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AI is changing how people buy, not just how they search. For Manors Golf, that means rethinking what the shopping experience looks like when customers can simply ask what they need.
Manors was one of the first brands to launch an agentic storefront with Swap, giving shoppers a conversational way to explore the range, ask questions and get product recommendations.
At sync 2026, Nitesh Shah, Operations and Logistics Director at Manors Golf, joined Victoria Beech, Agency Partnerships Lead at Swap, to discuss what the brand has learned so far, from the operational foundations behind its growth to the trust questions that come with putting AI into the customer journey.
Start with the problem, not the technology
Manors has grown rapidly while keeping its team lean, with around 16 people supporting the business.
AI is already being used across customer service, demand planning, supply chain and product development. The goal isn't to add AI for the sake of it. It's to help a small team manage a growing business without losing the customer experience along the way.
That same approach sits behind the brand's work on returns and international delivery.
Manors has maintained a return rate of around 8% while growing, supported by a warehouse partner in Liverpool and a returns journey designed to make exchanges easier. For European customers, Swap also gives shoppers visibility of their total landed cost at checkout, including duties and taxes.
International growth has created another operational challenge. The US now represents around 30-35% of the business, and changes to the US de minimis threshold led Manors to establish a warehouse in the country to support its direct-to-consumer and wholesale operations.
These aren't the most visible parts of an ecommerce experience, but they matter. A customer can have a great discovery journey, but if the product doesn't fit, the return is difficult or the final cost comes as a surprise, the experience breaks down.
What happens when shopping becomes a conversation?
The traditional ecommerce journey assumes customers know how to navigate a product catalogue.
Search. Filter. Compare. Read the product page. Work out the sizing. Then buy.
But what if the customer doesn't know exactly what they want?
That's where Manors' agentic storefront comes in.
Instead of starting with a product grid, customers can explain what they're looking for. They might describe the brands they already wear, where they're travelling, what they plan to do or how they want a product to fit.
The agent can then use that context to recommend products.
For a brand like Manors, that is particularly relevant. Its proposition is about more than golf clothing. It has built a younger audience around the idea of exploring the game and bringing a different perspective to a traditionally conservative category.
A conversational experience gives customers a way to explore that proposition without needing to understand the entire range first.
Better discovery should lead to better decisions
The early results suggest it can.
Nitesh reported a 25-30% increase in conversion through the new experience, alongside a reduction in returns compared with the brand's existing baseline.
That matters because conversion and returns are often treated as separate parts of the customer journey.
But the same question sits behind both: Did the customer make the right choice?
If someone can ask about fit, sizing or how a product works for a particular situation before buying, they have more information at the point of decision.
For Manors, that has also meant creating another way for new customers to understand the brand. Its second collaboration with Reebok generated five times as many early-access sign-ups as the first, according to Nitesh, bringing more shoppers into the Manors ecosystem.
The challenge then becomes helping those customers understand what makes the brand different.
Trust is the real test
Putting an AI layer between a customer and a product raises an obvious question: can shoppers trust the recommendation?
For Manors, the answer comes back to the customer.
Its target audience is largely under 35 and already comfortable using technology to find information and make decisions. A conversational storefront fits naturally into that behaviour when it helps answer questions customers already have.
The important distinction is that AI isn't the point.
The point is solving a problem.
For Manors, that might be a customer asking whether a jacket is oversized, what size they should choose or what to wear for a particular golf trip.
If the technology can answer those questions accurately, it becomes useful. If it can't, the fact that the answer is instant doesn't make it better.
What should brands do next?
When asked what another brand should do before exploring agentic commerce, Nitesh pointed to data.
Manors already tracks returns alongside revenue and has a clear target for keeping returns below 10%. That gives the team a way to identify problems and measure whether changes are actually improving the customer experience.
That's a useful starting point for any merchant considering AI.
Before launching a new experience, ask:
- Where are customers hesitating?
- What questions do they ask before buying?
- Which decisions are most likely to result in a return?
- Does your product data contain the answers?
- And how will you measure whether the experience is working?
Manors' agentic storefront is still an early experiment, but it points to a wider shift in ecommerce.
The next shopping experience may not start with a search box or a product grid. It may start with a question.
For brands, the opportunity is to make sure they're ready to give a useful answer.
Listen to the full session on demand now.
