commercetools Kicks Off NRF 2026 - including Updates on Stripe ACS, AI Hub, and Helping Enterprises Stay Discoverable and Shoppable in Agentic Commerce

At a glance

NEW YORK, Jan. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- commercetools today announced a set of customer and platform updates at NRF 2026 showcasing how its global retailer customers are moving from AI experimentation to agentic commerce execution. The announcements highlight: (1) AI Hub as the connective foundation for agentic workflows, (2) Early enterprise adoption of the Agentic Commerce Suite (ACS) developed by Stripe, and (3) JD Sports' commitment to executing agentic commerce using commercetools Agentic Jumpstart and ACS, alongside other recent customer successes.

Together, these updates illustrate how unified commerce infrastructure is evolving to support a new reality. Shopping increasingly begins inside AI-driven environments, while transactions must remain accurate, reliable, secure, and governed at enterprise scale. commercetools' approach enables its retailer customers to execute agentic commerce without replatforming by extending their existing commerce foundation into emerging agentic channels while maintaining control over pricing, availability, payments, and customer experience.

Turning AI-driven discovery into real transactions with Stripe

As large language models (LLMs) and AI agents become new channels for product discovery, retailers must be able to convert intent into transactions across these environments. Stripe's ACS connects AI-driven discovery directly to secure checkout and payment flows, allowing retailers to capture demand the moment intent is expressed.

The result is a practical path that allows retailers to enable agentic workflows faster, without complexity or loss of control.

JD Sports has signed on as the first enterprise retailer to deploy the ACS, marking an early commitment to converting AI-driven discovery into live transactions. In addition to ACS, JD Sports is adopting commercetools' Agentic Jumpstart (which includes the AI Hub), reflecting its investment in capturing demand as discovery increasingly shifts toward AI-powered interfaces.

"Retailers are reaching an inflection point where discovery is increasingly happening inside AI-driven environments, but transactions still have to be reliable, secure, and scalable," said Dirk Hoerig, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at commercetools. "With Agentic Jumpstart and our work with Stripe, JD Sports is moving early to connect AI-led discovery directly to real transactions. We've done the hard work to make this practical so enterprises can move faster, stay in control, and capture demand wherever shopping happens next."

For JD Sports, this represents a concrete step toward a future where GenAI channels become a primary entry point for commerce. By combining Agentic Jumpstart with Stripe's payments and fraud protection, JD Sports can participate in agentic commerce while maintaining governance over pricing, inventory, checkout, fulfillment, and customer experience.

"We want to make it as easy as possible for our customers to shop with us, no matter where they are or how they like to shop," said Regis Schultz, Group CEO of JD Sports Fashion plc. "As AI-driven interfaces become a real entry point for commerce, our partnership with commercetools and Stripe allows us to not only be discoverable – but also to be transactional – through those channels, without adding complexity to our operations. That strengthens our digital proposition for customers, and keeps us moving in line with the fast-changing retail landscape."

This deployment marks a significant shift in agentic commerce, transitioning from experimentation to execution when built on enterprise-ready commerce and payments infrastructure. This sets the stage for how retailers can extend these capabilities across broader intelligent workflows.

Extending unified commerce into agentic experiences with AI Hub

As AI-driven interfaces increasingly influence how consumers discover and evaluate products, enterprises need a way to participate across these environments without fragmenting their commerce operations. AI Hub, which commercetools introduced in 2025, provides a centralized way to activate and scale across multiple AI discovery and purchase experiences without requiring one-off integrations for each new agent ecosystem.

Rather than replacing existing systems, AI Hub extends them by connecting governed product data, pricing, availability, and checkout capabilities to emerging agentic channels while maintaining enterprise control. While solutions like the ACS demonstrate how AI-driven discovery can be converted into transactions, the AI Hub addresses the broader operational challenge enterprises face as AI adoption accelerates. It provides a consistent way to manage how products are represented, how intent is captured, and how transactions are completed across an expanding set of AI-led experiences.

With AI Hub, customers can:

"2025 was about understanding how discoverability changes in an AI-driven world. In 2026, retail enterprises now have to put that understanding into action," said Dirk Hoerig, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at commercetools. "Commerce is shifting faster than most enterprises can re-architect for. AI Hub helps retailers stay discoverable and ready to transact across emerging AI experiences, while the same commerce foundation continues to deliver performance at scale. That's why our customers can move faster, stay in control, and show up wherever shopping happens next, and it's the momentum we're bringing into NRF and the year ahead."

From agentic readiness to enterprise execution at global scale

While AI Hub enables retailers to participate in emerging agentic experiences, its real value is revealed when paired with the demands of global commerce: complex catalogs, regional requirements, tightly governed brand experiences, and the need to operate consistently at scale. This is where unified commerce infrastructure moves from experimentation to long-term advantage.

As enterprises prepare for the next phase of commerce, unifying digital and physical experiences has become essential. Consistency across channels, flexibility to adapt locally, and operational resilience are now just as critical as performance during peak demand. Retailers that can meet these requirements are better positioned to translate AI-driven discovery into reliable, repeatable execution across markets.

Nespresso is a new commercetools customer, selecting the platform to support its efforts to connect digital and physical commerce experiences while maintaining a consistent global brand experience. With a flexible commerce foundation, Nespresso can address complex international requirements, simplify operations for internal teams, and scale without introducing friction for customers.

"Delivering a consistently high-quality customer experience at a global scale is our top priority," said Thomas Kurlus, CTO at Nespresso. "We chose commercetools because of their ability to support complex, international requirements without adding friction for our teams or our customers. Their approach gives us the flexibility to deliver excellent experiences today while staying ready for what comes next."

Preparing enterprises for what's next

Together, these updates show how enterprises are unifying commerce operations, moving from AI experimentation to execution, and positioning themselves for a future where agentic AI plays a growing role in how shopping begins and completes. commercetools enables retailers to move forward without disruption, delivering reliability today while supporting new ways to convert demand as the market evolves.

Attendees can experience these customer stories and see how commercetools supports unified and agentic commerce in action at booth #4248 and in the commercetools lounge at NRF 2026. For those not attending NRF, select experiences will also be available through the commercetools Innovation Studio.

To learn more about commercetools, visit commercetools.com

About commercetools

For global enterprises, commercetools provides the leading digital commerce platform that unifies commerce across any touchpoint, delivering unmatched revenue growth and performance. Our composable, cloud-native technology is the foundation for future innovation — from agentic commerce to conversational experiences — giving businesses the flexibility to design tailored, scalable commerce across any channel, at any scale.

By removing the constraints of legacy systems, commercetools enables companies to innovate freely, personalize at scale, and launch new channels quickly to meet the evolving demands of their customers.

About JD Sports Fashion plc

Founded in 1981, the JD Group ('JD') is a leading global omnichannel retailer of Sports Fashion brands. JD provides customers with the latest sports fashion through working with established and new brands to deliver products that our customers most want, across both footwear and apparel. The vision of JD is to inspire the emerging generation of consumers through a connection to the universal culture of sport, music and fashion. JD focuses on four strategic pillars: JD Brand First, first priority, first in the world; leveraging Complementary Concepts to support JD Group global expansion; moving Beyond Physical Retail by building the right infrastructure and creating a lifestyle ecosystem of relevant products and services; and doing the best for its People, Partners and Communities. JD is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index, with 4,851 stores across 36 countries as of 1 November 2025.

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SOURCE commercetools