Sean Wotherspoon Joins The KLEKT Family
European sneaker marketplace KLEKT announced a community crowdfunding campaign and the appointment of Sean Wotherspoon as investor and Chief Community Curator. The campaign will launch on Republic on April 8, allowing community members to fund the platform’s expansion beyond sneakers into streetwear, collectibles and circular commerce. KLEKT, now owned by Responsible, is leveraging Wotherspoon’s cultural influence to drive community‑centric growth across new categories and geographies. The move positions KLEKT to compete in the broader resale economy.
Online Auctions Continue to Draw in First-Time Art Buyers as Sales Grow
Online‑only sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Phillips, Bonhams and Artnet Auctions rose 8% in 2025, reaching $423.9 million. The average price per lot jumped 8.6% to $14,309, while the number of lots sold stayed near 29,600. Sales are now 270% higher than...
Vinted Connects Marketplaces in Germany and Austria
Vinted has linked its German and Austrian marketplaces, allowing users in both countries to buy and sell without extra steps, and has integrated Austrian Post as a logistics partner with 3,000 drop‑off points. The move follows a secondary share transaction that...
Deals in Brief: Cube and PvX Partners Raise Series A Funding; Singapore’s MPA Backs Six Firms; Eight China Investments; and...
Cube secured a $3.7 million Series A to broaden its e‑commerce data intelligence platform beyond Southeast Asia into North Asia and Latin America, while PvX Partners raised $10.5 million to scale its AI‑driven cohort financing model for consumer apps. Singapore’s Maritime and Port...
Nigeria Targets SME Export Growth as TikTok, ICC Roll Out Digital Labs
Nigeria is teaming with TikTok and the International Chamber of Commerce to launch Digital Commerce Labs, a program that moves small businesses beyond social‑media buzz toward genuine export opportunities. Backed by the National Information Technology Development Agency and Lagos State...
Ahold Delhaize USA Expands Digital Commerce Capabilities with SmartCommerce Click2Cart
Ahold Delhaize USA announced a partnership with SmartCommerce to roll out Click2Cart across its five U.S. grocery brands—Food Lion, The GIANT Company, Giant Food, Hannaford and Stop & Shop. The service lets shoppers add products seen in digital ads, social...
Nintendo Has Discounted a Bunch of Its Switch Games in New Rare Sale
Nintendo has launched an unprecedented digital‑only sale on Amazon, slashing prices on roughly a dozen first‑party Switch titles. Most games are now $40, with select entries like Bayonetta 2, Emio, and Live A Live priced at $30, a notable dip from typical eShop...
Majestic Takes Top Spot in Brand Performance and Visibility
Majestic Wine has reclaimed the top spot in the UK Online Alcohol 2025 Salience Index, posting an estimated organic traffic score of 509,538. The index, which measures visibility, search volume and brand awareness using Ahrefs data, placed Fortnum & Mason...
AI-Powered Fraud Now Hides Inside Legitimate Transactions
Forter warns that AI‑powered fraud now hides within legitimate e‑commerce transactions, using synthetic identities and account takeovers. Attackers can create fraud with just a few hours of work, embedding malicious activity in normal user behavior. Forter’s AI platform analyzes over...
SARAL
SARAL positions itself as an InfluencerOS for DTC eCommerce, unifying discovery, outreach, affiliate tracking and content management into a single platform. Brands using SARAL reported an average $2.1 million incremental revenue and a 7.68× ROAS last year. Quarterly pricing ranges from...
How India’s UPI Credit Line Model Is Finding Echoes Across Southeast Asia and Europe
India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has evolved from a simple real‑time payment rail into a platform that lets banks embed pre‑approved credit lines directly into the checkout flow. The credit‑line model, launched in 2022, enables consumers to spend borrowed funds...
Ecommerce Leaders Invest Big in AI – But 73% Admit They’re Not Ready for What’s Next
Ecommerce organisations are dramatically increasing AI spending, with the average annual investment now $291,626 and projected to rise 11% to $323,886 by 2026, according to Pattern Group’s new report. Yet 73% of the 1,000 senior leaders surveyed admit their firms...
Debunking the Myth That Retailers Have a Demand Problem in Retail Media
Retail media growth isn’t hampered by a lack of advertisers; it’s limited by weak sales execution. Most ad spend comes from existing endemic brands, so retailers must convert those supplier relationships into media revenue. Integrating trade and media teams creates...
Moving Beyond Reactivity: Why Retailers Need Inventory Governance to Drive Growth
Retailers face a unique inventory challenge: thousands of stores must coordinate real‑time data across a massive product catalog. Traditional supply‑chain tactics, focused on execution metrics like MRP, often leave merchandisers and warehouse teams at odds, creating inefficiencies and stock‑out risks....
Pull Loss Prevention Out of the Shadows, Offer a Seat at the Table
Retailers are losing $796 billion in 2025, with $706 billion tied to returns and 12% of those returns stemming from abuse. The piece highlights that loss‑prevention (LP) and asset‑protection (AP) teams are often siloed, limiting visibility into fraud and miscoding. It urges...
Closing the Retail AI ROI Gap With Connected Process Chains
Retailers are rapidly experimenting with AI—about nine in ten decision‑makers are evaluating agents and a third have already deployed solutions such as chatbots, forecasting and personalization. However, most leaders see modest returns because implementations remain isolated point tools rather than...
Flipkart 'Sasa Lele' Sale Dates Announced: IPhone 17, Galaxy S25 Deals and Bank Offers Revealed
Flipkart announced its "Sasa Lele" summer sale for May 9 2026, with Plus and Black members getting early access on May 8. The platform is offering a 10% discount for SBI credit‑card users and a 15% discount for Black members, plus a 5%...
Glovo, Others Advocate for Collaboration to Promote Inclusive SMBs Growth and Innovation Across Nigeria’s Commerce Landscape
Glovo and key Nigerian commerce stakeholders convened the second Future of Commerce Summit in Lagos to call for deeper cross‑sector collaboration that accelerates small‑and‑medium business (SMB) growth. Speakers highlighted how digital platforms, logistics networks and payment systems are reshaping trade,...
How Debenhams Quadrupled Retail Media Revenue with Mirakl Ads
Debenhams revamped its retail media offering by adopting Mirakl Ads, a platform built for marketplace sellers. Leveraging AI‑driven hybrid search and multi‑armed bandit algorithms, the migration of 1,300 campaigns and 6 million products was completed in three weeks. Within two months,...
Blinkit Flags Growth Moderation as Quick Commerce Firm’s Profitability Improves
India’s quick‑commerce leader Blinkit signaled a slowdown in its growth trajectory, projecting net order value (NOV) to rise just over 60% over the next three years versus a 104% CAGR from FY23‑FY26. The firm posted its second straight quarter of...
High-Street vs Digitalisation: What’s Next for Primark’s Growth Strategy?
Primark is preparing to spin off from parent company Associated British Foods, becoming a standalone retailer. The split prompts a strategic debate over how the fast‑fashion chain can capture online shoppers without launching a full e‑commerce platform. Industry observers suggest...
WeShop Releases Full Year 2025 Financial Results
WeShop Holdings announced its full‑year 2025 results after completing a Nasdaq listing, which unlocked a $2.75 million performance‑incentive grant to fund North American expansion. The company built on a UK proof‑of‑concept that processed roughly $140 million in gross merchandise value and is...
Texas Liquor Store Tests Robotic Fulfillment Tech
Goody‑Goody Liquor, a Dallas‑based family store, is piloting a robotic fulfillment system at its Greenville Avenue location. Shoppers scan QR codes on glass‑encased bottles, add items to a digital cart, and watch robots assemble orders on overhead screens. Staff deliver...
Nexi Brings Wero to German E-Commerce: 53 Million Users Can Now Pay at BAUR, Quelle and Bünting
Italian PayTech group Nexi has launched its proprietary payment method Wero in Germany, partnering with online retailers BAUR, Quelle and the Bünting Group (operators of Combi.de and MyTime.de). The integration gives Wero’s 53 million European users a new checkout option on...
YFM Equity Partners Invests £7.6m in Agency Swanky
YFM Equity Partners has committed roughly $9.7 million (£7.6 million) to Swanky, a Shopify Platinum agency based in Exeter. The capital will be used to expand talent, enhance service capabilities, and fund selective merger‑and‑acquisition deals. As part of the deal, former Havas...
Apps and AI - the Two 'A's that Are Going to Lead a Customer-Centric Revolution for E-Commerce Retailer ASOS...perhaps
ASOS is accelerating its turnaround by turning the iOS app into an experiential hub, reporting a 30% year‑on‑year rise in downloads and a 9% increase in spend per user. The company rolled out 50 new app features in the first...
Subscriptions, Advertising Surpass Product Sales for Amazon Australia
Amazon Australia’s latest filing shows its retail arm earned about AU$4.7 billion (≈US$3.1 billion) in the fiscal year, but subscription services and advertising together now outpace direct product sales. Direct product sales reached AU$2.33 billion (≈US$1.54 billion), a 20% year‑on‑year rise, yet they represent...
India Post & DTDC Sign MoU to Boost Logistics Reach Across India
India Post and DTDC Express signed a memorandum of understanding that will let the courier tap more than 164,000 post offices, dramatically extending its e‑commerce delivery footprint into remote and underserved areas. The deal also adds cash‑on‑delivery options, strengthening India...
Bed Bath & Beyond Names Kyla Robinson Chief Technology Transformation Officer
Bed Bath & Beyond has appointed Kyla Robinson as chief technology transformation officer, reporting to President Amy Sullivan. Robinson will lead the development of a unified technology and data platform that connects the retailer’s omnichannel retail, home services, financial products,...
Carve Designs’ Online Sales Growth, Operations Factor Into Acquisition
Carve Designs, a sustainability‑focused women’s apparel brand, grew its online sales through top‑of‑funnel marketing on TikTok, YouTube and connected TV while automating its Shopify‑based tech stack with ERP and 3PL integration. The brand’s B2B wholesale portal and partnerships with Amazon...
EBay Scrambles to Fix Outages
eBay’s marketplace went completely offline for a second consecutive day, beginning Sunday afternoon and persisting into Monday. The company confirmed intermittent technical issues but declined to comment on the root cause or whether a cyber‑attack was involved. In its latest...
Colgate-Palmolive Syndicates Product Data Across Sellers
Colgate-Palmolive has adopted Syndigo’s AI‑driven platform to syndicate product images, descriptions, and attributes across dozens of e‑commerce retailers in a single feed. The move replaces manual, retailer‑by‑retailer uploads, enabling rapid, consistent updates such as 220 SKUs on Kroger’s API within...
DoorDash Expands Delivery with Regional Retailers
DoorDash announced new grocery delivery partnerships with FreshDirect, Brookshire Grocery, Harps Food Stores, Market of Choice, and Empire Co. in Canada, adding more than 1,000 Sobeys‑branded stores across ten provinces. The deals let DoorDash drivers fulfill FreshDirect orders and integrate...
Four Regional Grocers Join DoorDash Platform
DoorDash announced that four regional grocery chains—Brookshire Grocery Co., FreshDirect, Harps Foods and Market of Choice—are now available on its platform, adding more than 200 new stores to its marketplace. The partners span Texas to Oregon, expanding DoorDash’s grocery selection...
Small Batch Farms Enters Online Beef Market
Small Batch Farms, a family‑owned beef producer in Eldon, Missouri, has launched an online boutique that sells premium, pasture‑raised beef, jerky and freeze‑dried liver treats directly to U.S. consumers. The new direct‑to‑consumer platform, smallbatchfarms.com, offers nationwide shipping and subscription options....
Roadie and Centiro Integration Streamlines Same-Day Delivery for Retailers
UPS subsidiary Roadie has partnered with Swedish delivery‑management software firm Centiro to launch a seamless integration that embeds Roadie’s nationwide same‑day delivery network into Centiro’s platform. The joint solution lets retailers and third‑party logistics providers activate Roadie’s speed and flexibility...
3 Takeaways From Walmart’s 2026 Annual Report
Walmart’s FY2026 report shows U.S. e‑commerce now adds 4.3% to comparable sales, up from 2.9% a year earlier, while global online revenue surged 24% to $150.4 billion. Total revenue grew 5.1% to $715.9 billion, driven by higher‑margin e‑commerce deliveries and a 212%...
Many Consumers Say ‘No Thanks’ to Agent-Based Payments
Riskified’s Q1 Agentic Commerce Pulse surveyed 2,000 U.S. and U.K. shoppers and found a clear trust gap: while 61.5% use AI tools for product discovery, 55% are uncomfortable with AI agents completing purchases. Comfort rose to 70% in the report’s...
Vinted Is Already Worth 8 Billion Euros
Vinted secured an €880 million ($960 million) funding round, lifting its valuation to €8 billion (about $8.7 billion). The Lithuanian‑based second‑hand marketplace reported a 38% revenue jump to €1.1 billion ($1.2 billion) in 2025 and a GMV of €10.8 billion ($11.8 billion). Net profit reached €62 million ($68 million), and...
Temu, Shein Cost German Economy €2.4bn a Year: Study
German retail association HDE commissioned IW Consult to quantify the economic impact of low‑cost Chinese e‑commerce platforms Temu and Shein. The study finds the two sites strip roughly $2.6 bn of added value from the German economy each year, erode tax revenues...
Unicommerce Q4: Profit Rises Marginally To ₹3.4 Cr
Unicommerce, an ecommerce‑enablement SaaS firm, posted a modest Q4 FY26 net profit increase to ₹3.4 Cr (about $0.41 M), a 3% rise year‑over‑year but a 55% sequential drop from the prior quarter. Revenue grew 14.2% YoY to ₹51.6 Cr (~$6.2 M), while adjusted EBITDA...
DoorDash to Use Stablecoins for Gig Payments
DoorDash announced a partnership with Stripe‑backed blockchain firm Tempo to roll out stablecoin‑based payments for its 8 million Dasher workforce. The new infrastructure will let couriers receive earnings instantly in a digital dollar‑pegged token, cutting traditional banking delays. Tempo’s network supports...
One in Four Retail Tech Providers Say AI Is Overhyped
A survey of retail‑technology providers at the Retail Technology Show 2026 found that 24% consider AI overhyped or confusing. While 34% say AI helps differentiate their solutions, 30% say it raises buyer expectations and 18% claim it adds market noise....
Albertsons Media Collective Brings Retail Signals to YouTube with Google’s Commerce Media Suite.
Google’s Commerce Media Suite now integrates Albertsons Media Collective’s first‑party shopper data into YouTube and Display & Video 360. The partnership lets brands reach high‑intent Albertsons customers across YouTube and premium publisher inventory while receiving SKU‑level sales attribution. Early adopters such as Keurig Dr Pepper...
Digital Signage Helps Retailers Meet, Measure, and Monetize Each Experience
Retailers are turning to AI‑enhanced digital signage to close the gap between physical and online shopping, using advanced sensors and edge computing to capture real‑time engagement data. The technology enables micro‑experiences that personalize each touchpoint, while mixed‑reality displays add immersive,...
Why Loyalty Works Best When It Reflects How People Actually Shop
Evenve’s loyalty program now spans e‑commerce and brick‑and‑mortar stores, letting points earned online be redeemed instantly in‑store and vice‑versa. The retailer automatically enrolls shoppers after any online purchase, eliminating sign‑up friction. The omnichannel approach now generates more than 30% of...
When AI Shops for Us, What Do Brands Lose?
Google is converting its Gemini large‑language model into a direct shopping storefront, allowing users to browse and complete purchases without leaving the chat. The move follows a 632% year‑over‑year surge in AI‑referred traffic, even as traditional organic search fell 9%,...
America Now Has 70% More Bookstores Than in 2020, Says Bookshop.org Founder
Andy Hunter, founder and CEO of Bookshop.org, says the United States now has roughly 70% more independent bookstores than in 2020, a rebound driven by the platform’s e‑commerce support. Bookshop.org, launched in January 2020 as a B‑Corporation, channels about 80%...
The Pros and Cons of Adding AI to First-Party Experiences
Major retailers such as Dick’s Sporting Goods, Ulta Beauty and The Home Depot are rolling out conversational AI features in their apps and in‑store services. Forrester research shows 85% of consumers find AI answers helpful, yet only 71% trust them,...
EBay Struggles with Widespread Outage, Disrupting Transactions and API Access
eBay experienced a widespread outage beginning late Sunday, April 26, 2026, that extended into Monday, disrupting core functions such as search, listings, checkout, and its API. Downdetector recorded more than 1,300 user complaints, with reports peaking around 3:30 PM ET. Unverified claims...