CPGs Competing at Machine Speed:
The Era of Agentic Systems for Commerce Begins
The Scale of Digital Disruption
Commerce now operates in real-time across millions of dynamic shelves powering not just e-commerce, but curbside pickup and local delivery at every major retailer. On Amazon alone, 77% of searches are unbranded, meaning consumers search for "granola bars" or "wrinkle cream" rather than specific brands, fundamentally changing how purchase decisions are made.
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The exponential increase in scale and complexity has also exposed critical flaws in legacy operating models. Siloed teams, disconnected tools, and misaligned incentives create inefficiency at every turn. The result? 84% of brands on Amazon fail to claim at least one of their top three most-searched unbranded keywords, highlighting how even the largest CPG players struggle with dynamic shelf management.
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The Growing Competitive Threat​
Digital shelves aren't just increasing complexity, they are expanding opportunities for competitors to capture market share. Private label brands, who limit complexity by focusing on a single retailer, have seized this moment by outpacing national brand sales growth 3.9% to 1% in 2024.
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In addition, Third-party marketplace sellers now account for 62% of all units sold on Amazon, creating a long tail of agile competitors concentrating on high-value digital shelves. These digital-native challengers, born into this environment with leaner organizations and simpler financial models, continue to outmaneuver incumbents who remain anchored to legacy processes.
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In personal care alone, insurgent brands drove 45% of category growth in 2024 despite holding minimal market share. This is why getting back to profitable growth for major brands will only happen when they solve for the scale, precision, and real-time agility required to compete market-wide in this new era of commerce.
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The Strategic Imperative
As commerce fragmentation accelerates, the solution isn't more tools or bigger teams. In fact, the current cost structure won't allow it. As operational costs continue to rise from retail media, analytics, and content capabilities needed to support this growing fragmentation, sales continue to stagnate.
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Unlocking the trapped value in these legacy models requires a fundamental reengineering of front-office operations. One that moves from fragmented, resource-intensive processes toward an integrated system that operates at machine speed across every commerce function.
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Therefore, the path forward requires moving beyond resource-intensive, tool-heavy processes (even AI-enabled ones) towards integrated systems that connect every front-office function to shared financial outcomes. Through that shift companies can flatten their operational cost curves to fit the modern era of commerce.
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The Launch of Agentic Systems for Commerce
While the market has responded with numerous AI-enabled tools for commerce optimization, value remains trapped within the siloed functions of the legacy operating model. These piecewise tools may help individual functions perform better but fail to address the fundamental scale challenges defining modern commerce competition.
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The launch of Agentic System for Commerce (ASC) represents the first commercial deployment of an integrated front-office approach. The system leverages market-wide data signals down to the store level, monitoring competitor actions, consumer behavior shifts, and emerging market trends across the entire commerce ecosystem. AI-powered agents then continuously optimize everything from product listings and media strategies to assortment decisions and inventory management.
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Beyond operational optimization, it provides enterprise-level market intelligence that guides strategic decision-making, identifying emerging consumer trends, competitive vulnerabilities, and new growth opportunities before they become obvious to the broader market.
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The Bottom Line
The choice is clear: embrace integrated, agentic systems that compete at machine speed, or watch market share migrate to those who do. In an era where private labels and digital-native brands are capturing the majority of category growth, the cost of inaction has never been higher.