Only 12% of UK eCommerce brands ready for AI checkout

Only 12% of the UK's 100 biggest eCommerce brands are ready for AI systems to complete purchases directly on shoppers' behalf, according to Varn Search Marketing. The findings suggest broad gaps in preparedness for so-called agentic commerce.

The agency reviewed the country's largest eCommerce sites to assess whether they were configured to let generative AI platforms carry out transactions. Its research found that most retailers examined were not set up for this form of automated shopping.

Among the brands identified as unprepared were M&S, Currys and Barbour. The smaller group classed as prepared included Ted Baker, Gymshark and Castore.

The study focuses on an emerging retail model in which AI tools do more than help consumers search for products. In this model, AI agents move through the purchase journey and complete checkout directly, with little or no manual input from the shopper.

That shift is not yet fully available to the public in the UK, but testing and phased rollouts are already under way in some markets. Varn said the timetable for wider access remains uncertain, even as work on autonomous checkout and agent-initiated payments continues.

US signals

The report points to signs from the US market that consumer behaviour may already be starting to change. It cites a Morgan Stanley survey from December 2025, which found that 23% of Americans had made a purchase via AI.

Morgan Stanley also estimated that AI-assisted shopping could account for USD $385 billion in US eCommerce spending by 2030. While that figure relates to the American market, it indicates the commercial expectations building around the technology.

For retailers, the issue is not only whether customers want to use AI shopping tools, but whether websites are technically open to them. Product feeds, site architecture and permission settings are likely to determine whether AI systems can identify items and complete transactions without being blocked.

Retailers that fail to adapt could face reduced visibility if shopping journeys increasingly move away from conventional search and browsing. If transactions begin inside AI interfaces rather than on traditional storefronts, access to those systems may become an important route to sale.

Readiness gap

Andy Mollison, Head of Search and Innovation at Varn Search Marketing, said: "Agentic commerce isn't a distant retail trend; it's an immediate paradigm shift that will catch unprepared brands completely off guard. Our research shows a staggering disconnect between the speed of AI development and UK retail readiness. At Varn, we are actively auditing and restructuring eCommerce sites to bridge this gap, ensuring their data architecture, technical SEO, and product feeds are seamlessly readable by autonomous AI bots. The American market has already given us a blueprint for how fast consumer behaviour shifts when AI handles the checkout. If UK brands don't start optimising for machine-to-machine commerce right now, they will lose both search visibility and become entirely invisible to the next generation of shoppers."

The findings add to a wider debate in retail and digital marketing over how AI will affect discovery, conversion and brand control. Ecommerce businesses have spent years refining websites for human visitors and conventional search engines, but agent-based shopping introduces a different set of technical and commercial questions.

One question is whether established retailers can adapt quickly enough if AI-led shopping gains traction. Another is how brands will manage pricing, merchandising and customer relationships if the shopper's main interaction takes place through a third-party AI assistant rather than on the retailer's own site.

Varn said its assessment covered the UK's top 100 eCommerce brands. On its measure, only a small minority currently appear configured to permit direct purchases by generative AI platforms.