Fifteen years of retail investment share one assumption: the shopper comes to you. Apps, loyalty programs, owned storefronts, checkout optimization, retail media: all of it monetizes the visit. An agent does not visit. It queries, compares, and transacts from inside whatever surface the consumer already lives in, and the merchant’s destination assets never render.
The thesis does not claim destinations die; it claims their value re-prices against a new question: what does this asset earn when no human sees it? Inventory data, structured product feeds, and machine-readable trust signals appreciate. Interface polish depreciates. I use the thesis to sort agentic commerce news into two piles: moves that prepare a merchant for shoppers who never arrive, and moves that optimize a storefront the next generation of demand will not see.