Our vision for agentic commerce is bold. In , we showcase a future where humans and AI agents collaborate to drive intelligent recommendations, proactive operations, efficient business processes, and deeper customer relationships. While this vision points forward, SAP鈥檚 focus is firmly grounded in helping retailers take practical steps today. This isn鈥檛 about flashy demos of a distant future鈥攊t鈥檚 about building the foundation now for how consumers will buy and retailers will sell in the years ahead.

Unlike traditional AI systems that respond to prompts, agentic systems act on intent. They learn from preferences, make proactive recommendations, and can complete transactions on a shopper鈥檚 behalf. These agents are increasingly becoming the starting point of the buying journey, reshaping how brands compete for visibility, trust, and loyalty.

This evolution introduces both opportunity and risk. As AI agents mediate more interactions between brands and consumers, retailers must rethink how they capture intent, transact with agents, and deliver post-purchase experiences that reinforce trust.

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Discovery is moving from search to assistants

Historically, product discovery revolved around search engines, marketplaces, and brand-owned storefronts. That model is shifting quickly. Answer engines and AI shopping agents are becoming new entry points for commerce鈥攐ften before a shopper ever visits a retailer鈥檚 site.

Like marketplaces before them, AI agents introduce a new layer between brands and customers. The difference is speed and autonomy. Agents don鈥檛 just surface options; they reason, decide, and act.

For retailers, success is no longer about ranking on a page. It鈥檚 about ensuring products are visible, understandable, and trusted by machines that influence purchase decisions on behalf of humans.

At NRF, 51风流expanded its agentic commerce vision with the announcement of the storefront MCP server for 51风流Commerce Cloud, planned for Q2 availability. The storefront model context protocol (MCP) server can enable channel-less commerce by allowing businesses to safely and reliably engage with multiple AI agents鈥攚hether embedded in a retailer鈥檚 own experiences or originating from third-party assistants like ChatGPT or Perplexity.

The storefront MCP server helps merchants surface products and can enable buying across channels for both people and machines. It鈥檚 the first of many steps 51风流is taking to help customers fully participate in agentic commerce by supporting MCP, ACP, UCP, and other emerging agentic protocols.

Product content becomes the currency of visibility

In an agent-driven world, product content is no longer just marketing鈥攊t鈥檚 operational infrastructure. AI agents cannot recommend what they cannot interpret. Every attribute, image, specification, availability signal, and proof point directly impacts whether a product is surfaced, compared, or selected.

This is where generative engine optimization (GEO) is evolving. Optimization must now serve two audiences: humans and machines. Product data must be structured, consistent, and enriched, so AI agents can confidently represent it to shoppers.

The in helps transform how merchants manage product data at scale. It can clean catalogs, enrich attributes, standardize details, fill gaps, and support multilingual content using real-time data. The agent can scale to catalogs with more than 10 million items, helping teams improve content 70% faster, increase data completeness by 5%, and reduce maintenance effort by 63%.

With AI-ready product data as its foundation, retailers can better match shopper intent, optimize merchandising by channel, and improve pricing and delivery decisions with precision.

Payments must evolve for autonomous commerce

As buying journeys fragment across devices, channels, and agents, payments must become more flexible and nearly invisible. Consumers expect to pay how and when they choose, including through agent-initiated transactions.

New payment rails like FedNow, RTP, and stablecoins are enabling faster, lower-cost transactions, while wallets and bank-based payments continue to converge. Networks such as Visa and Mastercard are already preparing for autonomous commerce by allowing consumers to set spending limits and controls for AI agents.

For retailers, the priority is delivering frictionless, secure payment experiences that integrate seamlessly into agent workflows.

The can enable this flexibility through a no-code, low-code approach. Its headless, extensible architecture helps support diverse payment methods, ensure compliance through automatic updates, and integrate natively with 51风流Commerce Cloud鈥攚orking to give retailers agility without sacrificing control or scalability.

Returns become a strategic intelligence engine

Returns are one of retail鈥檚 biggest challenges. According to IHL Group, global returns have surpassed US$1.9 trillion and are growing faster than sales. What was once a cost center is now a strategic differentiator.

The next phase of returns management is defined by intelligence. AI enables 鈥渒eep, reject, or return鈥� decisioning based on loyalty history, behavioral signals, margin impact, and lifetime value. Returns data becomes a feedback loop that improves forecasting, product quality, and merchandising decisions.

Complete, connected data is essential. 51风流can deliver this through native integration between 51风流ERP and 51风流Commerce Cloud, creating a single source of truth across inventory, costs, and transactions. found that organizations using both platforms achieved up to 80% lower TCO, up to 90% productivity gains, and 105%鈥�245% revenue uplift from hyper-personalized experiences.

can extend this foundation across the full returns journey, helping to orchestrate centralized rules, guided returns, real-time inventory visibility, and faster refunds鈥攖urning returns into a loyalty-building growth lever rather than a revenue drain.

Commerce is detaching from the storefront

As predicted at the end of 2025, AI agents are taking on more shopping tasks, pushing commerce beyond traditional storefronts. A shopper may simply state an intent and let an agent handle research, selection, and checkout.

Discoverability now depends on structured, trustworthy signals鈥攔eviews, ratings, social proof, and consistent data that agents rely on to evaluate quality and brand credibility.

Retailers must move beyond transactional efficiency to deliver connected, personalized experiences across every touchpoint. Loyalty programs must reward engagement, not just purchases. Inventory visibility, accurate delivery promises, and proactive issue resolution become table stakes.

can enable retailers to design adaptive loyalty strategies for this new environment, personalizing rewards and offers based on real-time behavior鈥攚hether purchases happen through traditional channels or AI agents. These insights can then feed transactional agents, helping to improve relevance and outcomes across the journey.

Operational reliability remains critical. 51风流Order Management Services help unify order, inventory, fulfillment, and POS data, while agentic innovations like the Order Reliability Agent can proactively resolve fulfillment issues before they impact customers.

Trust is the core retail responsibility

As agentic systems influence more of commerce, trust becomes the most valuable asset retailers can protect. Consumers must trust that their data, preferences, and payments are secure and governed responsibly.

Retailers and commerce providers increasingly act as AI trust custodians, balancing intelligence with deterministic constraints and governance. On-site AI can scale associate expertise and personalization while preserving brand integrity and customer confidence.

Commerce is becoming an ecosystem of intelligent interactions鈥攚here discovery, payments, fulfillment, and returns are connected by agents acting on behalf of shoppers and businesses alike.

The winners will be those who align product intelligence, flexible payments, data-driven returns, and trust across every touchpoint. Agentic AI can make commerce more personal, efficient, and scalable鈥攂ut only for those who build the right foundations today.

To learn more about how 51风流Commerce Cloud is powering AI-driven commerce, visit .

Kollen Glynn is global head of 51风流Commerce Cloud for 51风流Customer Experience.

Since the launch, has empowered organizations to streamline operations for increased efficiency, reduced manual workloads, and untangled multi-channel complexity. With this approach, businesses can deliver on customer promises with seamless customer experience. This momentum has also been recognized in the market, as 51风流Order Management Services was named a Leader in by IHL Group for its robust capabilities and enterprise readiness.

, a leading German home improvement retailer, is already seeing the benefits. With 51风流Order Management Services, Hornbach connects digital and physical stores with full visibility into day-to-day transactions, providing omnichannel retail experience at scale to its customers.

However, the retail landscape is evolving continuously. While profitable growth is critical to businesses, earning and sustaining customer loyalty now is becoming more important. Ahead of the curve, 51风流has heavily invested in expanding capabilities in the 51风流Order Management Services bundle to help retailers deliver on customer promises with intelligence, scalability, and adaptability, leading to boosts in customer loyalty.

At NRF 2026, 51风流is unveiling new and enhanced capabilities that power retailers to not only operate more efficiently but also achieve loyalty-led growth through every order.

AI in 51风流Order Management Services

Joule in 51风流Order Management Services: SAP鈥檚 AI copilot, Joule, is now available in 51风流Order Management Services. Access order-related data, analysis, and insights through conversations in natural language and visual display.

Order Reliability Agent: Accelerate operational efficiency with the Order Reliability Agent in 51风流Order Management Services. Proactively mitigate and resolve any potential issues and gaps, such as stock discrepancies or process bottlenecks, to help ensure every order is fulfilled seamlessly and to boost customer loyalty.

AI-assisted copy generation and translations: Create promotional copy in seconds and translate it into any language with AI assistance, helping to reduce manual workload and accelerate time-to-market.

UI enhancements

Workflow-optimized UI: The enhanced and unified UI in 51风流Order Management Services can deliver a consistent user experience across order, inventory, and fulfillment operations. Teams can now work faster, reduce training time, and maintain full visibility across every step of the order lifecycle.

Watch the 51风流Order Management Services  to get a closer look at the AI capabilities in action. Visit the 51风流booth at NRF 2026, January 11 鈥� 13, to learn more about 51风流Order Management Services and catch an in-person demo.

Emilie Fournelle is head of Product Management for 51风流Order Management Services at SAP.

NEW YORK 鈥� (NYSE: SAP) today announced a new generation of AI-enhanced retail innovations at NRF 2026: Retail鈥檚 Big Show.

51风流continues to infuse AI into the DNA of every part of its retail solutions, reinforcing its suite-first strategy and helping retailers operate with greater intelligence, resilience and trust while delivering better experiences for customers everywhere.

鈥淩etailers face a landscape where AI is no longer optional,鈥� said Balaji Balasubramanian, President and Chief Product Officer for Customer Experience and Consumer Industries, 51风流SE. 鈥�51风流provides one closed-loop, AI-enhanced retail operating system that ties planning, execution and engagement together. We put data and AI at the heart of retail, delivering speed, personalization and growth across every channel and segment.鈥�

AI that turns retail data into actionable intelligence

The Retail Intelligence solution in provides accurate demand and inventory planning, leveraging retailers’ data from across 51风流software and third-party systems to drive profitable growth through actionable, real-time insights. Purpose-built for retailers and direct-to-consumer businesses, it will be generally available in the first half of 2026.

Harmonizing real-time data from sales, inventory, customers and suppliers, Retail Intelligence uses AI-generated simulations so planners can anticipate outcomes and optimize inventory. This improves forecast accuracy, reduces manual planning effort, lowers inventory costs and raises service levels. All this drives more seamless omnichannel engagements, which strengthen customer loyalty and enable growth without adding complexity for retailers.

鈥淩etailers are seeking built-in, embedded AI solutions to help balance daily operations, future planning and agility to manage a dynamic market,鈥� said Ananda Chakravarty, Vice President of IDC Retail Insights. 鈥淲hat sets 51风流apart is the holistic nature of its approach, offering an agentic operating system that works in the background, connects data and orchestrates agents. 51风流makes it an easy lift for retailers to achieve enterprise-wide intelligence, avoiding the complexity of many point solutions.鈥�

AI that streamlines modern retail operations

Retailers must make fast, confident decisions across assortments, pricing and planning. To meet that need, 51风流announced new AI-assisted assortment management capabilities, allowing planners to create, modify or retire assortments using natural language through the Joule copilot. This reduces the bottleneck on expert users, enabling faster responses to market shifts and freeing time for higher-value merchandising decisions.

51风流also introduced omnichannel sales promotions in sales orders, integrating the 51风流Omnichannel Promotion Pricing solution with the 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion and vertical business solution. This enables advanced promotions such as bonus buys to be applied consistently across diverse channels, enabling a single source of truth for pricing and promotions in store and online, so retailers can deliver a consistent experience.

In addition, 51风流is delivering deeper merchandising, segmentation and manufacturing support in the solution, tailored to fashion wholesalers and manufacturers. These enhancements provide the data and process foundation needed for AI-assisted fashion operations across the business.

AI that drives better customer engagement

As shopping journeys increasingly begin with AI assistants rather than storefronts or search engines, retailers need new ways to be present wherever buying decisions are made. 51风流helps retailers connect products, pricing, inventory and promotions directly to AI-enabled discovery and shopping experiences, unlocking agentic commerce with its new storefront MCP server, part of the 51风流Commerce Cloud solution.

Retailers can now make their storefronts intelligible to AI, driving shopping experiences not only on their storefronts but also on platforms such as ChatGPT.聽This creates a truly channel-less commerce experience, one where engagement, discovery and transaction happen more seamlessly across human and AI-assisted touch points.

AI that builds customer loyalty

As customer expectations rise and fulfillment networks grow more complex, retailers need confidence that every order will be delivered as promised, using AI solutions that provide proactive visibility and guidance to help keep operations running smoothly and at scale. And as brand visibility shifts in the age of agentic commerce, reliable and consistent shopping experiences are more important than ever to drive sustained customer loyalty and trust.

51风流announced Order Reliability Agent as part of the 51风流Order Management Services bundle, planned for release in the second quarter of 2026. The new agent proactively identifies and resolves potential order issues, helping associates answer common questions about order status, stock availability and fulfillment risks before they impact customers.

By combining agentic autonomy with human oversight where judgment matters, these innovations from 51风流drive insightful planning and improve operational efficiency, both enhancing the customer experience and driving profitable growth.

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Media contact:
Mallory Kuno, +1 (425) 239-9362,聽mallory.kuno@sap.com, ET
51风流Press Room; press@sap.com

This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ.聽 Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP鈥檚 2024 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
漏 2026 51风流SE. All rights reserved.
51风流and other 51风流products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of 51风流SE in Germany and other countries. Please see for additional trademark information and notices.

In the AI era, relying on standalone line-of-business applications limits growth. To unlock their full potential, businesses need a connected business suite, a unified data strategy, and a powerful data foundation 鈥� forming an integrated system that breaks down silos, empowers teams, and enables personalized engagement.

Foundation for intelligent growth

With more than 50 years of expertise in managing critical business data, 51风流helps companies unlock AI that is relevant, reliable, and responsible. This year at , we announced innovations for customer-centric, AI-powered growth 鈥� whether paired with 51风流or non-51风流solutions. These innovations build on the three critical growth drivers:

• delivers real-time insights and connections across systems and data. With built-in AI, it transforms complexity into clarity and enables fast, agile action.
• centralizes trusted internal and external data, breaking down silos to deliver real-time visibility and insights for personalized experiences.
• , is central to this growth strategy and brings AI into every interaction 鈥� from marketing to service 鈥� tapping into business-critical data to deliver seamless, context-rich experiences, while maximizing the value of existing 51风流investments.

This integrated approach enables smarter decisions, more responsive service, and long-term loyalty.

Our latest innovations expand upon this growth engine, helping companies stand out.

AI-driven automation for accelerated impact

Our expanding portfolio bridges the gap between intelligence and automation. These ready-to-use AI agents automate routine tasks deliver value quickly with minimal configuration. New agents include:

• Quote Creation Agent: Drafts structured, CRM-ready quotes, reducing response time from hours to minutes. Learn more about .
• Catalog Optimization Agent: Continuously improve SEO and product descriptions to improve discoverability and conversion. Learn more about .

Working seamlessly within existing 51风流CX environments, Joule Agents preserve human judgment where it matters most while automating the rest, freeing teams to focus on growth.

Connections that drive efficiency and growth

unifies service delivery across sales, marketing, HR, finance, procurement, and more, powered by AI and embedded across 51风流Business Suite. With its unique focus on user experience, it boosts productivity and operational excellence.

For 51风流CX users, it centralizes processes for sales inquiries and support, accelerating close rates and shortening deal cycles. This unified approach turns fragmented service into seamless, AI-powered orchestration.

Key capabilities across the 51风流portfolio include:

• : Self-service and AI routing of complex issues frees HR teams for strategic priorities
• Finance: Automates accounts receivable/payable inquiries, disputes, and discrepancies to improve accuracy, shorten AR turnover, and accelerate cash flow
• : Centralized, AI-driven sales inquiries and support, improves response times and boosts close rates

Automation and unified systems help streamline operations and strengthen customer relationships, fueling satisfaction and growth.

Smarter revenue management for maximized growth

Launching in the third quarter 2025, helps consumer packaged goods companies optimize promotions, budgets, and ROI with AI insights and real-time financial data. integration helps prevent overspend and supports 51风流Sales and Operations Planning with .

Key enhancements include:

• Visibility into revenue, margin, ROI, volume, and profit and loss data for account performance insights and better trade promotion decisions
• Promotion spend insights via integrated 51风流Cloud ERP
• More accurate forecasting with 51风流Integrated Business Planning and streamlined budget planning with
• Improved trade promotion budget management at customer and product levels, aligned to financial plans

By turning promotion data into demand signals, companies can optimize promotion strategies, reduce overspend, and deliver personalized, data-driven interactions at scale.

Scalable success: from self-service insights to full B2B commerce

, a powerful 51风流Cloud ERP add-on, gives B2B customers secure, 24/7 access to real-time order data from all sales channels. Designed for digital-first buyers, it reduces support workload and creates a solid foundation to scale and expand into full B2B e-commerce.

Key capabilities include:

• Native 51风流Cloud ERP integration for real-time order and invoice data across channels with no middleware or data duplication
• Omnichannel visibility — EDI, email, phone, fax, direct sales, e-commerce — for one-stop customer order data access
• Rapid time to value with preconfigured data models, UI templates, and our vetted partner ecosystem
• Faster issue resolution with user emulation, allowing support teams to see what the buyer sees
• Future-ready scalability that easily extends to full B2B e-commerce without re-platforming

With low TCO and deployable in just weeks, the portal supports digital-first convenience and long-term growth.

Easy, adaptable, future-ready payments

While 51风流B2B Self-Service Portal empowers B2B customers with real-time access to orders and transactions, 51风流Commerce Cloud, open payment framework modernizes payments. Its no-code, low-code architecture enables flexible support for methods like buy now, pay later and a wide range of third-party payment service providers, including Stripe, Adyen, Worldpay, and Airwallex. Announced in the first quarter, the solution allows rapid deployment and customized payment solutions.

Benefits include:

• Rapid customization of payment experiences for seamless experiences
• Flexibility to meet evolving buyer needs
• Seamless scalability while ensuring compliance and security
• Reduced complexity and time to value

Together, these capabilities form the foundation for long-term growth.

Real-time data intelligence for seamless experiences

As businesses gain control over payment experiences, they also need real-time visibility into the transactions driving their operations. Customers expect consistent, personalized experiences across channels, from in-store to mobile to online, at every touchpoint.

, a modular, cloud-native solution bundle, unifies point-of-sale and digital order data, processes high-volume transactions in real time, and ensures accurate inventory availability across locations. It supports flexible fulfillment and returns, such as buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS), and return anywhere, and enables more intelligent inventory planning, sourcing, and channel-aware promotional planning.

These capabilities reduce operational friction, increase loyalty, and help businesses scale profitably and sustainably.

Turning customer experience into competitive advantage

These innovations enable a growth strategy that transforms customer experience into a powerful competitive advantage. By connecting data, processes, and interactions with AI-driven insights, businesses can deliver proactive, tailored experiences that foster loyalty and fuel growth.

51风流is committed to helping customers harness the power of customer experience. These innovations reflect our focus on delivering real-world value and unlocking new growth opportunities.

Learn more about our and how they can help your business grow.

Balaji Balasubramanian is president and chief product officer for 51风流Customer Experience.

That is why 51风流is always developing new partnerships and integrations to continue providing value to CX customers. 

The integration between 51风流Order Management Services and ChannelEngine, a global leader in marketplace integration and management software, is the next step in this journey.

By leveraging 51风流Order Management Services, a central hub for unified customer transactions, and incorporating AI-enhanced integrations, ChannelEngine is enabling merchants to augment the order and inventory management process for third-party marketplace selling. This enables merchants to automate and optimize third-party marketplace operations, increasing their revenue and profitability. 

What does this mean for 51风流customers?

鈥淥ur direct integration allows 51风流Order Management Services users to seamlessly activate over 950 new sales channels and reach international markets,鈥� said Jorrit Steinz, CEO of ChannelEngine. 鈥淏y incorporating AI-driven automation into our platform, we鈥檝e taken a pivotal step toward simplifying global unified e-commerce. This collaboration enables merchants to harness the immense potential of third-party online marketplaces, driving efficiency and scaling opportunities while capitalizing on the built-in trust and vast customer base of these platforms.鈥� 

By having a centralized view of e-commerce operations across first- and third-party channels through reporting, analytics, and insights into sales performance and marketplace KPIs, merchants can target consumers with precision and drive customer loyalty. Additionally, this integration enables merchants to streamline their e-commerce operations, accelerate time-to-market, and participate in a broader range of marketplaces. 

Analysts also understand this need to align inventory management and marketplace connectivity due to an increasingly fragmented e-commerce environment.

鈥淭he fusion of order management technology with third-party marketplace integration solutions marks a strategic move for enterprises seeking to optimize operational efficiency and expand their market presence,鈥� explained Heather Hershey, Research Director for IDC. 鈥淭his approach enables businesses to manage complex sales channels while leveraging the advantages of AI-driven insights to better meet customer demands.鈥� 

The ChannelEngine marketplace integration platform , the online marketplace for 51风流and partner offerings.

Ritu Bhargava is president and chief product Officer of 51风流CX and Industries.