AI agents that compare and buy products for consumers could make delivery, returns and customer service more important in the competition among online retailers, says Piotr Zaleski, co-founder and chief technology officer of Swedish company Ingrid.
Consumers often simplify comparisons by focusing mainly on price. Zaleski told Techtidningen that AI agents could weigh more factors at once, including delivery times and costs, return terms, customer reviews and whether retailers meet their delivery promises. For a kayak purchase, for example, delivery conditions may matter as much as the product itself.
Zaleski said agents could also help smaller retailers gain visibility through strong customer service and reviews, though the technology is still at an early stage. Ingrid has announced Agentic DeliveryOS, a strategic direction that gives data, automation and AI agents a larger role in delivery management. The company says agents could help handle returns involving multiple orders or retrieve shipment information when a carrier lacks working digital interfaces.
Ingrid says its existing services provide data on more than 300 million shipments, including carrier performance and consumer delivery choices. It is also working to make delivery information available to external AI agents through technical interfaces such as MCP.
Ingrid and Åhléns report that the retailer’s average delivery fee rose 29.9% year over year, while conversion increased 1.4% and average order value rose 2.3%, following changes to its delivery strategy. Zaleski said Nordic retailers’ experience combining home delivery, pickup points and parcel lockers could help them benefit from these developments.
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