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
Bed Bath & Beyond CEO: AI Will Lead to ‘Significant Reduction in Headcount’
Bed Bath & Beyond is pivoting to an AI‑centric model, with CEO Marcus Lemonis warning that deeper AI integration will trigger a significant headcount reduction across functions such as supply chain, IT, accounting, marketing and merchandising. The company reported its first quarterly revenue growth in 19 quarters, up 7% to $248 million, while operating loss fell 20% to $18.2 million and net loss dropped nearly 60% to $16.4 million. New chief technology transformation officer Kyla Robinson will unify the firm’s data platform, supporting the AI strategy and recent acquisitions like Kirkland’s.
The Funnel Is Dead: Now What?
Brandweek’s 2026 panel, moderated by ADWEEK’s Alison Weissbrot, declared the classic marketing funnel obsolete, urging brands to adopt a flywheel mindset. Leaders from SmartCommerce, Liquid Death, LYS Beauty, Kellanova, Sephora, and Argonaut shared tactics for omnichannel commerce, retail‑media data leverage,...
84.51° Report: Online Shopping Grows But In-Store Remains The Default
84.51°’s new Consumer Digest report shows that while 90% of shoppers are increasing their online grocery activity, 74% of trips still happen in physical stores. Digital research tools are now a key part of the purchase journey, but the final...
Allbirds Rebrands as NewBird AI, Stock Surges Over 350% After AI Pivot
Allbirds, acquired by American Exchange Group for $39 million, has rebranded as NewBird AI and announced an AI‑focused business model. The strategic shift has lifted the company’s stock by more than 350% since the announcement, while the brand moves to an...
FTC Says $2.1 Billion Lost to Social‑Media Scams in 2025, Facebook Leads the Way
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission disclosed that Americans lost $2.1 billion to social‑media scams in 2025, an eightfold jump since 2020. Facebook alone was linked to $794 million of those losses, while investment, shopping and romance scams drove the bulk of the...
AI Turns Your Selfie Into Instant Full‑Outfit Try‑On
From Selfie to Storefront: AI That Puts the Outfit on You First Abhay Singhal, Co-Founder & CEO of @InMobi, joins David Berkowitz and @JeremyBloomHere from @marketecturetv at Eden Roc during Possible to share how Glance AI is redefining the...
Uber Joins $850B Returns Market, Urging Logistics Strategies
Reverse logistics is hotter than ever. Returns is an $850B market. And now @Uber is entering the market. As a consumer, you can go into the app, select “return an item,” provide a reason for your return, and choose “return with...
How Pandora Thinks About AI, Emotion, and the Future of Jewelry Retail | WRC 2026
In this OmniTalk Retail episode recorded at the World Retail Congress, host Chris Walton interviews David Boynton, Managing Director for Northern Europe at Pandora, about the brand’s strategy amid economic pressure, the role of physical stores, and the impact of...
Owning Your Warehouse Cuts Growth by 90%
Can owning your warehouse slow growth 90%?! Shockingly, yes. Here's the details + 2 more crazy findings from my deep dive on 300 stores. Starting with the warehouse one because it floored me. If you owned your warehouse, your avg rev growth...
Visa, Mastercard Defend Card Fee Settlement
Visa and Mastercard are defending a proposed interchange‑fee settlement that would cut rates by 10 basis points, set a 1.25% fee for standard consumer cards, and let merchants decline premium cards while adding surcharges or discounts. The deal aims to...
Dealerships Are 'Terrified' Direct Sales Might Be The Future
Dealerships are alarmed as direct‑to‑consumer (DTC) sales gain traction, with 28 states still restricting or banning the model. Tesla pioneered DTC, and recent victories for Rivian in Washington and a California ruling against Scout Motors highlight a shifting legal landscape....
AI Coworker Automates Dull Marketing Tasks, Restores Creativity
Everyone who got into marketing got into it for the interesting part, right? The strategy. The ideas. The campaign that wins a creative award or is taught as a case study. Then you spend enough time in the industry to actually...
$188K in Delivery Fees Forced This Restaurant Owner to Ditch DoorDash and Uber Eats: ‘That’s Losses on Us’
Omaha restaurateur Javier Trujillo disclosed that his five eateries paid roughly $188,000 in delivery‑app commissions last year, prompting him to abandon DoorDash, Uber Eats and similar platforms. He said the fees eroded profit margins and even caused losses when drivers...
Blinkit Powers 76.5% of Quarterly Revenue
Blinkit’s Dominance: Quick commerce is no longer just a "side bet." Blinkit contributed approximately 76.5% of the total revenue this quarter, bringing in ₹13,232 crore.
The Core Memory Merch Is Here
Core Memory Media announced the launch of its first official merchandise store, featuring limited‑run heavyweight hoodies and a green‑purple hat. The company spent months vetting fabric quality and Shopify integrations before opening sales. Partners JBFMI and WeLogoIt handle fulfillment from...
Quick Commerce War Intensifies as Jio, Amazon, Flipkart Scale up to Challenge Incumbents
India’s quick‑commerce sector is entering a scale‑up phase as Reliance Retail’s JioMart logs 2 million daily orders in Q4 FY26, a 300% year‑on‑year surge, and leans on a 3,100‑plus store network instead of capital‑heavy dark stores. Amazon Now and Flipkart are racing...
Sean Wotherspoon Joins The KLEKT Family
European sneaker marketplace KLEKT announced a community crowdfunding campaign and the appointment of Sean Wotherspoon as investor and Chief Community Curator. The campaign will launch on Republic on April 8, allowing community members to fund the platform’s expansion beyond sneakers into...
Real Sales on TikTok & eBay Prove Massive Opportunity
Pls pls pls my friends pay attention here .. I am starting to get the DMs and emails from the people that are actually starting to execute and have started to sell on TikTok or eBay or whatnot and...
75+ New AI Prompts for E‑Commerce Success
I've just updated my E-commerce AI Toolkit for April 2026. 75+ new prompts for video ads, landing pages, and product research. New workflows for store optimization and content strategy. Comment 'AI KIT' and RT. I'll send it over. Free, as...
Online Auctions Continue to Draw in First-Time Art Buyers as Sales Grow
Online‑only sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Phillips, Bonhams and Artnet Auctions rose 8% in 2025, reaching $423.9 million. The average price per lot jumped 8.6% to $14,309, while the number of lots sold stayed near 29,600. Sales are now 270% higher than...
Only Index Splits Google Brand vs Non‑Brand, Meta ACQ/RTN
Q1 spend by channel/tactic across CTC. As far as I know it’s the only index that breaks out brand/non brand for Google and ACQ/RTN for Meta. https://t.co/HXhhNbT9XI
Authentic Testimonials: Show Real Users, Problems, Change
If your testimonials still look like 2019 YouTube ads, you're behind. This is the new bar. Forget the polished cut. Give me the user, the problem, what changed. That’s it. That’s the post.
Vinted Connects Marketplaces in Germany and Austria
Vinted has linked its German and Austrian marketplaces, allowing users in both countries to buy and sell without extra steps, and has integrated Austrian Post as a logistics partner with 3,000 drop‑off points. The move follows a secondary share transaction that...
Coupang Breach Exposes Millions of Customer Accounts
On 29 November 2025, Korean e-commerce company Coupang reported a cybersecurity breach, with millions of customer accounts leaked to third parties https://t.co/FUXEOMmvwi
Deals in Brief: Cube and PvX Partners Raise Series A Funding; Singapore’s MPA Backs Six Firms; Eight China Investments; and...
Cube secured a $3.7 million Series A to broaden its e‑commerce data intelligence platform beyond Southeast Asia into North Asia and Latin America, while PvX Partners raised $10.5 million to scale its AI‑driven cohort financing model for consumer apps. Singapore’s Maritime and Port...
Nigeria Targets SME Export Growth as TikTok, ICC Roll Out Digital Labs
Nigeria is teaming with TikTok and the International Chamber of Commerce to launch Digital Commerce Labs, a program that moves small businesses beyond social‑media buzz toward genuine export opportunities. Backed by the National Information Technology Development Agency and Lagos State...
Ahold Delhaize USA Expands Digital Commerce Capabilities with SmartCommerce Click2Cart
Ahold Delhaize USA announced a partnership with SmartCommerce to roll out Click2Cart across its five U.S. grocery brands—Food Lion, The GIANT Company, Giant Food, Hannaford and Stop & Shop. The service lets shoppers add products seen in digital ads, social...
Nintendo Has Discounted a Bunch of Its Switch Games in New Rare Sale
Nintendo has launched an unprecedented digital‑only sale on Amazon, slashing prices on roughly a dozen first‑party Switch titles. Most games are now $40, with select entries like Bayonetta 2, Emio, and Live A Live priced at $30, a notable dip from typical eShop...
New Era Caps Appoints Lorenz Gan as COO in Sweeping Leadership Overhaul
New Era Cap announced a senior‑leadership reshuffle that installs Lorenz Gan as chief operating officer and Bruce Popko as president. The moves follow the integration of ’47 Brand and come as the company reports $2 billion in annual revenue, while three...
Somali Influencer Drives $310 M Cross‑Border E‑Commerce Surge From China’s Hubei Hub
Somali influencer Mohamed Issa Omar, CEO of Ezhou Shahai Business Bridge Trading, has turned Ezhou’s pilot zone into a $310 million cross‑border e‑commerce engine, selling AI‑powered glasses to a global audience. His live‑stream model, backed by China’s cargo infrastructure, showcases how...
Majestic Takes Top Spot in Brand Performance and Visibility
Majestic Wine has reclaimed the top spot in the UK Online Alcohol 2025 Salience Index, posting an estimated organic traffic score of 509,538. The index, which measures visibility, search volume and brand awareness using Ahrefs data, placed Fortnum & Mason...
AI-Powered Fraud Now Hides Inside Legitimate Transactions
Forter warns that AI‑powered fraud now hides within legitimate e‑commerce transactions, using synthetic identities and account takeovers. Attackers can create fraud with just a few hours of work, embedding malicious activity in normal user behavior. Forter’s AI platform analyzes over...
SARAL
SARAL positions itself as an InfluencerOS for DTC eCommerce, unifying discovery, outreach, affiliate tracking and content management into a single platform. Brands using SARAL reported an average $2.1 million incremental revenue and a 7.68× ROAS last year. Quarterly pricing ranges from...
How India’s UPI Credit Line Model Is Finding Echoes Across Southeast Asia and Europe
India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has evolved from a simple real‑time payment rail into a platform that lets banks embed pre‑approved credit lines directly into the checkout flow. The credit‑line model, launched in 2022, enables consumers to spend borrowed funds...
Ecommerce Leaders Invest Big in AI – But 73% Admit They’re Not Ready for What’s Next
Ecommerce organisations are dramatically increasing AI spending, with the average annual investment now $291,626 and projected to rise 11% to $323,886 by 2026, according to Pattern Group’s new report. Yet 73% of the 1,000 senior leaders surveyed admit their firms...
Debunking the Myth That Retailers Have a Demand Problem in Retail Media
Retail media growth isn’t hampered by a lack of advertisers; it’s limited by weak sales execution. Most ad spend comes from existing endemic brands, so retailers must convert those supplier relationships into media revenue. Integrating trade and media teams creates...
Moving Beyond Reactivity: Why Retailers Need Inventory Governance to Drive Growth
Retailers face a unique inventory challenge: thousands of stores must coordinate real‑time data across a massive product catalog. Traditional supply‑chain tactics, focused on execution metrics like MRP, often leave merchandisers and warehouse teams at odds, creating inefficiencies and stock‑out risks....
Pull Loss Prevention Out of the Shadows, Offer a Seat at the Table
Retailers are losing $796 billion in 2025, with $706 billion tied to returns and 12% of those returns stemming from abuse. The piece highlights that loss‑prevention (LP) and asset‑protection (AP) teams are often siloed, limiting visibility into fraud and miscoding. It urges...
Closing the Retail AI ROI Gap With Connected Process Chains
Retailers are rapidly experimenting with AI—about nine in ten decision‑makers are evaluating agents and a third have already deployed solutions such as chatbots, forecasting and personalization. However, most leaders see modest returns because implementations remain isolated point tools rather than...
Flipkart 'Sasa Lele' Sale Dates Announced: IPhone 17, Galaxy S25 Deals and Bank Offers Revealed
Flipkart announced its "Sasa Lele" summer sale for May 9 2026, with Plus and Black members getting early access on May 8. The platform is offering a 10% discount for SBI credit‑card users and a 15% discount for Black members, plus a 5%...
Target a Painful Audience, Not a Single Product
Everyone is obsessed with finding a 'winning product'. Wrong focus. Find a winning *audience*. An audience with a painful problem. Then you can sell them 10 different products over a decade.
Glovo, Others Advocate for Collaboration to Promote Inclusive SMBs Growth and Innovation Across Nigeria’s Commerce Landscape
Glovo and key Nigerian commerce stakeholders convened the second Future of Commerce Summit in Lagos to call for deeper cross‑sector collaboration that accelerates small‑and‑medium business (SMB) growth. Speakers highlighted how digital platforms, logistics networks and payment systems are reshaping trade,...
AI-Driven Shopping Sacrifices Personal Choice and Awareness
What we lose when #ArtificialIntelligence does our shopping by Mark Bartholomew Samuel Becher @ConversationUS Learn more: https://t.co/YMLjTa0ENx #ArtificialIntelligence #MachineLearning #ML https://t.co/b3yrqo7OI6
How Debenhams Quadrupled Retail Media Revenue with Mirakl Ads
Debenhams revamped its retail media offering by adopting Mirakl Ads, a platform built for marketplace sellers. Leveraging AI‑driven hybrid search and multi‑armed bandit algorithms, the migration of 1,300 campaigns and 6 million products was completed in three weeks. Within two months,...
Blinkit Flags Growth Moderation as Quick Commerce Firm’s Profitability Improves
India’s quick‑commerce leader Blinkit signaled a slowdown in its growth trajectory, projecting net order value (NOV) to rise just over 60% over the next three years versus a 104% CAGR from FY23‑FY26. The firm posted its second straight quarter of...
High-Street vs Digitalisation: What’s Next for Primark’s Growth Strategy?
Primark is preparing to spin off from parent company Associated British Foods, becoming a standalone retailer. The split prompts a strategic debate over how the fast‑fashion chain can capture online shoppers without launching a full e‑commerce platform. Industry observers suggest...
WeShop Releases Full Year 2025 Financial Results
WeShop Holdings announced its full‑year 2025 results after completing a Nasdaq listing, which unlocked a $2.75 million performance‑incentive grant to fund North American expansion. The company built on a UK proof‑of‑concept that processed roughly $140 million in gross merchandise value and is...
Walmart Launches Next Phase of South Florida Store Remodels, Adding 58 Locations in 2026
Walmart announced that 58 stores across South Florida will undergo its next wave of remodels in 2026, including two sites that were delayed from 2025. The upgrades focus on wider aisles, new pharmacy rooms, and expanded pickup and delivery zones,...
Texas Liquor Store Tests Robotic Fulfillment Tech
Goody‑Goody Liquor, a Dallas‑based family store, is piloting a robotic fulfillment system at its Greenville Avenue location. Shoppers scan QR codes on glass‑encased bottles, add items to a digital cart, and watch robots assemble orders on overhead screens. Staff deliver...
Nexi Brings Wero to German E-Commerce: 53 Million Users Can Now Pay at BAUR, Quelle and Bünting
Italian PayTech group Nexi has launched its proprietary payment method Wero in Germany, partnering with online retailers BAUR, Quelle and the Bünting Group (operators of Combi.de and MyTime.de). The integration gives Wero’s 53 million European users a new checkout option on...