Vitamin Shoppe Debuts ‘Suppie Awards’ and SuppCo Unveils Certification Program as Third-Party Validation Drives Category Growth, Plus News
The Vitamin Shoppe unveiled its first Suppie Awards, a brand‑focused accolade created with Hearst Magazines, while supplement‑tracking startup SuppCo launched a “Tested by SuppCo” certification program featuring a roster of leading supplement brands. Both initiatives aim to provide third‑party validation in a market crowded with unverified claims. The moves come amid broader industry activity, including MyFitnessPal’s acquisition, a new strength‑training wearable, and expansion in period‑care products. Together, they signal a shift toward credibility‑driven growth in health and wellness retail.
Meta Tests Shopping AI Chatbot in US
Meta is piloting a shopping research feature inside its Meta AI chatbot for U.S. users. The tool returns a carousel of product images with brand, price, and website details, plus brief recommendation bullet points. The move mirrors similar experiments by...
If You Don’t See This on Your Amazon Purchase, Your Delivery Window and Returns Might Take Longer
Amazon distinguishes between items "Sold by Amazon" and third‑party listings, a split that directly affects delivery windows and return processes. Products owned and shipped by Amazon enjoy uniform Prime delivery times and streamlined QR‑code returns, while seller‑fulfilled items can face...
Unlocking Global Growth: A Practical Road Map for Cross-Border E-Commerce Success
Retailers are turning to cross‑border e‑commerce as domestic markets saturate, with global online sales forecast to hit $6.8 trillion by 2028. A Total Retail whitepaper, created with Melissa Data, highlights that address errors affect nearly one‑fifth of orders, driving costly failures....
Xometry Tightens Grip on AI Sourcing
Xometry is upgrading its AI‑driven marketplace with a new lead‑time prediction model and enhanced dynamic pricing logic. The lead‑time model, trained on a dataset four times larger, now incorporates supplier certifications, material requirements and specialized finishing specifications, improving forecasting accuracy...
PayPal and TCS Blockchain Modernize Logistics Payments
PayPal and TCS Blockchain have partnered to launch a blockchain‑based payment platform that uses PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin to settle freight invoices. The solution promises same‑day, year‑round settlement and cost reductions of up to 90% compared with traditional invoice factoring....
Henry Schein Advances Global Ecommerce Rollout
Henry Schein is entering the next phase of its global ecommerce rollout, completing key North American deployments of its consolidated HenrySchein.com platform for dental and medical customers. The unified architecture standardizes the B2B purchasing experience and aligns ordering with data‑driven...
Amazon Begins Grocery Delivery for Cub
Amazon has launched a grocery delivery partnership with Minnesota‑based Cub, enabling Twin Cities shoppers to order Cub’s fresh produce, meat, private‑label brands and household items via Amazon’s website and app. The service offers same‑day delivery, two‑hour windows and free shipping...
Stablecoins Power Philippines’ Thriving Gig Economy
The Philippines’ gig workforce, now about a quarter of employed workers, is turning to stablecoins for cross‑border payouts. Traditional bank transfers can delay payments for days and erode earnings by up to 10% through fees and FX conversion. Stablecoins such...
MPE – Merchant Payments Ecosystem: Conference Overview
The Merchant Payments Ecosystem (MPE) conference highlighted three major fintech developments. OpenAI’s partnership with the Pentagon sparked industry backlash over ethical AI use. Capitec Pay launched instant bank‑payment capabilities for Paystack merchants, streamlining payouts. BitGo Europe expanded its crypto‑as‑a‑service offering...
Instacart Perks and Promotions for United MileagePlus Members: Earn up to 10,500 Miles, Complimentary Instacart+, and More
United MileagePlus and Instacart have expanded their partnership, offering members up to 10,500 bonus miles through three linked activities: a first order, four additional orders, and an annual Instacart+ subscription. A complimentary 7‑day Instacart+ trial with $0 delivery fees is...
Top 10 Retail Tech at eTail West 2026
At eTail West 2026, retailers emphasized operational maturity over pure experimentation, seeking technology that directly drives revenue, efficiency, and retention. The top ten solutions ranged from Furniture.com’s aggregated home‑goods marketplace to Glance.com’s AR virtual‑try‑on and Teikametrics’ AI‑powered marketplace advertising. Companies...
Apple, Google Wallets Get Personal
Digital‑wallet platforms from Apple and Google are evolving beyond simple payments, with startups like Badge turning them into interactive commerce channels. Badge’s infrastructure lets brands push real‑time, location‑aware offers and loyalty updates directly to a consumer’s wallet. The San‑Francisco‑based company...
One-Third of E-Commerce Packages in Violation
Liège Airport processes about 3.6 million e‑commerce parcels daily, accounting for roughly 20 % of Europe’s online sales. Customs can inspect only 0.006 % of these shipments—around 216 files per day—and 30 % of the checked B2C parcels are found in violation, generating €3.3 million...
Worldline Completes First Wero Online Payment in Belgium with Belgian Red Cross-Flanders
Worldline processed Belgium's first Wero e‑commerce transaction, enabling the Belgian Red Cross‑Flanders to accept the pan‑European digital wallet at checkout. Belgium becomes the second European market, after Germany, to support Wero for online payments. The wallet, developed by the European...
Payment Friction Wins in Africa
African ecommerce still wrestles with deep‑rooted trust gaps, turning checkout into a conversational process often mediated through WhatsApp. Local platforms like Paystack, Flutterwave, and Egypt’s Fawry have succeeded by offering instant bank transfers, mobile‑money protocols such as STK Push, and cash‑at‑kiosk...
Brands Briefing: Caraway Makes Its First Big OOH Push as It Seeks to Make the Brand ‘Impossible to Ignore’
Caraway, a six‑year‑old cookware startup, has launched its first major out‑of‑home (OOH) advertising campaign to become “impossible to ignore.” The eye‑catching mural at Columbus Circle subway targets high‑traffic commuters. After growing from a pure DTC model, the brand now sells...
X Turns Dormant Usernames Into Digital Real Estate
X has launched a Handles Marketplace that lets Premium+ and Premium Business subscribers claim dormant @handles. Handles are split into free Priority names and paid Rare names, the latter fetching $2,500 to over $1 million. Paid Rare handles remain with the...
YouTube Shopping Guide for Brands (Not Just Creators)
YouTube Shopping has expanded in 2026 to let brands turn any video—Shorts, long‑form, or Live—into a direct storefront. By linking a product catalog through Google Merchant Center, brands can tag SKUs within videos, letting viewers purchase without leaving the platform....
Holland & Barrett Sales Boosted by TikTok Trends, as Losses Widen
Holland & Barrett reported an 11% rise in annual sales to £981 million, propelled by TikTok‑driven health trends and appetite‑suppressing products. Store revenue climbed to £731.3 million, and gross profit increased to £579.9 million. However, pre‑tax losses widened to £71 million, reflecting higher staff...
Cheaper Retail Prices Unlikely Despite Tariff Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Feb. 20 that the Trump administration’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose broad tariffs was unconstitutional. Within hours, the administration invoked a different legal tool to impose a 15% tariff, later...
Google Cloud and Nexi to Build Agentic Commerce Infrastructure
Google Cloud and Italy’s Nexi Group have signed a memorandum of understanding to create an agentic commerce infrastructure across Europe. The deal merges Google Cloud’s artificial‑intelligence and data platforms with Nexi’s payment‑processing network, and backs open‑source standards such as the...
OPINION: Resale Isn’t a Sideshow Anymore — It’s Reshaping Digital Fashion Retail
The online fashion resale market has moved from niche to mainstream, with Vinted now the UK’s third‑largest fashion retailer by customer numbers and eBay agreeing to buy Depop for about $1.2 bn. UK online second‑hand sales are projected to hit roughly...
DMWF Spotlight: How Ecommerce Marketers Gain a Competitive Advantage – without More Complexity
E‑commerce marketers are confronting rising acquisition costs and a fragmented, multi‑device buyer journey that traditional search and social channels no longer dominate. Autonomous AI platforms now analyze live intent signals across the open internet, allowing brands to reach high‑intent shoppers...
Castore Cuts Pricing Execution From Five Hours to Minutes on 35 Shopify Stores
Castore, a global sportswear brand operating 35 Shopify stores, replaced its manual, spreadsheet‑driven pricing workflow with Patchworks, a retail‑first iPaaS. The new integration cut pricing execution from roughly five hours to two‑three minutes and slashed error rates from 30‑35% to...
Second-Hand Marketplace Refurbed Reaches Three Billion Milestone
Refurbed announced a 40% year‑on‑year growth, pushing its gross merchandise volume past €3 billion and expanding into twelve new European markets. The platform now claims the title of Europe’s largest refurbished marketplace and reported profitability for the first time. A fresh...
TikTok Shop Narrows the Gap with Shopee in Southeast Asia’s E-Commerce Market
TikTok Shop is rapidly closing the gap with Shopee in Southeast Asia, especially in Vietnam where it captured over 41% of e‑commerce market share in 2025, down from 24% two years earlier. Shopee’s lead slipped to 56%, and together the...
Agoda Launches Artotel Group Flagship Store on Its Platform
Agoda has launched Artotel Group’s first branded Flagship Store, consolidating over 100 Indonesian hotels onto a single dedicated page. The storefront leverages Agoda’s distribution network, customer insights, and promotional tools to boost Artotel’s brand visibility and simplify traveler discovery. By...
Maternity Brand Ingrid & Isabel Launches First Walmart Line After 20 Years in Business
Ingrid & Isabel, a leading U.S. maternity brand, is debuting its first line at Walmart, entering 3,800 stores and Walmart.com. The new “For Every Belly” collection offers essentials such as leggings, tees and denim priced between $10 and $30, roughly...
From Lollipops to Lobsters, Whatnot Pushes Further Into Selling Food via Livestream Shopping
Whatnot, the livestream shopping platform, has expanded its food category from shelf‑stable snacks to fresh seafood and meat, achieving a 30% month‑over‑month growth and a 2.5× rise in transactions between July 2025 and January 2026. Sales of iconic brands like...
This Founder Is Taking a Nigerian Retail Solution to Canada and the US
Nigerian entrepreneur Samuel Oyedemi is launching SKAAP, a scan‑and‑go platform targeting small and medium retailers in Canada and the United States. After a modest pilot in Calgary, Edmonton and Saskatchewan that enrolled about 200 users, the startup plans a U.S....
How Voice Search Ads Are Changing The Search Term Report in 2026
Voice search has reshaped Google Ads’ Search Term Report, turning short keyword lists into lengthy conversational transcripts. Average spoken queries have jumped from 2.8 words in 2022 to around nine words today, blurring intent and inflating low‑confidence matches. Advertisers now...
Walmart, Kroger and Others Use Dynamic Pricing: Report
A Decodo analysis of over one million price points shows that Amazon, Walmart, Kroger and other major retailers regularly employ dynamic pricing, with price cuts outpacing hikes. Amazon leads with 116,509 adjustments and a 35.3% average drop, while Walmart and...
The 2025 Holiday Season Tested Retail Execution: What Retailers Need to Know for 2026
The 2025 holiday season proved fulfillment is now a front‑line consumer experience, as Adobe reported over $10 million in online spend each minute on Cyber Monday and NRF said holiday spending topped $1 trillion. While 91% of shoppers entered the period confident...
Amazon Seller Wallet Launches in Europe
Amazon has launched its Seller Wallet in seven European marketplaces—Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands—extending the U.S.‑originated tool that consolidates earnings and payout scheduling. The service lets sellers hold balances in euros or U.S. dollars, view real‑time...
Santander and Mastercard Pilot Agentic Commerce
Santander and Mastercard completed Europe’s first fully agentic payment when an AI‑driven agent bought a T‑shirt in Spain, marking the inaugural regulated‑bank transaction of its kind. The pilot used Mastercard’s Agent Pay platform, demonstrating that AI agents can transact while...
SN Top 10: Will This Unique Whole Foods Pilot Work?
Whole Foods is piloting a system in its Philadelphia store that lets shoppers scan QR codes or use the Amazon app to order national‑brand items not stocked on the shelves. Employees pull these Amazon‑fulfilled products within minutes and stage them...
Why Multilingual Content Conversion Is the Missing Link in Retail Growth
Retailers aiming for 2026 growth are realizing that multilingual discovery alone does not translate into sales. AI‑driven search engines now treat simple translations as low‑authority, reducing visibility in key markets. At the same time, poorly adapted product pages, checkout flows,...
Mastercard and Banco Santander Complete Europe’s First Live AI-Executed Payment
Mastercard and Banco Santander have executed Europe’s first live payment fully orchestrated by artificial intelligence. The transaction, a €1.2 million cross‑border corporate transfer, was processed in under two seconds using Mastercard’s AI‑driven network and Santander’s upgraded core banking APIs. Both firms...
Preloved Fashion Meets ‘Ugly’ Food in ThredUp’s New Partnership with Misfits Market
ThredUp has teamed up with grocery‑delivery startup Misfits Market to launch a Clean Out resale program that lets shoppers trade unwanted clothing for Misfits Market grocery credit. Participants generate a prepaid label, ship any apparel to ThredUp, and receive credit...
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[In the Picture] The Salvation Army Opens Virtual Thrift Store in Roblox
The Salvation Army launched Thrift Score, the first virtual thrift store on Roblox, on February 19. The digital shop lets Gen Z and Gen Alpha purchase virtual items modeled after real second‑hand goods. The initiative blends sustainability, gaming, and charitable...
Agentic E-Commerce Startup ZyG Gets $58M to Help Solo Inventors Compete with the Biggest Global Brands
ZyG Edge Inc., an Israeli AI startup, secured $58 million in seed funding to empower solo inventors in the direct‑to‑consumer market. The company’s autonomous agents automate marketing, logistics, and data‑driven growth tasks, allowing creators to focus on product innovation. ZyG validates...
Why Easter and Other Seasonal Retail Items Hit Shelves Months Early Now: EY Canada
Retailers are placing seasonal merchandise, such as Easter items, on shelves months before the holiday because the design, manufacturing, and shipping processes require six to nine months of lead time. EY Canada partner Georgianna Ma explains that early placement helps...
Payments, Fraud and AI: Why Retailers Can’t Afford to Ignore AML in 2026
In 2026 online retailers must broaden payment options—from e‑wallets and BNPL to crypto—while confronting a surge in money‑laundering and fraud. UK data shows £337 million in AML losses last year, with retail accounting for 49 % of fraud value. Criminals are leveraging...
Henri Sells 2 Million Bars Across Canada in One Year
Henri Nutrition, a Quebec‑based startup founded by a mother and her 9‑year‑old son, sold two million bars in its first year, expanding to 1,300 Canadian retail locations from just 40 a year earlier. The brand’s simple formula—no added sugar, seven ingredients...
Online Now Driving Major Retailers’ Strategies
Tesco is reorganising its head‑office to give digital and quick‑commerce a central role, mirroring Walmart’s recent strategic overhaul. Both retailers reported robust online growth—Tesco’s e‑commerce rose 11.2% over the festive period, while Walmart’s online sales surged nearly 25% to exceed...
Wickes Retail Media to Connect Brands with Home Improvement Customers
Wickes has launched Wickes Connected Retail Media, a first‑of‑its‑kind retail media network for the UK home‑improvement category, offering both onsite and offsite advertising capabilities from day one. The platform, built with Epsilon’s COREid identity graph, merges digital and in‑store signals...
The Lipstick Lesbians Direct-From-Lab Brand to Bring ‘Breakthrough’ Beauty Formulas to Market Sooner
TikTok educators Alexis and Christina Androulakis are launching Leaked Labs, a direct‑from‑lab beauty brand that will debut on March 6. The company will release “controlled leaks,” limited early‑access drops of lab‑born formulas, starting with Leak 001 – Amplify Flexi Powder, a water‑activated,...
Medline Expands AI Platform and Warehouse Robotics
Medline Industries is scaling its AI‑driven supply‑chain platform, Mpower, in partnership with Microsoft, to provide a digital control tower that automates forecasting, inventory management and disruption alerts for hospital customers. The company is also expanding warehouse robotics, now operating AutoStore...
Love’s Travel Stops Enhances Rewards Loyalty Program
Love’s Travel Stops has revamped its loyalty program, now letting all drivers earn and redeem points on fuel and in‑store purchases across its 608 shops and 62 country stores. The unified Love’s Rewards program is accessed through an updated mobile...