1Identity
TodayYour card, your phone, your face on a passkey.
DelegatedThe agent proves it acts for you, and the shop can tell it from a bot.
Already hereCard networks give agents signed credentials, so a shop can tell a trusted agent from a bot.
non-HITLDelegated B2C
The shop wasn’t built for the buyer that’s coming.
That buyer is an agent. In delegated B2C the customer is still a person, but the buying is done by an agent acting with the customer’s authority. Card networks and payment platforms are building the plumbing. Most shops are not: they were built to persuade people, and an agent can’t be persuaded.
01 · Shops built for people
Everything that sells to a person is noise to an agent.
Online shops are designed to persuade people: product photos, urgency banners, upsells. An agent can’t be persuaded. Today it gets in by pretending to be human.
The same product page, twice
One page, two readers.
The price sits inside a photo, the buy button is a guess, and the urgency banner means nothing. A bot wall can’t tell an agent acting for a customer from an attacker, so it blocks both.
Weakest pillar today: identity. Every agent looks like a bot.
Closing the door
- A large marketplace has banned buy-for-me agents that order without human review, unless it approves them.
- The largest retailers block outside agents while building shopping assistants of their own.
Opening the door
- A leading commerce platform lets agents in the buyer’s browser read and update the checkout, and place the order once the buyer confirms.
- WebMCP, a proposed web standard, lets a shop declare search, basket and checkout as tools an agent can call, instead of reading the screen.
What changes for the shop
The marketing playbook stops working.Urgency banners, upsells and visual merchandising don’t move an agent. Clean data does: machine-readable prices, stock, returns and terms, plus proof the agent can check.
Shops that expose tools get chosen.An agent queries a shop that offers search and checkout as tools in seconds. A shop that needs forms filled by hand gets skipped.
Content loses its business model.If agents read reviews and comparisons but never see the ads, ad-funded content has to find another way to be paid.
A shop built only for people keeps a person in the loop because it has to, not because the person adds value.
02 · What changes
Three roles that used to be one person.
In a shop today the same person decides, buys and answers for the purchase. Delegated B2C splits the three. The person sets the intent once; the agent buys; and someone still has to answer when it goes wrong.
Decides
The person
Sets intent and limits once: “under €80, these brands, every month”. Can change or withdraw them at any time.
Buys
The agent
Searches, compares and pays within the mandate, at machine speed, in every shop at once.
Answers
Still open
When the agent buys the wrong thing within its mandate, who pays? The answer decides how fast delegated B2C grows.
Four levels of delegation
- 1SuggestThe agent recommends. The person buys.
- 2AssembleThe agent builds the basket. The person pays.
- 3Buy within limitsThe agent pays. The person confirms each order.
- 4Buy on its ownA standing mandate. No person approves each purchase.
Each level needs a different mandate, a different answer to who is liable, and different work for the person. Most delegation today stops at levels 1 to 3: groceries, reorders, assisted checkouts.
03 · The five pillars at the checkout
At the checkout, the trust network is already being built.
Card networks and payment platforms are rebuilding the five pillars of trust for agents, one by one. Three are moving fast. One lags, and one is still open.
2Authority
TodayYou click “buy”.
DelegatedA signed mandate: what, how much, until when. You can withdraw it at any time.
Already hereSigned mandates for intent, cart and payment, handed in 2026 to an open standards body.
3Competence
TodayYou read the page and know what you are buying.
DelegatedThe agent has to understand pages built for human eyes.
LaggingMost agents still read the screen and guess which button does what.
4Evidence
TodayA receipt, and your memory of what you meant.
DelegatedA tamper-proof record of what you authorised and what the agent did.
Already hereTamper-proof logs of what a person authorised an agent to do, built by a card network and a platform together.
5Accountability
TodayYou bought it, so you answer for it.
DelegatedSomeone has to answer for a purchase no person approved.
Still openA card issuer has announced cover for mistaken purchases by registered agents. Its terms are not yet published.
The technology is not what holds delegated B2C back. Trust is. The protocols exist; what is missing is people’s willingness to hand over the last click, and someone willing to answer for it.
04 · The agent-readiness scale
How far can a customer’s agent get on its own?
Five levels, from a shop that turns every agent away to one that accepts a signed mandate. Each level asks one question, and each adds one pillar of trust.
0
Hostile
The agent can’t get in.
Looks likeBot walls and tests to prove you are human; content that only appears as images or after scripts run.
Pillar that failsIdentity: every agent is treated as an attacker.
Quick testAsk an agent for a product’s price. Is it blocked?
1
Readable
The agent can find and understand products.
NeedsStructured product data. Prices, stock, shipping and returns written as text, matching what the page shows.
PillarEvidence, in part: the agent can read claims but not verify them.
Quick testCan an agent compare you with a competitor without making things up?
2
Navigable
The agent builds the basket. A person finishes.
NeedsPlain forms, stable layouts, clear labels. No dark patterns or fake-urgency pop-ups. A checkout that works without visual cues.
PillarCompetence: the shop doesn’t trip up a capable agent.
Quick testCan an agent reach checkout with the right item and quantity?
3
Operable
The agent buys. The person confirms.
NeedsSearch, basket and checkout exposed as tools. Known agents recognised by signed credentials. The buyer approves with one tap.
PillarAuthority, with the person approving each purchase.
Quick testFrom request to order, does the person do anything except approve?
4
Delegable
The agent buys within a mandate. No person approves each purchase.
NeedsSigned mandates with limits, verified agent identity, a full audit trail, and clear refunds and disputes when the agent gets it wrong.
PillarAccountability, the last one handed over: someone carries the liability for a purchase no person approved.
Quick testIf the agent buys the wrong item within its mandate, who pays, and how fast is it fixed?
Levels are our judgement, for discussion. Most shops sit at 0 or 1 today; commerce platforms are pushing their merchants to 3; level 4 exists mostly in pilots, and won’t scale until the accountability question is settled.
05 · The markets it opens
Delegated B2C opens four of the ten markets.
Each one exists because a person no longer has to stand at the checkout. And each one is waiting for the same thing: someone to carry the trust the person carries today.
~2035
Fiduciary agents
An agent with a legal duty to you, never paid by the seller. Delegated B2C needs a buyer’s agent the customer can trust.
~2035Trust clearing house for machine actions
Verifies the agent, the mandate and the record for every purchase, and settles liability, as card networks clear payments.
~2035Per-action liability insurance
Cover for each purchase an agent makes, priced from its own record. The answer to “who pays when it’s wrong”.
~2040The household as a supply node
Level 4 at home: a standing mandate restocks the house, and a robot delivers into it while nobody is in.