Today's Ecommerce Pulse
Target launches Circle Deal Days to challenge Amazon Prime Day
Target is launching its Target Circle Deal Days from June 23‑26, positioning the free‑to‑join program as a direct rival to Amazon Prime Day. New members who enroll between June 14‑22 receive a 15% discount on their first purchase, plus a free Starbucks coffee or Bullseye cookie on launch day, and a 50% discount on the first year of Target Circle 360.
Also developing:
By the numbers: FirstClub raises $55M Series B
E-Commerce Orders Surged in 2025, Dominated by Top-Performing Brands
U.S. e‑commerce orders surged 147 percent in 2025, marking the strongest annual growth in recent years. While overall traffic declined, average order values rose, rewarding brands that responded quickly with faster fulfillment and personalized experiences. The acceleration was driven by widespread broadband, mature mobile checkout, and lingering pandemic‑era digital habits. Top‑performing retailers captured a disproportionate share of the expansion, widening the gap between market leaders and smaller competitors.
Nearly Half of Consumers Would Choose Dental Visit than Wait a Week for Refund
TodayPay’s survey of 14,000 U.S. shoppers finds 44% would rather schedule a dental appointment than wait a week for a refund. An overwhelming 94% say an instant‑refund guarantee makes them more likely to complete a purchase, while 92% would shop...
N Brown Group Appoints Natalie Rogers as Chief Operating Officer
N Brown Group has created a chief operating officer position and appointed Natalie Rogers, who has served as chief people and sustainability officer since 2024, to fill it. Rogers previously led people functions at Moonpig and Unum UK. The new role is...
Conversation with… People in Retail Awards Judge Shane Ashby-Roche
Shane Ashby‑Roche, Head of Organisational Development and Culture at The White Company, returns as a judge for the 2026 People in Retail Awards. He reflects on a decade of L&D experience, including a two‑year IBM secondment, and how his role...
Mulberry Grows Festive Sales as New Strategy Gains Traction
Mulberry reported a 5.1% rise in third‑quarter total sales and an 11% increase in like‑for‑like sales, driven by a 19% jump in full‑price transactions. The luxury brand saw growth across all regions, with the US up 12.7% and Europe up...
ProCook Hails Strong Peak Season Trading
ProCook reported a 28% jump in total revenue to £32.8 million for the 12‑week period ending 4 January, driven by a 30% surge in e‑commerce and a 26.8% rise in retail sales. Like‑for‑like revenue grew 17.2% in Q3, marking the tenth consecutive...
As Professional Hair Care Grows in US Retail and E-Commerce, Davines Bets on Old-School Salons
Davines Group defied a declining U.S. salon‑product market, posting a 42% increase in professional hair‑care sales through salons from 2019 to 2024 and surpassing $350 million in revenue in 2025. While overall salon sales fell 3% in the first half of...
Wellness Briefing: The Collabs and Campaigns Winning ‘New Year, New You’ Marketing, Plus News
The wellness sector’s January push centers on high‑impact "new year, new you" collaborations, notably fast‑casual restaurant tie‑ins and the quirky "Quitters’ Day" anti‑resolution campaign. Brands are leveraging these seasonal moments to capture early‑year consumer spend and differentiate in a crowded...
USPS Is Already Planning July 2026 Changes
The United States Postal Service has released a preview of its July 2026 pricing plan, even though the January 2026 rates have not yet taken effect. The agency is considering expanding the cubic‑tier maximum length from 18 to 22 inches for both...
Always-On Retail: How MVNOs Are Solving the Multi-Location Connectivity Challenge
Retailers face costly network outages, with Gartner estimating $5,600 lost per minute, and 81% experiencing POS downtime annually. Traditional wired broadband can take weeks to install, delaying store openings and offering limited redundancy. Full‑service Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) like...
The Perfume Shop Reports Strong Festive Performance
The Perfume Shop posted a robust festive season, with perfume bottle sales climbing 6% year‑on‑year. Between 30 November and 24 December customers purchased over 1.58 million bottles, averaging more than 63 000 per day. December sales rose 1.6%, led by Dior Sauvage, Carolina Herrera Good Girl and Chanel Coco Mademoiselle,...
Sofa Club Hires Paul Brennan as Managing Director
Sofa Club has appointed former Marc Jacobs executive Paul Brennan as its managing director. Brennan, who previously held senior roles at Yoox Net‑A‑Porter, Browns, John Lewis and most recently JW Anderson, will lead the brand’s UK expansion. The hire aligns...
Sosandar Boosted by Surge in Ecommerce Sales
Sosandar’s revenue rose 10% to £13.4 million in Q3, driven by a strong ecommerce surge. Online sales jumped 27% thanks to higher site traffic, better conversion rates, and larger order volumes. Brick‑and‑mortar stores also outperformed the prior year. CEOs say the...
Tools for Fast Search-Query Analysis
Ann Smarty highlights three Chrome extensions that streamline Google Search Console query analysis. Query Scout overlays page‑level query data and offers a $29 upgrade with pre‑built intent filters. Find Real Prompts extracts longer, AI‑style queries and can feed them to ChatGPT for...
The 1% Advantage: How Store Layouts Quietly Decide Who Wins in Retail
Retail store layouts can silently erode sales by confusing shoppers, a problem now quantifiable with in‑store analytics. Misplaced product adjacencies can shave up to 30% of traffic, while clear sightlines and logical groupings boost dwell time and basket size. Target’s...
How Inviting Consumers to ‘Ask Ralph’ Deepens Their Connection to the Ralph Lauren Brand
Ralph Lauren unveiled "Ask Ralph," an AI‑driven styling assistant now live on the Polo brand’s mobile app, built with Microsoft Azure AI and Copilot Studio. The agent taps real‑time inventory to deliver personalized outfit recommendations that echo the company’s timeless...
Home Depot Launches Creator Portal
Home Depot unveiled the Home Depot Creator Portal, a centralized hub that links digital content creators with the retailer’s DIY and décor ecosystem. The platform offers creators campaign opportunities, training resources, product catalogs, and storefront capabilities to monetize their home‑improvement...
How to Make Every Shopping Experience Memorable
Retailers must move beyond product focus to craft memorable, emotion‑driven shopping journeys across both physical and digital channels. Consumers now expect seamless integration of in‑store tactile experiences with online interactivity such as virtual try‑ons and live demos. Personalized gestures, loyalty...
Season 7 Kickoff: What I'm Thinking About for 2026
In the Season 7 kickoff, the hosts outline a shift toward substance by featuring vendor stories without sales pitches, sharing data-driven insights, and announcing platform upgrades that simplify online selling. They present a bold 2026 forecast, tracking ADA compliance progress,...
Beauty Briefing: How Beauty’s Beleaguered Makeup Brands Can Turn It Around
Estée Lauder is divesting its once‑iconic makeup brands Too Faced, Smashbox and Dr. Jart as it reshapes its portfolio, while Pat McGrath Labs also puts assets up for sale. The makeup category, however, is showing a resurgence, with NielsenIQ reporting a 9 % year‑over‑year...
Limited Inventory and Thoughtful Partnerships: How Brands at NRF Are Making the Most of TikTok Shop
Brands at the NRF Big Show highlighted how TikTok Shop is reshaping fashion and beauty commerce, with U.S. sales soaring over 400% and now accounting for more than 20% of social commerce. Success stories like Pacsun’s 11,000 pairs of jeans...
Walmart Adds AI Leader to Board
Walmart announced the appointment of Shishir Mehrotra, the chief executive of AI‑focused productivity suite Superhuman, to its board of directors. The move underscores Walmart's intent to embed advanced artificial‑intelligence capabilities across its retail operations. Mehrotra brings deep expertise in generative...
Fourthwall vs Printful: Which Platform Makes the Most Sense for Creators?
Fourthwall and Printful are the two leading platforms enabling creators to sell merchandise, but they address different needs. Fourthwall combines a full‑featured storefront, POD, digital products, memberships and dropshipping in a single, creator‑centric solution, while Printful specializes in high‑quality print‑on‑demand...
Why E.U. Ecommerce Rules Seem Complex
EU ecommerce regulation has evolved into a complex ecosystem of overlapping directives, including the E‑Commerce Directive, GDPR, Digital Services Act, and upcoming Digital Product Passport. The rules aim to boost consumer trust through mandatory transparency, safety, and accessibility, but they...
How to Make Mockup Designs for Clothes (Step-by-Step)
Creating digital clothing mockups lets brands showcase designs without physical samples, cutting cost and time. The guide compares fast online generators such as Placeit, Canva, and Kittl with print‑on‑demand built‑in tools from Printful, Printify, and Gelato, and highlights bulk automation...
What Happened When We Stopped Selling (And Started Giving)
Smart Marketer replaced its typical holiday sales push with a "12 Days of Giving" campaign, delivering full‑price courses and SOPs for free each day of December. The generosity‑first approach generated 371 new email opt‑ins, 360 new accounts, and 25 first‑time...
‘Instagram Is the Leading Social Commerce Platform in Germany’
Instagram has emerged as Germany’s top social commerce platform, with 15% of consumers purchasing directly on the app or via redirects. Overall, three in ten Germans shop through social media, while Facebook (14%) and YouTube (11%) follow. Bitkom’s research shows...
Dick’s Sporting Goods Chairman Ed Stack on House of Sport, Corporate Culture and Fixing Foot Locker
Dick’s Sporting Goods Chairman Ed Stack outlined the retailer’s aggressive expansion of its experiential House of Sport stores, a cultural overhaul, and the recent Foot Locker acquisition at NRF 2026. The 150,000‑sq‑ft House of Sport concept now operates 35 locations with 15 more...
REI CEO Mary Beth Laughton on How the Co-Op Is Changing, Ecommerce and AI
REI CEO Mary Beth Laughton outlined the three‑year Peak 28 transformation at NRF 2026, emphasizing culture, product relevance, service, and a revamped membership program. She detailed how AI will augment, not replace, the brand’s human expertise, adding employee‑generated content to...
AI in Luxury: Why LVMH Won’t Let AI Eclipse Humanity or Creativity
LVMH is embedding AI across its 75 maisons, positioning the technology as a catalyst for human creativity rather than a replacement. The group’s “AI for All” initiative equips every employee with generative tools while each brand retains its unique DNA...
Hanna Andersson Hires Kacey Sharrett as Chief Digital Officer
Hanna Andersson announced the appointment of Kacey Sharrett as chief digital officer. Sharrett will steer the brand’s digital ecosystem and customer experience. She arrives with nearly two decades of leadership in e‑commerce, direct‑to‑consumer, and performance‑marketing, most recently heading GoPro’s global DTC...
Luxury Vintage Retailer Deploys Digital Wave Platform for Systems Upgrade
What Goes Around Comes Around, a luxury vintage retailer, is rolling out Digital Wave Technology's ONE platform as part of a digital modernization push. The initiative replaces legacy product information management, financial planning, and supply allocation systems with an AI‑native...
AMAZON’S TOP 10 THIRD-PARTY SELLERS DECEMBER 2025
The episode reviews SellerSnooper's December 2025 ranking of Amazon's top third‑party sellers, highlighting Renpho Wellness's surge to a $1 billion monthly revenue and a 219.5% growth rate, driven by its connected health products. It notes strong performances from AnkerDirect and Govee...
China VAT Law 2026 Now in Effect—Cross-Border Sellers Face a 13% Tax Reality
The episode explains the new China VAT Law 2026, which took effect on Jan 1 and tightens definitions of VAT exposure for U.S. e‑commerce sellers using China‑based manufacturing, inventory, or fulfillment. A key change is the 5 million RMB sales threshold that instantly...
Brazil’s Oldest Perfumery Is Making a Play for US Fragrance Consumers. And No, It’s Not Sol De Janeiro
Brazilian heritage brand Granado, founded in 1870, is accelerating its U.S. expansion after posting 12% revenue growth in 2025 and 95% year‑over‑year sales growth in the United States. The company opened its first New York store in January 2024 and...
Asos Tests the Return of Topshop and Topman Stores in the US
Parent company ASOS revived Topshop and Topman in the United States with a 17‑day pop‑up in New York’s SoHo district. The activation showcased curated selections from the brands alongside ASOS’s premium lines, providing a physical touchpoint for U.S. shoppers after...
Amazon Updates FBM Refund Rules Effective January 26, 2026
The episode explains Amazon's new FBM refund policy effective January 26, 2026, which extends the refund issuance window from 2 business days to 4 calendar days to give sellers more time for inspection. It highlights that missed deadlines trigger automatic...
Agentic: Shopify and Google’s UCP Will Democratize Commerce
Shopify’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) equips AI agents with a deterministic decision‑making framework that selects merchants based on structural constraints rather than ad spend. The protocol, reinforced by Google Gemini and ChatGPT integrations, turns clean data, clear policies, and reliable...
NRF 2026: Retail's Big Show Puts Agentic AI Centre Stage
The NRF 2026 Retail’s Big Show highlighted agentic AI as the year’s headline technology, with major retailers and solution providers unveiling tools that can autonomously make decisions on pricing, inventory and customer engagement. Demonstrations ranged from AI‑driven demand forecasting engines...
USPS to Restrict Access to Package Tracking
USPS announced it will restrict access to package tracking data for commercial API users, introducing paid access and stricter authorization requirements. Consumers can still view tracking information on the USPS website, mobile app, and Informed Delivery without changes. The new...
The RealReal Cuts Asset Protection Expenses 60% with AI-Powered Video Solution
The RealReal has implemented Motorola Solutions' AI‑enabled video security system to automate the search for individual luxury items across its facilities. By inputting a simple physical description, the platform can locate a specific product in seconds instead of days, slashing...
58% of Consumers Use AI Tools to Research Products
ChannelEngine’s 2026 Marketplace Shopping Behavior Report shows AI tools now assist 58% of shoppers during product research, while the share of consumers beginning their journey on marketplaces fell to 37%, a 10‑point drop from last year. Marketplaces still outrank search...
Pacsun Looks Beyond the Standard App with New Co-Creation Platform
Pacsun unveiled the PS Community Hub, a digital platform that blends social interaction, creator monetization, and co‑creation with traditional shopping. Launched in early January, the hub lets everyday users and influencers collaborate on fashion ideas, earn affiliate commissions, and shop...
Macy’s to Close 14 Underperforming Stores Even as It Touts ‘Bold New Chapter’ Performance
Macy’s announced the closure of 14 underperforming stores in 12 states as part of its "Bold New Chapter" transformation. CEO Tony Spring highlighted stronger results from the "Reimagine 125" pilot stores and growth in luxury banners Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury. The...
Amazon Hypes Ambient AI: Always on in the Background
Amazon highlighted its "ambient AI" vision at CES 2026, promising products that operate invisibly until needed. The company also announced Peter DeSantis as head of a new unit covering AGI, custom chips and quantum computing, underscoring a long‑term conviction in breakthrough...
From Collectible AR Cards to Blockchain Games: How to Revitalize Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs still generate strong ROI, yet consumer satisfaction remains under 50% in the U.S. and Canada. Traditional point‑based schemes convert only about 5% of shoppers, leaving the majority disengaged. Retailers are turning to gamified experiences that blend augmented reality...
Ecommerce Success with Fractional Talent
The Starters, launched in late 2023, is a two‑sided marketplace that connects ecommerce brands with vetted fractional talent, now hosting over 600 freelancers and serving 500 client brands. The platform differentiates itself by charging freelancers zero commission and requiring brands to...
Online Sales Grow 19% During Christmas in Portugal
Online shopping in Portugal surged during the 2025 Christmas period, with ecommerce transactions up 19% and total online spend rising about 14% compared with the same window in 2024. E‑commerce accounted for 18% of all sales transactions and 21% of...
Creative Realities Launches Digital Drive-Thru 2.0
Creative Realities unveiled Digital Drive‑Thru 2.0, a modular digital menu‑board platform designed to streamline installation, maintenance, and scaling for quick‑service restaurants and other drive‑thru venues. The system reduces installation complexity, complies with municipal regulations, and lets operators add or adjust components...
United Supermarkets Brings Back Interactive Loyalty
United Supermarkets, together with TCC Global, has relaunched its interactive "28-Day Challenge" loyalty campaign across the United, Albertsons Market, Market Street and Amigos banners. The program delivers weekly shopping challenges, digital coupons and personalized rewards through a mobile interface. TCC...