For decades, eCommerce has been built on one assumption: if you could be discovered, you could grow. Brands poured billions into SEO, ads, and website optimization to attract and convert customers. But the rules of the game are changing.

Agentic Commerce Is Reshaping the Funnel

We’re entering the age of Agentic Commerce, where AI agents shop on behalf of customers, and people can purchase directly within chat conversations on platforms like ChatGPT. 

Tools like Shopify’s shopping assistant, Google Shopping, and ChatGPT’s latest integrations are proof: the consumer no longer needs to visit a website to buy.

In this world, discoverability collapses:

• Websites become irrelevant. Optimizations, pop-ups, upsells, and retention flows lose value.

• Attribution disappears. Purchases flow directly through LLMs and shopping agents, bypassing the funnel.

• Brands become commodities. If an agent is choosing the “best product at the best price,” differentiation evaporates. A brand becomes just another entry in a sea of products and prices.

The existential threat is clear: if you don’t own your audience, you risk being reduced to a line item in an AI-generated shopping cart.

The Only Defense: Pre-Empt Intent With Community

The best brands already know the answer: build community before intent is even formed.

When people feel a connection to your brand, and see themselves as part of your tribe, no algorithm can replace that relationship. Community shifts the question from “What’s the cheapest option?” to “What does my brand stand for?” 

Instead of choosing one product and price from a sea of hundreds, consumers default to you.

This isn’t theory. It’s proven:

• Glossier scaled from a blog into a $1B company by turning readers into evangelists.

• Gymshark went from a garage startup to a $1.4B valuation by mobilizing fitness influencers and grassroots community.

• Poppi exploded on TikTok (800K followers, 11M likes) before being acquired for $2B

These brands are among the hundreds that have built billion dollar B2C businesses in the last decade through a social-first strategy. Community-led growth derisks commoditization. It ensures your brand is more than a product.

Why Social Is the New Home of Community

Email and SMS lists defined the last decade. Whoever owned the audience owned the revenue, leading to giants like Klaviyo ($10B valuation) and Attentive ($7B+). But these tools still operate on segments and blasts, not building relationships.

Social is different. On social, your brand can connect 1:1 with millions of followers. Selling on social requires building relationships, not just quick coupon conversions. It’s harder. But it’s how the best brands win, and it’s what Gen Z expects.

• 77% of consumers buy from brands that share their values (Edelman Trust Barometer).

• Brands that reply to customers on socials unlock 35% more revenue (Womply)

• As of 2025, 78% of Gen Z buy directly through social channels, compared to just 36% of U.S. internet users overall.

• Gen Z is 35% more likely to buy after receiving a reply to their comment or DM

This generation doesn’t just shop. They co-create, they converse, they want brands that see them.

The Playbook Forward

Agentic commerce will eat discoverability. The funnel as we know it will collapse. But the best defense is timeless: people buy from brands they trust, and trust is built in community.

Brands that lean into social-first, community-led marketing will thrive. Those who don’t will watch as AI agents erase their margins and their identity.

The rise of agentic commerce doesn’t spell the end of brand power. It amplifies it. Build community now, or risk being invisible tomorrow.