commercetools Unveils Preview Intelligent Search for Cora Powered by Google Cloud's Vertex AI platform at NRF 2026

The collaboration shows how enterprises can improve product discovery, reduce friction, and convert intent into revenue while keeping the shopping experience brand-controlled

NEW YORK, Jan. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- commercetools today announced a preview of commercetools Cora powered by Google's Vertex AI platform, announced at NRF 2026, demonstrating how enterprises can use its intelligent conversational search to improve product discovery, reduce friction, and drive higher conversions within their own digital experiences for shoppers.

The announcement builds on commercetools' November introduction of Cora, its AI-native shopping companion designed to maintain continuity across sessions and touchpoints. The collaboration illustrates how retailers adopting Cora can translate shopper intent into measurable business outcomes, including reduced cart abandonment and more consistent paths to purchase, while maintaining full control over brand, data, and customer relationships. For shoppers, it shows how shopping journeys can stay connected across devices and channels, preserving context and progress without having to start conversations and start journeys over from scratch.

Built on commercetools' flexible enterprise commerce foundation, Cora powered by Google Cloud's Vertex AI platform demonstrates how intelligent discovery can operate at scale inside brand-owned experiences, rather than diverting shoppers to third-party marketplaces or competitors.

Through Google Vertex AI Search for product discovery and Google's Gemini models for LLM-driven conversation capabilities, Cora can interpret shopper intent in real time and surface relevant products directly within a retailer's own digital experience—helping businesses convert demand more effectively while retaining control over discovery and customer relationships.

"Retailers are under pressure to turn demand into revenue without losing control of the customer relationship," said Dirk Hoerig, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at commercetools. "This integration shows how intelligent discovery can support real business outcomes such as higher conversion, lower friction, and stronger continuity, while keeping the experience firmly in the hands of the brand."

For consumers, shopping today often breaks when they move between devices or channels. Carts disappear, searches are forgotten, and journeys reset. This update illustrates how shoppers could move seamlessly from one moment to the next, picking up where they left off with the same context and cart—making shopping feel simpler and more human.

For enterprises, the stakes are just as high. AI-driven shopping assistants are quickly becoming a default consumer expectation, but many of today's assistants are controlled by third parties. That puts brand loyalty and customer relationships at risk. This integration shows how enterprises can offer a branded, commerce-native discovery experience that operates within their own architecture, rather than redirecting demand to external marketplaces or competitors. This is about loyalty.

"The modern shopping journey is no longer a straight line—it's a series of connected moments across digital and physical spaces," said Paul Tepfenhart, global director of Retail Industry Strategy & Solutions, Google Cloud. "By integrating Google Cloud's Vertex AI and Gemini models directly into commercetools Cora, they're helping retailers move past simple keyword matching to true intent-based discovery. This isn't just about search; it's about creating a cohesive, branded dialogue that stays with the shopper wherever they go, making the experience feel less like a transaction and more like a personalized service."

The preview highlights how intelligent conversational discovery can support tangible outcomes, including:

• Higher conversion, by understanding shopper intent and surfacing relevant products faster
• Reduced abandonment, by preserving context across sessions and channels
• Stronger brand loyalty, by keeping discovery inside the retailer's ecosystem
• Operational confidence at scale, built on commercetools' secure, flexible foundation

The integration is a preview, not a generally available product, and is intended to demonstrate how intelligent, conversational discovery can evolve within enterprise commerce environments. NRF 2026 attendees can visit booth #4248 to see how Cora powered by Google Vertex AI could work in practice. For those not attending NRF, the preview will also be available through commercetools' Innovation Studio, where enterprises can explore what this and other prototype experiences previewed at NRF 2026 could look like for their own customers and teams.

commercetools will share more about Cora's roadmap and phased availability in Q2 2026.

To learn more about commercetools Cora and request updates, visit commercetools.com/products/commercetools-cora.

About commercetools

For global enterprises, commercetools provides the leading digital commerce platform that unifies commerce across any touchpoint, delivering unmatched revenue growth and performance. Our composable, cloud-native technology is the foundation for future innovation — from agentic commerce to conversational experiences — giving businesses the flexibility to design tailored, scalable commerce across any channel, at any scale.

By removing the constraints of legacy systems, commercetools enables companies to innovate freely, personalize at scale, and launch new channels quickly to meet the evolving demands of their customers.

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SOURCE commercetools