Commentary by Cliff Pfefferkorn
Anyone who has tried using ChatGPT to search for the right laptop, get style advice for an evening outfit, or plan a city trip knows this immediately: traditional browsing and shopping behavior is a thing of the past. Everything becomes easier and more intuitive.
This will not only apply to e-commerce but especially to brick-and-mortar retail. “Show me all silver sneakers in size 39 that I can reach on foot within 15 minutes from St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna …” — such a search query on Google would be a single, complicated, click-heavy annoyance, especially on a smartphone. With ChatGPT, it takes just seconds to dictate this request and only a few seconds more to have the fastest route to all relevant stores planned — or the most comfortable one, including a stop at a café or hairdresser recommended by the AI, complete with table and appointment reservations.
Shoppers will no longer search — they will describe a goal, and the AI will organize the path to it: which products are shown, which are recommended, where they should be purchased, and whether the AI should complete the purchase right away. Navigation becomes conversation, and AI becomes the personalized, advisory dialogue partner.
This commentary was published in ACROSS Issue 1|2026
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To succeed in these new Customer Journeys, new Success Factors will matter
High-quality product and advisory content will play a key role, as will clean, complete product data. The importance of outstanding services will increase, because AI can find them much more easily — this also represents a major opportunity for loyalty programs. Good prices will become even more transparent, as will temporary offers or bundles. And all of this must be provided technically in a way that allows AI to read the content and preferentially integrate it into its advisory results.
Many existing marketing strategies and roadmaps of retailers and manufacturers are therefore becoming obsolete. Many of the former success factors of online marketing and omnichannel commerce will lose relevance — for example, traditional search engine optimization, established performance marketing, the user experience of classic web shops, or brand awareness without real functional added value.
“AI will play a great role in determining how we shop and use services. Only manufacturers and retailers that adapt quickly to AI-driven shopping will have a future.”
Only manufacturers and retailers that adapt quickly to AI-driven shopping will have a future. This transition will be particularly difficult for retailers. Their brands may be well known but often lack functional added value. Their product content and data usually come from manufacturers. And their services are often interchangeable. Significant shifts in the balance of power within retail can therefore be expected.
Shopping Malls must no longer just watch — they must shape the Future
Let’s be honest: in recent years, European shopping mall operators (unlike those in the US and China) have, at best, taken a passive, observational stance toward developments in omnichannel marketing and e-commerce. Their focus has been on physical, on-site experience.
In times of AI-driven commerce, this role is no longer sustainable. AI will play too great a role in determining how we shop and use services — not only online but also offline. As a result, it will also depend heavily on AI whether customers come to a shopping mall, and for what purpose.
“The opportunities for shopping malls are enormus.”
At the same time, however, the opportunities for shopping malls are enormous: they can develop, organize, and provide their entire shopping, service, and experience offerings in such a way that AI recognizes them and prioritizes them in its recommendations. This would give shopping malls a relevance in digital customer journeys that they have never had before. At the same time, costly investments in proprietary online marketplaces, web shops, and online marketing will be less necessary than they were in the omnichannel strategies of the past.
Places that also AI loves
“Places we love” — this established claim of the shopping mall industry must therefore evolve into “places that also AI loves.” In the future, AI-driven customer journeys, shopping malls can regain a role they lost in traditional omnichannel marketing: a valued provider of shopping experiences and services for shoppers and of reach and added value for tenants and lessees.
This also opens ideas for new forms of cooperation and business model options with tenants, who — thanks to their own omnichannel strategies — can now work with shopping malls much more easily on a technical and operational level than they could just a few years ago.
The speed at which AI will change shopping behavior will be enormous. No one can afford to lose time — shopping malls included.
About Cliff Pfefferkorn
Cliff Pfefferkorn is the founder and Managing Partner of eStrategy Consulting and from now on will be a regular contributor to ACROSS with a monthly column.
eStrategy Consulting is a Berlin-Mitte–based boutique consultancy operating across Europe and the United States, specializing in digital innovation and transformation. The firm supports companies in developing clear, actionable strategies for digitally driven business models, omnichannel marketing and e-commerce, data and AI utilization, and operational excellence. Beyond strategy development, it also actively supports implementation in close collaboration with client teams. eStrategy Consulting has particular expertise in real estate, retail and online marketplaces, manufacturers and brands, financial services, telecommunications, and the public sector.
For more than 25 years, Cliff Pfefferkorn has advised clients on leveraging digitalization and technology to create compelling user experiences and sustainable business and operating models in fast-changing markets. He lives in Berlin with his wife and two children.
