Transforming E-Commerce from a “Catalog Business” into a “Dialogue Business
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Ilker Selim Zorluoglu is a serial entrepreneur focused on technology and artificial intelligence, and a graduate of Bilkent University’s Industrial Engineering program. Throughout his career, he has worked on scalable business models across SaaS and frontier technologies, building globally expanding companies in collaboration with international investors and enterprise partners. He has also worked closely with London-based Outlier Ventures on Web3 and next-generation technology initiatives. He is currently a Co-Founder of Loops AI, where he leads growth, business development, and strategic partnerships, developing autonomous AI agents for E-commerce and enterprise companies.
As e-commerce professionals, we have spent the last decade optimizing the same equation: buy traffic cheaply, pour it into the top of the funnel, and spend a fortune on UX tests to squeeze out a 0.1% increase in conversion rates at checkout. Let’s admit it; our sites are faster, our payment infrastructures are seamless, and shipping times are shorter than ever. Yet, across the industry, the “Conversion Rate” remains stuck on a stubborn plateau. Why?
Because while we were busy perfecting the “transaction“ layer, we completely forgot about the “engagement“ layer.
Today’s e-commerce experience is surprisingly “silent” and “lonely” compared to physical retail. It is akin to telling a customer walking into a store, “The warehouse is in the back, go and find what you are looking for yourself.“ When a customer is hesitant about a product, they are met with nothing but a cold product description and a static photo. This is where the Martech world’s new “Holy Grail” lies: We need a new layer to break the silence on websites and bridge the gap between intent and inventory. The name of this layer is Agentic Commerce.
Read More: Meet the AI Planner Agent: The New Brain Behind E-Commerce Campaign Strategy
Escaping the Chatbot Illusion: “Don’t Just Say, Do”
For years, many brands invested in decision-tree-based chatbots to fill this gap. However, as professionals, we know that these bots were often little more than glorified FAQ pages. They didn’t understand the customer; they merely directed them to pre-defined links. This falls far short of the modern consumer’s expectation for “hyper-personalization.”
Agentic AI flips this paradigm. The difference lies in combining LLM (Large Language Model) capabilities with operational autonomy. While legacy systems might tell a customer, “Here is our return policy,” an autonomous agent can say, “This shirt runs small, and based on your past orders, I recommend sizing up. Shall I add the larger size to your cart?” It evolves from a passive information provider into an active sales and operations executor.
The New “Conductor” of the Martech Stack
For a CMO or E-commerce Director, Agentic Commerce is not just another “feature”—it is the “orchestrator” that amplifies the efficiency of the entire existing Martech stack. It melts down data from the CRM, technical details from the PIM (Product Information Management), and logistics APIs into a single pot, offering the customer the specific “context” they need in that exact moment.
In practice, this translates into direct solutions for the biggest KPI struggles in our daily routines:
- The CAC/LTV Imbalance: As Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) rise, retaining customers becomes harder. Agentic AI turns an anonymous visitor into an engaged lead through dialogue, increasing basket size and loyalty (LTV).
- Return Costs: Especially in fashion retail, returns destroy profitability and often stem from sizing issues or inadequate product knowledge. A proactive agent intervening at the moment of sale can prevent a wrong order with a warning like, “This fabric has no stretch,” stopping the return cost before it even occurs.
- Support Load: By taking the “Where is my order?” load off customer service teams, it allows human resources to focus on high-value tasks like VIP client management and crisis resolution.
Read More: AI-Driven Growth Strategies for Modern E-Commerce
The Future: From Clicks to Dialogue
2024 and beyond will mark the shift in e-commerce’s operating system. We are entering an era where dynamic dialogues replace static catalogs, and semantic understanding replaces search bars. The question for brands is no longer “Should we use AI?” but “How do we train these digital employees to represent our brand knowledge and inventory?”
The way to break the conversion plateau is not to buy more ads, but to ensure every visitor feels welcomed by your store’s best sales associate. “Agentic Commerce” is simply the technical name for this vision.
