Today's Ecommerce Pulse
Amazon commits $10.9B to expand European fulfillment network
Amazon announced a $10.9 bn investment to modernise its European warehouse and delivery operations, creating 25,000 new fulfillment jobs. The plan includes a $940 mn training fund for upskilling workers and the rollout of upgraded Proteus autonomous robots.
Also developing:
By the numbers: FirstClub raises $55M Series B
SAP Engagement Cloud Q2 2026 Release
SAP announced the Q2 2026 release of its Engagement Cloud, delivering a more sophisticated personalization and campaign engine. The update tightly integrates with SAP Customer Data Cloud (CDC) and Customer Data Platform (CDP), giving marketers richer data insights and the ability to continuously optimize outreach. Users highlight the platform’s intuitive, user‑friendly interface, which speeds adoption across marketing teams. The rollout reinforces SAP’s strategy to deepen its foothold in the customer‑experience software market.
Good News for People Who Shop on Amazon in South Africa
Amazon will host its first Prime Day in South Africa from 23‑29 June 2026, following the launch of Amazon Prime on 3 June. Prime members can claim an extra 30% discount, up to R1,000 (≈ $54), via a coupon code. The service bundles free...
Ecommerce Sector Ready to Adapt to Looming EU Import Reforms
Europe is moving to impose a €3 (≈$3.30) customs duty and handling fee on parcels valued below €150 (≈$164), but industry leaders say the change will not cause the sharp volume drop seen in the U.S. after its de‑minimis exemption...
Hey Savi, PayPal Launch UK's First Agentic Commerce Platform; Debenhams Joins
Hey Savi and PayPal have rolled out the United Kingdom’s first agentic commerce platform, enabling shoppers to discover and purchase fashion items from over 10,000 brands without leaving the app. Debenhams Group is the inaugural retailer to integrate the AI‑driven...
Amazon Melds Rufus, Alexa+ for ‘Alexa for Shopping’ Feature
Amazon unveiled “Alexa for Shopping,” a unified AI assistant that blends its Rufus product‑research tool with the conversational capabilities of Alexa+. The feature lets shoppers type or speak queries directly in the Amazon search bar, generating personalized guides, dynamic product...
Multiple Linear Regression–Artificial Neural Network (MLR-ANN) Model for Assessing Customer Satisfaction Using SERVQUAL Scale in Online Food Delivery Services
A recent study examined customer satisfaction in online food‑delivery platforms using the SERVQUAL framework and a hybrid Multiple Linear Regression–Artificial Neural Network (MLR‑ANN) model. Data from 216 users revealed that efficiency, fulfillment and compensation positively influence satisfaction, while system availability,...
How One California Couple Turned Old Electronics Into a Thriving eBay Business
eWaste Direct, a California electronics recycler with nearly two decades of experience, runs the eBay storefront Angie’s GreenGo Surplus. The store refurbishes and resells thousands of laptops, phones and component parts that would otherwise become landfill waste. By pairing skilled...
Retailers Face Surge in AI-Generated Fake Damage Claims and Refund Scams
Retailers are confronting a surge in AI‑generated refund fraud, with generative tools enabling scammers to fabricate damage photos and false return narratives. Forter reports that these fake damage claims are now the fastest‑growing form of return abuse, amplified by flexible...
Sephora Is Bringing Prestige Beauty Shopping Into Google’s AI Ecosystem
Sephora has expanded its AI partnership with Google, becoming the first prestige beauty retailer to enable full‑cycle shopping through Google Agentic Checkout. Shoppers can now discover products, ask detailed beauty questions, build a routine and complete checkout without leaving Google’s...
Tariffs Forced Temu to Slash Its U.S. Ad Spend on Nearly Every Platform
Temu, the Chinese e‑commerce platform, slashed its U.S. advertising budget by roughly 95% year‑over‑year, dropping from the top spender on X to the 51st position. The cuts spanned major channels—YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram—all seeing steep declines, while Pinterest spending...
Brands ‘Pressured’ Into Lifting Retail Media Spend Despite Lack Of ‘Trust’ & ‘Effectiveness’
New research by Arktic Fox and Six Degrees shows over half of brands feel pressured by retailers to boost retail‑media spend despite low trust. In Australia, retailers invested about AU$2.6 billion (≈US$1.7 billion) in 2025, with a projected 10‑15% growth this year....
Amazon Quietly Rolls Out Prime Day Change
Amazon announced its summer 2026 Prime Day will run from June 23 to June 26, offering four days of exclusive discounts on big‑ticket items such as TVs and patio furniture as well as back‑to‑school and travel essentials. The event introduces a new...
Amazon Rolls Out Smart Bid V2, Upending Sponsored Products PPC Strategies
Amazon has deployed its upgraded Sponsored Products bid automation engine, Smart Bid v2, across all U.S. Seller Central accounts. The AI‑driven system adjusts bids per auction using demand forecasts, driving CPC spikes of up to 14% while delivering ROAS gains...
Target Uses 3D Simulation to Build $265M Houston Receive Center, Saving $700K
Target has leveraged 3D visualization and simulation at its Minneapolis XR Experience Center to design a 1.2‑million‑square‑foot, $265 million Houston Receive Center. The digital‑first approach saved roughly $700,000 in construction and promises faster, lower‑cost fulfillment for six regional distribution centers and...
Amazon Announces 2026 Prime Day Dates
Amazon announced its annual Prime Day will run June 23‑26, a four‑day sales marathon that kicks off at 12:01 a.m. PDT. Early deals are already live across categories such as devices, groceries, fashion and books, with new offers dropping as often as every five...
Shopify Rolls Out Summer ’26 AI Merchandising Suite to 2.3M Merchants
Shopify announced its Summer ’26 edition, embedding AI‑driven merchandising tools directly into the admin dashboard for its 2.3 million merchants. The suite, which launches for Shopify Plus users this week and all plans by July 14, claims an 11% median boost in...
Cotopaxi Prepares Data for Agentic AI Discovery, Learning From Marketplace Integrations
Cotopaxi, the digitally native outdoor gear brand, is retooling its product data to be consumable by agentic AI platforms such as Google Gemini and OpenAI ChatGPT. Leveraging lessons from multi‑marketplace integrations, the retailer is enriching its catalog with contextual, natural‑language...
Chowdeck Adds Vendor Badges Weeks After Techpoint Africa Investigation Exposed Onboarding Gaps
Chowdeck has rolled out three vendor verification badges—Verified, Awaiting Verification, and Shopper—to make a restaurant’s compliance status visible to customers. The change follows a Techpoint Africa investigation that demonstrated a fake restaurant could be listed and fulfill orders on the...
Amazon Sets Prime Day for June 23‑26, Offering Millions of Deals to Boost U.S. Consumer Spending
Amazon announced that its 2026 Prime Day will run from June 23 to June 26, delivering millions of exclusive deals to Prime members across categories such as fashion, home, groceries and back‑to‑school items. The event, which drops new offers every...
Cars.com Posts 1% Revenue Rise to $180.2M, Highlights AI‑driven Lead Surge
Cars.com posted a modest 1% year‑over‑year revenue increase to $180.2 million in Q1 2026, while free cash flow surged 42% to $33.5 million. The results underscore the growing role of AI‑enabled lead generation and a stronger dealer marketplace amid a slight dip...
Walmart Rolls Out 30‑Minute Grocery Delivery in 33 U.S. Cities
Walmart announced the expansion of its 30‑minute‑or‑less delivery service to 33 U.S. markets, offering more than 100,000 items for a $10 fee to Walmart+ members. The move targets last‑minute shoppers and pits the retailer directly against Amazon Now and other...
ASOS’s Melissa Lim Breaks Down New AI Stylist App Experience
ASOS has launched an AI‑powered Stylist app inside ChatGPT for UK and US shoppers, letting users browse, receive visual styling advice and click through to purchase on ASOS.com. The feature embeds high‑resolution images, video and livestream content directly into the...
Your Checkout Is the Funnel’s Fatal Flaw
You can have the most beautiful website in the world. You can have perfect information architecture. Your ticketing system works flawlessly. But if the moment someone decides to give you money is clunky, onerous, or confusing, you've just thrown away...
Hey Savi and PayPal Launch UK’s First Agentic Commerce Platform
Hey Savi, together with PayPal, has launched the UK’s first agentic commerce platform, an AI‑driven fashion search app that lets women discover and buy items without leaving the experience. The service translates photos, screenshots or text queries into ranked results...
Google Shopping’s AI Product Studio Boosts DTC CTR by Up to 22%
Google has embedded its AI‑driven Product Studio into Merchant Center Next, letting DTC brands generate lifestyle images and video loops without a shoot. Early pilots report CTR gains of 0.5 percentage points for a single brand and an average 22%...
JD.com’s 618 Promotion Sets Record User Participation and Fuels Omnichannel Growth
JD.com reported record‑high user orders and a 70% jump in offline foot traffic during the first 52 hours of its 618 Grand Promotion, driven by AI‑enhanced logistics and strong growth across personal care, smart home, fresh food and cross‑border categories.
POP.STORE CEO Gautam Goswami: Creator Commerce Has a Customer Problem
POP.STORE CEO Gautam Goswami argues that creators’ biggest blind spot is the lack of owned customer data, not follower count. He points to a creator who turned 200,000 followers into 1.8 million email contacts and $100 million in sales, illustrating the revenue...
Amazon Kicks Off Mid-Year Sale in Australia with Deep Discounts on PC Gaming Gear
Amazon has launched its annual Mid-Year Sale in Australia, running from June 1 to June 7, 2026, with steep discounts on PC gaming accessories. The event is open to all shoppers, though Prime members may see exclusive offers, and it...
The Mall Launches App with 10,000‑brand Universal Shopping Feed
The Mall, a startup founded by Ellie Konsker and Shreya Halder, launched a free app that aggregates more than 10,000 brands into a single, algorithm‑driven feed. The platform uses web‑scraping and large language models to keep product data current, offering...
Auto Parts Retailer Scales Online Orders 600% Through ERP and X-Cart Integration
La Guaca Auto Parts, a leading Costa Rican automotive parts retailer, linked its X‑Cart storefront to its proprietary ERP using Codeless Platforms’ BPA integration layer. The connection synchronizes more than 36,000 SKUs, updates inventory and pricing every five minutes, and...
Amazon Launches Prime Day 2026 with Millions of Deals Across 12 Countries
Amazon announced its 2026 Prime Day, running June 23‑26, featuring millions of exclusive deals for Prime members in the U.S. and 11 other markets. The event promises deep discounts of 50% or more on fashion, home, groceries and more, underscoring...
Buy‑Now Economy Fuels $100 Billion Hub, Sparks Rural Tension in Midwest
CenterPoint Intermodal Center now processes more than 3 million containers—about $100 billion in goods each year—making it the nation’s largest inland port. A proposed expansion by rival developer NorthPoint to double warehouse capacity has triggered a clash with farmland owners and small‑town...
Apparel Brand Dad Gang Teams up with Shopify on Limited-Edition Hat Drop as Sales Top $35 Million
Dad Gang, the dad‑focused apparel brand that has sold more than one million hats and topped $35 million in revenue, is launching a limited‑edition hat with Shopify. The exclusive, priced at $35, is limited to 2,500 units and will be sold...
RealFi Announces Development of XRP Ledger-Powered Payment Rewards Application for Shopify Merchants.
RealFi announced it is developing a Shopify payment rewards application built on the XRP Ledger and powered by its native REAL Token. The company secured approval as a Shopify Partner, enabling it to target the platform’s 5.5 million merchants that collectively...
Belgian Teens Are Skeptical About the Launch of TikTok Shop
TikTok Shop is set to debut in Belgium on June 15, introducing a hybrid social‑commerce experience that blends entertainment, creator recommendations, and direct purchasing. A new SMI Barometer survey of 4,926 Belgians reveals that Gen Z shoppers are wary, citing concerns...
Vinted Ventures Backs Tilt’s $26M Live-Commerce Round as Whatnot Pressure Mounts
Tilt, the London‑based live‑auction app, secured $26 million in new funding, with Vinted Ventures making its first investment in a live‑commerce platform. The round pushes Tilt’s total capital above $50 million as it expands across the UK, Italy, Spain and Poland, positioning...
PaySpace Magazine Named Media Partner for Ecommerce Forum
PaySpace Magazine has been announced as the official media partner for the July 9, 2026 Ecommerce Forum in London’s Canary Wharf. The event targets senior ecommerce and digital managers from brands such as Arsenal Football Club, Nomad Foods and SUSHISAMBA GROUP, offering them...
Ecommerce SEO Strategy: How to Drive Organic Traffic | Eastside
Eastside’s June 2026 guide argues that ecommerce brands must treat SEO as a core, long‑term acquisition channel rather than an optional add‑on. While paid ads now capture 36% of revenue, they require a continuous spend of roughly 10% of online...
Stitch Fix CEO Matt Baer on Why AI Can Supplement, but Not Replace, Human Stylists
Stitch Fix has spent the past year building an AI infrastructure to augment its signature personal styling service. Tools such as Stitch Fix Vision are being rolled out both to consumers and to stylists behind the scenes. At the Glossy...
Global Market Insights Projects BNPL Market to Reach $1.6 Trillion By 2034
Global Market Insights forecasts the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) market to expand from roughly $235 billion today to over $1.6 trillion by 2034. The online segment already accounts for $172.3 billion of 2024 volume, while interest‑free products are projected to grow at...
Agent Provocateur: How AI Shopping Bots Are Testing Retail Legal Boundaries
AI‑powered shopping agents are moving from recommendation tools to autonomous buyers, completing transactions without consumers visiting retailer sites. Google, OpenAI, Amazon and others have launched capabilities that let agents scrape product data, log into accounts, and finalize purchases, prompting a...
Chinese Stock Rally Sparks 39% Surge in Luxury Beauty Sales
Chinese consumers are reviving luxury spending as a stock market rally lifts wealth and sentiment. Sales of top‑tier beauty brands on Alibaba’s platforms rose 39% in the first four months, while flagship stores of Louis Vuitton and Burberry posted first‑quarter...
What Mattress Firm Gained From Contactless Delivery
Mattress Firm launched a free contactless delivery option that now represents about 25% of its shipments. The service, first piloted in Charlotte, was rolled out nationwide within a month despite internal pushback. Early confusion over the no‑setup model hurt satisfaction,...
Flashfood Expands to All Gelson’s
Flashfood Inc. is extending its $9 grocery‑box program to every Gelson’s market in Southern California after a successful pilot in Los Angeles. The initial six‑store rollout sold more than 1,000 boxes, totaling roughly 10,000 pounds of produce. The expansion will cover...
TikTok Shop Is Launching in the Netherlands, Opening In-App Commerce to Dutch Brands, Creators
TikTok Shop will go live in the Netherlands on June 15, 2026, extending in‑app commerce to Dutch users through shoppable videos, livestreams, and a dedicated storefront. The rollout is part of a simultaneous expansion into Belgium, Poland and Austria, adding...
Ulta Beauty Taps Uber Eats for Delivery
Ulta Beauty is adding more than 1,500 of its stores to the Uber Eats platform, enabling same‑day and scheduled delivery of cosmetics, skincare, fragrance and hair‑care items. The move follows Ulta’s earlier integrations with DoorDash and Instacart, expanding its omnichannel reach...
Falabella Selects Topsort as Strategic Partner to Scale Its Retail Media Offering Through Fmedia
Falabella, South America’s largest retailer, has partnered with AI‑native retail media platform Topsort to power its Fmedia business unit. After a proof‑of‑concept that delivered double‑digit lifts in ROAS and click‑through rates, Falabella will migrate its advertising infrastructure to Topsort’s auction‑based,...
Gen Z Price Sensitivity Forces Brands to Rethink Online Strategies
A Doss study shows 61% of Gen Z and millennial shoppers have abandoned favorite brands due to 2026 price hikes, while 43% are turning to discount outlets. The trend is prompting major retailers to overhaul pricing, loyalty programs and digital...
Valve’s Hard-Line Tactics Clash With Founder’s Reputation as Benevolent Gamer
A lawsuit filed by several game developers alleges that Valve Corp. and its co‑founder Gabe Newell have shifted from the traditionally gamer‑friendly image to a hard‑line stance on platform policies. The claims detail steep fee hikes, restrictive refund rules, and...
Walmart Recalls 165,000 Dressers and 1,000 Saunas Over Tipping and Burn Hazards
Walmart announced the recall of about 165,000 Mainstays 9‑drawer fabric dressers and roughly 1,000 Giantex portable steam saunas after the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission identified serious tipping and burn hazards. The recalls span items sold in stores and on...