Every platform wants your customer

In the last week, a couple of headlines caught my attention.

They’re both related to AI (what isn’t). But they’re both, at a deeper level, related to one of the most important parts of running a business (especially in ecommerce):

Owning your audience.

It’s a push and pull moment for DTC brands right now. Platforms are trying to take your audience away; but your customers are not on board (just yet).

Let’s elaborate - and explain why this is such a critical juncture for ecommerce brands.

In the news

Story one: OpenAI is pivoting away from Instant Checkout.

It was major news last September. OpenAI announce in-chat purchasing inside ChatGPT. Browse a product, buy it, never leave the conversation.

It looked like a massive moment for ecommerce. A new Amazon competitor, essentially. Customers bypassing your storefront, searching and buying right inside an LLM.

But The Information reported on March 5 that OpenAI is pulling the plug on Instant Checkout. Instead of buying inside ChatGPT, users will be redirected to the merchant's own website or use third-party apps.

OpenAI said they were "evolving our commerce strategy to better meet merchants and users where they are."

Why? A few reports cast some light on the situation.

• Reports say Instant Checkout had near-zero conversion rates.

• Out of the million-plus Shopify merchants announced, roughly a dozen actually integrated. (Merchants weren't exactly lining up to pay a 4% fee on top of their existing payment processing costs.)

• Also, as of February, OpenAI still hadn't built sales tax compliance. (Kind of important if you're trying to run a commerce platform.)

Customers weren’t ready. OpenAI wasn’t ready. And merchants weren’t on board.

Story two: Google was granted a patent for AI-generated landing pages.

Here's how it works: the system scores your existing landing page on conversion rate, bounce rate, and design quality. If you fall below a certain threshold, Google generates its own version of your page, personalized to each individual user, and sends shoppers there instead of to your site.

Now, it's a patent, not a product. It's limited to shopping and paid search. It might never ship.

But it tells you exactly what Google is thinking: "Your page isn't converting well enough, so we'll replace it with ours."

And one way of seeing this is that it’s a sneaky ploy by Google to take control of the customer journey.

Just as OpenAI tried with Instant Checkout (and will likely try again).

The takeaway?

Every platform wants to own your customer.

The Amazon playbook

A friend of mine used to run an Amazon SaaS. He talked to Amazon-only sellers all day. And the number one anxiety, the thing that kept these merchants up at night: you don't own your customers. Amazon does.

If you sell exclusively on Amazon, you typically don't have email addresses of your customers. You don't have phone numbers. You don't have a relationship. You have a listing on someone else's platform, subject to someone else's rules.

Sellers build $5M, $10M businesses on Amazon. It’s powerful, but it’s not stable.

One algorithm change or one account suspension can wipe their business out overnight.

It’s an extreme example of what’s threatening to happen with agentic commerce, platforms like ChatGPT and Google facilitating transactions.

You don’t build billion or trillion-dollar companies without understanding the importance of owning customer relationships.

It's platform capture. Amazon perfected it - now you’re seeing other major tech companies trying to emulate them.

If they do? You’re the one who loses.

What should make you optimistic

Instant Checkout not taking off is a good sign (for now).

People are absolutely using ChatGPT to research products. Capgemini found that 53% of US consumers have made purchases based on AI recommendations.

People are discovering products on ChatGPT and other AI platforms. And this is only going to increase.

But they’re not comfortable buying from ChatGPT.

ChatGPT (and AI in general) hasn’t built the trust yet to fully own the customer journey.

This shouldn't surprise anyone. Amazon spent decades building the trust required for people to hand over payment details. They have the A-to-Z guarantee. They have 30 years of reviews. They have a return policy everyone knows by heart. They earned it.

ChatGPT doesn't have that. Perplexity doesn't have that. Maybe they will eventually, maybe they won't.

The point is: customers still want to buy from someone they trust. That's why your brand still has a competitive moat - and why you need to continue marketing to your customers on a personal level.

It's like we wrote a couple of weeks ago: your customer is not an API. They're a person with preferences, habits, and loyalties.

ChatGPT isn’t. And that’s your edge.

Is Agentic Commerce finished?

Does this mean that agentic commerce is not going to be a thing, that customers are never going to be comfortable buying through AI?

I don’t think so.

We’re seeing real proof that people are discovering products and fine-tuning their searches through AI.

And while the checkout piece failed for now, that doesn’t mean it’s done for good. AI is still incredibly new, and in time, I think people will come around to buying in ChatGPT, or even letting agents buy for them.

Want proof? Look at what's happening on Amazon, and their Rufus AI assistant.

• 250 million shoppers used Rufus in 2025.

• Andy Jassy said it's on pace for $10 billion in incremental sales.

• During Black Friday, Rufus-assisted sessions converted at double the rate of non-AI sessions.

The difference? Rufus comes with the Amazon brand attached. And people trust Amazon.

Agentic Commerce is coming. Not as fast as some think, but it’s coming.

And that only makes it more important to double down on customer relationships.

The only thing that matters

Controlling the customer relationship should be at the front of your mind.

Right now, customers are telling you that they want to buy from someone they trust. They don’t just want to buy whatever the Matrix told them to buy.

When that fades, when trust in AI grows, just being a real brand won’t be enough anymore.

You’ll need to have a real connection with your audience. You need a level of trust that ChatGPT can’t easily match.

If you don’t, when AI arrives, you risk surrendering your sales to the mercy of their algorithm.

Just like an Amazon seller needs to build a protective moat outside of Amazon, you need your own protective moat against AI deciding whether or not your brand gets a sale.

Your customer lists are increasingly valuable assets.

• Email

• SMS

• App users

• Communities

• Mailing lists

The relationships you’ve built up. Brand recognition.

The brand is only getting more important. Don’t neglect yours.

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On the Pod

On the latest episode of the Retention Edge Podcast we had Nate Littlewood on to talk finance.

It’s one of the most important, but often poorly understood topics in ecommerce. Your P&L can look great, but if you don’t have money coming in, you’re not going to be able to keep the lights on.

Highly recommend checking this out.

Check it out below 👇

Quick Hits

Mastercard and Google Launch "Verifiable Intent" for AI Commerce
This is infrastructure worth watching. As AI agents start handling purchases on behalf of consumers, someone needs to verify that the agent is actually authorized to spend that person's money. Mastercard and Google are building that trust layer now. The companies laying these rails today will shape how your brand gets discovered and transacted with by AI agents tomorrow. The plumbing of agentic commerce is being built whether you're paying attention or not.

66% of Brands Think CX Is Improving. Only 17% of Consumers Agree.
That's a 49-point perception gap. And it's getting worse, not better. Other findings: only 22% of consumers feel "very loyal" to any brand, 40% have switched brands recently, and over half say brands should infer satisfaction from behavior rather than sending surveys. If you're measuring CX and patting yourself on the back, your customers might disagree.

37% of Consumers Now Start Searches with AI, Not Google 
This stat from a new study should grab your attention. More than a third of consumers are going to AI first for product research. 60% say AI delivers better, clearer answers than traditional search. But here's the nuance: 85% still double-check AI answers elsewhere, and 47% say AI influences which brands they trust. It's a hybrid journey now. Your brand needs to show up in both worlds.

Stripe Expands Payment Methods for Agentic Commerce 
While OpenAI steps back from checkout, Stripe is quietly building the plumbing for the next attempt. They've launched Shared Payment Tokens, letting AI agents initiate payments with a customer's permission without exposing card details. Now adding support for Mastercard Agent Pay, Visa Intelligent Commerce, and BNPL through Affirm and Klarna. Etsy and URBN (Anthropologie, Free People, Urban Outfitters) are already on board. The infrastructure for agentic commerce is being built whether the consumer is ready or not.

The "Zero Results" Dead End (and How to Fix It) 
A good tactical read from RiseDTC. When a customer searches your site and gets zero results, you've just lost your highest-intent visitor. They came ready to buy, typed what they wanted, and you showed them a blank page. The fix: show related products, suggest refinements, surface popular alternatives. Turn dead ends into recovery points. Small change, real revenue.

That’s all for now.

I’ll be back in touch next week, with more on how successful brands are doing CX and retention right.

If there’s any topic you’d like to see us dive into, for either the newsletter or the podcast, just shoot me a message here.

Until next time,

Pietro and The Retention Edge Team

PS: want to boost retention, revenue and profitability? If so, launching your own app could be the best move you make this year.

See how: go to our website to get a preview of your app for free, or shoot me a DM on LinkedIn to talk about it.