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
Aero Fulfillment Services Hires Dan Harmon as VP of Operations to Drive Omni‑Channel Growth
Aero Fulfillment Services announced the appointment of Dan Harmon as Vice President of Operations. The veteran executive will lead the company’s Omni‑Channel Excellence Initiative, aiming to scale technology‑driven fulfillment for Fortune 1000 and high‑growth e‑commerce brands.
Peak 2026: Where Retail Performance Is Won or Lost
Retailers face a narrow window to prepare for the November‑December peak, where Black November and Boxing Day sales drive a 45% YoY surge in e‑commerce volume. Shiperoo’s new report warns that planning must begin in April‑May, not months before the...
Retention, Not Traffic, Drives Million‑Dollar Brand Growth
Many $1M+ brands mistake revenue for scale. (D2C Skincare Brand) $1.5M/month… growth flat, repeat sales weakening. More traffic wasn’t the answer. Retention was. We rebuilt LTV systems → $2.2M/month.
Ridge's Homepage Overhaul Highlights Fresh Shopping Layout
Ooooooh, fun, big change to Ridge's homepage yesterday: Not just the hero product, but the rest of the shopping layout too. Love studying what y'all are doing with your sites https://t.co/H1my56MoR4
From Setback To Comeback: How Printify Amplified Helped Annie Keller Rebuild Her Business
Annie Keller, a high‑school graphic design student from Alaska, launched a Print on Demand Etsy shop in 2021 using Printify. After two years and only 300 sales, she closed the store, attended Printify Amplified, and relaunched with a focused Alaska‑themed...
Shein and Temu Hit With Lawsuits Demanding Customers Get Their Tariff Money Back
Shein and Temu are facing coordinated class‑action lawsuits alleging they overcharged U.S. shoppers after the Trump administration imposed IEEPA tariffs that later were ruled unconstitutional. Bloomberg tracked price spikes of up to 377%, far exceeding the actual tariff cost. The...
(Update: Amazon 5%) ShopBack Shopping Portal $15+ In Signup Bonuses & More; Earn Cashback On Amazon & More
ShopBack is pushing a limited‑time 5% cashback on Amazon purchases, capped at $10 for a single order from April 24‑27, while also promoting a $15 signup bonus for new members who earn $15 in confirmed cashback. Existing users can earn an...
Amazon and Walmart Push AI Deeper Into the Shopping Aisle
Amazon and Walmart are racing to dominate the emerging "decision layer" of retail, where AI‑driven recommendation engines, conversational agents, and dynamic pricing shape what shoppers see and buy. Walmart is pairing generative AI tools with its vast network of physical...
Kroger Rolls Out $30 Online Deal Days Discount as Food Prices Jump 2.7% YoY
Kroger launched its "Online Deal Days" promotion, giving shoppers $30 off their first pickup or delivery order of $75 or more and free delivery over $50. The move comes as food prices rose 2.7% year‑over‑year in March and consumer sentiment...
What High-Growth Ecommerce Brands Delegate First When Scaling Multi-Channel Sales
High‑growth ecommerce brands expanding beyond a single storefront must delegate key functions early to avoid operational chaos. The article outlines a six‑step delegation sequence—starting with marketplace operations, then paid‑media, inventory planning, customer support, content optimization, and analytics. By offloading repetitive,...
Walmart to Remodel 650+ Stores, Add 20 New Locations in $10 B+ Push
Walmart announced a multi‑billion‑dollar program to remodel more than 650 U.S. stores and open about 20 new locations this year. The effort, aimed at attracting higher‑income shoppers and tightening online‑offline integration, underscores the retailer’s bet on physical assets amid rising...
JetBlue Vacations Launches BNPL Option with Upgrade’s Flex Pay
JetBlue Vacations announced a partnership with Upgrade’s Flex Pay to offer a buy‑now‑pay‑later (BNPL) product for flight‑and‑hotel packages. The service, embedded in the airline’s website, app and call‑center, lets customers choose monthly installments with no late fees. The move marks...
Diamonds-USA.com: Luxury Jewelry. Personal Attention. Real Trust
Diamonds‑USA, founded by gemologist David Braverman in 1997, blends boutique‑level service with online convenience, ensuring every diamond order is personally inspected by experts. The company’s hands‑on approach yields a near‑zero return rate and a 100 % money‑back guarantee, reinforcing trust in...
Using Shopify Bundle Builders to Grow Revenue
Shopify bundle builders let merchants create fixed or mix‑and‑match product bundles, boosting average order value and conversion rates. By syncing inventory, applying tiered pricing, and using UI elements like progress bars, merchants can reduce friction and increase repeat purchases. Benchmarks...
From Live Chat to Closed Deals: Why Smart Brands Move Conversations to WhatsApp and Instagram
Smart Shopify merchants are shifting customer conversations from on‑site live chat to WhatsApp and Instagram, citing dramatically higher conversion metrics. The article notes 98% open rates, 45‑60% click‑through rates, and cart‑recovery rates of 10‑25% on WhatsApp versus 2‑5% for email....
Louvelle Links Lenders And Renters Of High-End Fashion
Louvelle, founded by former finance professional Tanya Tamer, is an invitation‑only ecommerce platform that lets members lend and rent high‑end luxury fashion pieces. The service transforms idle wardrobes into income‑generating assets while giving borrowers access to rare, archival items without...
Returns Management Has Become a Core Omnichannel Discipline
Reverse logistics has moved from a peripheral service to a core omnichannel discipline as e‑commerce return rates stay high. Retailers now must manage returns across transportation, labor, inventory, fraud control, and working‑capital dimensions, not just issue refunds. NRF predicts 19.3%...
She Raised $2.5 Million From Friends and Family — And Saw Zero Sales. Then She Leaned Into a ‘Hunch.’ Now...
Mariam Naficy founded Minted in 2007, raising $2.5 million from friends and family. After an initial model of selling established stationery brands flopped, she allocated $100,000 to a crowdsourced design competition that quickly became the company’s core offering. The artist‑driven marketplace...
Ecommerce Trends: AI’s Key Conversion Metric Is Improving
Adobe Digital Insights reports that AI‑driven traffic to North American retailers converted 42% more often than non‑AI traffic in March 2026, overturning a year‑earlier deficit. AI‑referenced visits surged 393% year‑over‑year, while visitors stayed 48% longer, viewed 13% more pages and...
Sam’s Club Delivers in Less than 12 Minutes
Sam’s Club has launched an Express tier that guarantees delivery in under one hour, joining Amazon and Walmart in the ultra‑fast fulfillment race. The service carries a flat $10 fee for Plus members and $22 for Club members, with a...
Same Brief, Three Distinct Tiered Email Designs
GPT Image 2’s range is wild. Had it make 3 ecommerce emails for 3 different brand tiers from the same brief. Luxury. Premium DTC. Mass market. Here’s the prompt: Create a clean presentation-style image on a soft warm neutral background showing 3 different ecommerce email designs...
Automate Product Video Creation with Seedance 2.0 API
Filming videos for 50 products is the kind of project nobody wants to own. That's why most ecom brands don't have video for half their catalog. Here's what changes when Seedance 2.0 runs as an API call inside your automation stack: Your...
Flipkart May Launch Standalone App for Quick Commerce Business Minutes
Flipkart is set to launch a dedicated quick‑commerce app for its Minutes service, targeting a pilot in July and a full rollout before year‑end, ahead of its Big Billion Days sale. The move mirrors Swiggy’s Instamart app and aims to...
Q1 2026 vs 2025: What Changed in Ecommerce (The Data)
In this episode, Richard Gaffin and Steve Recook analyze Q1 2026 e‑commerce data versus Q1 2025, highlighting a 13.6% revenue rise driven mainly by returning customers. They note that Meta ad spend jumped 25.3% while ROAS only fell 3%, and...
Disney Launches Limited‑Time Pop‑Up Stores to Revive Brick‑and‑Mortar Sales
Disney announced a partnership with Go! Retail Group to open limited‑time pop‑up stores in Pittsburgh and Paramus, New Jersey. The stores will showcase curated, exclusive Disney merchandise and stay open through the holiday season, marking the company's first major brick‑and‑mortar...
3 Easy Ways to Shop for Spring with Google
Google is promoting three AI‑powered shopping features to help consumers capture and buy spring fashion trends. Circle to Search lets users snap an outfit on‑screen and instantly find similar items. AI Mode in Search compares products, pulling review data and personalized...
Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail Merch Is Now Available in the Google Play Store, but Good Luck Getting It
Google Play Store has added redeemable merchandise for miHoYo’s hit titles Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail, accessible through the Play Points rewards program. Items range from 280 to 7,000 Play Points, with examples like 1.5 k standees and 5 k plush...
Building a Supplement Business From Scratch - April 2026 Update
The Introvert Entrepreneur newsletter details the launch and rapid profitability of Diald, a niche supplement brand targeting golfers. Launched early 2025, the business has generated measurable revenue within its first year, proving that a focused, hobby‑centric product can scale quickly....
Inside River Island’s Next Chapter in Ecommerce and Personalization | RTS 2026
In this RTS 2026 interview, River Island’s Director of Technology, Delivery and Transformation, Muriel Naber, shares her unconventional career path—from hospitality to retail tech—and how it shapes her customer‑centric transformation agenda. She explains River Island’s shift from technology‑driven projects to...
Ecommerce Founders Who Ignore This Type of AI Will Lose Their Best Customers — Here’s Why
Agentic commerce—AI agents that autonomously shop for consumers—is moving from concept to reality, with 20% of ecommerce orders during Cyber Week 2025 driven by AI, generating roughly $70 billion in GMV. Retail giants such as Walmart, Target, Home Depot and Amazon...
Online Grocery Sales Will Near $500B by 2028, FMI Report Says
Online grocery sales are projected to reach $452 billion by 2028, growing at an 11.6% annual rate and representing about one‑fifth of total grocery spend. Omnichannel shoppers now account for 94% of the market, but retailers face hurdles such as high‑cost...
Ethiopian Adds Hong Kong-Prestwick E-Commerce Freighter Flights
Ethiopian Airlines has begun scheduled freighter flights between Hong Kong International Airport and Glasgow Prestwick, operating three times a week. The service supports the surge in e‑commerce shipments, complementing Prestwick’s recent upgrade that saw Terminal E handle 25 million parcels in February. The...
Amazon India to Invest Rs 2,800 Cr to Boost Worker Safety, Expand Logistics Network
Amazon India announced a $300 million (Rs 2,800 crore) investment in 2026 to strengthen associate safety, health and financial well‑being while expanding its logistics footprint. The funding follows a Rs 2,000 crore spend in 2025 that added 17 fulfillment centres, six sortation hubs and 75...
Home Depot Adds AI Phone Agents to Field Store Calls
Home Depot announced the rollout of an AI‑powered voice‑agent system to handle inbound customer‑service calls, initially piloted at 50 stores and slated for nationwide deployment within a year. The AI can interpret a caller’s intent in roughly ten seconds and resolve...
How Marketplace Sellers Are Using AI
A recent Marketplace Pulse 2026 Seller Index shows 83.4% of sellers—representing over $2 billion in annual revenue—have incorporated AI into their operations, averaging 3.2 use cases each. The majority of AI effort focuses on content tasks such as listing optimization (63.5%)...
Amazon's Rufus AI Automates Shopping Even When Offline
Amazon is pushing its Rufus AI further into automated shopping. It's new Scheduled Actions feature highlights a future where it keeps shopping for you after you log off. Inside Amazon, the push toward automation is real. Outside, it’s more controlling (see: Perplexity...
Amazon Go Gets the Short End of the Stick
Cc @mattmday @spencersoper I feel like Amazon Go got the shit end of the stick
‘Ikea, Jysk and H&M Best-Performing Cross-Border Sellers’
The eighth edition of the TOP 500 B2C Cross‑Border Retail Europe report shows Sweden’s Ikea, Denmark’s Jysk and Sweden’s H&M as the three best‑performing cross‑border ecommerce sellers in Europe. All three stem from traditional brick‑and‑mortar roots, while pure‑play Zalando is the only...
Shopify’s Google Cloud Agent Passes Turing Test
Impressive to see how @Shopify is using @GoogleCloud Agents. …and their agent passes the Turing test. #CIO #AI #Cloud #GoogleCloudNext https://t.co/IhzLHdPDjj
Prize Choice Shapes Audience; Be Specific for Qualified Leads
I've run 100+ giveaways. Here's the pattern: 'Win a free iPad' giveaways got thousands of junk emails. 'Win our [product] and a 1-on-1 setup call' got a small list of hyper-qualified buyers. Your prize determines your audience. Be specific.
Marketplace Briefing: Amazon’s Seller Count Falls as Revenue Concentrates Among Top Sellers
Amazon disclosed that its marketplace saw a second‑quarter dip in active sellers, while revenue grew increasingly concentrated among the platform’s largest merchants. The top 1% of sellers now account for more than 70% of marketplace sales, a shift driven by...
Fast Delivery Crucial: 70% Abandon Cart Over 2 Days
Over 70% of shoppers abandon their cart when delivery takes more than 2 days. That's not a marketing problem. That's a fulfilment problem. Here's how to know when it's time to hand it off to a 3PL 👇 https://t.co/r4ctl4lH4h
All Shopify Devs Are Now Building AI Readiness Apps
every shopify app dev you've ever met is vibe coding a Shopify AI readiness app right now
What’s the Key to Unlocking Retail Media?
PI LIVE Europe is expanding its agenda with a new Retail Media & Commerce Summit, aimed at helping brands and agencies integrate retail media with affiliate and performance marketing. The retail media channel is projected to reach $300 billion by 2030,...
Shopify's AI-Readiness Scan Flags llms.txt Files
Shopify has a utility that scans your store AI readiness. Even checks for llms.txt (which will make SEO nerds on youtube angry.) Looks like a Claude Code hackathon project for sure. https://t.co/lXJb751NcW https://t.co/t7k8g52VTO
Turn Return Abuse Into Loyalty Through Prevention
Returns will always be a cost of doing business. Online commerce has made it easy for customers to abuse returns. The ultimate challenge is for retailers to excel at prevention and use returns as a strategy to build customer loyalty....
Temu Adds Ribeye Steaks and Pork Chops, Expands Into Perishable Food
Temu has begun offering frozen ribeye steaks, pork chops, wagyu burger patties and bacon through U.S. supplier Grumpy Butcher. The move marks the marketplace’s first foray into perishable foods and puts its low‑price model to the test in a new...
Hosted.com Unveils Drag‑Drop Website Builder for Small Businesses
Hosted.com has introduced a new website‑builder add‑on for its cPanel hosting plans, targeting startups and small‑business owners. The tool offers a drag‑and‑drop editor, over 200 templates, ecommerce and SEO features, aiming to cut costs and speed up site launches.
Teams Are Approaching AI Search All Wrong
My newsletter this week was about how most teams are thinking about AI search completely backwards 👇🏻👇🏻 https://t.co/fa01veZ9mR
Rethink Your Product Detail Pages
E‑commerce product detail pages must now serve three AI‑centric goals: rankable in traditional search, extractable for answer engines, and understandable as structured entities. An AI‑driven audit of Amazon, Walmart, Target, L.L.Bean and various D2C sites shows marketplaces and large retailers...