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
South Korea's Online Shopping Hits $15 Billion Record in February 2026
South Korea's Ministry of Data and Statistics reported that February online sales reached 22.60 trillion won ($14.95 billion), a 5.9% year‑over‑year increase and the highest monthly total since data collection began in 2017. The surge was powered by Lunar New Year food purchases, a 48.8% jump in Tesla car sales, and strong mobile commerce.
Nordstrom Teams with Marks & Spencer to Relaunch U.S. Fashion Line After 25‑Year Hiatus
Nordstrom announced a partnership with Marks & Spencer to sell a curated women’s‑wear capsule in 30 U.S. stores and online, marking the British brand’s return after a 25‑year exit. The rollout leverages consumer‑insight data and an asset‑light wholesale model to...
The Marketplace Pulse Seller Index Results (2026)
Marketplace Pulse surveyed 181 sellers generating over $2 billion annually, uncovering four performance cohorts: thriving, grinding, consolidating, and distressed. Only 23% are thriving, growing both revenue and margins, while 31% are grinding with revenue gains but flat or declining margins, and...
Amazon to Apply 3.5% Fuel and Logistics Surcharge on Fulfillment
Amazon announced a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge on its Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) services, effective April 17 for U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil and expanding on May 2 to Buy with Prime and Multi‑Channel Fulfillment. The charge translates to roughly...
TikTok Shop Gains Traction in Germany
TikTok Shop has become a mainstream channel in Germany one year after its launch, with 15 percent of online shoppers making at least one purchase. The platform now ranks as the 15th‑largest online retailer in the country, driven by rising purchase...
Salesforce & Shopify Inventory: One System of Truth for Orders, Stock & Fulfillment
Shopify merchants often face inventory mismatches that cause overselling and delayed fulfillment. Axolt replaces fragmented integrations with a native Salesforce ERP that synchronizes orders, stock, and finance in real time. The solution provides instant inventory updates across multiple warehouses, built‑in...
Fix Functionality First, Then Redesign to Measure Impact
A client asked me this week whether they should tackle their website's usability problems and their visual design problems at the same time. My answer was to do it in stages, even though that approach might cost slightly more overall. They had...
Freedom Beats Revenue when You’re Miserable
My first 'successful' store did $10k/month. I was miserable, working 18 hours a day. My second store did $5k/month. I worked 4 hours a day and felt free. Stop chasing revenue. Start chasing freedom.
ThredUp’s 2026 Resale Report Sees Secondhand Hitting $393B by 2030
ThredUp’s 2026 Resale Report projects the global secondhand apparel market to hit $393 billion by 2030, expanding at a 9 % CAGR and outpacing new‑apparel growth. In the United States, resale is expected to reach $78.8 billion, growing four times faster than overall...
Shein Customers Prioritise Price, Fit and Comfort, Survey Finds
Shein’s 2025 Global Circularity Study surveyed 15,461 shoppers aged 18‑44 across 21 markets, revealing that price, size availability and personal style dominate purchase decisions, with 71.6% always considering cost. Most respondents buy fewer than 30 items annually, yet they wear...
5 Ways to Sell on TikTok Shop
TikTok Shop has transformed from a pure social platform into a full‑fledged commerce ecosystem, demanding coordinated paid, affiliate, and live strategies for scalable growth. The article outlines five core tactics—direct storefronts, creator‑driven affiliate marketing, shoppable videos, TikTok Lives, and branded...
Nike Posts Flat Q3 2026 Revenue, CFO Flags Margin Squeeze and Cost Cuts
Nike announced Q3 2026 revenue of $12.39 bn, unchanged on a reported basis but down 3% on a currency‑neutral basis. CFO Matthew Friend warned that higher North America tariffs and elevated promotional activity trimmed gross margin by 130 basis points, prompting...
Shake Shack Launches Project Catalyst, AI Push to Speed Orders and Scale to 1,500 Stores
Shake Shack announced Project Catalyst, a four‑pillar AI and data strategy designed to accelerate order fulfillment, improve labor allocation and support a rollout to 1,500 company‑run restaurants. The plan couples an internal chatbot, a new cloud‑based POS platform and a...
Toshiba Leader Talks Mobile Device Innovations, Retail Customer Experience Tech
Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions unveiled its TCx M7 handheld alongside the existing TCx M11 tablet, expanding a mobile‑first portfolio aimed at turning any store associate into a portable checkout and service point. The company also promoted its AI‑driven Elera Security Suite, now...
HSS ProService Marketplace Launches Integrated Hire & Buy Service
Europe’s largest building services marketplace, HSS ProService, has introduced an integrated Hire & Buy service that lets contractors both rent equipment and purchase materials through a single platform. The marketplace now hosts roughly 50,000 products from 550 sellers, offering everything...
Gap Adopts AI Technologies for ‘Simpler’ Online Shopping Experience
Gap is deploying two AI solutions to streamline its online shopping experience. The retailer will use Bold Metrics’ Agent Sizing Protocol to deliver personalized fit recommendations and Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol to enable conversational, one‑click purchases. Gap says the AI...
From Product Drops to TikTok Trends: How Beauty Brands Scale with Lemonpath
Lemonpath has teamed with SnapFulfil, a cloud‑based warehouse management system, to give beauty brands the speed and flexibility needed for viral product drops and seasonal spikes. The platform delivers dynamic order routing, multi‑warehouse logic, paperless picking and real‑time inventory visibility,...
Huddled Group to Rebrand as Peeko in Cost-Cutting Platform Overhaul
Huddled Group plc will rebrand as Peeko, merging its Discount Dragon, Nutricircle and Boop Beauty sites into a single e‑commerce platform. The consolidation is projected to save more than £500,000 (approximately $630,000) annually while simplifying operations and enhancing the customer...
Myntra’s International Brands Portfolio Records 50% Growth in March Quarter; 45% Sales Come From Non-Metro Regions
Myntra’s International Brands portfolio surged 50% year‑on‑year in the March quarter, fueled by the addition of 40 new global fashion and beauty labels. Women’s apparel accounts for roughly 60% of this segment, while the kids category grew over 65% YoY....
Returns Are Rising Due to Failures in Product Info - Report
Akeneo reports that incorrect, incomplete, and inconsistent product data is a major driver of product returns, eroding margins and customer trust. The National Retail Federation estimates US retail return rates near 17%, costing roughly $900 billion annually. The study shows 62%...
Flabelus Fuels UK Expansion with Bleckmann as Exclusive Fulfilment Partner
Spanish premium fashion label Flabelus is accelerating its UK rollout by appointing Bleckmann as its exclusive fulfilment partner. All omnichannel orders will be processed from Bleckmann’s Burton‑on‑Trent distribution centre, a strategic spot within the UK’s logistics golden triangle. Integrated e‑commerce...
Online Resale Is Booming. Why Are So Many Users Unhappy?
Online resale platforms such as ThredUp, eBay, StockX and Rebag are pivoting from broad inventories to AI‑driven, curated selections to address rising user dissatisfaction. While secondhand sales volumes continue to climb, the influx of low‑cost fast‑fashion items means resale alone...
Fashion Briefing: As AI Shopping Agents Proliferate, Both Retailers and Consumers Have Concerns
AI-powered shopping agents are rapidly entering fashion e‑commerce, but both retailers and shoppers voice strong concerns. Retailers worry about security breaches, fraud, and the erosion of advertising revenue as agents sidestep traditional ad placements. Consumers are uneasy about data privacy,...
Why AI-Powered Wellness Chatbots Will Be ‘Table Stakes’ for Supplement Brands, with Thorne CSO Dr. Nathan Price
Thorne, a leading supplement brand, launched Taia, a generative AI wellness chatbot, on its website. In its first six months, Taia processed over 200,000 messages, delivered more than 350,000 product and lifestyle recommendations, and generated an 8% higher average order...
FedEx Goes After DoorDash, Amazon, UPS with Same-Day Delivery
FedEx launched FedEx SameDay Local in partnership with last‑mile platform OneRail, offering two‑hour or end‑of‑day delivery for retailers. The service taps OneRail’s network of 12 million drivers across more than 1,000 carriers, positioning FedEx against Amazon, DoorDash, Walmart and UPS. FedEx...
Unified Commerce Powers Future Retail Success
Unified commerce, as outlined in Manhattan Associates’ new whitepaper, replaces fragmented omnichannel setups with a single real‑time platform that synchronizes data, operations, and customer experiences. The model promises seamless shopping across online, in‑store, app, and emerging AI channels while eliminating...
First Compute, Now Conversation: Why Companies Are Racing Toward Voice AI
Voice AI is transitioning from a novelty to a core commerce interface, driven by rising user adoption and linguistic diversity. Companies like Meesho and Swiggy are deploying conversational assistants that handle end‑to‑end shopping and food‑ordering experiences, leveraging edge computing and...
Tiny Teams Disrupt Industries, AI Fuels Next Wave
reminder it only took 50 people at Craigslist to disrupt an entire industry’s economics But also it takes less than that to build platforms like uber, eBay, doordash, etc that can provide new income to millions More of both will come as...
Meta’s March Bug Skews Click‑only Attribution, Hurting Optimization
I think this is a good visualization for the impact of TWO major Meta items in March. 1. An overspend bug that occurred on Sunday 3/16. Spend spiked against 0 reported value. (lots of refund coming) 2. The changes to click based...
How OLLY Is Staying Visible in AI-Driven Search
OLLY, the wellness supplement brand, is leveraging AI‑driven search technologies to keep its products front‑and‑center in an increasingly algorithmic retail landscape. By deploying generative‑AI keyword clustering, structured‑data markup, and voice‑search optimization, the company has lifted organic traffic and captured higher‑intent...
Product Transparency: The Ecommerce Trust Signal You’re Ignoring
Product transparency is emerging as a core conversion lever for ecommerce brands, moving beyond basic FAQs to verifiable, data‑rich disclosures about sourcing, testing and manufacturing. The article highlights how niche players like Herbilabs use batch‑specific Certificates of Analysis to turn...
How Search Visibility Influences Consumer Buying Decisions in Retail
Retailers increasingly rely on search engine visibility to capture shoppers at the moment they begin their buying journey. Appearing on the first page of organic results builds credibility and influences both online purchases and in‑store foot traffic, especially through mobile...
HRG Launches New Video Series
HRG announced “The Details Decide,” a new video series that explains its product eligibility, classification, and pricing strategies for health, beauty and wellness (HBW) items. The series showcases the Fine Line Classification System, updates to the Master Product Library, and...
How Can Ecommerce Platforms Encourage Customers to Come Back Daily?
E‑commerce operators are turning to entertainment‑industry playbooks to turn casual browsers into daily visitors. By streamlining checkout and adding cliff‑hanger product teasers, sites can mimic the low‑friction, binge‑worthy experiences of iGaming and streaming services. Personalisation—addressing shoppers by name and curating...
Walmart to Close Massachusetts Fulfillment Center
Walmart announced the closure of its Worcester, Massachusetts fulfillment center, affecting 90 employees with layoffs slated to start on May 29. Affected associates can transfer to other Walmart sites nationwide and may receive a $7,500 relocation bonus along with training....
How the Uber Eats Fees Stack Up Against 3PD Competitors
Uber Eats announced on March 11 a revision to its Marketplace fee structure, raising the Lite tier commission from 15% to 20% and increasing the pickup fee to 7% for all tiers. The Plus tier remains at 25% but jumps...
My Recommendation on How To Do Product Seeding
In this 7‑minute episode, the host breaks down product seeding as a systematic funnel rather than a one‑off giveaway, emphasizing its role in generating user‑generated content, social proof, and valuable signal about which creators truly drive results. He outlines a...
Top 6 Translation Companies for E-Commerce Localization
The article ranks six translation providers—Tomedes, Smartling, Phrase, Translated, Gengo, and Weglot—tailored for Shopify merchants expanding internationally. It underscores that 76% of shoppers prefer buying in their native language and 40% will never purchase from a non‑native site, making localization...
True Shopping Shuts Amid Expanding Digital Reboot
True Shopping, the home‑shopping arm of joint venture True GS, announced it will shut down on April 1 after more than 14 years in operation. The closure reflects intensifying competition from fast‑growing e‑commerce and social‑commerce platforms such as Shopee, Lazada and TikTok. True GS...
Creative Fatigue Signals Product Peak Before Sales Drop
These are the 6 signals that tell me a product could have peaked before the numbers show it: 1/ You create banger ads, launch them, and only the old ads keep working. 2/ Sales flatline, but your increased effort masks the...
Meta's New Click Attribution Shifts Performance Metrics
Meta completely changed how it counts click attribution. How did it effect performance? What should you do about it? I pulled data on 50 accounts and $30M in spend over the last few weeks to break it down... https://t.co/kspXVNgkoO
The Retailer That’s Obsessed With AI
The episode explores how fashion retailer Revolve has become a data‑first, AI‑obsessed company, building in‑house tools that boost search relevance, personalization, and private‑label decisions, driving $1.2 billion in sales. Retail editor Kat Chen explains Revolve’s origins as a tech startup, its...
Microsoft Ads Merchant Center Adds Store & Domain Rename Feature
ICYMI: Microsoft Advertising Merchant Center enables update your store name and domain name https://t.co/ylKcY3apFY https://t.co/jyKLfsH0HJ
URCDKeys March Sale: Windows 11 Pro From $24, Office From $30
URCDKeys launched its March seasonal sale, offering genuine Windows and Office licenses at dramatically reduced prices. Windows 11 Pro is available for $24 and Windows 11 Home for $22 using coupon code TP25. Office 2016 Professional Plus can be purchased...
Profit Every Ad First Purchase, Not LTV
Ridge Wallet hit $200M/year with zero VC funding. Their rule? Every ad must be profitable on the first purchase. No relying on repeat buyers. Meanwhile you're losing money on the front-end hoping 'LTV' will magically save you. That's the gap.
Bing Is Testing a Much Larger Sponsored Product Carousel in Shopping Results
Bing is trialing a double‑row carousel for sponsored products within its shopping results, dramatically expanding the ad footprint compared with the current single‑row format. The test, first spotted by marketer Sachin Patel, pairs the larger carousel with organic product cards...
AI and Other Things Retailers Cared About at Shoptalk
Shoptalk 2026 centered on "Retail in the Age of AI," revealing that retailers are moving beyond curiosity to demand proven AI solutions that can be scaled from pilot to production. Attendees highlighted four AI use cases—enhanced insights, workflow automation, content creation,...
How Ecommerce Brands Scale Profitably Without Heavy Ad Spend?
E‑commerce brands are moving away from costly paid‑media models toward strategies that emphasize customer retention, organic visibility, and operational efficiency. By leveraging email automation, loyalty programs, and post‑purchase support, companies can increase lifetime value while spending less on acquisition. SEO,...
Macy's AI Chatbot Spurs 400% Sales Jump, Boosting Turnaround
Macy's has rolled out "Ask Macy's," a Google Gemini‑powered shopping assistant, and shoppers who use the bot spend roughly 4.75 times more than non‑users, delivering a 400% lift in sales during the test phase. The surge bolsters the department‑store chain’s...
RS2 Launches Consumer Payment Card in Shift Toward Integrated Issuing
RS2, a long‑time payments‑infrastructure provider, launched its first consumer product—the Visa IceTigers Deferred Debit Card—accompanied by a mobile app. The debut marks the firm’s shift toward integrated issuing, combining card creation, processing, and customer engagement on a single platform. By...