JD Sports enables direct purchases through AI platforms in US market

JD Sports Fashion is pioneering a new frontier in retail by letting customers search for and buy products directly through artificial intelligence platforms without leaving those apps.

The British-based retailer announced on 12 January at the NRF Conference that US customers will be able to purchase footwear, apparel and accessories through Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT using integrated payment systems. The rollout will begin with Microsoft Copilot in the coming months, with other large language model (LLM) platforms to follow.

The move positions JD Sports at the forefront of agentic commerce – shopping experiences where AI assistants handle product discovery, comparison and transactions within a single interface. The US market accounts for more than 40 percent of JD Sports’ global sales. The company operates over 2,500 stores across the JD, DTLR, Shoe Palace and Hibbett brands in North America.

Strategic rationale: meeting customers where they discover products

Jetan Chowk, JD Sports’ chief technology and transformation officer, framed the initiative as a response to evolving consumer behavior. “We’ve seen that customers want to be able to shop through different channels and it’s important that we meet them where they are,” Chowk told PA Media. “Today’s announcement is an important step into the next era of online shopping and positions JD to be ahead of the curve as the global retail industry embraces AI.”

The company cited research indicating that 60 percent of 18-to-24-year-olds in the US use AI as part of their shopping journeys, whether for product research or recommendations. Industry forecasts from Gartner predict that traditional search engine volume will drop 25 percent by 2026 as AI-powered interfaces become primary discovery channels.

Régis Schultz, group CEO of JD Sports Fashion, emphasized the operational efficiency angle. “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,” Schultz said. “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 transactional – through those channels, without adding complexity to our operations.”

Technology infrastructure: extending existing systems rather than replacing them

JD Sports is leveraging its existing e-commerce infrastructure through a partnership with Commercetools and payment processor Stripe. The retailer is among the first to deploy commercetools’ Agentic Commerce Suite (ACS) combined with Stripe’s payment processing and fraud protection capabilities. The architecture connects AI-driven product discovery directly to JD Sports’ existing systems for pricing, inventory, fulfillment and checkout – maintaining governance over these critical functions while extending reach into new channels.

Preparing for post-search commerce

The launch reflects a strategic pivot as the retail industry adapts to a “post-search” era. Research from Adobe Digital Insights in 2025 found meaningful adoption of generative AI in shopping journeys, with over half of US consumers now utilizing AI for deep product research and personalized recommendations. This shift is validated by Gartner, which predicts that traditional search engine volume will drop 25% by 2026 as consumers migrate toward AI-driven “answer engines” and virtual assistants.

For sporting goods retailers historically dependent on high-intent search traffic for conversion, this decline represents a fundamental threat to traditional SEO-driven sales. JD Sports’ approach mitigates this by treating AI platforms as native distribution channels rather than mere marketing tools.

The announcement precedes JD Sports’ scheduled trading update for the Christmas quarter on Jan 21 2026. In November 2025, the retailer forecast annual profit at the lower end of market expectations, citing weak economic and consumer indicators in key markets.