Email Marketing Benchmarks: What Good Looks Like in 2026
Omnisend analyzed over 20 billion campaign emails and 470 million automated sends from more than 27,000 ecommerce brands to establish 2025 benchmarks that will guide 2026 performance. Across all industries, campaign emails averaged a 30.41% open rate, 0.74% click‑through rate and 0.08% conversion rate, while automated sequences delivered a 39.21% open rate and a 1.49% conversion rate. Automations generated $3.41 in revenue per email—22 times the $0.155 earned by campaigns—highlighting the financial upside of behavior‑triggered messaging. The report also breaks down open, click, and conversion metrics by sector, revealing that B2B categories achieve the highest click‑to‑open rates and that product‑back‑in‑stock emails produce the strongest per‑email revenue.
Khadim Expands Partnership With Fynd to Digitally Power 260 Stores
Khadim has extended its partnership with AI‑native retailer tech firm Fynd to migrate all 260 of its Indian footwear stores onto the Fynd Store OS platform. The rollout integrates store operations, CRM, and marketplace commerce while linking the new OS...
Research: Traditional Marketing Doesn’t Work on AI Shopping Agents
A new study shows that traditional e‑commerce persuasion tactics—such as scarcity badges, countdown timers, and strike‑through pricing—do not reliably influence AI shopping agents like ChatGPT, Google’s UCP, or Amazon’s assistant. The researchers simulated over 16,000 purchase decisions across four AI...
Taskrabbit Gears Up for Peak Moving Season as Relocation Demand Surges Globally
Taskrabbit is gearing up for the summer moving peak, reporting strong global demand. In the U.S., apartment‑moving requests nearly doubled (93% YoY), while Canada saw a 40% rise in loading assistance and the UK a 43% jump in heavy‑lifting tasks....
Ebay Rejects $56bn GameStop Bid as ‘neither Credible nor Attractive’
GameStop offered to acquire eBay for roughly $56 billion, but eBay’s board rejected the proposal, calling it neither credible nor attractive. The bid, which would have been the largest merger in the e‑commerce sector, was dismissed despite GameStop’s push to diversify...
Amazon Launches 30-Minute Delivery Across the U.S.
Amazon unveiled “Amazon Now,” a 30‑minute delivery service available in ten U.S. cities, including Atlanta, Dallas‑Fort Worth, Philadelphia and Seattle, with plans to expand to tens of millions of customers by year‑end. The offering covers thousands of items—from fresh groceries to...
Banuba Advances AI Try-On Platform as Retail Goes Digital
Banuba has upgraded its AI‑powered virtual try‑on platform, adding contact‑lens try‑on, hair‑dye and makeup options to its Shopify plugin and introducing a one‑photo eyewear digitisation tool. The enhancements also include faster processing, bulk inventory handling and a simplified onboarding flow...
Digest: Alibaba Pushes ‘Chat-to-Buy’ With Qwen AI; Amazon Data Coming to Netflix Inventory Next Week; Instagram Eyes Long-Form CTV Push
Alibaba is embedding its Qwen AI assistant into Taobao and Tmall, enabling chat‑to‑buy experiences where users can search, compare, and purchase via text or voice. Amazon’s shopping data will be integrated into Netflix’s ad inventory in the UK and EMEA...
EBay Promoted Listings Rule-Based Campaign Listing Exclusion
eBay has added a rule‑based campaign listing exclusion option to its Promoted Listings platform, allowing sellers to omit specific items even when they meet campaign criteria. Advertisers can enter individual item IDs or bulk‑select up to 10,000 listings to exclude,...
Gen Z 'Serial Returners' Surge as Traditional Returns Deterrents Lose Impact
New research from Ingrid shows Gen Z serial returners have jumped to 53% of shoppers, up from 15% in 2023. Half of these shoppers report account suspensions for high return volumes, while traditional deterrents like fees are losing impact. Retailers...
Amazon’s Quick Commerce Blitz Rattles Blinkit’s Playbook
Amazon is accelerating its 10‑minute delivery push in India with Amazon Now, now handling 450,000‑500,000 orders daily from roughly 500 dark stores. The service’s orders are growing 25% month‑on‑month and Prime members are tripling their purchase frequency. Blinkit, the sector’s...
Beauty Briefing: What to Know About Sephora’s and Ulta’s AI Partnerships
Sephora has integrated OpenAI's ChatGPT into its online and in‑store platforms, offering shoppers instant, conversational product recommendations. Ulta Beauty struck a partnership with Google to embed the Gemini generative AI model in its digital assistant, aiming to personalize the browsing...
How Naturepedic Is Scaling Operations and Retail for Organic Growth
Naturepedic, the leading certified organic mattress brand, is scaling its retail footprint and wholesale channel to drive organic growth. The company now operates 18 corporate stores and plans to add eight to ten locations in high‑potential markets such as Southern...
RealReal Lifts FY Outlook as Q1 Revenues Expand 19 Percent
The RealReal, Inc. lifted its full‑year outlook after Q1 results beat expectations, with gross merchandise value (GMV) climbing 24% to $606 million and total revenue rising 19% to $190 million. Consignment revenue grew 18% while direct revenue surged 26% year‑over‑year, and adjusted...
Priority Payables Rockets 36% as Enterprise Giants Join
Priority Technology Holdings reported Q1 2026 revenue of $249.6 million, up 11.1% year over year. Its Payables segment led growth, surging 36% to $32.4 million as larger enterprise customers increased both buyer‑funded (up 37%) and supplier‑funded (up 31%) revenues. Treasury Solutions grew...
What Really Happens when States Add Delivery Fees to Online Orders
U.S. states are mandating small delivery fees—typically under $1—on online orders, prompting concern among retailers about price sensitivity. New research published in the Journal of Business Logistics shows that shoppers are far more likely to accept these fees when they...
EY: Consumer Brands Jostle for Position in E-Com Marketplaces
EY’s "State of Consumer Products" report finds consumer brands are now battling for shelf‑space inside e‑commerce marketplaces as much as for consumer attention. More than 77% of surveyed executives say strategic partnerships with retailers, platforms and digital channels are essential...
Consumer Use of Augmented Reality Is Influencing Purchases
A Clutch Research study shows 60% of U.S. consumers have tried AR or VR, and 58% say they’ve purchased after using AR features. Regular use sits at 35%, but 54% plan to increase immersive tech usage over the next two...
The Hidden Cost of Automation: Managing Liability in the Age of AI
Retailers are accelerating AI and third‑party platform adoption to stay competitive, but the rapid rollout is creating a liability blind spot. When an AI tool misprices a product or leaks data, legal responsibility often falls on the retailer, not the...
VIDEO: Mack Trucks Redesigns PartsASIST Online Platform
Mack Trucks has unveiled a full redesign of its PartsASIST online parts‑ordering platform, originally launched in 2021. The upgrade features a modern, responsive interface, faster load times, and advanced search tools that let users filter by VIN, chassis series, and...
To Make the Most of Retail Media, Brands Need to Break Out of Its Silos
Retail media networks (RMNs) have become a go‑to channel for brands because they tie ad impressions directly to purchases, offering clear bottom‑funnel results. However, most campaigns are run in isolation, relying solely on retailer‑owned shopper data that only reflects existing...
Alipay AI Pay Further Engages Its 100 Million Users With New Delegated Payment Feature on Taobao
Alipay AI Pay has launched a delegated payment feature on Taobao, allowing its 100 million users to complete purchases with AI‑driven authorization instead of manual entry. The new flow uses biometric and behavioral signals to verify transactions in real time, streamlining...
Shein Accuses Rival Temu of ‘Industrial-Scale’ Copyright Violations
Chinese fast‑fashion giant Shein has lodged a formal complaint accusing rival marketplace Temu of large‑scale copyright infringement. Shein claims Temu reproduces thousands of its product images, designs and descriptions, effectively copying its catalog. The dispute highlights intensifying competition between ultra‑low‑price...
Shein Accuses Temu of Large-Scale Copyright Infringement
Shein has taken Temu to the High Court in London, alleging the rival platform copies its designs on an industrial scale. Temu counters that the lawsuit is a tactical effort to suppress competition and protect its market foothold. The case...
Amazon Offers Non-Sellers More of Its Supply Chain Services
Amazon launched Amazon Supply Chain Services, a unified portal offering freight, distribution, fulfillment and parcel shipping to any business, not just marketplace sellers. CEO Andy Jassy likened the expansion to the growth of AWS, positioning logistics as a new revenue...
Shein Accuses Temu of Copyright Infringement on 'Industrial Scale' At U.K. Trial
Shein has launched a high‑court lawsuit in London accusing rival Temu of copying thousands of its product photographs, describing the infringement as occurring "on an industrial scale." The court granted Shein an injunction forcing Temu to pull thousands of listings...
Blackstone to Acquire Skroutz in $74 Million Deal
Blackstone’s private‑equity funds have signed a definitive agreement to buy a majority stake in Greece’s leading online marketplace Skroutz for an enterprise value of €635 million (about $747 million). Skroutz, founded in 2005, hosts over 26 million products from roughly 9,000 merchants and...
This Gen Zer Dropped Out of College to Become an Influencer—Now He’s a Millionaire From Selling Products Like Medicube and...
Logan Walter, a 21‑year‑old Gen Z creator, quit college to sell beauty and lifestyle products on TikTok Shop, amassing over $1 million in revenue within two years. His follower base grew to 250,000, and monthly earnings surged past $20,000 after a...
Good News About Takealot 30-Minute Deliveries in South Africa
South African logistics startup Shiprazor has secured a partnership with Takealot Fulfilment Solutions (TFS) to enable 30‑minute deliveries for merchants on its platform. The deal follows a R44 million investment from venture fund Norrsken22, which will fund the expansion of Shiprazor’s...
India Emerges as a Global E-Commerce Fulfilment Hub
India is rapidly transforming from a manufacturing sourcing base into a global e‑commerce fulfilment hub. Grade A warehousing, expanded airport cargo capacity and multimodal corridors are enabling higher outbound parcel volumes to North America, Europe and the Middle East. Logistics operators...
Superbalist Founders Turning a 102 Year-Old South African Retailer Into a Serious Temu and Shein Rival
The Foschini Group’s online platform Bash, built by former Superbalist founders, posted a 40% year‑on‑year sales jump to R1.4 billion and a 52% surge in gross profit to R521 million in the six months to September 2025. Its share of TFG’s total sales...
Academy Sports and Outdoors’ Omnichannel Definition Includes AI Platforms
Academy Sports and Outdoors is expanding its omnichannel strategy to include AI platforms such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. CIO Sumit Anand says the retailer is maturing product feeds, using AI to enrich attributes and enable conversational, agentic search...
Made In Uses Its Cast Iron Launch to Land in Williams-Sonoma
Made In announced a new cast‑iron cookware line that will debut exclusively at Williams‑Sonoma before reaching its direct‑to‑consumer site on June 1, timed for Father’s Day. The retailer will also carry the brand’s American‑made stainless‑steel collection, expanding Made In’s presence alongside...
6 Ways Retailers Are Augmenting the In-Store Experience with AI
Retailers are extending AI beyond online chatbots to transform brick‑and‑mortar stores. Iceland deployed real‑time inventory analytics to cut stockouts, while M&S equipped 11,000 employees with Microsoft 365 Copilot to speed up reporting and scheduling. Tesco is beta‑testing an AI shopping...
Online Storefronts RIP? Why the Rumors of Death Are Greatly Exaggerated, According to Shopify's Harvey Finkelstein
Shopify President Harley Finkelstein says AI is now the platform’s native language, with artificial‑intelligence generating more than half of the company’s code. The AI‑driven workflow has enabled 300 new products and features in the past year and sparked an 8‑fold...
Peak Season Fulfillment Has Changed — What Today’s Retailers Must Do Differently
Retailers are shifting peak‑season fulfillment from a pure capacity challenge to an operational discipline focused on flexibility, standardization, and cost control. Customers now demand affordable, reliable, and visible shipping even during the busiest weeks, while labor shortages and volatile parcel...
Declining Fraud Rates Don’t Mean Declining Fraud Risk
Payment fraud attack rates dropped 14% year‑over‑year and manual reviews fell 17%, yet chargeback losses surged 56%. The decline reflects tighter AI‑driven defenses, but fraudsters are now targeting high‑value, credential‑rich accounts, leading to more costly account‑takeovers. Traditional volume‑based metrics miss...
How Regional Beauty Movements Are Reshaping Fulfilment and Logistics Strategies
Regional beauty movements—from K‑beauty and J‑beauty to US wellness‑driven trends—are accelerating cross‑border purchasing, especially via TikTok and creator platforms. The surge in viral demand is straining traditional fulfillment networks, forcing retailers to rethink inventory placement, packaging compliance, and return processes....
Why DoorDash CEO Tony Xu Is in a Hurry to See More Grocery E-Commerce, but Pragmatic About AI's Speed to...
DoorDash CEO Tony Xu says grocery e‑commerce should soon eclipse restaurant delivery, arguing the current online experience still lags the offline one. The company is expanding its DashMart Fulfillment Services with a handful of grocers to tighten inventory control and...
Nintendo Renaming My Nintendo Store to Nintendo Store in Multiple Regions
Nintendo announced that its My Nintendo Store will be renamed Nintendo Store, taking effect on May 27, 2026. The rebrand initially covers Japan, Australia and New Zealand, with other territories expected to follow. No official rationale was provided, but the move...
Naspers Unit Offloads Stake in Food Giant for R6.5-billion
Prosus, the consumer‑internet arm of Naspers, agreed to sell a 5% stake in German food‑delivery leader Delivery Hero to Aspex Management for roughly €335 million (about $369 million), equivalent to R6.5 billion. The deal prices the 15.2 million shares at €22 each, a 10% premium...
Swiggy Drops as Quick-Commerce Slowdown Clouds Quarterly Results
Swiggy reported a fourth‑quarter loss of ₹800 crore (≈ $84 million), an improvement from the ₹1,065 crore loss a quarter earlier. The decline in its quick‑commerce arm Instamart, which posted 68.8% gross order‑value growth, lagged rival Blinkit’s 95.4% rise, prompting concerns over market‑share erosion....
Is Agentic Commerce An Oasis Or Mirage?
Agentic commerce—AI‑driven shopping assistants that can complete purchases—has moved from concept to pilot across Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, Instacart and Criteo. Recent earnings calls reveal that Amazon’s Rufus prompts 20% of engaged shoppers for brand details, Walmart’s Sparky lifts order values...
Is Agentic Commerce An Oasis Or Mirage?
Large ecommerce platforms—including Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, Criteo and Instacart—are betting heavily on agentic commerce, where AI agents can browse, recommend and purchase items on behalf of shoppers. Recent earnings calls reveal strong early signals: Amazon’s Rufus prompts 20% of users...
How Roller Rabbit Became TikTok’s Favorite Sleepwear Brand
Roller Rabbit, founded in 2003, has reinvented itself as a direct‑to‑consumer brand by slashing wholesale to roughly 30% of sales and embracing a frequent‑drop model. High‑profile collaborations with LoveShackFancy, Starbucks and Target have sold out within seconds, fueling more than...
Inside JB Hi-Fi’s Retail Media Rollout at Mumbrella Remade Conference
Mumbrella’s Remade conference returns on September 10 in Sydney, merging its retail media and retail marketing tracks into three focused streams. The agenda spotlights JB Hi‑Fi’s rollout of a store‑centric retail media network, with Scott Browning and Sarah Ladbury joined by...
Save Up to 50% Off Amazon Purchases by Redeeming Just a Few Credit Card Points
Amazon is rolling out targeted credit‑card promotions that let select Amex and Discover cardholders slash purchases by up to 50 percent. Amex members can redeem a single Membership Rewards point—at least 429 points, roughly $3—to receive as much as $80...
Ecommerce May Not Save the USPS
The U.S. Postal Service posted a $2 billion loss for Q2 2026, an improvement over the $3.3 billion loss a year earlier, even as package revenue grew 4.5% year‑over‑year. First‑Class mail volume has fallen more than 50% since its 2001 peak, eroding the...
Google’s UCP Update: Carts, Catalogs, And Loyalty In AI Shopping via @Sejournal, @Slobodanmanic
Google expanded its Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) on March 19, adding Cart, Catalog, and Identity Linking capabilities and a streamlined onboarding flow in Merchant Center. The Cart feature lets AI agents bundle multiple items in a single transaction, while Catalog provides...
IPhone 17 Pro Max Available for ₹1,25,400 During Flipkart Sasa Lele Sale: Here's How the Deal Works
Apple’s flagship iPhone 17 Pro Max is being sold on Flipkart’s Sasa Lele sale for ₹1,25,400 (≈$1,511), down from its ₹1,49,900 launch price (≈$1,805). The listed sale price is ₹1,34,900, with a ₹6,500 (≈$78) Axis Bank credit‑card discount and a...