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
Inside a Startup Building Tools for AI Agents
Circuit & Chisel, a New York startup founded by former Stripe crypto executives, raised $19.2 million to launch ATXP, an agent transaction protocol that enables AI agents to navigate and execute payments autonomously. The company’s backers include Stripe, Polygon Labs, and Samsung Next, signaling strong industry confidence in the emerging agentic commerce layer. ATXP is designed to become the default rails for autonomous software, reducing friction between AI agents and online commerce. The founders anticipate that AI agents themselves will become the primary customers of the protocol, shifting the payment paradigm from human‑driven to machine‑driven interactions.
Retail Technology Show Preview: Data, Speed to Market and Agentic Commerce
Retail leaders at a pre‑show panel highlighted three critical shifts shaping commerce: dwindling cookie data is forcing brands to seek new engagement tactics and own product lifecycles, headless architectures on platforms like Shopify are slashing implementation costs and enabling rapid...
Marketplace Briefing: TikTok Shop Recruits U.S. Sellers for Cross-Border Push Into Mexico
TikTok Shop announced a new US‑Mexico cross‑border program that lets U.S. merchants sell to Mexican consumers without establishing a local legal entity. The initiative, called the TikTok Shop US‑MX Program, allows sellers to use their existing U.S. shop credentials while...
ElasticStage: The On-Demand Vinyl, CD Revolution for Indie Artists
ElasticStage launches an on‑demand vinyl and CD service that lets independent musicians sell physical releases without upfront manufacturing costs or minimum order requirements. The UK‑based platform ships to over 90 countries, producing each record in 10‑15 days using an eco‑friendly...
D2C Channels Growing Faster Than E-Commerce Marketplaces in India: Report
McKinsey’s latest report finds India’s direct‑to‑consumer (D2C) market, now worth $10‑11 billion, is set to explode to $55‑60 billion by 2030, growing at a 38% CAGR. This outpaces traditional e‑commerce marketplaces, whose sales are expected to reach only $100 billion with a 10‑12%...
Exclusive Q&A: Why Retailers Should Leverage the Power of Dynamic Pricing
Retail experts argue that dynamic pricing can help merchants offset tariff‑driven cost spikes by aligning prices with real‑time demand. The approach builds on traditional markdown optimization, extending it to continuous price adjustments across channels. Altug stresses that supply‑chain resilience—through redundancy...
Affirm’s Full-Stack Ambition Is Bigger than Consumer Finance Alone
Affirm kicked off 2026 with a flurry of strategic announcements, including a rent‑payment partnership with Esusu, a bank‑charter filing, and a debit‑card‑embedded BNPL solution via Fiserv. The firm also secured default checkout status with Bolt and integrated its BNPL service...
Abercrombie & Fitch Profit Drops Despite ‘Record’ Q4 Sales
Abercrombie & Fitch reported a 6% decline in operating income to £524 million for the year, even as net sales rose 6% to £3.95 billion. The fourth quarter delivered a record £1.25 billion in sales, up 5%, but operating income fell 8% to...
OpenAI Shifts ChatGPT Purchases to Partner Apps
Wait, nobody is actually buying things in ChatGPT? SHOCKING :) Big advantage Google -> OpenAI is scaling back shopping directly inside ChatGPT via Instant Checkout by having checkouts instead take place in the specific apps that plug into ChatGPT "OpenAI staff...
Particular Audience Just Smashed Open the Blackbox of AI Search
Particular Audience unveiled Search Model A/B Testing, enabling retailers to directly compare AI relevance models that drive organic and sponsored search results. Building on its Adaptive Transformer Search (ATS) technology, which has cut zero-result queries to under 0.5%—far below the...
For Loyal Amazon Customers It’s No Longer Love but Intentional Reflex
GWI’s latest research shows Amazon has become the favorite retailer for 52% of U.S. consumers, shifting loyalty from an emotional choice to a reflexive habit. Shoppers value frictionless experiences, with 59% prioritizing quick, easy checkout and a third demanding next‑day...
AgentPass Rebrands as Paz.ai, the Agentic Commerce Platform for Retailers
AgentPass has rebranded to Paz.ai, positioning itself as the infrastructure layer that links retail product catalogs to conversational AI shopping agents such as ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity. The platform ingests feeds from Shopify, Adobe Commerce and Salesforce Commerce...
AI Generates Full Email Series in Minutes, Replaces $2k Copywriters
🤯 Wrote an entire email welcome series in 8 mins 🔥 AI matched my brand voice 🛠️ 5 emails with subject lines 🤵 Built to convert 📦 Plug straight into Klaviyo This is crushing $2k email copywriters Want the prompt? RT + comment 'EMAIL PROMPT'
Predatory OTAs Are Hijacking Your Boutique Hotel Bookings
Boutique hotels are losing direct bookings to predatory online travel agencies that purchase paid‑search ads for exact hotel names and pose as official reservation desks. The ads funnel high‑intent guests into opaque checkout flows with hidden fees and non‑refundable terms,...
Hotels.com Rewards Is BACK – and Better than Ever for Low Spenders
Hotels.com announced the return of its original loyalty program for UK customers, ending the One Key scheme. The revamped Rewards gives a £100 credit after every ten nights booked, provided the average nightly rate is at least £75. This flat‑rate...
Sallie Has An Ad Business And Meta Is Declining Credit Cards
Meta confirmed it will drop credit‑card payments for ads next month, moving advertisers to invoice‑only billing to curb fraud and the “cashback loophole.” At the same time, student‑loan giant Sallie introduced Backpack Media, a retail‑media network that sells ad inventory...
Sephora Doubles Down on K-Beauty Hair Care
Sephora is deepening its K‑beauty hair‑care offering, now featuring 17 Korean brands after adding Dr. Groot and Unove. Dr. Groot will launch online on April 1 and in stores on May 15, while Unove debuted earlier with a seven‑SKU line priced $13‑$28. The retailer...
The Iconic Lifts Annual Earnings by over 70 per Cent
The Iconic posted a 71% jump in adjusted EBITDA to $45.7 million for FY25, while its net merchandise value rose 6% to $893 million. Gross margin expanded by two points to 49%, reflecting stronger marketplace and platform services. Active customers increased 4%...
STIHL Launches B2B Marketplace Using Mirakl
STIHL Inc. has introduced a dealer‑fulfilled B2B ecommerce marketplace built on Mirakl’s platform, letting customers browse and purchase chainsaws, trimmers and other equipment online. Orders are shipped from the company’s network of more than 10,000 authorized U.S. dealers, with pickup...
Ecommerce: Your Follow Up Game Is Limp And It’s Killing Your ROAS
In this episode of the Hamasley Brothers e‑commerce podcast, Mark and Ian dissect why weak follow‑up sequences are sabotaging ROAS. They define follow‑up as the communication between a prospect’s ad click and the final purchase, emphasizing email capture and remarketing...
Grove Collaborative Holdings Inc (GROV) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
Grove Collaborative reported Q3 2025 revenue of $43.7 million, a 9.4% year‑over‑year decline—the smallest drop since 2021, while active customers fell 7% to 660,000 and orders slipped 12.5%. Adjusted EBITDA was a negative $1.2 million, but management expects a positive...
Carparts.Com Inc (PRTS) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
CarParts.com reported FY 2024 revenue of $589 million, a 13% decline year‑over‑year, with gross profit of $197 million and a 33.4% gross margin, near the top of guidance. The fourth‑quarter results showed revenue down 15% to $133.5 million and a GAAP net loss...
Psychology of Unboxing: Why Customers Remember the Delivery More than the Product
The unboxing moment begins with a delivery notification and culminates when the customer lifts the box, shaping brand perception before the product is seen. Research shows first impressions form in just 0.2 seconds, with 94% of judgments based on packaging...
The Merchandising Calendar Blueprint: Turn Email & SMS Into 30–40% of Your Revenue
In this training episode, Ezra Firestone explains how e‑commerce brands can turn email and SMS into 30‑40% of total revenue by implementing a strategic merchandising calendar. He differentiates major campaigns from micro‑offers, shows how to layer content, product launches, and...
628: The Amazon Listing Mistakes That Are Killing Your Conversions (And How to Fix Them) With Daniela Bolzmann
In this episode, host discusses Amazon listing optimization with Daniela Boltzmann, founder of Mindful Goods, highlighting the costly mistake of repurposing Shopify creatives for Amazon. Daniela shares her journey from a full‑service agency to a project‑based model focused on high‑converting...
Target Begins Roll Out of Next-Day Delivery to 20 More Cities
Target Corp. announced it will extend its next‑day delivery service to 20 additional metropolitan areas, pushing the total number of cities offering the option to more than 50 and covering roughly 60% of the U.S. population. The rollout is part...
Pentane Review 2026: The Profit Operating System That Tells Shopify Brands Exactly What to Do Next
Pentane is a profit‑operating system for Shopify merchants that links ad spend, revenue, and accounting data to deliver real‑time net‑margin insights. Its Mission Control module defines a net‑margin target and instantly proposes four concrete actions—budget tweaks, pricing changes, expense cuts,...
Authentic Brands to Use Seel’s Agentic AI for Post-Purchase Processes
Authentic Brands will integrate Seel’s agentic AI‑driven Worry‑Free Purchase platform to automate post‑purchase issues such as missing packages, claims and refunds. The solution will be deployed across its portfolio, which includes ten brands in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000 like Reebok,...
The RAG Reality Check for Ecommerce
Retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG) systems dazzle in demos but stumble when faced with live ecommerce catalogs of tens of thousands of SKUs, exposing a "retrieval gap" between curated data and noisy production environments. The article identifies five recurring failure modes—chunking chaos,...
7 Situations When You Need a Professional Business Valuation
The article outlines seven scenarios—SBA financing, fundraising, partner buyouts, M&A, financial reporting, tax/estate matters, and 409A equity compensation—where a professional business valuation becomes essential rather than a rough estimate. It explains how independent, method‑driven valuations differ from informal calculations and...
March Makeover: Save Up to 85% on Monoprice’s Streaming & Tech Essentials
Monoprice is running a March promotion offering up to 85% off a broad selection of streaming and tech accessories, including TV mounts, cables, and audio devices. Shoppers can also receive an extra 20% discount on select items using promo code...
Depop Increases Boosted Listing Ad Fees From 8% to 12% as Sellers Blame eBay Ahead of $1.2B Buyout
Depop announced that its Boosted Listing advertising fee will increase from 8% to 12% starting March 23, 2026. The change comes as eBay prepares to acquire Depop from Etsy in a $1.2 billion deal slated for the second quarter. Sellers have...
EBay Waives Final Value Fees on 25 Fashion and Home Items for U.S. Sellers Amid Vinted Competition
eBay has launched an invite‑only promotion that waives final value fees on up to 25 items for selected U.S. sellers. The fee exemption applies to completed sales in the baby, fashion, and home‑decor categories and is valid through March 31, 2025....
Google Merchant Center Adds “Build to Order” For Vehicle Listings
Google Merchant Center introduced a new availability value called “build to order,” enabling vehicle dealers to flag cars that are not physically on the lot but can be customized and ordered. Sellers must update both their structured data and Merchant...
My Recommandation for The Best Fourthwall Products Worth Selling
The article outlines a data‑driven playbook for creators using Fourthwall, highlighting five core products—premium t‑shirts, hoodies, hats, stickers and mugs—that generate roughly 80% of new store revenue. It stresses that price points and audience relevance outweigh catalog breadth, recommending a...
Learn From the Suits: Master Bigger Financial Games
There are so many financial games being played that we don't even know exist. There's a scene in Batman where they take over the trading floor and one of the traders says "there's no money here that you can steal" Bane replies...
5 Hot Digital Products to Launch Before
Sell These 5 Digital Products Before They Get Saturated (2026) WATCH HERE 👉 https://t.co/uSwvC4ILNY I'm showing you the exact 5 digital products I'd launch if starting from zero in 2026 as a complete beginner https://t.co/xtyGDntRls
Olo Launches First Consumer-Facing Digital Ordering App
Restaurant technology platform Olo unveiled its first consumer‑facing digital ordering app as part of the new Olo Network. The app functions like a marketplace but charges restaurants zero commission and lets them retain full guest‑data ownership. Built on the password‑free...
One Person Replaces $60K Team, Drives 32
I spent 12 years figuring out how to collapse a $60K/month growth team into one person. The results: 3.15% forecast to target across $3B in GMV. 32% yoy revenue growth. 41% yoy contribution margin growth. Here's the entire playbook. https://t.co/0oPoA7oEd8
Risk‑Free Trial Fueled Casper’s $750M Success
Casper hit a $750M valuation in 4 years with one move: a 100-night risk-free trial. They made buying a mattress feel safe. Meanwhile you won't even offer a simple money-back guarantee. That's the gap.
Building a Foundation for Audience Monetization With First-Party Data
Retailers are shifting perception of first‑party data from cost to revenue asset. As third‑party identifiers disappear, brands are packaging privacy‑safe audience segments for partners, creating new monetization opportunities. Successful implementation requires a reliable identity layer, robust governance, cross‑functional ownership, and...
Vudoo Announces Partnership with PubMatic to Simplify Activation of Commerce-Enabled Advertising
Vudoo has partnered with PubMatic to embed its commerce‑media technology into PubMatic’s AI‑powered programmatic platform, enabling shoppable ad experiences across verified inventory. The integration lets agencies and brands activate commerce media with a single deal ID, supporting display, video and...
You Can’t Automate Trust: Why AI Still Needs Human Strategy in Marketing
Marketers are discovering that AI can automate data‑heavy tasks, but it cannot set strategy or build trust. The most successful teams pair AI’s speed with human judgment, using automation to execute a clear, human‑crafted vision. Without human direction, AI‑driven campaigns...
Bill Open to M&A Deals, CEO Says
Bill Holdings CEO René Lacerte told investors at the Morgan Stanley TMT conference that the company is actively evaluating merger‑and‑acquisition opportunities as activist shareholders increase pressure. He cited recent fintech consolidations—such as the sales of Brex, AvidXchange and Melio—as proof...
TikTok Shop Scales Workforce Amid Push to Cement Discovery Commerce Model in Global Markets
TikTok Shop is aggressively expanding its creator commerce workforce across North America, Europe, and Asia‑Pacific, posting dozens of full‑time and internship roles in cities such as Los Angeles, New York, London, Düsseldorf, Ho Chi Minh City, Tokyo and Jakarta. The hiring push...
High-Touch, High-Tech: Revieve’s Beauty & Wellness Index 2025 Signals a New Era of Guided Beauty Commerce
Revieve released its Beauty & Wellness Index 2025, showing guided diagnostics now initiate 60‑75 % of beauty journeys and deliver two‑to‑three‑fold higher completion rates. The data, drawn from millions of AI‑driven skin analyses, quizzes and virtual try‑ons, highlights longer engagement, especially in...
The Power to Pivot: Operational Velocity as a Key Retail Metric
Retail leaders are urged to prioritize operational velocity—the speed at which campaigns, inventory signals, and creative assets can be adjusted—over merely tracking click costs. The article argues that agility, not additional tools, is the true growth catalyst, recommending automated kill...
Video Forum: Justin Honaman, Amazon Web Services, Part 2
In a recent Video Forum, Justin Honaman, global head of retail, restaurants and consumer goods business development at Amazon Web Services, explained the concept of agentic commerce and its potential to reshape retail interactions. He highlighted how AWS’s cloud and...
Mastercard and Visa Enrich Stablecoin Settlement Capabilities to Supercharge Global Payments in 2026
Mastercard and Visa announced expanded support for stablecoin settlement, enabling tokenized dollar transactions on their networks starting March 2026. The move includes the launch of stablecoin‑backed debit cards that settle directly in digital dollars rather than traditional fiat. By shifting...
Consumers Spending More Time to Find Best Price
Synchrony’s March 2026 "In Sync with Consumers" survey shows more than half of U.S. shoppers are devoting extra time to locate the best price, with generative AI playing an expanding role. Over 52% of consumers used Gen AI during the holiday...