AGENTIC Experience INDEX, SEPTEMBER 2026
Retail
People are letting AI agents like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini check prices and fill the basket.
We’ve tested how 80 retailers in the Benelux
deal with agents.
What we TESTED
Steps when shopping through an agent.
Check the price
Read the shelf price for a named product.
Check availability
In stock, in this store, today.
Build the basket
Five retailers let an agent do this for real. Forty-three block it outright.
Order with a slot
Checkout with a delivery window that fits the calendar.
Handle the return
Start a return without a phone call.
This is how retailers
in the Benelux scored.
Key numbers
This is the agentic readiness
of retailers today
Just over half can be read by agents
42 of 80 companies
Almost half don’t let agents in
38 of 80 companies
A handful offer truly agentic commerce
6 of 80 companies
So what does an
agentic experience
in retail look like?
Most retailers
Everyone talks agentic commerce,
most retailers block it.
An agent is stopped on most of what it tries. It may get in, but it cannot get anywhere.
Torfs
Lets your agent add
an order to the cart.
The only retailer to complete all three tasks it was set. Four others get an order into the cart — Amazon, HEMA, Omoda and Spar — and Lidl reaches the top band on look-ups alone, with its cart still blocked.
What about the rest?
of 80
Invisibles
An agent cannot reach or read them, they are just not part of the conversation.
Silent
No response (an error, a timeout ...). Hard to tell if it’s policy or neglect.
Fortress
Answer an agent with a refusal. A choice, not an accident.
of 80
Informers
Agents can get in and answer a question, but they cannot complete a job.
Showroom
Everything on display but no till. Usually by accident.
Gatekeeper
The task can only be completed behind a login, identity app, or in a dedicated app. Deliberate, every time.
of 80
Actors
Agents can complete at least one job end to end.
Always a decision to point outwards.
what answers
did our agents get?
This gets us thinking.
Opportunity
Subtitle
— Towards customers
Turn a 2 year old contract cycle into a monthly one
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— Towards customers
Turn a 2 year old contract cycle into a monthly one
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.
Find out
how you
are doing
80 companies
40 in Belgium, 40 in The Netherlands.
Each was asked the same 3 tasks: