What was announced
THG Commerce announced on 9 October that it had integrated Criteo Sponsored Products into its AI Shopping Assistant, built using Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise. The company says the integration places paid and organic product recommendations in the same shopping conversation, allowing retailers to monetise discovery within the assistant.
Scope and limits
According to THG, sponsored recommendations are clearly labelled and appear when relevant to the shopper’s request. The company reports stronger early click-through and conversion results than its stated averages, but those are provider-reported outcomes, not an independently verified forecast for other retailers. The release concerns product discovery and advertising placement; it does not establish autonomous payment authorization or a new acquiring arrangement.
What it means for merchants
Merchants should assess commercial relevance and customer trust together. Request the measurement period, comparison baseline and attribution rules before budgeting against reported uplift. Check how sponsorship is disclosed, which product data enters the assistant and how unavailable inventory is handled. Evaluate advertising cost against completed profitable orders, refunds and support demand, rather than treating conversation engagement alone as evidence of incremental sales.
Read the original announcement
THG Ingenuity · 9 Oct 2026This brief summarizes the linked primary source. Claims and reported figures have not been independently audited by Payment Guide.