Discover Network Shows How Sharing Data Can Turn the Tide on Fraud
Fraud is evolving into a fast‑moving, AI‑driven threat across e‑commerce, payments and identity, outpacing traditional, institution‑by‑institution defenses. Discover Network argues that sharing data through a consortium enables real‑time signal aggregation, tokenization and enhanced decisioning to spot patterns no single bank can see. By pooling device behavior, transaction context and verified fraud alerts, the network improves detection accuracy and reduces false declines. The approach promises earlier intervention, smoother commerce and stronger ecosystem trust.
Painting the Path: How Maku Fenaroli Turned Wearable Art Into Maku the Label
Maku Fenaroli, a self‑taught New Zealand artist, painted a Melbourne laneway in 2013 and later leveraged Instagram to showcase her work. After a $200 influencer‑driven T‑shirt sparked demand, she left a corporate superannuation job in 2024 to launch Maku the...
Walmart Holds Shoppable Livestream at Winter Olympics in Milan
Retail giant Walmart expanded its shoppable video strategy by hosting a 25‑minute livestream from the Milan Olympic Village during the Winter Games. The event, titled “Her Day Made Easy,” featured Olympic gold medalist Laurie Hernandez and showcased Procter & Gamble...
The 4 Essentials to Live Shopping: A Complete Guide to Successful Video Commerce
Live Shopping—also called video commerce—combines real‑time video, interactive chat, and instant checkout to turn product demos into sales. Success hinges on four essentials: attracting viewers through pre‑event promotion and multi‑streaming, offering exclusive incentives that compel purchase, keeping audiences engaged with...
10 Items or Less: Amazon, You Are Losing Focus
Amazon’s rapid expansion into logistics, entertainment and cloud services is diluting its core retail advantage, according to industry analyst Bill Wilson. The piece argues that the company’s most defensible growth lever is its Whole Foods acquisition, which still lacks a...
Deloitte: Digitally Mature B2B Suppliers Post Faster Sales Growth
Deloitte’s latest study of 530 U.S. B2B buyers and 530 suppliers shows that digitally mature sellers outpace peers, delivering 6.1% average revenue growth versus 2.9% for low‑maturity firms. High‑maturity suppliers exceed annual sales targets by more than twice the margin...
India Extends UPI One World Pilot for International Visitors at AI Impact Summit 2026: Does It Signal Global Rollout?
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has extended its UPI One World wallet service to international visitors attending the India AI Impact Summit 2026. The extension is a temporary, invitation‑only pilot that allows foreign delegates to make real‑time payments...
Hasbro CEO: ‘We’re Beyond Experimentation’ with AI
Hasbro is scaling artificial‑intelligence tools across finance, supply‑chain, order management and product design, moving beyond pilot projects. The company has formalized responsible‑use guidelines and teamed with Google Gemini, OpenAI and ElevenLabs to embed AI into daily workflows. Executives estimate the...
From Prime Day and Black Friday to Surprise Spikes: Why Retailers Are Rethinking Peak Sales Readiness
Retailers are abandoning the outdated notion of seasonal peak‑sales windows and adopting a year‑round growth‑readiness mindset. Unexpected demand spikes—from TikTok trends to surprise influencer drops—can now rival traditional events like Prime Day, exposing fragile point‑to‑point integrations. Mark Simon of Celigo...
US, China and Russia Dominate Europe’s Ecommerce Top 10
ECDB’s Global E‑commerce Compass 2026 reveals that U.S., Chinese and Russian platforms dominate Europe’s ecommerce landscape. Amazon leads with a 2025 GMV just under $232 billion, almost equal to the combined GMV of the next nine players. Russian marketplaces Ozon and...
Scaling Warehouse Operations Through 3PL Outsourcing Models
Third‑party logistics (3PL) outsourcing is emerging as the preferred model for scaling warehouse operations amid surging freight volumes driven by e‑commerce. Purpose‑built 3PL facilities combine high‑speed infrastructure, real‑time inventory technology, and trained staff to keep inventory moving efficiently. Flexible capacity...
Associated Wholesale Grocers Adopts Forecasting and Fresh Optimization Solution
Associated Wholesale Grocers (AWG) has chosen Relex’s forecasting and fresh‑product optimization platform to improve distribution‑center planning across its extensive network. The solution targets the cooperative’s 1,100 supermarket members operating in 3,500 locations across 33 states, aiming to boost forecast accuracy,...
Ulta Beauty’s Big Branding Play; Why Conglomerates Should Consolidate
Ulta Beauty’s latest branding initiative underscores a broader shift toward consolidation in the beauty sector. Record growth at niche perfume house Amouage, a surge in online fragrance sales, and the decline of traditional department‑store beauty hubs illustrate mounting pressure on...
2026 Leaders Interview – Caroline Orange-Northey – Pinterest
Caroline Orange‑Northey, newly appointed Managing Director for Pinterest UK & Ireland, outlines her first 6‑12 month priorities, emphasizing accelerated advertiser adoption and AI‑driven product enhancements. She explains why Pinterest remains a compelling platform for 2026, highlighting its visual discovery engine,...
Visa to Buy Prisma in Argentina
Visa announced it will reacquire Argentina’s Prisma Medios de Pago and Newpay from Advent International, bringing the payment processors back under its control. The acquisition, expected to close by the end of March, restores Visa’s card‑issuer processing, real‑time payments, ATM...
Walmart Says AI Users Build 35% Bigger Baskets than Others
Walmart’s AI‑driven shopping assistant, Sparky, is generating baskets that are about 35% larger than those of non‑users, according to CEO John Furner on the Q4 earnings call. Launched in June, Sparky lives behind a smiley‑face button in the Walmart app...
Amazon and Shopify Are Now Half of U.S. E-Commerce
Amazon generated roughly $440 billion in U.S. sales in 2025, capturing a 35.7% share of the $1.2 trillion market, while Shopify reported a 14% U.S. share, up from 12% a year earlier. Together they account for 49.7% of U.S. e‑commerce, up from...
Marketplace Briefing: Inside Marc Lore and Melissa Bridgeford’s AI Shopping Agent Wizard
Wizard, the AI shopping agent co‑founded by Marc Lore and Melissa Bridgeford, has moved from a stealth B‑to‑B conversational commerce model to a consumer‑facing platform. Founded in 2021, the startup spent years refining its technology before publicly debuting in February...
Toast Courts Fast-Food Restaurants
Toast, the Boston‑based restaurant point‑of‑sale provider, announced it will launch a drive‑thru product aimed at quick‑service restaurants later this year. The move marks a strategic shift from its traditional focus on casual‑dining chains such as Applebee’s and Potbelly. In 2025...
9th Marketplace: One of the Best E-Commerce Apps in Nigeria, Transforming Online Shopping and E-Commerce in Africa
9th Marketplace launches as a structured, service‑driven e‑commerce platform aiming to reshape online shopping across Nigeria and Africa. It tackles trust gaps with secure checkout, buyer‑protection policies, and 24/7 support while offering pay‑on‑delivery, bank transfers, and card payments. The app...
Are Target’s Store Investments Enough to Turn Its Experience Around?
Target’s new CEO Michael Fiddelke is prioritizing customer experience by adding store labor hours and launching a universal training program, while cutting about 500 district and supply‑chain roles. The initiative aims to fix in‑store pain points such as low in‑stock...
AI Turns Weather Data Into Sales
Retailers have long known weather drives sales, but few have turned forecasts into actionable insight. New AI platforms now ingest long‑range weather data and feed it directly into ecommerce functions such as demand planning, pricing, personalization, fulfillment and ad activation....
Why Do Budgets Overspend Even With A Target ROAS or CPA? – Ask A PPC via @Sejournal, @Navahf
Budgets on auction‑based platforms are averaged over roughly 30.4 days, not enforced as strict daily caps. When a target ROAS or CPA is applied, the algorithm treats these as optimization signals and may spend beyond the nominal daily limit to...
Amazon Surpasses Walmart in Annual Revenue for the First Time
Amazon reported $716.9 billion in 2025 revenue, overtaking Walmart's $713.2 billion for the first time. The shift ends Walmart's 13‑year streak as Fortune's top‑revenue company and highlights Amazon's transformation into a tech‑services powerhouse. Growth is now driven by Amazon Web Services, advertising...
Parcel2Go 2025 Courier Performance Rankings
Parcel2Go released its 2025 courier performance rankings, highlighting the most reliable UK and international delivery services based on thousands of platform bookings. Evri Drop‑Off posted the highest on‑time delivery rate in the UK at 92.44%, while UPS Access Point earned...
E-Commerce Orders Enjoyed Big Jump in 2025
U.S. e‑commerce orders surged 147% year‑over‑year in 2025, driven primarily by the top 5% of brands. Shoppers interacted less with marketing but showed markedly higher intent, with promotion clicks 51% more likely to convert and average spend per order climbing...
Freshfields Advising EBay's $1.2B Depop Purchase From Etsy
eBay announced a $1.2 billion cash acquisition of Depop, the mobile fashion resale platform, from Etsy. Freshfields LLP is advising eBay, while Fenwick & West represents Etsy. The deal aims to strengthen eBay’s appeal to younger, Gen‑Z shoppers and expand its...
Early Week Surge Drives Valentine’s Ecommerce Uplift
UK ecommerce order volumes surged in the days before Valentine’s Day 2026, with Sunday’s orders up 102.5% YoY and Monday up 76.3% YoY. The holiday itself saw a 20.7% YoY decline, indicating shoppers moved purchases forward to avoid delivery risk....
Amazon and City Hall Line up for Battle over Delivery Licence in New York
New York City Council is poised to adopt the Delivery Protection Act, a licensing regime that would require final‑mile delivery operators, including Amazon’s third‑party partners, to obtain city permits and directly employ warehouse workers. The legislation follows a city comptroller...
Minky Couture Selects Domo AI, Data Products Platform to Boost Operational Visibility
Minky Couture, the Utah‑based luxury blanket retailer, has chosen Domo’s AI and Data Products Platform to unify data across inventory, supply chain, marketing, finance, and store operations. The platform will enable governed data products that deliver near real‑time performance tracking,...
AI Adoption Is Rising in Retail, but Efficiencies Remain Surprisingly Underwhelming
AI adoption is accelerating in retail, with roughly 70% of firms reporting use of some AI technology. Despite this uptake, more than 80% of senior executives say AI has not noticeably affected employment or productivity over the past three years....
Is Poshmark Safe? How to Buy and Sell without Getting Scammed
Poshmark, a leading social‑commerce app for fashion and home goods, is attracting a surge of fraud as the broader $1.1 trillion industry expands. Its 20 % commission on items over $15 pushes users to negotiate off‑platform, exposing them to phishing, counterfeit, and...
Shahbandr and Tabby Partner to Bring BNPL to 20,000 Online Stores
Shahbandr, a Saudi e‑commerce enablement platform, has teamed up with fintech app Tabby to embed its Buy‑Now‑Pay‑Later solution across the network. The integration will cover more than 20,000 online stores in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, allowing shoppers to split purchases...
TikTok Shop Reverses U.S. Shipping Policy Amid Merchant Concerns over Costs and Fulfillment Challenges
TikTok Shop has scrapped its planned deadline to force U.S. sellers onto TikTok‑managed shipping, keeping seller‑fulfilled logistics unchanged for now. The reversal follows merchant backlash over anticipated higher fulfillment costs, tighter margins, and inventory challenges tied to TikTok’s own warehouses....
Wayfair Inc (W) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
Wayfair reported Q4 2025 revenue up 6.9% YoY (7.8% excluding Germany), with adjusted gross margin steady at 30.3% and contribution margin improving to 15.3%. Adjusted EBITDA surged to $224 million, driving full‑year EBITDA above $743 million and free cash flow up 40%...
Sprouts Farmers Market Inc (SFM) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
Sprouts Farmers Market reported fourth‑quarter sales of $2.1 billion, an 8% year‑over‑year increase, and full‑year revenue of $8.8 billion, up 14%. Comparable store sales rose modestly 1.6% in Q4, while e‑commerce grew 15% and now accounts for roughly 15.5% of total sales....
ETSY Inc (ETSY) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
Etsy announced the sale of its Depop platform to eBay for $1.2 billion, positioning the company to focus exclusively on its core marketplace. Q4 2025 delivered record revenue of $882 million and GMS of $3.6 billion, marking the first positive marketplace growth since...
Walmart Inc (WMT) Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Walmart reported 4.9% constant‑currency revenue growth in Q4, propelled by 24% eCommerce expansion and a 10.5% rise in adjusted operating income. Advertising and membership fees together accounted for nearly one‑third of operating profit, while automation now supports 60% of U.S....
Etsy Sells Secondhand Clothing Marketplace Depop to eBay for $1.2B
Etsy announced it will sell its second‑hand fashion app Depop to eBay for $1.2 billion in cash. Depop, which posted roughly $1 billion in gross merchandise volume and 7 million active buyers in 2025, was acquired by Etsy in 2021 for $1.62 billion. The...
PepsiCo’s First Creator-Led Product Launch Reimagines Chips for Gen Z
PepsiCo Foods unveiled its first creator‑led "Flavor Swap" snack line, teaming influencers Madison Beer, iShowSpeed and Dude Perfect with new chip‑flavor mash‑ups. The products launched exclusively on TikTok Shop with a nationwide rollout slated for March, aligning the launch with...
Ebay to Acquire Depop Resale Fashion Marketplace for $1.2 Billion
eBay agreed to buy Depop from Etsy for $1.2 billion in cash, with the deal slated to close in Q2 2026. Depop, a social‑centric C2C fashion marketplace, will keep its brand and culture after the acquisition. The purchase follows Etsy’s 2021 $1.6 billion...
53-Year-Old Home Depot Rival Closing Down, No Bankruptcy
Home Depot, Lowe’s and Amazon together captured 56% of the U.S. home‑improvement market in 2025, leaving independent hardware retailers struggling. Independent stores such as C&H Hardware and the 53‑year‑old Blossom True Value in Mountain View have shut down or announced...
Forest Lawn Builds an Integrated Procure-to-Pay Backbone by Connecting Vroozi, NetSuite, and Shopify
Forest Lawn Memorial Parks & Mortuaries has built a fully integrated procure-to-pay backbone by linking Vroozi’s procurement platform with NetSuite ERP and Shopify e‑commerce. The integration automates inventory replenishment, accounts payable, and even service procurement, allowing real‑time updates across systems....
Surcharges and Discounts Can’t Overcome Payment Inertia
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s new report shows that merchants’ attempts to shift consumer payment behavior with cash discounts or credit‑card surcharges have little impact because shoppers stick to their preferred method out of habit. Discounts only influence cash‑oriented...
Williams-Sonoma to Test Ads in ChatGPT
Williams‑Sonoma has joined OpenAI’s ad pilot, becoming one of the first retailers to test sponsored placements inside ChatGPT. The experiment will surface high‑end home‑goods ads to free and Go users as they ask product‑related questions, while paid subscribers remain ad‑free....
How Reward Systems Boost Customer Retention in Mobile Apps
Retailers are pivoting from acquisition to retention as mobile apps become the primary consumer channel, with users spending over 85% of their time in apps. A modest 5‑6% lift in app retention can translate into profit gains of 25% to...
Global Payments Builds Salesforce
Global Payments announced a 300‑agent salesforce expansion in 2026, following its recent acquisition of Worldpay. The company will invest $1 billion this year to accelerate growth of its Genius processing brand and AI capabilities. Adjusted net revenue rose 1% to $2.32 billion...
Universal Music Strikes Deal with Superfan Platform EVEN to Power D2C Sales for Artists Worldwide
Universal Music Group has signed a multi‑year agreement with superfan platform EVEN, making the service the primary direct‑to‑fan (D2C) hub for its labels and artists. EVEN will provide turnkey tools for early‑access music, exclusive content, and merchandise sales, leveraging UMG’s...
TikTok Shop Halts Plan to End Independent Shipping for U.S. Sellers After Backlash
TikTok Shop has scrapped its planned deadline to end seller‑fulfilled shipping for U.S. merchants, keeping the existing independent‑shipping model in place for now. The reversal follows a wave of backlash from brands that warned the shift would raise fulfillment costs,...
Retail CX Has a Signal Problem
Retail CIOs are confronting a growing "signal problem" as fragmented communication channels undermine customer experience and AI initiatives. Research shows 64 percent of retailers plan to modernize their communication systems to meet consumer expectations for instant, accurate information. Misaligned data streams...