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
‘Our Competitors Are Everyone’: Joybuy Leads ‘China’s Amazon’ Into the UK
China’s JD.com is rolling out its Joybuy platform in the United Kingdom, positioning it as a direct rival to Amazon. The service launches with more than 1,000 UK staff, two high‑tech distribution centres and a catalogue of over 50,000 products, promising same‑day or next‑day delivery under its “double 11” policy. Joybuy also offers a £3.99‑per‑month membership that undercuts Amazon Prime’s £8.99 price. JD.com is backing the push with a €2.2 bn (≈$2.4 bn) acquisition of Germany’s Ceconomy, signalling a broader European expansion.
What Is Faire Wholesale? Best Practices for Wholesale Sellers
Faire Wholesale is a B2B marketplace that lets brands list wholesale products for vetted retailers, offering a Shopify‑sync option and built‑in marketing tools. In 2025 the platform served hundreds of thousands of wholesale buyers, helping brands like Sock Candy expand...
Amazon Now Expands Rapid Delivery Service to Eighth London Site
Amazon has rolled out its Amazon Now ultra‑fast delivery service to a eighth site in London, adding to recent launches in Lewisham and Battersea. The service lets customers order groceries and everyday essentials for delivery within minutes, with some orders...
EBay Launches Authenticity Guarantee for Trading Cards in the UK
eBay announced an Authenticity Guarantee for UK trading cards priced at £500 (about $635) and above, rolling out on May 6 with full coverage expected by June. The service partners with Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) to inspect, certify and attach a...
Coupang Edges Back to Growth as Recovery Takes Hold
South Korean e‑commerce giant Coupang reported an 8 percent YoY revenue increase to $8.5 billion in Q1 FY26, signaling the start of a recovery after a data‑breach‑induced slump. Management said order frequency, customer engagement and membership metrics improved throughout the quarter, though...
Bluemercury Is Taking a Hands-On Approach to Staying Ahead in a Competitive Beauty Retail Environment
Bluemercury is doubling down on limited‑distribution, high‑end beauty brands, using in‑store education and exclusive founder meetings to drive sales. The Macy’s‑owned chain now runs 170 stores and has logged 20 straight quarters of growth, posting a 1.3% comparable‑sales rise in...
Coupang (CPNG) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript
Coupang reported $8.5 billion in Q1 consolidated revenue, an 8% year‑over‑year increase, while its core Product Commerce segment grew 4% to $7.2 billion. The company reclaimed roughly 80% of the WOW membership decline caused by a prior data incident, and Developing Offerings...
EBay's Live Commerce Push Leverages Sports Card Trading
eBay is already making a major push into live commerce , with big names in sports card trading for example. Is a UI upgrade the difference?
Etsy Runs ‘Extra Perk Promo’ Through Mother’s Day
Etsy is running an "Extra Perk" promotion through May 11, offering shoppers who spend $45 a $5 credit for a future purchase. The offer is automatically applied, requires no coupon code, and expires 90 days after issuance. Targeted at a specific...
UK Supermarkets Face Q‑Commerce Pressure on Pricing, Loyalty and In‑Store Tech
Pricer’s survey of 1,000 British grocery shoppers reveals that rapid‑growth Q‑commerce platforms are resetting expectations for price consistency, personalised offers and real‑time information. With 78% of shoppers demanding online‑level pricing in‑store, traditional supermarkets risk losing loyalty and sales if they...
EBay Suspension Blocks Purchases, User Demands Action
I bought something on eBay last year. My account was suspended for some reason and it hasn’t let me buy anything since. I’ve tried for a few minutes 5+ times and have given up each time. Fire them all.
Corvera Secures $3.8M Seed Funding to Accelerate AI‑Driven Supply‑Chain Platform
London‑based AI supply‑chain specialist Corvera closed a £3 million ($3.8 million) seed round led by 6 Degrees Capital, bringing total capital to £4.5 million ($5.7 million). The funding will fund platform scaling, hiring and customer acquisition, positioning the startup to reshape CPG ecommerce logistics.
AI Grocery Startup Vori Secures $22 Million Series B to Aid Independent Stores
Vori, the San Francisco AI grocery platform, closed a $22 million Series B round led by Cherryrock Capital. The funding will expand its AI‑driven operating system for the 75% of U.S. food retailers that sit outside the Walmart‑Amazon orbit.
Chewy Appoints Former Amazon VP Yunyan Wang as CTO to Accelerate Tech Innovation
Chewy has hired Yunyan Wang, who spent more than 12 years at Amazon and most recently served as vice president of Commerce & Supply Chain Services, as its new chief technology officer. The move signals the pet‑e‑commerce leader’s push to...
Now Scalpers Are Selling Target's Pokémon 30th Anniversary Store Displays on eBay
Target’s 30th‑anniversary Pokémon promotion featured elaborate in‑store displays that were never meant for sale. Scalpers entered stores, removed backdrops, shelf decorations and other promotional pieces, then listed them on eBay and Facebook Marketplace. Listings are fetching anywhere from a few...
H&M Names New CIO
Swedish fashion retailer H&M Group announced the appointment of Diego Teijeiro Ruiz as its new Chief Information Officer, effective May 25. Teijeiro Ruiz brings extensive experience in large‑scale digital transformation, positioning H&M to accelerate its AI‑driven e‑commerce and supply‑chain modernization. The...
Maplebear Inc (CART) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Maplebear (CART) reported Q1 2026 gross transaction value of $9.85 billion, up 14% YoY and the strongest pace in three years, driven by 16% order growth and expanding retailer partnerships. GAAP net income fell 46% to $81 million due to a $60 million...
EP258: How Ashley Kalus Hit 397% Year-Over-Year Growth on a Medical-Grade Scar Brand
In episode 258 of the High Voltage Business Builders Podcast, Ashley Kalus disclosed a 397% year‑over‑year revenue surge for her medical‑grade scar care brand, reaching $743,800 in verified sales with a 20% net margin. The growth stemmed from a disciplined...
Why Russia’s Richest Woman Tatyana Kim Has High Hopes for Africa
Russia’s e‑commerce giant Wildberries, founded by billionaire Tatyana Kim, announced a strategic push into Africa after signing a partnership with Ethiopia’s sovereign wealth fund. The platform, which drives more than $50 billion in annual sales and runs over 90,000 pick‑up points across...
Prime’s “Two‑Day” Shipping Takes Up To Nine Days
Amazon Prime Shipping Translations: Two Day Free Prime Shipping = 3-9 business days Next Day Shipping: 11:59pm that day Overnight: also 6-11pm
Walmart Launches AI‑powered Beauty Tools to Personalize Product Discovery
Walmart announced the rollout of AI‑powered beauty shopping tools that let customers search by skin tone, hair type and budget, promising more precise product matches and faster decisions. The update, unveiled in late April 2026, is part of the retailer’s...
How Edible Prepares for Last-Minute Gifting Before Mother’s Day
Edible Brands is sharpening its last‑mile fulfillment ahead of Mother’s Day, expanding both its own franchise network and third‑party delivery partners to cover 90% of U.S. zip codes within an hour. The retailer uses predictive forecasting to align inventory and...
Want To Find New Customers? Shopify President Says AI Search Is Bringing Them in Twice as Fast
Shopify reported that AI‑powered search has become a growth engine for its merchants. In Q1, AI‑driven traffic to Shopify stores jumped eightfold year‑over‑year, while orders originating from AI search rose nearly 13×. New buyer orders generated by AI search are...
Wayfair Supply Chain Has Mitigated Impact of Fuel Costs, CEO Says
Wayfair’s Q1 2026 earnings call highlighted that rising fuel costs and geopolitical tensions have not eroded its margins, thanks to a supply‑chain model that passes fulfillment expenses to suppliers and keeps take rates stable. CEO Niraj Shah said the retailer...
Treat SMS Like Gold: 5 Rules for Success
Most ecommerce brands send SMS the same way they send email, and the unsubscribe rate shows it. Here are 5 SMS rules you need to know: → Treat every text like it could cost you the subscriber → Keep messages under 160 characters...
Google Expands UCP Checkout to Main Search Shopping Results
Google has extended its Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) checkout from the AI‑Mode interface to the main Google Search results, adding a “Buy” button directly in product overlays such as Wayfair’s listings. UCP creates a shared language between AI agents and...
Amazon Business Adds Same-Day Fresh Grocery Delivery
Amazon Business is extending its same‑day grocery delivery service to more than 2,300 U.S. cities, using the same temperature‑controlled fulfillment network that powers Amazon.com. The rollout lets businesses add fresh produce, dairy, baked goods and frozen items to a single...
Apple Expands Wallet to Support Tickets, Passes, and Gift Cards
Apple will roll out a “Create a Pass” feature in iOS 27, letting users import QR‑code tickets, gym memberships or gift cards by scanning or photographing them. The rollout pilots three template types—memberships, events and a catch‑all category that includes...
ZyG Raises $60M Series A Led by Accel to Build an Agentic Operating System for E-Commerce Scale
ZyG, a Tel Aviv‑based AI startup for direct‑to‑consumer brands, closed a $60 million Series A round led by Accel. The funding backs its “agentic operating system,” which automates store creation, creative generation, user acquisition, conversion, retention and logistics. ZyG was founded by...
Amazon to Blend AI Chat with Traditional Search
Sounds like AIOs are coming to Amazon search (for open-ended queries) -> Amazon Could Offer ‘Hybrid Mode’ AI Search on Retail Site From the article: "Amazon sees its traditional search tools as most useful for a straightforward shopping query, where having too...
Make Bundles “May‑As‑Well” By Matching Hero Price
Bundle pricing works best when it's "may as well" pricing. It's better to raise prices on individual products but drop prices on the bundle. The closer the bundle price is to the hero product's retail price, the more compelling the...
Vori Raises $22M Series B to Help Independent Grocers Compete with Walmart and Amazon with Payments, Inventory, and Pricing
San Francisco AI grocery startup Vori announced a $22 million Series B round led by Cherryrock Capital. The company’s platform automates payments, inventory tracking, invoice processing, dynamic pricing and purchase‑order generation for independent supermarkets. Vori targets the 75 percent of U.S. grocery operators...
AI Now Dominates Search and Buying Research
Super interesting insights from @McKinsey on how much of search + purchasing research has already shifted to AI https://t.co/VwHeJ0yvNV
Shopify Posts Strong Q1 Revenue Growth, but Stock Still Falls on Slow Growth Forecast
Shopify reported first‑quarter revenue of $3.17 billion USD, up 34% year‑over‑year, and GMV exceeding $100 billion USD for the second straight quarter. A net loss of $581 million USD, driven by a $941 million USD mark‑to‑market write‑down on equity investments, offset the revenue beat....
ReFiBuy Raises $13.6M Seed Round Led by New Road Capital Partners with Ridge Ventures, Silicon Road, and Commerce Ventures
ReFiBuy, a North Carolina startup focused on agentic commerce optimization, announced a $13.6 million seed round led by New Road Capital Partners. The round was oversubscribed two‑fold and brought in prominent e‑commerce, retail‑tech, and payments investors such as Ridge Ventures, Silicon...
Gamestop CEO's Unsolicited Bid for eBay Looks DOA
GameStop founder Ryan Cohen has lodged an unsolicited $56 billion offer to acquire eBay, prompting the marketplace’s board to schedule a review this week. Cohen’s recent CNBC interview, aimed at his retail‑investor base, failed to explain the deal’s economics and left...
Apple's iPhone Revenue Surges 22% to $57 Billion, Boosting Overall Sales
Apple announced that iPhone revenue climbed 22% year‑over‑year to $57 billion in its fiscal second quarter, lifting total product sales to $80.2 billion and overall revenue to $111.18 billion. The surge reflects aggressive pricing, strong upgrade cycles, and renewed demand in China and...
The Convenience Trap and Why Retail Fraud Has Outgrown Checkout
Retailers' push for frictionless experiences has widened the fraud attack surface, with fraud now spanning account creation, login, loyalty and BNPL, not just checkout. A 2026 survey of over 1,000 fraud and AML leaders shows only 47% of retailers have...
South Korea’s Online Shopping Volume Hits $17.4 B Record in March, Driven by Cars and Mobile Devices
South Korea’s Ministry of Data and Statistics reported that online shopping reached a record 25.58 trillion won ($17.4 billion) in March 2026, up 13.3% year‑over‑year. The surge was powered by a 109.9% jump in car sales and a 107.5% rise in mobile‑device...
AI Agents Expose a Costly Blind Spot in Fraud Prevention
Merchants are now seeing legitimate AI‑driven purchases flagged as fraud as AI shopping agents mimic bot behavior. Traditional fraud models, which rely on human‑centric signals, struggle to distinguish authorized agents from malicious bots. The resulting false declines generate lost revenue...
Amazon Opens Its Logistics Network to Brick-and-Mortar Retailers
Amazon announced that its Supply Chain Services will now sell access to its extensive logistics network to brick‑and‑mortar retailers. The offering includes a multimodal fleet of over 80,000 trailers, 24,000 containers and more than 100 aircraft, plus AI‑driven demand forecasting...
Amazon's New Supply Service Mainly Boosts Baseline Capacity
"...We see the overall disruptive impact [Amazon Supply Chain Service] as on the margin, given our view that Amazon's primary motivation for a third-party offering is aimed toward densifying its baseload capacity..." - Bruce Chan, Stifel
Amazon's Mother’s Day Sale Curates Top Gifts
Amazon's Mother's Day sale is so good that I'm shopping it myself and rounding up the 12 best gifts from Dyson, Apple, Breville, Fitbit, and more. https://t.co/HtFVgXf7IN
Why Technology Adoption Fails in Retail and How Leaders Fix It
Retailers are pouring money into AI, robotics and analytics, yet roughly 90% of grocery AI projects never scale because the operating model can’t absorb them. The gap isn’t the technology itself but a lack of disciplined change management. Six practices—clear...
Amazon Business Launches Same‑day Grocery Delivery for Firms
Interesting move - Amazon Business is providing same-day delivery of perishable groceries to business customers in more than 2,300 U.S. cities. https://t.co/fq9JaBDdDJ "Amazon Business serves more than eight million organizations globally, including 97 of the Fortune 100."
Are Prize Wheels Set to Render Static Bonus Codes Obsolete in Retail?
Prize wheels, once a novelty in gaming, are now a mainstream promotional tool across entertainment and e‑commerce. Research shows interactive wheels generate four to five times more page views than static bonus codes, prompting retailers to adopt them for higher...
Get Free Google Brand Insight, 25‑Minute Feedback Session
Looking for 5 Shopify merchants to spend 25 min with me this month. I'll show you something about your own brand on Google you've probably never seen before. You tell me what's useful and what's broken. No pitch, no signup. Just feedback. DM...
Small Online Stores in Germany See Revenues Decrease
Uptain’s 2026 E‑Commerce Market Study shows German online retail is consolidating. Since Q3 2023 the median online revenue fell 22% to €11,305 (about $12,200), while stores generating over €1 million annually grew 7.6% and those under €50,000 shrank 12.3%. The shift is...
Ahold Delhaize Expands Partnership with Uber Eats in the U.S.
U.S. supermarket chains owned by Ahold Delhaize—Food Lion, Giant Food, Hannaford and Stop & Shop—have expanded their presence on Uber Eats to nearly 2,000 locations. Shoppers can order directly through the Uber Eats app with free delivery for Uber One...
SmartCommerce Appoints Anj Yamsani CTO to Drive AI‑Powered Commerce Platform
SmartCommerce announced the appointment of veteran technologist Anj Yamsani as chief technology officer. Yamsani will steer the company’s AI‑native roadmap, building on a platform that already moves more than $15 billion of products into retailer carts each year. The hire signals...