protocol (MCP)‑powered and AI‑driven enhancements, including conversational insights that pair visual analytics with narrative summaries and recommendations. This is aimed at brands that want AI to not just report performance but explain what’s happening and what to do next.

Social, search, and marketplace upgrades

Woo, the company behind WooCommerce, has released Reddit for WooCommerce, making it easier for merchants to launch campaigns on Reddit. The extension auto‑enables the Reddit Pixel and conversions API, syncs product catalogs in one click, and lets brands run Dynamic Product Ads and conversion campaigns via Reddit Ads Manager.

On the marketplace side, Facebook Marketplace is testing “Suggested questions to ask,” where Meta AI proposes smart questions buyers can send to sellers based on listing details and the chat history. Shoppers can also react and comment directly on listings, helping others gauge quality and discover standout items.

Payments and cross‑border logistics

In Europe, the European Payments Initiative has launched Wero ecommerce in Germany, expanding from instant peer‑to‑peer transfers into an alternative payment method for online merchants. Banks, including Postbank, Deutsche Bank, ING Deutschland, and Revolut, have started enabling Wero transactions, giving consumers a new way to pay.

Shopping app IFYshop has announced a Global Warehouse Logistics Fund to build smart storage centers, automated sorting and AI‑driven supply chain systems across major trade corridors. The plan is to lower warehousing and fulfillment costs while speeding up cross‑border delivery, supported by a new Saving Wallet tool for managing settlement funds.

Agentic AI for sourcing, websites, and SMB operations

Alibaba.com has unveiled an AI mode that brings agent‑based capabilities into its sourcing journey. The feature interprets natural‑language queries, analyzes technical specs, and automatically compares suppliers on pricing, logistics, certifications, and production capacity, then connects recommendations to existing services like secure payments and post‑sales support for a more automated buying experience.

GoDaddy has launched Airo, a beta agentic AI website solution for small businesses that can propose ideas, register domains, build sites, generate logos, and even produce hosted apps. Six agents—covering app building, compliance, domain search and registration, website buildin,g and logo creation—are available at launch, aiming to turn simple conversations into completed digital tasks for SMBs.

Ant International’s merchant services unit Antom has introduced EPOS360, an AI‑powered app that bundles POS, payments, banking, lending, and support for small and medium‑sized businesses. Merchants can set up online stores, connect to e‑wallets, manage inventory and promotions, and access financing from Anext Bank, regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Partnerships and new analytics for AI shopping

Model builder Liquid has signed a multi‑year deal with Shopify to license Liquid Foundation Models for search and co‑develop a generative recommender system. The partners are also testing multimodal models for customer profiles, agents and product classification, following Shopify’s participation in Liquid’s $250 million Series A round in December 2024.

Finally, marketing platform Profound has launched Shopping Analysis, a tool that helps retailers track how their products appear inside AI shopping conversations. It monitors where and how often products show up, how they’re positioned versus competitors, which attributes AI engines assign to them, and even captures images and placement within answer flows so teams can optimize their presence in AI‑driven shopping results.