Salsify At the Whiteboard
The New Omnichannel and the Three Shelves

As AI-powered shopping assistants become a new way for consumers to buy, brands face a new challenge: optimizing for the agentic shelf. In this episode, Rob Gonzalez explains why this isn't incremental growth—it's a shift in where market share is won or lost.

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Why the Agentic Shelf Changes Everything for Brands

In this installment of Salsify's At the Whiteboard, Rob Gonzalez, Salsify Co-Founder and Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, explores why commerce is evolving beyond the physical shelf and digital shelf to include a third channel: the agentic shelf.

He explains why AI-driven shopping experiences won't create more consumer demand — they'll redistribute existing spending across three shelves. As brands compete for the same dollars in a new buying environment, success will depend on adapting product experiences and operations to ensure AI agents can discover, evaluate, and recommend products.

Learn why brands that fail to optimize for the agentic shelf risk losing market share to faster-moving competitors.

"The total amount of consumer spend is more like a fixed pot. Just because there's a new way to shop doesn't mean you're going to buy more chocolate bars or more soda. It just means consumers are spread across the three shelves."

— Rob Gonzalez, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, Salsify

"In the agentic shelf, the funnel is collapsed. You're doing all the activity all at once within a chat."

— Rob Gonzalez, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, Salsify

See Transcript

Hi. I'm Rob, and I'm back at the whiteboard to talk about the new omnichannel and the risks to incumbent brands in the new omnichannel.
For a long time, most multichannel branded manufacturers have been working on the physical shelf and the digital shelf. And now we have a new shelf, which is the agentic shelf. The agentic shelf operates differently than the physical shelf or the digital shelf. There's different rules of engagement.
And the way that I hear the agentic shelf being talked about online quite a bit is that it's this opportunity for growth and there's incrementality. And I think that's absolutely incorrect. The consumer total amount of consumer spend is more like a fixed pie. Just because there's a new way of shop doesn't mean that you're gonna buy more chocolate bars or buy more soda or buy more home improvement equipment like drills or whatnot.
It just means that the consumers are spread across the three shelves. So it's the same amount of dollars. But now, instead of having to optimize just the physical shelf and the digital shelf, you also have to optimize the agentic shelf in order to get your claim on your slice of the pie. And the risk here is that if you don't do it, market share erodes. One of the things that we saw as consumer shopping went from the physical shelf to the digital shelf and the digital shelf is, you know, roundabout twenty five percent of retail GMV toda. Is that the market share of the brands diluted? So if you look online, the large incumbent brands have a lower share of category than they do in the physical store. There's more smaller upstarts that are taking small pieces of the pie, and the larger incumbent brands have to fight pretty hard in order to maintain share distribution within their categories.
The same thing is gonna happen with the agentic shelf, where there's gonna be lots of new upstarts that are taking advantage of a new route to market, that are moving fast, that are moving nimbly. And in order to maintain share and make sure that your share of voice is heard within the agentic shelf, you're gonna have to operate differently. Now, the way that it works compared to the previous shelves and what's most different about it is that on the physical shelf and the digital shelf, you know, most branded manufacturers have funnels where you've got a different set of activities at the top of the funnel, in the middle of the funnel, in the bottom of the funnel to get consumer attention and then eventually convert them.
There's steps in the funnel. And the steps in the physical shelf and the digital shelf are different, but they're still steps. In the agentic shelf, the funnel is collapsed. You're currently working on a single step in the funnel where you're doing all the activity all at once within a chat.
And then going forward, you're gonna have agents that are just purchasing things for you, maybe automatically. Just, again, fully collapsing the funnel. So the way that you have to optimize for this new world is pretty different from the previous two worlds. And it means that startups might have an advantage, again, of getting this new route to market optimal before incumbents do.
It also means that incumbents are gonna have to take on more operational complexity to do the new omnichannel, which is now three shelves with three different modes of purchasing. So we're gonna be back in future videos breaking down exactly what needs to be done in order to be successful in this new world. And until then, thanks for listening.

Salsify At the WhiteboardThe New Omnichannel and the Three Shelves

Why the Agentic Shelf Changes Everything for Brands

"The total amount of consumer spend is more like a fixed pot. Just because there's a new way to shop doesn't mean you're going to buy more chocolate bars or more soda. It just means consumers are spread across the three shelves."

"In the agentic shelf, the funnel is collapsed. You're doing all the activity all at once within a chat."

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Salsify At the Whiteboard
The New Omnichannel and the Three Shelves