Will AI Agents Replace Shopping?

by Karen Webster | Feb 18, 2026 | Client experience, Conversion, Technology

Fifty years ago, Susan was one of more than a hundred million Americans who drove to a shopping mall an average of once a week to buy things. By 1976, a third of all retail sales happened at the mall. Susan shopped exactly the way the mall designers intended. The...

Why Gen Z Is Trading Smartphones for Dumb Devices

by PYMNTS | Feb 7, 2026 | Client experience, Conversion, Technology

There’s a special look kids give a floppy disk. They turn it over, tap the little metal shutter, and then ask, politely but devastatingly: “So where do you plug in the Wi‑Fi?” It’s the same energy adults bring to a rotary phone: reverence, confusion and the suspicion...

Amazon Brings Just Walk Out Tech to Pop-Up Stores

by PYMNTS | Jan 13, 2026 | Client experience, Conversion, Technology

Amazon says it is bringing its “Just Walk Out” checkout technology to temporary retail locations. The company on Tuesday (Jan. 13) announced the debut of the latest iteration of its radio frequency identification (RFID) lanes, designed for things like pop-up shops and...

The Protocol Power Struggle Reshaping AI-Driven Commerce.

by Karen Webster | Dec 10, 2025 | Client experience, Conversion, Technology

Changes in how consumers shop and pay never happen all at once. The transformation doesn’t make a grand entrance. Change happens when the friction that consumers and merchants tolerate becomes harder to live with than the habit of sticking to the old way. That is when...

66% Cross-Border Shift to Digital Payments Pressures Merchants

by PYMNTS | Dec 3, 2025 | Client experience, Conversion, Technology

Merchants chasing global growth are learning that cross-border sales succeed only when payments feel as local as possible. That is the new message emerging from the latest Payments Optimization Tracker, which shows that consumer expectations have shifted faster than...