From September 1st, everything actions in Serbia with a turnover of more than three billion dinars will have to emphasize digital price lists. Not only to highlight them but to allow them to be machined. It is not a Serbian invention, but it is a decision that can significantly affect the price policy in supermarkets and the way we shop.
Croatia introduced the mandatory publication of digital price lists on May 15, 2025. Supermarkets, hypermarkets, discount stores and cashiers traders have been posting updated prices in machine-readable XML or CSV files every morning since then.
Just a few days later, the Compare Prices application appeared, followed by the Shopping Cart/Price List and other similar tools that allow the customer to search for a product or scan a barcode, see how much the same item costs in different chains and stores, and then make an entire basket and calculate where the purchase is most worthwhile.
Since they have ready-made software products, and it is a very similar language and even habits, expect their branches to appear in Serbia in a few days. Which should only motivate local startups to fight for (their) market.
But this is only a prerequisite for dramatic changes in our shopping habits. Already popular in the world are VI agents capable and authorized to make purchases on behalf of users. On the one hand, they are able to do an analysis of the entire market in a few seconds, and then come up with an optimal purchase if we gave it a list, for example. The agent can judge where it is best for us to go shopping, taking into account prices and distance, maybe even the crowds in the store itself. It is even more brutal in online shopping. If we authorize him, he can do the whole job on his own - order, pay and schedule delivery at a time that suits us best.
It is this approach, getting the VI agent to do the shopping for us, that has met with great displeasure with retailers in the US. Perplexity has developed agents that enter online stores and make purchases on behalf of users. Amazon tried to stop them in court, but the US Court of Appeal lifted the temporary ban at the beginning of August, judging that it is basically the user who accesses Amazon through their VI tool. That is, he bears both the purchase costs and any responsibility for its flow.
Today's supermarket is made for human psychology. Prices are marked with bright colors, products that easily "fall into the basket" are pushed next to the cash register, large packaging creates a visual impression of savings (while the real price is written in small letters). Agent VI doesn't have shelf-level eyes and doesn't make impulse buys. If he gets the task of "the cheapest 500 grams of quality coffee", he can completely ignore the brand, packaging and shelf layout.
Marketers could therefore begin to optimize their offer for customer algorithms, just as they optimize a site for Google today. Marketing is getting a whole new audience, a machine that has no brand nostalgia. Loyalty will be the first casualty unless new models are devised for it. Because the computer will heartlessly search for the most favorable one.
The biggest change will be the so-called consumer basket. Agent VI will be able to compile both the most favorable and the most realistic one. Let's say, to determine how much protein or fat the average family should eat per month, how much soap to use, that is, to improve the way statisticians currently compile that basket.
Among the applications that will be offered to us soon, I would bet on the one that will revise our list ("What will that do to your cholesterol?!") with a creative name. I suggest "Piroćanac" or "Snake for pocket".
