The conversation around AI in e-commerce is maturing. Simple chatbots and basic automation are no longer enough to secure a competitive edge. The new frontier is agentic AI—intelligent, autonomous systems that don’t just respond to commands but proactively manage and orchestrate complex business operations.

For merchants, this marks a pivotal shift from doing tasks to designing systems that do the tasks. In fact, businesses leveraging AI and automation have already seen a 45% increase in ROI and an 80% boost in lead generation (SellersCommerce, 2025). The message is clear: the future of efficient, scalable e-commerce lies in automation.

But where do you start? We’ve identified 10 high-impact agentic workflows that every merchant should prioritise for automation in 2025 to save costs, boost revenue, and create a superior customer experience.

1. Proactive Low-Stock and Back-in-Stock Alerts

• The Problem: Manually tracking inventory is inefficient. When a popular item sells out, you lose sales. When it’s restocked, you miss the window to re-engage interested customers.
• The Agentic Workflow:
  1. An Inventory Monitoring Agent constantly watches stock levels on your commerce platform (e.g., Adobe Commerce, Shopify).
  2. When a SKU drops below a set threshold (e.g., 20 units), it triggers a Notification Agent to send an alert to your procurement team via Slack.
  3. Simultaneously, a Marketing Agent automatically pauses all Google and Meta ad campaigns for that specific product to prevent wasteful ad spend.
  4. When the item is restocked, the system reverses, automatically re-activating the ad campaigns and notifying a “back-in-stock” customer list.

2. Abandoned Cart Recovery and Personalised Incentives

• The Problem: The average shopping cart abandonment rate is a staggering 19%, representing billions in lost revenue (SellersCommerce, 2025). Standard reminder emails are often ignored.
• The Agentic Workflow:
  1. An agent detects an abandoned cart containing high-margin items.
  2. It waits 60 minutes, then sends a personalised follow-up email or SMS.
  3. If there’s still no purchase after 24 hours, a Discount Agent checks the customer’s history. Is this a first-time buyer? A loyal VIP? It then generates a unique, single-use discount code (e.g., 10% for new customers, free shipping for loyal ones) and sends a second, more compelling reminder.

3. Intelligent Customer Support Triage and Routing

• The Problem: Not all customer queries are equal. A simple “Where is my order?” question shouldn’t wait in the same queue as a complex complaint about a faulty product.
• The Agentic Workflow:
  1. A Triage Agent analyses incoming support tickets from all channels (email, chat, social media).
  2. Using Natural Language Processing (NLP), it identifies the query’s intent and urgency.
  3. Simple, repetitive queries (order status, return policy) are answered instantly by a Customer Service Agent.
  4. Complex or high-urgency issues (e.g., containing keywords like “angry,” “faulty,” “legal”) are automatically escalated and routed to the correct senior support team member with all relevant customer data attached.

4. Dynamic Pricing Based on Competitor Activity

• The Problem: Manually monitoring competitor prices is a full-time job. By the time you react, you’ve either lost the sale or left money on the table.
• The Agentic Workflow:
  1. A Competitor Monitoring Agent scrapes the websites of your key competitors for specific product prices.
  2. If a competitor lowers their price, a Pricing Agent cross-references your current inventory levels and profit margins for that product.
  3. Based on pre-defined rules (e.g., “always be 5% cheaper, but maintain a minimum 30% margin”), it automatically adjusts your product price in real-time.

5. Automated Review Request and UGC Generation

• The Problem: Positive reviews and user-generated content (UGC) are crucial for building trust, but manually requesting them is inconsistent.
• The Agentic Workflow:
  1. A Post-Purchase Agent is triggered when a shipping provider’s API confirms a product has been delivered.
  2. It waits a set period (e.g., 7 days) to allow the customer to use the product.
  3. It then sends a personalised email asking for a review, including direct links to your product page or Trustpilot.
  4. For fashion or lifestyle brands, it can add a call-to-action asking customers to share a photo on Instagram with a specific hashtag for a chance to be featured.

6. Proactive Fraud Detection and Prevention

• The Problem: Fraudulent orders cost merchants billions annually. Relying solely on payment gateway checks can be reactive.
• The Agentic Workflow:
  1. A Fraud Detection Agent analyses new orders for high-risk indicators in real-time (e.g., mismatched billing/shipping addresses, unusually large orders, multiple failed payment attempts).
  2. If an order is flagged, it is automatically put on hold, preventing it from being dispatched.
  3. A Notification Agent alerts your finance team with a summary of the risk factors, allowing for manual review before the order is either cancelled or approved.

7. Personalised Cross-Sell and Up-Sell Recommendations

• The Problem: Generic “you might also like” sections are ineffective. True personalisation drives higher average order value (AOV).
• The Agentic Workflow:
  1. When a customer adds an item to their cart, a Recommendation Agent analyses their current cart, past purchase history, and the browsing behaviour of similar customers.
  2. It then displays highly relevant, complementary products. For example, if a customer buys a camera, it suggests a compatible memory card and camera bag, not just other cameras.
  3. This can also be used in post-purchase emails, offering a discount on a related item.

8. Automated Ad Campaign Management

• The Problem: Ad performance fluctuates constantly. Manually shifting budget from underperforming campaigns to successful ones is slow and inefficient.
• The Agentic Workflow:
  1. A Performance Marketing Agent monitors key metrics (ROAS, CPA, conversion rate) across all your Google and Meta ad campaigns.
  2. If a campaign’s ROAS falls below a target for more than 48 hours, its budget is automatically reduced by 20%.
  3. That budget is then automatically reallocated to the highest-performing campaigns, maximising your ad spend efficiency without manual intervention.

9. SLA Monitoring and Fulfilment Bottleneck Alerts

• The Problem: You promise next-day delivery, but your warehouse or 3PL partner is falling behind. By the time you find out, customers are already angry.
• The Agentic Workflow:
  1. A Fulfilment Agent integrates with your warehouse management system (WMS) or 3PL’s API.
  2. It monitors order processing times. If the average time from “order received” to “order dispatched” exceeds your Service Level Agreement (SLA), it triggers an alert.
  3. This gives you an early warning to address the bottleneck with your fulfilment team before it impacts a large number of customers.

10. Subscription Management and Churn Prevention

• The Problem: For subscription-based businesses, a failed payment often leads to involuntary churn, even if the customer wanted to stay.
• The Agentic Workflow:
  1. A Billing Agent is notified by Stripe or PayPal of a failed subscription payment.
  2. It immediately sends a friendly email to the customer with a direct link to update their payment details.
  3. If the payment still isn’t updated after 3 days, it can automatically try re-billing the card.
  4. As a final step, it could even send an offer: “Update your card details now and get 15% off your next renewal.”