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
VTEX (VTEX) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
VTEX reported Q1 2026 GMV of $5.1 billion, up 17% in U.S. dollars, and subscription revenue of $60 million, a 14% increase. Non‑GAAP subscription gross margin rose to 81.5%, expanding 240 basis points, while total gross margin reached 80% after a 400‑basis‑point gain. Free cash flow doubled to $13.3 million, delivering a 21.9% margin, and the company repurchased 2.5 million shares under its $50 million buyback program. Management highlighted the launch of the AI Workspace and developer kit, citing early automation gains for customers like Whirlpool.
FlexSuperApp Offers 1% Cashback to Parker Users
Parker just shut down and a lot of ecom businesses are scrambling. I spoke to our portco @FlexSuperApp and they got your back. If you sign up this week, you'll get an extra 1% cashback on your first $100K in...
Gas Price Hike Won’t Deter Food Delivery Spending
Anyone that believes consumers would get skidish after $5/gas prices should look at DoorDash and Uber Eats reports. These businesses exist because of consumer disposable income. If the consumer was going to be crushed by higher gas prices, we would...
Harris Farm Markets Bolsters Digital, Data Leadership
Australian grocery chain Harris Farm Markets announced two senior tech hires in rapid succession. Former Lion group technology and digital transformation director Ram Kalyanasundaram joins as chief information and digital officer, while Bharath Venkataraman, ex‑head of data at Freedom Australia,...
Local Authentication Beats E‑Bay’s Opaque Third‑Party Service
This is super interesting. I sold some old designer stuff on EBay this year and was surprised by how liquid and well bid it was. But also that eBay was now providing a third party authentication service. This definitely added...
Instant Cash Outs Make Stan Store My Top Pick
I love making money online. Stan Store with the instant cash outs are my favorite 😍
DoorDash Gives a Forecast for Order Growth That Tops Estimates
DoorDash Inc. projected gross order value (GOV) of $32.4 billion to $33.4 billion for the quarter ending June, edging out the Bloomberg consensus of $32.3 billion. The upbeat guidance underscores continued momentum in its food‑delivery platform despite a crowded market. Management highlighted strong...
Salsify Launches SalsifyIQ, AI‑driven PXM Layer for Agentic Commerce
Salsify introduced SalsifyIQ, the first product experience management intelligence layer built for agentic commerce, at the Digital Shelf Summit in Atlanta. The new “brain” creates a product knowledge graph that unifies data, AI agents and workflows, aiming to accelerate brand...
Target Says Move Or Go, Walmart Bets On Beauty & Claude Wants Your Cart | Fast Five
The episode tackles two major retail trends: Target’s mandate for 150 remote merchandising staff to relocate to Minneapolis or accept severance, and Estee Lauder’s expanded layoff plan cutting up to 10,000 jobs, mainly in underperforming department‑store POS roles. Host Chris...
PhonePe AI Agent Cuts Payment Gateway Integration to Minutes
PhonePe unveiled an AI‑powered integration agent that lets merchants connect its payment gateway through a conversational interface, cutting setup time from weeks to minutes. The tool is aimed at small‑ and medium‑sized businesses that lack in‑house developers, allowing them to...
Trucks Are Empty One-Third of the Time. AI Can Fix That
Retail logistics faces a massive empty‑mile problem, with one‑third of truck miles driven without cargo, costing roughly $1 trillion annually. The inefficiency stems from fragmented carrier networks and a focus on local optimization rather than system‑wide coordination. AI‑driven orchestration platforms are...
How Data-Driven Grocery Recommendations Help Shoppers Eat Better With Less Effort
A BusinessWire survey shows 42% of shoppers now rely on big‑data tools for grocery decisions, and retailers are deploying AI‑powered recommendation engines to personalize offers. Personalization is deemed essential by 89% of marketers, with 95% reporting success. These systems help...
Why Task Ownership Matters When E-Commerce Teams Start Scaling
E‑commerce teams that add hires, SKUs, or channels often hit coordination breakdowns, not technology or hiring gaps. Assigning a single accountable owner to each recurring operational task prevents mis‑aligned handoffs that can cost revenue and erode trust. The article offers...
Hertz Teams With eBay to Drive More Digital Auto Sales
Hertz Car Sales is launching a dedicated digital showroom on eBay, featuring more than 8,000 "Hertz Certified" near‑new vehicles. The partnership gives Hertz exposure to eBay’s massive automotive marketplace, which generated roughly $80 billion in gross merchandise volume in 2025. Listings...
Amazon Adds Same-Day Grocery Delivery in 2,300 US Cities
Amazon is extending its Business platform to include same‑day grocery delivery in 2,300 U.S. cities, letting companies order office supplies and perishables together. The service uses temperature‑controlled fulfillment to keep items fresh and is available to Business Prime members with free...
How AI Image Generation Helps Shopify Stores Produce Better Product Visuals Faster
The article outlines how AI image generation can accelerate visual creation for Shopify merchants, offering a practical framework that integrates AI into existing creative workflows. It emphasizes that AI is best used for ideation, seasonal mockups, ad concepts, and educational...
Siin Hits $3 Million in Funding as It Bets on Live Commerce in MENA
Bahrain‑born e‑commerce platform Siin announced a $3 million funding round led by VentureSouq and Shift Group, bringing its total capital to $3 million. The live‑shopping marketplace, founded in 2024 by veterans of Delivery Hero, Tap Payments and Telp, operates in Saudi Arabia,...
Why Scaling Breaks Without Systems (And How Nonprofits Learn This the Hard Way)
Growth exposes hidden system gaps that cause order‑fulfillment errors for ecommerce firms and fragmented client records for nonprofits. Manual spreadsheets and email‑based coordination work at low volume but become liabilities once weekly orders exceed 1,000 or service touchpoints multiply. The...
Vivid Seats Promo Code: Save on Tickets in May 2026
Vivid Seats is promoting a suite of May 2026 savings tools, including seasonal promo codes, an 11th‑ticket‑free rewards program, and a 10% discount for verified ID.me users. Shoppers can also tap exclusive mobile‑only codes via the app and filter events...
5 Essential Landing Page Rules for Conversions
Your landing page is where most of your traffic decides whether to convert or leave. Here are 5 landing page rules you need to know: → Match the page headline to the headline that got the click → Use the hero to confirm...
Etsy Debuts Native App in ChatGPT, Opening AI‑Powered Shopping Channel
Etsy has rolled out a beta version of its native marketplace app inside OpenAI’s ChatGPT, allowing users to tag @Etsy and receive product listings in natural‑language conversations. The move follows a short‑lived Instant Checkout experiment and aims to boost discovery...
Kapten & Son Strengthens UK Presence with Major Logistics Investment.
Kapten & Son has launched its first UK‑based fulfilment centre, partnering with logistics firm Quivo to cut delivery times from seven days to one‑to‑three business days. The move follows a 2025 Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) shipping solution that eliminated customs...
Wayfair Teams with Perplexity, OpenAI and Google to Embed Agentic AI Across Its Platform
Wayfair disclosed that it is working with Perplexity, OpenAI and Google to integrate agentic AI into its shopping experience and ad units. The retailer also said it is testing AI‑driven advertising with Meta and Pinterest, signaling a broad push into...
Contractor Commerce and Ferguson Team Up to Turn Contractor Websites Into AI‑Discoverable Sales Hubs
Contractor Commerce and Ferguson have formed a strategic alliance that equips contractors with self‑service e‑commerce tools and AI‑optimized search, turning website traffic into booked jobs and recurring revenue. The partnership aims to modernize B2B procurement for the $340 billion residential construction...
POP.STORE Signs as VidCon Anaheim 2026 Title Sponsor to Launch Agentic AI Commerce Platform
POP.STORE, a creator‑monetization platform owned by CommentSold Group, has been named the title sponsor of VidCon Anaheim 2026. At the event the company will debut ECHO‑ME, an agentic AI commerce platform that automates engagement, content creation, brand‑deal monitoring and direct‑message...
From Pilot to Platform: Why AI Integration Is Now a Retail Imperative
Retail executives have moved from isolated AI pilots to enterprise‑wide platforms, driven by a market projected to reach $131 billion by 2033. Surveys show 69% of retailers see revenue gains and 72% report cost cuts when AI is fully integrated. Yet...
Market for Agentic Commerce Keeps Growing, Outpacing Rails
The global agentic commerce market, valued at $5.71 billion in 2025, is forecast to surge to $65.5 billion by 2033, driven by a rapid rise in digital‑wallet users projected to top 6 billion by 2032. Ant International has launched an open‑source Agentic Mobile...
Steal Alert: Nordstrom and GAP Inc. Gift Card Deals at Amazon
Amazon is running a limited‑time Mother’s Day promotion that discounts two high‑profile gift cards. A Nordstrom $50 card is priced at $42.50 and can be purchased as digital or physical, with a maximum of two per customer. A GAP $50...
The Scoop: GameStop CEO Wants to Buy eBay. He Just Couldn’t Explain How on CNBC.
GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen announced a $56 billion bid to acquire eBay, describing the deal as half cash and half stock. During a live CNBC interview he could not detail how the roughly $16 billion financing gap would be covered, repeatedly deflecting...
What Causes Warehouse Performance Breakdowns? A Checklist for Modern Fulfillment Teams
The article introduces a practical checklist for modern fulfillment teams to diagnose warehouse performance breakdowns. It highlights common stressors such as mid‑shift volume spikes, labor shortages, and mismatched order mixes that turn stable operations into reactive ones. The checklist walks...
New Funding Fuels Modern Marketplace for Niche Communities
I have followed this company from its very beginning and they are on to something. As someone who is into lot of niche hobbies, each with their own unique community profile, this new model makes a lot of sense. It...
Shopify Analytics Now Shows Deploy, App, Product Annotations
Analytics in @Shopify added annotations: theme deploys, app installs, product publishes marked on every report. Wondering "what changed?" Hover, diagnose, done. https://t.co/PJkwQ7xrrj
Meesho Says 70% of Its Code Is AI-Generated; AI Feeds Drive 75% of Orders
Meesho, the SoftBank‑backed Indian social commerce platform, reports that over 70% of its software code is now generated by AI tools, accelerating product development and testing. AI‑driven personalized feeds account for roughly 75% of all orders, boosting conversion rates by...
Shopify Poised to Hit Half Amazon's GMV by 2025
"Back in 2017, Shopify’s GMV was only ~10% of Amazon’s estimated GMV. Given the way Shopify is growing, it seems likely that it will be half of Amazon’s GMV by the end of next year." $SHOP $AMZN https://t.co/4vusO6FaET
What Retailers Need to Know About Surveillance Pricing
Retailers using consumer data to set individualized prices face mounting regulatory scrutiny as "surveillance pricing" draws attention from privacy and antitrust authorities. California’s Attorney General launched a CCPA‑based investigation in January, targeting retailers, grocers and hotels, while New York’s Algorithmic...
Another Drop in Revenue for HelloFresh
HelloFresh reported a 7.7% drop in first‑quarter 2026 revenue to €1.7 billion ($1.85 billion), while orders fell 11.6% to roughly 25 million. The company’s strategy of targeting higher‑value, more loyal customers lifted the average order value 4.2% to €71 ($77.5) but did not...
NielsenIQ Finds 42% of Shoppers Rely on AI Tools, Signaling a New Retail Era
NielsenIQ reported that 42% of U.S. shoppers are using AI tools to evaluate products, compare prices and narrow choices, marking a shift from search to decision. The study, based on a monthly sample of 500 consumers, highlights how AI is...
From Clicks to Cart: Online Grocery Drives the Next Wave of Growth
Online grocery is set to become the dominant growth engine in the grocery sector, with sales projected to reach $452 billion and capture 25.5% of total grocery spend by 2028. The category is forecast to expand at an 11.6% CAGR, dwarfing...
Zyg Secures $60M Series A at $500M Valuation, Pushing Agentic AI in E‑Commerce
Zyg, the agentic AI platform for direct‑to‑consumer sellers, raised $60 million in a Series A led by Accel, bringing its post‑money valuation to $500 million. The round, which also included Bessemer Venture Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners, follows a $58 million seed round and...
How to Use AI to Write Better Meta Ad Copy Without Losing the Human Touch
In this episode, SmartMarketer’s senior paid performance specialist Dominique Noble walks listeners through a repeatable, AI‑driven process for crafting Meta ad copy that retains human insight and brand voice. She emphasizes three core rules: feed AI detailed brand context, be...
Meesho Posts Rs 3,531 Cr Revenue in Q4 FY26; Losses Trim 88%
Meesho reported Q4 FY26 revenue of ₹3,531 crore (≈$425 million), a 47% year‑on‑year increase, while total income reached ₹3,647 crore (≈$440 million) including other income. Quarterly losses shrank dramatically to ₹166 crore (≈$20 million), an 88% reduction from the same period a year earlier. For the...
Buying Directly From SERPs Remains Uncertain Despite Google’s Push
But again, who is buying items like that directly from the SERPs? OpenAI already pivoted from Instant Checkout while Google continues to drive forward. In theory, this is cool, but I'm still not sure users will buy from the SERPs....
The 42 Minute Playbook on Live Shopping
In this episode of the Gary Vee Audio Experience, Gary Vaynerchuk and Super Ordinary founder discuss the explosive rise of live shopping, especially on TikTok, and why brands are missing the wave due to corporate inertia and a misunderstanding of...
Walmart+ Hits Record 30.7M Members, Up 3.9M
Morgan Stanley April survey data indicated Walmart+ membership rose by about 3.9M in March alone to about 30.7M implied members. The estimate for Walmart+ memberships is the highest ever recorded in the Morgan Stanley survey. https://t.co/GBUJMfUFTU
China E‑commerce Shipments Fell 6% YoY in March
Analysis by Aevean shows that in March, e-commerce volumes from China declined by 6% yoy. https://t.co/OMyf88X13r via @Air_Cargo_News https://t.co/3bjqpr8Srq
Valve's Steam Controller Sells Out in Minutes, Scalpers Flip at Double Price
Valve announced that its newly released Steam Controller sold out within minutes, far exceeding demand forecasts. The $99 controller is already appearing on resale sites for $200-plus, prompting the company to promise a restock while remaining silent on anti‑scalper measures.
Shopify Posts Fourth Straight 30%+ Revenue Surge, Adds Luxury Brands in Q1 2026
Shopify announced a fourth consecutive quarter of at least 30% revenue and GMV growth, bolstered by new contracts with luxury names such as LVMH, Mulberry and BevMo!. The company said AI is now embedded in every product and operation, positioning...
BLOC Positions Itself as Cambodia’s Next E-Commerce Enabler at Echelon Singapore 2026
BLOC, a Cambodian tech platform under TK Express, will unveil its BLOC V3 suite at Echelon Singapore 2026, signaling a shift from pure delivery to a full e‑commerce enablement ecosystem. The new platform adds social‑commerce and marketplace capabilities, targeting SMEs...
Get Amazon Prime for 6 Months Totally Free if You're Age 18-24 - Here's How
Amazon’s Prime for Young Adults gives users aged 18‑24 a free six‑month trial and a discounted rate of $7.49 per month ($69 per year) after verification. The program, which replaces Prime for Students, requires proof of age or enrollment in...
Strong Start to 2026 for Zalando
Zalando kicked off 2026 with a robust first‑quarter, driven by the integration of About You and an aggressive rollout of AI‑powered logistics and merchandising tools. Group gross merchandise value (GMV) jumped 21.7% to €4.3 billion and revenue rose 23.8% to €3 billion, while...