• by Laurie Sullivan , Yesterday

Walmart has introduced a gateway and terms of service for agentic shopping that will take place across the retailer’s websites and marketplace.

Agent Profiles, announced Wednesday, are scheduled to launch within the next month as the holiday peak season approaches.

The Agent Profiles, which the company refers to as the Walmart Agent Gateway, enable customers to shop with Walmart and Sam’s Club through the apps and agents they choose, giving consumers and their agents “clear permissions, controls and protections.”

Walmart's official announcement describes a simple four-step framework for the process. The shopping request starts inside the consumer’s chosen third-party AI companion or assistant app.

The first time that an AI agent attempts to shop at Walmart or Sam's Club for the consumer, the Walmart Agent Gateway automatically generates a dedicated Agent Profile -- a digital summary of a person’s credentials and contact details.

“Shopping with an agent won’t be for everyone, and it doesn’t have to be,” according to Walmart’s post. “But for customers who choose to use one, our goal is to make our experience the most trusted by building clear controls and protections into the experience from the start.”

Adobe estimates in the U.S. consumers will spend $275.1 billion online, rising 6.7% year-over-year (YoY) this year.

Cyber Monday remains the biggest online shopping day of the season, with consumers expected to spend more than $15 billion in one day. But Black Friday, estimated to generate $12.9 billion, up 9.2% YoY, will see stronger growth due to earlier discounts.

Adobe expects the shopping journey to evolve as consumers embrace AI tools and social influencers to find deals and learn about specific products.

Walmart has prepared a separate page on Walmart.com that invites builders of agents to request access to the gateway.

Through the profiles, each authorized agent inside the customer's Walmart account and the related purchases appear separate from the customer's own purchases.

Customers choose one of two purchase-approval models -- including approval for every purchase, or permission for the agent to buy within a spending limit the customer sets (for example,$50, $100, or $200). The tiers are only examples and are not fixed, a restriction that gives the customer a way to remain in control.

According to Walmart's post, the profile is like "adding someone as a cardholder on your credit card," where the account holder sets a limit and tracks use.

The difference is that the consumer gives the agent permission to shop on their behalf and has its “own profile to shop, with permissions and spending limits set by the customer and the ability to turn them off at any time."

Walmart is known for its extensive IT infrastructure and support, which is required for agentic commerce.

In early 2003, the retailer became one of the first retailers to adopt and began using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to track products from suppliers through its supply chain, but also within its warehouse to tag pallets and keep track of products from more than 100 suppliers.