AI Shopping Agents, A ‘Vibe-Cession,’ And Other E-Commerce Trends For 2025

In the fast-moving world of retail media and marketplaces, industry podcasts have become a crucial source of insights and analysis for professionals trying to stay ahead of rapid change. Some of the most influential voices in this space are the hosts who spend hundreds of hours each year interviewing industry leaders, analyzing trends, and sharing strategic insights with their audiences.

I reached out to hosts of several leading e-commerce podcasts to get their predictions for the major trends they expect to see in 2025.

“The ‘Vibe-cession’ Continues To Prioritize Value-Priced Goods”

Jason Goldberg, co-host of the long-running Jason & Scot Show, predicts that 2025 will see a continued prioritization of value-priced goods and everyday essentials over premium-branded products. “Consumers gravitate toward high-value options, fueling a shift in Amazon’s product mix towards first-party essentials while boosting the appeal of high-efficiency discount retailers like Walmart over niche or specialty stores,” says Goldberg.

Goldberg adds that we’ll see an emergence of the “unbranded consumer” who increasingly favors high-quality store brands over traditional national brands.

“The eCommerce SaaS Reckoning Is Here”

A provocative prediction comes from Phillip Jackson, co-host of the Future Commerce podcast, who foresees a major shift in how e-commerce businesses approach software development. “More businesses will bring custom software/bespoke software back in-house as building and supporting software becomes more automated, more trivial, with AI,” Jackson predicts, pointing to Klarna’s recent move away from Salesforce as an early indicator of this trend. He expects more Fortune 1000 companies to follow suit, potentially disrupting the traditional SaaS model.

“Customer-Facing AI Agents: The End of the Search Box”

Michael Erickson Facchin, host of The PPC Den podcast, predicts a fundamental change in how consumers interact with e-commerce platforms. “We could soon see the end of traditional search boxes on retail platforms. Instead, we’ll be interacting with conversational AI agents,” he explains.

This prediction gains credence following Amazon’s February 2024 launch of Rufus, an AI shopping assistant that enables natural language interactions and helps shoppers with product research and comparisons.

Lauren Gilbert from the Unpacking The Digital Shelf podcast reinforces this shift, suggesting that “consumers instead of shopping for party favors will search for ‘what do I need to plan a 5-year-old’s birthday party,'” fundamentally changing how brands need to structure their content and category presence.

“TikTok Shop Will Strengthen Its Market Position Under New Leadership”

Kunle Campbell, host of the 2X eCommerce podcast, predicts TikTok’s commerce initiatives will expand significantly in 2025, particularly if regulatory concerns are addressed. “With small and medium-sized enterprises already thriving on the platform, mainstream brands are now beginning to embrace TikTok’s unique ability to drive engagement and sales,” Campbell notes.

TikTok launched its US shopping platform in September 2023. In 2024, the platform expects its U.S. commerce sales to rise tenfold, to $17.5 billion, Bloomberg has reported (citing familiar sources).

“The Rise of the Multi-Marketplace Seller”

“One of the biggest shifts we’ll see is the evolution from ‘Amazon-only’ brands to true ‘e-commerce brands’ that embrace a multi-marketplace strategy,” predicts Erickson Facchin. He sees successful players already diversifying across platforms like Walmart and Target, while maintaining Amazon as a critical component within a broader strategy.

I see how this prediction reflects growing challenges for sellers on Amazon’s marketplace. MANSCAPED’s VP of Marketplaces Jimmy Liao shared with me that the brand had seen a sizable increase in direct-from-factory Chinese 3P sellers. “This ultimately results in increased competition, and in turn, higher ad costs due to limited ad inventory,” Liao said.

“First-Party Data Integration Will Become Table Stakes”

Jordan Ripley, co-host of the Ecommerce Braintrust podcast, predicts that retailer clean rooms will become fundamental to audience creation and measurement. He points to Amazon’s new Data Manager platform as just the beginning, identifying two key developments to watch: “Who owns the middle area between 1P data and retailer clean rooms? Is there an integration/technology solution that balances the desire of brands to own their data while also allowing them to enrich it with retail data?”

Ripley also predicts the development of a retailer-agnostic clean room environment. This development would start to bring in retail signals from multiple retailers into a clean room that lives outside of a retailer’s ecosystem, but could push data into any given retailer for activation.

“Retail Media Will Experience A Significant Convergence of Brand and Performance Marketing”

Destaney Wishon, co-host of Better Advertising with BTR Media, predicts that advances in data accessibility and the democratization of display and streaming TV will blur the lines between brand and performance marketing. “Campaigns will be able to drive both return on investment and monetizable awareness. Brands that can fluidly move between the two will succeed,” she explains.

This prediction is particularly relevant given current retail media spending patterns – according to the Q3 2024 Navigator report by industry analyst Ecommert, 71.4% of retail media spending occurs in lower-funnel ads (sponsored products) with just 29% in middle and upper funnel, suggesting significant room for evolution in how brands approach retail media investments. (Read more in my recent Forbes article, ‘Retail Media Costs Stabilize While Competition Heats Up’)

“AI Will Revolutionize Operational Efficiency for Lean Brands”

Wishon also predicts a democratization of capabilities through AI. “Previously exclusive to large budgets, AI now enables small teams to produce high-quality content on par with professional studio productions,” she notes, suggesting a shift away from “pay to play” toward a landscape that rewards flexibility and adaptability.