New Ecommerce Tools: September 23, 2026

This week’s rundown of new products and services for merchants includes updates on ChatGPT ads, digital payments, visual search ads, authenticated deliveries, agentic commerce, CRM models, logistics, affiliate marketing, product feedback, and AI-powered promotions and loyalty programs.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email updates@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants

OpenAI debuts sponsored AI agents inside ChatGPT Ads. OpenAI is testing Sponsored Agents, which let people start a conversation with a business-sponsored agent after clicking an ad in ChatGPT. OpenAI is making it easier to create ads by writing a few prompts in ChatGPT Work. The company is also enhancing Ads Manager with new AI creative tools. New integrations with HubSpot, its first CRM partner, and Shopify, its first ecommerce partner, are bringing ChatGPT Ads into the tools businesses already use, according to OpenAI.

OpenAI’s Advertise in ChatGPT

Pinterest unveils Visual Search Ads. Pinterest‘s Visual Search Ads place advertisers in Pinterest search results and pin closeups, pairing keyword relevance with the ad format as users search, compare, and move closer to a decision. Visual Search Ads are compatible with Performance+, Pinterest’s AI-powered advertising suite, and will be available in beta soon, per Pinterest

European Central Bank launches pilot for the digital euro. Eurosystem, the E.U.’s central banking structure, has invited ecommerce merchants operating in the euro area to take part in the digital euro pilot, in collaboration with the European Central Bank and national central banks. The pilot will help shape the future of digital payments in Europe.

Maersk partners with Shipstore on ecommerce delivery in North America. Maersk, a global logistics company, has partnered with Shipstore, an automation platform for high-volume parcel shippers. Shipstore customers can access Maersk’s North American delivery services to manage orders and shipments. Shipstore says it gives high-volume shippers one control layer, applying their own rules to every order and generating labels, documentation, and tracking in a single workflow.

Tulip launches AI-assisted Integration Builder and expands Shopify connectivity. Tulip, a provider of retail customer engagement tools, has launched Integration Builder and an expanded Shopify Connector. Integration Builder connects data from multi-source environments directly to APIs, flat files, and cloud data platforms such as Snowflake, Databricks, and BigQuery while adapting to each retailer’s taxonomy and schemas. Shopify Connector allows brands to connect regional storefronts to a single Tulip environment while preserving product catalogs, pricing, and languages.

Tulip’s Shopify connector.

Salesforce launches Koa, a CRM reasoning model. Salesforce has launched Koa, the company’s first CRM reasoning model for Agentforce, developed through technical collaboration with Nvidia. Koa’s training corpus was built from synthetic scenarios that reflect the reasoning, tool use, and decision-making skills Agentforce agents perform across CRM workflows: generating leads, qualifying opportunities, and resolving service cases across the customer lifecycle. According to Salesforce, the result is a reasoning model grounded in how businesses run processes, workflows, and operational policies.

Google Ads tests Product Value Optimization for automated bidding. Google Ads is beta testing Product Value Optimization, which lets advertisers adjust the value of specific products and feed those differences directly into automated bidding. Advertisers can create product-level value adjustments, use product attributes to define which products matter more, multiply conversion value for selected products, and apply adjustments at campaign level instead of account level.

Alchemy to support AI agent purchases with Mastercard. Alchemy, a developer and infrastructure platform for agentic commerce, has announced that its AgentCard will support Mastercard payment credentials through an integration with Mastercard Agent Pay, giving developers a way to build AI agents that complete purchases for humans. The integration combines Alchemy’s agent infrastructure and Mastercard’s payments network to help agents act, with user authorization, issuer controls, payment protections, and built-in verifiable proof of intent.

FedEx launches Authenticated Delivery for added security. FedEx Corp. has launched Authenticated Delivery for eligible residential and commercial shipments in North America. The new service uses secure QR code authentication to help ensure packages are released only to authorized recipients. At delivery, a recipient with the QR code must be present and provide it to the FedEx driver for scanning and validation before the package is released.

FedEx

Commerce optimization platform MikMak releases enhancements. MikMak, an ecommerce intelligence and orchestration platform, has released AI commerce capabilities, focused on conversion, forecasting, and workflow intelligence. Aura provides predictive intelligence, combining point-of-sale data with first-party signals across more than 8,000 retailers. Datasembly provides store-level inventory intelligence. Build with Mak enables conversational AI experiences, and Analyze with Mak provides an enhanced conversational analytics layer. Insights MCP brings MikMak commerce intelligence into OpenAI, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and other AI tools.

Worldline enables agentic payments via Universal Commerce Protocol. Worldline, a Europe-based payments provider, has added the Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard for agentic commerce co-developed by Google and industry partners. UCP provides a common language that enables AI agents to discover products and execute purchases directly. The new capability enables merchants to declare their payment configuration once and accept card payments, mobile wallets, and other payment methods across any UCP-connected platform.

Customer feedback platform Marvin launches AI-moderated interviews. Marvin, a customer feedback repository, has launched Live Intercept as part of its research tools suite. Live Intercept conducts AI-moderated interviews to collect in-the-moment feedback. Marvin’s AI Interviewer follows a custom discussion guide, asks relevant follow-up questions, and adapts to the conversation in real time. Teams choose when and where the intercept appears and what it asks in more than 40 languages.

Noibu launches AI agents to improve ecommerce stores. Noibu, a conversion optimization platform, has launched six AI agents to analyze a store’s data, diagnose glitches, draft a fix, deploy it once a human approves, and measure the result. After each deployment, the store’s own data reports shopper response, and that result becomes the starting point for the next change. Agents leverage conversion rate optimization, A/B testing, ADA compliance, bug resolution, site speed performance, and return on ad spend.

Noibu

Affiliate marketing platform Euka AI integrates with Instagram. Euka AI, an affiliate marketing platform on TikTok Shop, has launched an Instagram integration with Shopify-connected fulfillment. Merchants can (i) find creators across TikTok and Instagram by product, audience, and performance, and (ii) leverage AI to automate invites, follow-ups, and approvals — with every creator conversation in one place across TikTok Shop, Instagram, and direct messages. The launch builds on Euka’s $5 million seed round led by Susa Ventures and joined by Creator Ventures.

Snipp Interactive releases plugins for promotions and loyalty. Snipp Interactive, a developer of shopper marketing and loyalty technology, has launched $nipp ChatGPT plugin and $nipp Connector for Claude, enabling brands to make promotions, rebates, and loyalty programs discoverable through AI-powered conversations. The $nipp ChatGPT plugin and Claude connector give brands a single connection to Snipp’s data intelligence platform, including receipt optical character recognition, SKU-level validation, fraud risk scoring, offer rules engines, reward fulfillment automation, identity resolution, campaign analytics, and compliance audit logging.

AIQ introduces Astro AI operating system for merchants. AIQ, a platform for retail marketing, loyalty, ecommerce, and analytics, has launched Astro, an AI operating system for retailers. According to AIQ, Astro combines AI-powered campaign creation, analytics, shared business memory, customer conversations, and onboarding in one intelligence layer. Astro works across the AIQ ecosystem using the retailer’s customer, transaction, loyalty, marketing, and operational data.

AIQ