Amazon’s homepage may die soon. Walmart Online can become obsolete. Retail trade is … more
The days of the great online retail trade, as we know, are over. Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and many others should all discover themselves as changes in e -commerce. Once again, the homepage is dead. What will this mean to the big brands? What are the opportunities for small players?
Segregation of retail
Openai, Gemini, Purplexity and Grok don’t just change the way people search – redefine how people shop. There are days when your homepage served as a front door to your retail universe. Today, the answers and product links come more and more directly from AI -powered assistants powered by LLMS (large linguistic models). In my research I show that LLMS traffic is 9x as valuable as traditional search traffic. Once these llms will be aware of your credit card details, they will shop for you. The future concerns the agentic e-commerce.
For the traditional retailer, this means that the customer’s route to your product no longer runs through your digital showcase. Take DaydreamA startup that just started a personal purchasing agent. When AI becomes the curator, the consultant and the shopping driver – what’s going on in the Digital Mall? Yes, they are going to die. I see three dominant strategies to survive from the separation of e -commerce.
Daydreaming started personal AI fashion agent.
What can retail trade from media separation
As often in times of change, we can learn from the past. When was the last time technology is not unfolding a market? Yes, the media in the world of social internet. What happened a decade ago?
When HTML and social media transformed the media industry, the homepage lost its power. Readers no longer started their journey to Whatevernews.com. Instead, they landed in a single article – discovered via Facebook, Twitter or Google. The article became the individual value unit. The brands of the media have retreated. Many escalated and only top stores such as the New York Times or the Economist managed to set up a new business.
The winners – beyond the platforms that led this separation – were the creators, the journalists. While the first pages of news websites died, platforms such as the substance and the middle were developed, offering journalists and creators a surface directly from the consumer. A surface found by the googles and the facebook of this world.
Retail now enters the same circle of disorder and again we will see the homepage dying, the creator / producer and the concentrators thrive.
The end of Amazon, Bestbuy, Walmart as we know them
Amazon, Bestbuy, Walmart – These giants have long served as “original pages” of markets. Customers type in the URL, searching for a product and navigating their ecosystem. However, as the AI becomes the new interface, this immediate entry point is very weakened as the media homepage died.
Why would a buyer visit best When they can simply ask an AI: “What is the best laundry for a small apartment with ecological characteristics?” LLM will not show the homepage – it will show the best answer, wherever the answer lives.
This shift makes the traditional e -commerce retailer. Amazon, Bestbuy, Walmart and their peers are at risk of becoming invisible unless they evolve.
The three strategies for e -commerce retailer
Just as once the media companies had to discover their business and focus – online retail has some possible strategies:
Price Leadership – The Walmart model
The price will always be a factor. LLMS will explore retailers – probably through protocol agent such as the MCP (model model protocol) – about the price. If the best prices, then companies like Walmart with significant purchasing power will move forward. Being the cheapest is a strategy. It leads to a thin razor, but it works for some players on a huge scale.
Leadership of the Distribution Network – The Amazon edge
Stores should still deliver. Speed and reliability are important. Amazon, while its original page can fade, will gain through logistics, speed and convenience. Have created the most effective delivery machine on Earth.
Content and Counseling Leadership
This third strategy is just emerging. As in the media we saw clicking on the content, we will also see the content gaining retail. Retail traders will win if they hand over expert advice.
Don’t think that Best Buy – think of Tom’s guide, which offers reliable technology tips. Don’t think Walmart – think of Rei, the leader in outdoor equipment. Offer real tips, edited options and personalized shopping experiences. This is where AI opens the doors.
In my work, I see a lot of retailers who want to become part of the LLM conversation. I wrote about the optimization of Engine Engine (AEO) and what brands should they know in this article forbes. The basic idea: LLMS will be trained in authentic and new content. This is sometimes called genetic optimization of machines (GEO) or LLMO (LLM-Optimization). The brands with unique and novel receive authentic questions will be remembered by LLM.
This is the future for new brands. Just as the media industry saw the rise of specialized bloggers like Ben Thompson – Who sells specialized knowledge – we will see the retail brands that focus on the knowledge that General LLMS does not yet have. Best tips for vitamins beyond the ordinary? Deep knowing in material installation? Top voices in fashion? There is the opportunity.
If the big brands want to take this opportunity, they should become multi -signal platforms. Starting specialized micro-commercial signals, each built around a customer position and fueled by personalization with AI.
The future will be more targeted and more personalized
Imagine the new world of e -commerce.
- A destination page This adapts to your taste to home decoration.
- Product recommendations were created dynamically based on the lifestyle, not for clicks.
- Influential collections have appeared via LLMS.
- Location search This offers a chat-gpt style experience.
This is the retail trade, which is redefined not for an homepage, but for a world where each page is a destination page.
Knowledge of Experts – The Winner of Retail Separation
Just as the media landscape now thrives with specialist creators, so will e -commerce. Great changes are ahead. Two and a half years ago – when LLM advertising campaign had begun – I foretold on my podcast that the future would be “indie”. This is exactly what we see now with retail brands.
The winners will be those who embrace specialization, personalization and counseling power. Not everyone should be Amazon, Walmart or Best Buy. But everyone needs a plan for the age of the AI discovery.
