How Advertising is Evolving in the Era of the Empowered Shopper

Shoppers today are more autonomous, informed and decisive than ever. They’re discovering, comparing and transacting in real time, often outside the boundaries of traditional storefronts.

This shift demands a new kind of advertising, one that moves at the speed of consumer intent, appears in the right context, and collapses the distance between discovery and purchase.

Advertising hasn’t always kept pace with these expectations, but commerce has. As media and commerce converge, the future belongs to ads that act more like storefronts.

Welcome to the era of the empowered shopper, defined by three major cornerstones:

1. Instant, Highly Personalized Experiences

The modern shopper expects convenience. They assume the right product, at the right price, will be presented to them at the exact moment of need.

Large language models (LLMs) will only heighten these expectations. Instead of typing search queries or scrolling endless product grids, people will increasingly ask for what they want in natural language and expect an immediate, relevant response.

That means advertising can no longer settle for exposing consumers to products they might want based on an audience profile. It must anticipate consumer intent and resolve it instantly. In the era of the empowered shopper, effective ads must look like solutions, not interruptions.

2. Shopping That Happens Everywhere

The line between media and commerce has blurred. TikTok isn’t just a social platform; it’s a shopping mall. A connected TV ad doesn’t just build awareness; it can be interactive and shoppable.

Shopping is everywhere now — in feeds, in videos, in chatbots. The opportunity for advertisers is to meet consumers wherever discovery happens and make the path from interest to purchase as seamless as possible.

This is a profound shift. For decades, media and retail were separate industries. Today, every touchpoint is potentially transactional. Advertisers who recognize this and design campaigns that collapse the funnel will have an advantage.

3. The Rise of Agentic Commerce

The next frontier is agentic. Increasingly, shoppers will delegate decisions to artificial intelligence agents — from restocking household items to booking vacations.

It’s a dramatic extension of the convenience and personalization trend. Instead of clicking “buy,” the consumer sets preferences once and lets an agent transact on their behalf.

For advertisers, this raises big questions. How do you persuade an algorithm to recommend your product? How do you make sure your brand is represented well in an agentic environment?

It may sound futuristic, but early signs are here. And forward-looking marketers need to start preparing now.

What Advertisers Need to Do

Across all three of these shifts, the through-line is clear: advertisers need a deep understanding of consumer behavior and the ability to act on that understanding instantly.

• Personalization requires knowing who the shopper is and what they’re likely to want next.
• Shoppability requires being present in the moments where intent surfaces, whether on social, streaming, or in a wallet app.
• Agentic commerce requires earning trust with data that proves your product is the right fit for a given customer.

The empowered shopper doesn't need to see more ads. They need to see better ones: ads that anticipate needs and respect context.

Why Now

The empowered shopper is a useful way to frame the urgency of this moment. The consumer has changed. Commerce has changed. Advertising must catch up.

If the last era of digital ads was about reach and targeting, the next era will be about prediction and intent. Those brands that can meet shoppers on their terms, instantly, everywhere, and eventually through agents, will be the ones to thrive.

Dr. Mark Grether is the senior vice president and general manager of PayPal Ads, a smarter advertising platform built across PayPal, Venmo, PayPal Honey, PayPal Open, publishers, and merchants everywhere.