Mobile‑first Shoppers Make Stores Digital by Default, New Research Shows
A new Insider Trend and Fern Insights survey of 1,000 consumers in the UK, France and Germany finds that 53% of European shoppers aged 18‑75 use their mobile phones while in store, making the physical shop digital by default. Shoppers employ phones for mobile payments (33%), loyalty programs (32%), discount searches (30%), photo taking (29%) and price comparisons (22%). Younger shoppers (24‑35) show higher demand for self‑checkout, in‑store services, personalized assistance and brand collaborations, while 48% still visit to see and feel products. The study underscores that retailers must deliver seamless omnichannel experiences and empower store staff to meet digitally‑informed expectations.
Serendipity Meets Strategy: 4 Trends Reshaping Thrift Retail in 2026
The global secondhand apparel market is projected to hit $367 billion by 2029, outpacing the broader apparel sector. Brick‑and‑mortar thrift stores will still generate over 70% of resale revenue, with shoppers spending four to five times more per visit than online....
Turning Uncertainty Into Opportunity: Modernizing Retail Finance to Navigate Inflation, Interest Rates and Currency Volatility
Retail finance leaders are grappling with volatile interest rates, persistent inflation, and a weakening dollar, which together strain cash flow and margin stability. To survive, finance teams must shift from reactive bookkeeping to proactive portfolio‑management tactics, using scenario modeling and...
Stripe Valuation Nears $140B in Latest Tender Offer, Company Maintains Private Status
Stripe is arranging a secondary tender offer that could value the payments firm at about $140 billion, up from roughly $107 billion a year earlier. The company reiterated it has no immediate plans for an IPO, preferring private‑market liquidity for employees and...
Nexi Introduces Single-Device Checkout System to Combine POS, Software and Payments
Nexi has unveiled SmartStation, a single‑device checkout solution that merges point‑of‑sale software, store‑management tools and payment acceptance into one Android‑based unit. The system features a 15.6‑inch merchant tablet, an 8‑inch customer display and a detachable payment terminal, supporting cards, NFC,...
UK Retailers Hit by Double Whammy of Brexit Frictions and US Tariffs
New ONS data shows that 32.7% of UK retailers report rising export costs since Brexit, while US tariff changes further strain margins. Export volumes fell for 40.6% of retailers in December, and paperwork burdens rose for over a quarter of...
From Click to Conversation – Why India May Define the Next Retail Era
Retail giants such as Target and Walmart are shifting from search‑based e‑commerce to conversational AI, echoing India’s traditional “conversation‑first” shopping habit. Mastercard research shows 51 % of Gen Z trust AI product recommendations, and Fynd’s Kaily assistant has earned 86 % positive ratings,...
Aldi to Invest More than £300 Million in Upgrading Stores Across the UK
Aldi announced a £300 million programme to upgrade and extend its UK stores in 2026, adding more floor space, refreshed layouts and modern fixtures. The plan introduces sustainable technologies such as energy‑saving fridge doors and natural refrigerants to cut carbon emissions....
The High Cost of Going Cashless: Why Payment Choice Is Essential for Economic Equity
The push toward a cashless economy is accelerating, but the hidden fees and infrastructure demands are creating a financial burden for low‑income and unbanked consumers. As merchants adopt digital terminals and fintech platforms expand, cash‑only transactions become increasingly costly or...
HUL-Owned Minimalist Revenue Spikes 48% to Rs 515 Cr in FY25
Hindustan Unilever‑owned Minimalist posted a 48% jump in operating revenue, reaching Rs 514.8 crore in FY25, surpassing the Rs 500 crore mark. The brand’s expenses rose 51% to Rs 504 crore, driven by higher advertising spend and material costs, yet EBITDA remained positive at Rs 18 crore. A...
JD.com to Introduce Express Delivery Service in Europe to Support Joybuy
JD.com is rolling out its JoyExpress express delivery service across Europe to back the upcoming launch of its JoyBuy online marketplace. The service, currently in beta, will go live in March and will operate in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands...
Retail Sales Pick up in January
UK retail sales rose 2.7% year‑on‑year in January, edging up from 2.6% a year earlier. Food sales jumped 3.8%, propelled by health‑focused product launches. Non‑food sales grew 1.7% overall, with online sales up 1.3% and in‑store sales up 2%. BRC...
How Shiprocket Became the Bridge Between Bharatpreneurs and National Markets
Shiprocket has emerged as a critical logistics and commerce platform that bridges India’s small‑town entrepreneurs, known as Bharatpreneurs, with national markets. By consolidating courier networks, payment processing, order management, and offering rapid working‑capital financing, the service enables regional MSMEs to...
With Value Top of Mind, Sally Beauty Is Betting on Dupe Fragrances and Instant Delivery
Sally Beauty is rolling out its fragrance category, anchored by the dupe brand Alt., to over 2,000 stores, offering $25‑$35 scents that replicate $300 luxury perfumes. The retailer reported a modest 1.2% net‑sales growth in Q1 FY2026 and maintains full‑year...
Exclusive: Chubbies Launches Women’s Swimwear Brand Cheekies
Chubbies, the men’s‑shorts brand, has introduced Cheekies, a dedicated women’s swimwear line, debuting online and slated for select Dick’s Sporting Goods and Chubbies stores. The collection, a result of a two‑year research effort by an all‑women design team, offers adjustable...
Thrive Market’s Amina Pasha Believes Brands that Focus on Trust Will Win in an AI-First World
Amina Pasha, CMO of Thrive Market, argues that trust will be the decisive advantage for brands in an AI‑first landscape. The online grocery retailer, with over 1.7 million paying members, is leveraging AI to personalize discovery while reinforcing its mission of...
UAE Startup ThrowMeNot Secures $550k Pre-Seed
UAE‑based ThrowMeNot closed a $550,000 pre‑seed round led by Sheikh Ahmed bin Mana Al Maktoum. The startup, founded in 2025 by Archie Rudyuk, operates a marketplace for near‑expiry and surplus food, offering discounts up to 90% and currently lists over 2,700...
Conversation with… David Gebhardt, Head of Enterprise – Merchant Services at Wordline
David Gebhardt, Head of Enterprise – Merchant Services at Worldline, outlines the evolution from hardware‑centric POS to service‑focused merchant solutions and introduces the One Commerce platform. He emphasizes that improving acceptance rates by just a few percent can unlock massive...
Ssense Founders Can Buy Back Company, Court Rules
Montréal‑based luxury e‑commerce platform Ssense will be reclaimed by its founders after a Quebec Superior Court dismissed lenders' request for a forced asset sale. The court approved a founder‑led buyback valued at $78 million, including a $58.5 million cash payment and assumption...
Estée Lauder Sues Walmart Alleging 'Despicable' Sale of Counterfeit Beauty Products
Estée Lauder has filed a federal lawsuit against Walmart, alleging that the retailer’s online marketplace allowed counterfeit versions of its La Mer, Le Labo, Clinique, Aveda and Tom Ford products to be sold. The beauty giant says it purchased and tested several items that...
Protolabs Expands AI as It Overhauls Digital Customer Experience
Protolabs announced the Q1 2026 launch of ProDesk, a unified online platform that consolidates its factory and network storefronts. The company will broaden AI‑driven pricing, sourcing and routing tools, leveraging its extensive CAD data set and automation suite. A new...
Wesco International Pushes Digital Overhaul Amid Q4 Sales Growth
Wesco International closed 2025 with record $23.5 billion in sales, an 8% increase year‑over‑year, and a 10% jump in Q4 revenue. The distributor invested more than $35 million in a unified data lake and AI‑driven tools to replace legacy systems across its...
Mastercard and Bosta Target Egypt’s eCommerce Market With Logistics Incentives
Mastercard and Egyptian logistics platform Bosta have launched a joint initiative that offers Mastercard Business cardholders discounted access to Bosta’s e‑commerce logistics services. The program is aimed at small‑ and medium‑sized businesses seeking streamlined fulfillment, inventory management and real‑time analytics....
Visa Insights Reveal Christmas Spending in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Grows 45%
Visa’s latest consumer‑spending analysis shows Christmas‑time purchases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo surged 45% year‑over‑year, pushing total holiday spend to roughly $120 million. The jump was driven by a sharp rise in mobile‑wallet usage and higher average transaction values,...
Klarna Backs Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol to Power the Future of ‘Agentic’ Shopping
Klarna announced its support for Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), a framework designed to standardise AI‑driven, “agentic” shopping experiences. The move extends Klarna’s multi‑year partnership with Google, building on prior collaborations such as the Agent Payments Protocol and Google Pay....
Paysecure Receives Best Payments Industry Newcomer Award at Card and Payments Awards 2026
Paysecure won the Best Payments Industry Newcomer Award at the Card and Payments Awards 2026 in London. Judges praised its payment orchestration platform, extensive partnership network, and rapid growth. The accolade highlights the company’s ability to unify access to a...
Warby Parker Taps Macy’s Vet as CFO
Warby Parker announced the appointment of Adrian Mitchell, a veteran of Macy’s, as its new chief financial officer, effective immediately. Mitchell, who previously served as COO and CFO of Macy’s and held leadership roles at Arhaus and Crate & Barrel,...
Brooks Running Revenue up 16% in 2025
Brooks Running reported a 16% increase in global revenue for 2025, marking its ninth consecutive year of growth and securing the top spot in performance running footwear at U.S. specialty retailers in Q4. The company posted strong regional gains, with...
Retail in the Age of AI Is Eligibility, Not Competition
Retail is moving from a competition‑based model to an eligibility framework driven by AI shopping assistants. These assistants collapse discovery, consideration and trust into a single instant decision, asking which retailer best matches a shopper's intent. Reputation debt, lack of...
Why Retail AI Depends on Consistent, High-Quality Data
Retailers are pouring capital into AI to accelerate decisions, planning cycles, and cross‑functional alignment, but the technology’s effectiveness hinges on the quality of underlying data. Research from Ardent Partners shows 48% of chief procurement officers need better data visibility and...
No Customer Service in the Evenings at 72% Online Stores
A joint study of the 100 largest Belgian and Dutch online stores found that only 28 percent provide evening customer‑service and just 44 percent use WhatsApp, despite strong consumer demand. Delivery performance remains strong, with 91 percent meeting promised times and over half...
Ebanx Predicts Pix Captures Half of Brazil Online Sales by 2028
Brazil’s instant‑payment system Pix is set to dominate e‑commerce, accounting for 45% of online sales by the end of 2026 and reaching a 50% share by 2028, according to payments firm Ebanx. The platform already eclipsed credit cards in 2025...
PetSmart Celebrates the Unconditional Love of Pet Parents on Valentine’s Day
PetSmart is hosting free in‑store Valentine’s Day parties on February 14, inviting pet parents and their dogs, cats, and small animals to celebrate from noon to 2 p.m. The events feature a special Valentine’s collection, giveaways, custom cards, and photo opportunities staffed...
Target Names COO, Chief Merchant
Target announced a major C‑suite overhaul, appointing Lisa Roath as chief operating officer and consolidating merchandising leadership under Cara Sylvester. The restructuring eliminates the chief commercial officer role, sees Rick Gomez move to an advisory position, and marks the retirement...
Toast Links Dining to Instacart’s Marketplace; Ingenico Launches Its 360 Platform Plus AXIUM Terminals
Toast announced a partnership with Instacart, linking its restaurant platform to the Instacart Marketplace and making Instacart Business available for same‑day grocery procurement. The integration adds SmartScan barcode optimization and catalog attribution tools, enabling restaurants to quickly add items and...
Pinterest’s Kate Hamill on Visual Search, AI, and the New Path to Purchase
Pinterest is shifting from a pure inspiration platform to a measurable commerce driver, according to VP of North America enterprise sales Kate Hamill. The company is leveraging visual search and AI to compress the funnel between discovery and conversion, enabling...
Square Offers Its AI Assistant to UK Merchants
Square has launched its conversational AI assistant, Square AI, for merchants in the United Kingdom, embedding the tool directly into its payments and commerce platform. The assistant blends in‑house transaction data with external signals such as weather, events and news...
71% of Consumers Say Viral Trends Drive Purchases, Putting New Pressure on Retail Fulfillment, Finds Locus Robotics
Locus Robotics released a U.S. consumer study showing 71% of shoppers say viral TikTok or Instagram trends drive their purchases. The research finds demand can materialize within 48 hours, forcing brands, retailers and 3PLs to compress planning and rely on...
Bots Are Taking Over the Web. Why that May Not Be a Bad Thing for Retail Marketers
WP Engine’s 2025 Website Traffic Trends Report shows bots now generate roughly one‑third of all web requests, with AI‑driven agents consuming up to 70% of the most expensive dynamic resources. Retail marketers must therefore optimize for two audiences: human shoppers...
How Payment Gateways for Businesses Can Help You Offer Your Customers More Options
The episode explains how modern payment gateways, especially Authorize.net, enable small and mid‑size businesses to accept a wide array of payment methods—from cards and eChecks to digital wallets and contactless options—through a single, integrated solution that often includes a merchant...
Lidl Germany Lets Shoppers Pay by SEPA Bank Transfer — A Quiet Break From Visa & Mastercard Dominance
Lidl Germany has introduced SEPA bank‑transfer as a checkout option, allowing shoppers to pay directly from their bank accounts. The move sidesteps traditional Visa and Mastercard processing, which dominate European retail payments. By leveraging the Euro‑area’s low‑cost SEPA network, Lidl...
Jumia’s Q4 2025 Revenue Jumps 34% to $61.4 Million
Jumia reported Q4 2025 revenue of $61.4 million, a 34% year‑over‑year rise driven by a booming marketplace segment. Gross profit jumped 43% and operating loss narrowed to $10.6 million, reflecting stronger margins and tighter cost control. The company’s GMV climbed 36% to $279.5 million,...
Building a Geo-Targeted Proxy Infrastructure for Global Price Intelligence
Enterprises that rely on price intelligence must see prices exactly as local shoppers do, making geo‑targeted data collection essential. Generic proxies often deliver low‑reputation IPs, unstable sessions, or leaked locations, leading to blocked or distorted pricing data. A purpose‑built proxy...
Sales of Fresh Flowers Surge on TikTok Shop Ahead of Valentine’s Day
TikTok Shop’s flowers and gardening category posted a 440% year‑on‑year surge, driven by a 75% increase in LIVE shopping sessions. Independent UK florist Oh So Floral saw orders jump 85% in the fortnight before Valentine’s Day and will host over 50 hours of...
Dunelm Posts Solid H1 Despite Softer Second Quarter
Dunelm reported a solid first‑half FY26, with total sales climbing 3.6% year‑on‑year to £926 million and digital participation rising to 41%, outpacing the broader homewares market. Market share edged up 20 basis points to 7.9%. The second quarter was softer, with...
Ask an Expert: Should Merchants Block AI Bots?
E‑commerce veteran Scot Wingo argues that merchants must decide whether to block or welcome AI bots that now crawl retail sites. Four major agents—ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity—collectively command roughly one billion monthly active users, and Google’s shift to AI...
Amazon Launches Pay by Bank – Secure, Card-Free Payment Solution
Amazon has introduced Pay by Bank on its UK site, letting shoppers pay directly from their bank accounts without using cards. The service connects to customers' banking apps for biometric or PIN authentication, eliminating the need to store card details....
Polygon Labs Perspective on Stablecoin Economics: Interview With CEO Marc Boiron
Polygon Labs is positioning its blockchain platform as a next‑generation payment rail that can seamlessly move money across fiat and crypto ecosystems. In an interview, CEO Marc Boiron explains how the company’s stablecoin framework aims to address legacy finance pain...
Marketplacer Powers EE Trade-In Capability via Marketplace Returns Flow
EE, a major UK mobile network, has integrated device trade‑in directly into its digital purchase flow using Marketplacer’s marketplace platform. By adapting its existing returns workflow, EE launched a low‑risk, scalable solution covering six device categories with instant trade‑in quotes...
Jollyes Launches ‘Lowest Price Pet Brand in the UK’
Jollyes Pets has introduced Simply Jollyes, the UK's lowest‑priced own‑label pet range, covering food and accessories for dogs, cats, small pets and birds. The line launches with 22 products and will be stocked in all 118 Jollyes stores this month,...