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
What Is Agentic Shopping and What It Means for Your Store
Agentic commerce lets AI assistants act as autonomous personal shoppers, handling product research, comparison, and checkout without the user leaving the chat. McKinsey estimates these agents could generate $3‑5 trillion in global commerce by 2030, creating a new high‑intent sales channel for online retailers. For Shopify merchants, product data is automatically exposed to AI platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini through Shopify Catalog, making their items discoverable in AI‑driven searches. Optimizing product descriptions, FAQs, and real‑time inventory helps stores capture sales from these agents.
Amazon’s Pricing Tactics Lead Brands to Yank Items
Amazon has been refusing wholesale suppliers' requests to raise the prices it pays for their products, prompting brands such as Colgate and Adidas to trim or remove low‑margin items from the marketplace. Affected brands face added costs from tariffs and...
How to Quickly Prepare Product Photos for an Online Store
Product photos don’t need perfection, but they must avoid visual noise. Starting with a clear, in‑focus shot and removing distracting backgrounds creates a clean, consistent look that captures shoppers’ attention instantly. Simple, neutral backdrops and uniform framing across the catalog...
Retail Media Has Reached Its Accountability Moment
Retail media, once celebrated for its closed‑loop attribution near the point of sale, is now confronting an accountability crisis. Advertisers are demanding proof that spend drives incremental lift beyond a single retailer’s ledger. In response, major networks are expanding into...
F.W. Webb Launches Mobile App for Trade Professionals
F.W. Webb, a wholesale distributor with more than 100 locations across the Northeast, launched a native mobile app on March 31, 2026 to let trade professionals order plumbing, HVAC and other parts directly from their phones. The app delivers real‑time...
TradeCentric, Commercetools Partner on B2B Ecommerce
TradeCentric and commercetools have formed a strategic partnership to integrate B2B e‑procurement with AI‑first commerce platforms. The collaboration enables suppliers to connect digital storefronts directly to buyers’ procurement systems, leveraging TradeCentric’s PunchOut capabilities to slash purchase‑order processing time by 80%...
This One-Hour Audit That Could Save Your Product From AI Exclusion
The article warns that in 2026 consumers rely on AI assistants that deliver a single synthesized answer, making product data the new digital shelf. Brands with vague or inconsistent product pages are being filtered out, while those that publish a...
Walmart to Close Illinois Fulfillment Center
Walmart announced the permanent closure of its Matteson, Illinois fulfillment center, affecting 111 employees. Operations will be transferred to other NextGen facilities in the retailer’s network, and affected workers receive a $7,500 incentive to relocate or transition to open roles....
Amazon Cuts USPS Volume by 20% in New Deal, Averting Major Revenue Loss for Postal Service
Amazon and the United States Postal Service have reached a new agreement that trims Amazon’s parcel volume to roughly 80% of current levels, equating to about 1.7 billion packages and $6 billion in annual revenue for USPS. The reduction, a 20% cut,...
Amazon Signs New Delivery Deal with Postal Service at 20% Less Volume
Amazon has reached a tentative agreement with the U.S. Postal Service to deliver roughly one billion parcels a year, a 20% cut from its previous volume. The deal preserves about $6 billion in annual revenue for USPS, which faces a looming...
Amazon, USPS Reach Scaled-Back Delivery Deal
The United States Postal Service and Amazon have finalized a scaled‑back delivery agreement that trims Amazon’s parcel volume to the carrier by roughly 20 percent. The compromise follows weeks of tense negotiations after a Wall Street Journal report suggested a...
Zappos Beat Amazon with Kiva Robots Before Acquisition
Zappos was beating Amazon on cost per order. Amazon couldn't figure out how. Turns out @Alfred_Lin's team was running Kiva robots before Amazon even believed they'd work. Amazon later bought Kiva for $775M. Alfred went from operating automation at Zappos to funding...
Big Retailer's AI Policy Puts Liability on Users
Official AI policy from a major big box store says you're responsible for your agents.
Block Launches Managerbot, a Proactive AI Agent for Square Sellers that Manages Inventory, Scheduling, and Marketing Autonomously
Block unveiled Managerbot, an AI‑driven agent built into Square that continuously monitors merchant performance and recommends actions for inventory forecasting, staff scheduling, and marketing campaigns. Unlike Square’s prior reactive chatbot, Managerbot operates proactively, suggesting changes before sellers request them. The...
Attabotics Announces Integrator Partnership Program to Expand Availability of Robotic Cube Storage Technology
Attabotics announced an integrator partnership program to broaden distribution of its 3D robotic cube storage solution, naming SAVOYE North America as the inaugural partner. The collaboration leverages SAVOYE’s AiRVOS™ WES platform to integrate Attabotics technology into end‑to‑end fulfillment workflows. By...
Mastercard and PayPal Veteran Jill Cress Is Babylist’s First CMO
Babylist, the online baby‑registry platform, reported $750 million in revenue and 45% year‑over‑year growth, prompting the hire of veteran marketer Jill Cress as its first chief marketing officer. Cress, who previously led consumer strategy at Mastercard and marketing at National Geographic, PayPal,...
Wholesale Resurgence Reshapes Retail Growth Strategy
Retail brands are reversing the past decade's direct‑to‑consumer (DTC) focus, with wholesale emerging as the primary growth engine. Lightspeed’s 2026 State of B2B eCommerce report shows 78% of brands now rank wholesale as their top investment channel, while only 18%...
Fighting Back: How Restaurants Are Reclaiming the Customer Relationship
Restaurants are actively fighting delivery‑platform dominance by building first‑party ordering channels, adopting B2B order‑management tools, and pursuing regulatory relief. Large chains such as McDonald’s and Domino’s have launched branded apps to capture customers directly, while independents turn to services like...
Amazon Introduces Transport Surcharge for Partners
Amazon announced a new transport surcharge to offset rising fuel and logistics costs linked to the Middle East conflict. Effective April 17, a 1.5% fee will be added to Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) shipments in ten European countries, followed by a...
Snappy Technologies Rolls Out System to Unify Delivery Marketplaces
Snappy Technologies unveiled a new integration platform that consolidates disparate food‑delivery marketplaces into a single unified system. The solution leverages a standardized API to aggregate orders, inventory, and driver data across services like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. Early pilots...
The Obvious Answer: Sears Needed Amazon‑style E‑commerce
Reminds me of early 2000’s questions like “Why can’t Sears just build a website like Amazon?” It’s the right question and the correct answer is a lot easier in hindsight.
Why CTC Bought Into Commerce Roundtable
In this episode, host Nick and new partner Jimmy Kim discuss the origins and evolution of Commerce Roundtable, a community‑driven e‑commerce event that began in 2019 targeting the CBD/THC niche and has grown into a live conference series. They explain...
Fiserv, Grocer Expand Pay-by-Bank Effort
Payments processor Fiserv is widening its pay‑by‑bank pilot with the U.S. arm of Dutch grocer Ahold Delhaize, extending the service beyond the three initial brands to a broader customer base. The program, first launched last year on The Giant Company, Giant Food and Stop & Shop...
Ahold Delhaize USA Rolls Out Pay By Bank Option For Online Orders
Ahold Delhaize USA has extended its partnership with Fiserv to launch Pay by Bank on the e‑commerce sites and mobile apps of The Giant Co., Giant Food and Stop & Shop. The new option lets shoppers link their bank accounts for...
TikTok and HubSpot Launch Native Integration to Manage Paid and Organic TikTok Campaigns Alongside CRM Data in One Place
TikTok and HubSpot have deepened their partnership by launching a native integration that embeds TikTok’s ad management, lead generation, and organic content tools directly within HubSpot’s Marketing Hub. Marketers can now run paid campaigns, build audiences from CRM data, enable...
CEO Interview: Voxelo
Voxelo targets the e‑commerce infrastructure market with AI‑driven 3D product visualizations, aiming to replace static images and video. Ben McKay estimates a $68 billion total addressable market across roughly 30 million online retailers. The company’s UG3D workflow lets merchants upload a video...
AbbVie Puts Humira on TrumpRx at Steep Discount as Tariff Threat Solidifies
AbbVie has agreed to sell its blockbuster arthritis drug Humira on the Trump administration’s direct‑to‑consumer platform TrumpRx for about $950, an 86 % cut from the typical $6,900 out‑of‑pocket price. The deal, announced after AbbVie pledged $100 billion in R&D and manufacturing...
Amazon Reaches New Deal with U.S. Postal Service
Amazon has signed a new agreement with the United States Postal Service that preserves roughly 80% of the parcels the carrier delivers for its biggest client. The deal provides USPS with essential revenue as it battles yearly deficits, while allowing...
Inside Walmart’s Creator-Driven Social Commerce Playbook
Walmart is building a creator‑driven social commerce engine that blends shoppable ads, influencer networks, and AI‑powered trend tools. The retailer treats social platforms as search venues, targeting Gen Z and millennial users who spend hours daily online. Its Walmart Creator program,...
Flipkart Expands Across Tier-2 and Tier-3 Cities, Targets 1,500+ Dark Stores by 2026
Flipkart is accelerating its quick‑commerce footprint, targeting more than 1,500 dark‑store locations by 2026. The retailer currently runs 750‑850 stores across Tier‑2 and Tier‑3 cities and plans to add roughly 800 new sites before year‑end. Each dark store costs about...
Skip Partners with Loblaw for Grocery Delivery
Skip, the Canadian delivery platform, announced a partnership with Loblaw Companies Limited, integrating 13 of Loblaw's banners—including No Frills, Loblaws, and Real Canadian Superstore—into its grocery delivery network. The collaboration enables coast‑to‑coast, on‑demand grocery fulfillment for a broad range of products,...
OpenAI Adds DoorDash, Uber and Dozens of Services to ChatGPT, Boosting Ecommerce In‑app
OpenAI has launched a suite of new ChatGPT app integrations that connect the chatbot to DoorDash, Uber, Spotify, Booking.com and other consumer services. The rollout, limited to U.S. users for DoorDash and Uber, lets users place orders, book rides and...
How to Start Print-on-Demand Store with Wix: The Easy Process for Total Beginners
Print‑on‑demand (POD) is projected to reach $33.6 billion by 2030, and Wix now offers a native Printful integration that streamlines product creation and order fulfillment. The platform bundles payments, hosting, email automation, and AI‑driven copy tools into a single dashboard, removing...
Ace Hardware Expands Last Mile Through Partnership With Uber Eats
Uber Technologies and Ace Hardware have launched a partnership that adds more than 3,700 Ace stores across all 50 states to the Uber Eats platform. Starting today, consumers can order DIY and home‑improvement items through the Uber Eats app for...
Two Boxes Raises $3.2M to Scale AI Returns Platform
Two Boxes, an AI‑powered returns platform, secured $3.2 million in new financing led by Assembly Ventures, bringing its total capital to $13 million. The funding will accelerate product development and push the company deeper into enterprise retail, direct‑to‑consumer and B2B...
Instagram Now Lets Creators Tag Affiliate Links Directly in Reels
Instagram is rolling out a new feature that lets creators tag shoppable products directly in Reels, supporting up to 30 items per video. Creators can add products by pasting affiliate URLs or selecting items from a brand’s Meta commerce catalog,...
China Issues New E-Commerce Guidelines Following Pressure From the EU
China released new e‑commerce guidelines a week after an EU delegation raised concerns in Beijing about counterfeit and unsafe goods flowing to Europe. The rules, crafted with multiple agencies, aim to align Chinese cross‑border platforms with international safety standards and...
Ahold Delhaize USA Introduces Pay by Bank Partnership with Fiserv
Ahold Delhaize USA has broadened its partnership with payments‑technology leader Fiserv to roll out Pay by Bank across the e‑commerce sites and mobile apps of The GIANT Company, Giant Food and Stop & Shop. The new option lets shoppers link...
The Works CEO: How the Brand Is Betting Big on Bricks-and-Mortar
The Works, a UK discount retailer with more than 500 high‑street stores, announced it will abandon its ecommerce platform and double‑down on a store‑led strategy. In‑store sales already account for over 90% of revenue and like‑for‑like sales are up 3.3%...
USPS Keeps 80% of Amazon Parcels, Amazon Eyes Own Network
USPS will retain around 80% of its Amazon parcels, however the ecommerce giant wants to use its own growing network. https://t.co/X2Jt1r4ZoL
Clutch Opens Ottawa Customer Hub at Bayshore
Toronto‑based Clutch launched its first Ottawa Customer Hub at Bayshore Shopping Centre, its second physical location nationwide. The hub, opening April 11, serves as a pickup, drop‑off and support centre for the company’s online vehicle buying and selling platform. Clutch, which...
Your Supply Chain Isn’t Just Boxes. It’s Personal Data Too
Southeast Asian e‑commerce firms are being urged to treat customer information as a core component of their supply chains, not just a by‑product of sales. The article highlights how personal data travels through websites, order‑management tools, logistics partners, payment processors...
Sri Lanka Bets on Fee-Free QR Payments to Move Past Cash Into the Digital Age
Sri Lanka has launched a National QR Payment Promotion Programme, removing merchant fees on LankaQR transactions up to 5,000 rupees (about $13.5). The fee waiver, announced on April 6, targets small retailers and aims to shift everyday commerce from cash to...
Sneaker Specialist Sean Wotherspoon Joins Klekt Ahead of Crowdfunding Campaign
American sneaker designer and collector Sean Wotherspoon has joined European marketplace Klekt as an investor and Chief Community Curator just days before the platform’s Republic crowdfunding launch on April 8. The funding round aims to finance Klekt’s expansion from a sneaker‑focused...
Three-Step Cart Flow Boosts Recovery From 2% to 16.5%
Beardbrand automated 10% of their monthly revenue with a 3-step abandoned cart flow that recovered 16.5% of all carts. Meanwhile you're sending one generic abandoned cart email and wondering why your recovery rate is stuck at 2%.
Levanta Acquires Affiliate Network Perch+
Levanta announced the acquisition of Perch+, an affiliate network focused on Amazon sellers, adding roughly 60,000 vetted partners to its Marketplace. The deal brings Perch+ brands into Levanta’s suite of tools, including the Paid Placements model that enables flat‑rate creator...
OPINION: Ecommerce in 2026 – How Online Shopping Will Blend Into All Digital Experiences
E‑commerce in 2026 is defined by the convergence of content, community and shopping, moving the purchase decision from a final step to the moment of engagement. Live virtual events now serve as high‑attention windows where 80% of attendees are receptive...
StubHub Shares Tumble 34.8% After Weak Q4 Earnings and Muted 2026 Outlook
StubHub's shares fell 34.8% after the ticket‑resale platform posted a 15.8% revenue decline to $449.2 million in Q4 and warned that direct‑ticketing revenue will remain modest in 2026. The miss, coupled with regulatory concerns, pushed the company's enterprise value to about...
Walmart Pulls Thousands of Items From Online Marketplace After Safety Alerts
Walmart announced the recall of thousands of products sold through its online marketplace after the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued safety alerts. The pull includes male‑to‑male extension cords, "Relaxing Baby" swim floats and 740,000 Granitestone sauté pans, underscoring the...
Customer Experience Horror Stories and How Better Connection Prevents Them
Lisa Orford argues that most retail customer‑experience horror stories stem from disconnected internal systems, not bad intentions. She outlines recurring failures such as vanished requests, endless re‑explanations, channel ping‑pong, and uninformed agents. The piece positions unified communication and real‑time team...