Can Intent-Driven Design Fix Broken Shopping Experiences?

Intent-driven design could be the missing piece in fixing digital shopping experiences that still resemble static catalogues from the early 2000s. 

Yes, algorithms can recommend your next binge-watch and food delivery apps anticipate cravings before you even feel them but online retail? It’s still clunky, full of endless scrolls, irrelevant filters, and buried products.

According to recent studies, In 2025, 92% of top ecommerce firms use AI-driven personalisation tools. Yet, 42% of teams report using six or more apps daily leading to inefficiencies and poorer customer experiences. The promise of personalisation hasn’t materialised where it matters most: discovery.

Warren Cowan, CEO & Founder, FoundIt!, believes he knows why. “Too many ecommerce sites are built around internal product structures, not around how customers actually want to shop,” he says. “They’re optimised for inventory management rather than the customer experience.”

The result? A shopping journey defined by friction where discovery feels like work and many products never even get seen.

The Intent-Driven Design

At the heart of the problem is a fundamental disconnect between what customers want to do and what ecommerce platforms think they want. Cowan calls this the missing link: intent.

“Intent-driven design shifts the focus from product-first to customer-first,” he explains. “It uses real-time intent signals to shape each stage of the shopping journey, from discovery through to purchase, around what the customer is actually trying to achieve.”

Rather than forcing customers to adapt to rigid menus and keyword logic, intent-driven platforms adapt to the shopper guiding them more like a human assistant than a vending machine.

Retailers embracing intent-led commerce report better results. For example, M&S (UK) applied this strategy and saw group sales up 5.6% year-over-year, with online sales jumping 11.6%

The Dark Aisle Problem

But the intent gap isn’t just bad for users. It’s devastating for inventory exposure. According to Cowan, most products on large retail sites are practically invisible.

“Only 20-30% of products are ever viewed by customers,” he says. “The rest live in what we call ‘dark aisles’ completely invisible in search results.” And Gartner notes, 47% of AI-mature companies cite customer service as a key use case including intelligent discovery.

This often stems from the sheer volume of items, combined with poor tagging and outdated merchandising practices. “Busy teams often rely on manufacturer data or generic tags and never revisit them. They just don’t have the bandwidth. So unless a product gets lucky with traffic or fits a trending search term, it may never be seen.”

Too Much Choice, Too Little Guidance

The abundance of products is meant to offer customers freedom. But paradoxically, it’s driving them away. Faced with hundreds of similar-looking options and inadequate tools to filter them, customers experience decision fatigue and often abandon their search altogether.

Cowan believes the answer is not to limit choice but to design smarter experiences. “It’s not about having fewer products,” he says. “It’s about helping customers find the right ones, faster. When you lead with what the customer is trying to achieve, the experience becomes simpler, more intuitive, and far more enjoyable.”

This includes AI-powered personalisation, better product tagging, and understanding natural language and not just keyword strings.

Rethinking Discovery from the Ground Up

“Traditional filters and keyword search still work—for the 10% of shoppers who know exactly what they want,” Cowan says. But for the vast majority, this approach is outdated.

What’s needed is a fundamental reimagining of discovery. “Retailers need to move beyond rigid filters and clunky search boxes to intelligent, intent-driven systems. Discovery shouldn’t feel like work… it should inspire the customer.”

This shift also unlocks new creative possibilities. With the right architecture, retailers can design immersive, journey-based experiences that align with what the shopper is trying to achieve whether that’s planning a home renovation or finding the perfect gift.

Speed vs. Immersion? You Can Have Both

A common objection to richer experiences is performance. Won’t more dynamic features slow down the site? Cowan doesn’t buy it.

“Balancing performance with immersive discovery means transforming website experiences from dead ends into intelligent discovery hubs without compromising speed,” he says.

The key is a modular, intent-driven approach. “By enriching every product with intent-driven attributes and building a streamlined core, ecommerce teams can ensure options are available when needed—without getting in the way.” This “sliceable” model, as Cowan puts it, ensures that speed and scale work in harmony with discovery.

The Future is ‘Intent‘ional

It’s the age of generative AI and  smart everything, and so shopping shouldn’t feel stuck in the past. For Cowan, the fix is clear: intent-driven design. Stop forcing customers to shop the way retailers organise their stores, and start designing around what customers actually intend to do.