Shopifreaks
Weekly e-commerce industry newsletter curated by Paul Drecksler, focusing on Shopify ecosystem news and global retail tech trends. Each issue of Shopifreaks rounds up the top headlines – from platform updates to notable brand launches – and delivers them with brief insights and wit for busy store owners
Google Home Adds Interactive, Conversational News Updates Through Gemini Live
Google Home has integrated Gemini Live, an AI‑driven feature that delivers interactive news summaries. The system lets users ask follow‑up questions within the same conversational thread, eliminating the need for new prompts or device switches. Unlike traditional headline reads, Gemini Live maintains context, allowing deeper dives into individual stories. Google has not revealed the rollout scale or the specific news outlets powering the service.
Shopify Expands Capital Repayment Through Shopify Payments to All U.S. States
Shopify announced that its Capital repayment service will now route payments through Shopify Payments for merchants in every U.S. state, making it the default method. ACH debit remains available only as a fallback after three consecutive Shopify Payments failures. The...
Amazon’s AWS Bahrain Data Center Damaged in Iranian Strike, Second Disruption in a Month
Amazon Web Services’ Bahrain data center was hit by a fire after an Iranian strike, confirmed by Bahrain’s Interior Ministry. The incident follows a prior outage in the same region last week, marking the second AWS disruption in a month....
Visa and Ramp Expand Partnership to Launch AI Agents that Automate Corporate Bill Pay and Expense Controls
Visa and Ramp have deepened their multi‑year issuing partnership by introducing AI agents that automate corporate bill payment, enforce spend controls, and surface cost‑saving opportunities. The new agents sit on Visa’s global payments network and Ramp’s finance platform, extending the...
TikTok Applies for Brazilian Fintech Licenses to Offer Payments and Lending to 131 Million Local Users
TikTok has filed applications with Brazil's central bank for two financial licences: one to operate as an electronic‑money issuer allowing users to hold balances and make in‑app payments, and another to act as a direct credit company that can lend...
Latitude Raises $8M to Help U.S. Businesses Make Fast International Payments Using Stablecoin Rails
Latitude, a fintech founded by alumni of Stripe, Coinbase, Uber and Meta, closed an $8 million Series A led by NEA with participation from Lightspeed Faction, Coinbase, Paxos and the Solana Foundation. Its flagship offering, Global Payouts, converts U.S. dollars into stablecoins...
EBay’s Social Sharing Tool Goes Down for over 24 Hours, Leaving Sellers without a Key Listing Promotion Feature
eBay's Social Sharing tool, which lets sellers post listings directly to Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram from the Seller Hub, has been down for over 24 hours, displaying an error page. Launched in 2023, the feature has already faced setbacks, including...
OpenAI and Anthropic Are Scaling Enterprise Sales Teams in a Hot Market That May Be Producing Order-Takers, Not Salespeople
OpenAI expanded its enterprise sales force from ten to roughly 500 reps in under two years, while Anthropic is targeting $20‑26 billion in revenue by 2026. Both firms are building go‑to‑market teams in a heavily inbound market where demand is so...
EBay Tests Image Search on Desktop Web After Nearly a Decade as a Mobile-Only Feature
eBay has begun beta testing its Search by Image tool on the desktop website, extending a feature that debuted on its mobile app in 2017. Users can upload a photo, drag and drop an image, or paste a link to...
Google Tests AI-Rewritten News Headlines in Search without Notifying Publishers, Drawing Industry Backlash
Google is piloting an AI feature that automatically rewrites news article headlines in Search results, doing so without informing or obtaining consent from publishers. Media executives argue the practice could produce inaccurate or misleading headlines that remain attributed to the...
Shopify Quietly Fixed a Bug That Silently Cancelled All Subscriptions When a Customer Removed a Shop Pay Card
Shopify disclosed that removing a payment method from Shop Pay automatically cancelled every active subscription linked to that card, affecting merchants across its entire ecosystem. The cancellation occurred without any warning, customer intent signal, or recovery flow, effectively disguising involuntary churn...
Shopify Launches Tinker, a Free Mobile App that Builds Brand Assets and Store Visuals From a Plain-Language Prompt
Shopify unveiled Tinker, a free mobile app that bundles more than 100 AI tools from OpenAI, Google and Anthropic into a single interface. Merchants can create logos, product images, social media videos and 360‑degree product views by entering plain‑language prompts,...
Tencent Launches 8 OpenClaw-Based Products to Close Its AI Gap Using WeChat as the Distribution Backbone
Tencent unveiled eight OpenClaw‑based AI products this month, anchoring them to its WeChat platform. The flagship QClaw, a one‑click AI agent, attracted millions of users in its first week and helped lift Tencent’s shares by 7% on March 10. CEO Pony Ma...
ShipMonk Hires Former Amazon and Chewy Executive Hugh Joiner as Chief Technology Officer
ShipMonk, the U.S. e‑commerce fulfillment platform founded in 2014, announced the appointment of Hugh Joiner as its new Chief Technology Officer. Joiner previously held senior technical and program‑management roles at Amazon and pet‑goods retailer Chewy, overseeing large‑scale logistics and data‑analysis...
Amazon Polly Launches Bidirectional Streaming API to Cut Text-to-Speech Latency for Conversational AI Apps
Amazon Web Services introduced a Bidirectional Streaming API for its Amazon Polly text‑to‑speech service, allowing developers to stream text and receive audio concurrently over a single HTTP/2 connection. Internal tests showed a 39 % reduction in latency compared with the traditional...
Lyft Launches 60-Day Gas Relief Program for Drivers Offering up to 98 Cents per Gallon in Savings
Lyft has launched a 60‑day gas‑relief program for its drivers, running from March 27 to May 26. The initiative provides cash‑back on Lyft Direct debit card purchases (1% for Gold/Platinum, 2% for Elite) plus an additional 14 cents per gallon through Upside and...
Google Loses Top India Legal Counsel Amid Antitrust Cases, AI Training Disputes, and New Content Rules
Google’s senior India lawyer Bijoya Roy resigned after 16 months, adding to a series of high‑level exits that left the firm without a government‑relations chief. The departure occurs amid intensifying regulatory scrutiny, including antitrust investigations, a probe into AI‑training data...
Meta Puts CTO Andrew Bosworth in Charge of “AI For Work” As It Pushes to Become AI-Native
Meta has moved oversight of its internal “AI For Work” program to chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth, previously responsible for the company’s metaverse efforts. The initiative, formerly led by Guy Rosen, seeks to embed generative‑AI tools across Meta’s employee base...
Bazaarvoice Integrates with TikTok Shop to Let Brands Syndicate Reviews and UGC to Product Listings
Bazaarvoice announced a new integration that lets brands syndicate ratings, reviews, photos and videos directly to their TikTok Shop product pages. The feature eliminates the “cold start” challenge by automatically porting existing user‑generated content to TikTok listings. TikTok Shop’s U.S....
TrueLayer Hires Satispay and Klarna Veteran as Head of Ecommerce to Scale Pay by Bank in Europe
TrueLayer has appointed Stefano De Lollis, a veteran who grew Satispay’s ecommerce arm and held senior roles at Klarna’s Sofort Banking, as Head of Ecommerce. The move comes as TrueLayer’s transaction volumes are nearly doubling year‑over‑year. Its Pay by Bank...
EBay Appoints HomeAway Co-Founder Brian Sharples to Its Board as the Platform Shifts Its Marketplace Strategy
eBay announced the addition of Brian Sharples, co‑founder and former CEO of vacation‑rental platform HomeAway, to its board of directors, expanding the board to 12 members. Sharples also chairs GoDaddy and has board experience at Yelp, Kayak, Avalara and RetailMeNot,...
Tubi Launches Scene Sense Contextual Targeting and Exclusive Amazon DSP Package at NewFronts
Tubi unveiled Scene Sense, a scene‑level contextual targeting engine that analyzes visual cues, tone and sentiment to serve relevant display ads when viewers pause content, alongside new carousel, trivia and poll pause‑ad formats. It also introduced Tubi Priority Access, an...
Brex Lands OpenAI as a Customer to Manage Its Global Corporate Spend and Financial Operations
OpenAI has selected Brex’s AI‑native corporate card and spend‑management platform to run its global financial operations. The deal incorporates Brex’s new ChatGPT integration, enabling finance teams to query expense data and policy details directly in a chat interface. Brex reports...
Flipkart CFO Sriram Venkataraman Steps Down as Walmart-Owned E-Commerce Firm Prepares for India IPO
Flipkart announced that group CFO Sriram Venkataraman will step down after seven years, with marketplace CFO Ravi Iyer taking over on an interim basis. The change occurs as the Walmart‑owned e‑commerce giant prepares for an Indian IPO, having recently moved...
Roblox Adds Former Activision Blizzard CFO Dennis Durkin to Its Board of Directors
Roblox announced the appointment of Dennis Durkin, former CFO and President of Emerging Businesses at Activision Blizzard, as an independent director. Durkin will sit on the Audit and Compliance Committee as well as the Leadership Development and Compensation Committee. He...
Pentagon Flags Anthropic’s Foreign Workforce as a National Security Risk to Dismiss Company’s Lawsuit
The Pentagon filed a declaration labeling Anthropic’s employment of foreign nationals, especially Chinese citizens, as a national‑security risk under China’s National Intelligence Law. The agency argues this risk exceeds prior concerns about domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons, and it contrasts...
Depop Faces Class Action over Hidden Marketplace Fees Weeks Before Its $1.2B eBay Acquisition Closes
Depop is facing a California federal class‑action lawsuit over its mandatory marketplace fee that is disclosed only at checkout. The suit alleges the hidden $1.55 fee on a $17 purchase violates the state’s Honest Pricing Law, which bans drip pricing...
Mercari Launches Limited-Time Tiered Fee Discount Beta for High-Volume Sellers Through May 2026
Mercari has launched a limited‑time beta fee‑discount program for high‑volume sellers, running from March 19 to May 14, 2026. Sellers are placed into tiered discount levels based on their cumulative sales during the eight weeks preceding the program, with tier status displayed via...
Shopify POS Smart Grid Now Lets Merchants Select Discount Codes From a Dropdown Instead of Typing Them Manually
Shopify has upgraded its POS Smart Grid editor to include a dropdown menu for selecting discount codes when building Discount tiles. The change replaces the previous free‑text field, which was vulnerable to typos and mismatched codes. Each tile now pulls...
EBay Beta Testing Video Ads in Promoted Listings Priority Cost-per-Click Placements Starting in Australia
eBay has begun beta‑testing a video‑enabled version of its Promoted Listings Priority in Australia. The feature allows sellers to attach 5‑ to 60‑second videos that auto‑play in eligible ad placements, reverting to static images where video isn’t supported. Pricing remains...
Pentagon Begins Replacing Anthropic’s AI Tools in Military Operations with Alternative Models
The Pentagon is actively replacing Anthropic’s Claude model with alternative large‑language models, a transition Cameron Stanley says will take more than a month. OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI have already secured clearance for classified work, while Google is rolling out...
Shopify Launches Agentic Storefronts in ChatGPT as OpenAI Shifts Away From Native Instant Checkout
Shopify announced that its new "agentic storefronts" will be available inside ChatGPT later this month. The feature taps the Shopify Catalog to syndicate product information across AI assistants while preserving Shopify’s standard checkout and payment processes. OpenAI’s recent decision to...
XAI Co-Founders Zihang Dai and Guodong Zhang Depart as Elon Musk Rebuilds Company Foundations
Elon Musk's AI startup xAI saw two of its original co‑founders, Zihang Dai and Guodong Zhang, leave the company this month. Their exits reduce the founding team from eleven members to just two remaining. Musk announced that xAI will be...
AT&T Commits $250 Billion Through 2030 to Build Essential Infrastructure for Artificial Intelligence
AT&T announced a $250 billion capital spending plan through 2030 to expand its fiber and 5G networks, specifically targeting the bandwidth and latency needs of artificial‑intelligence workloads. The company aims to become the foundational network layer for the emerging AI economy,...
XAI Hires Senior Cursor Leaders to Boost Coding Capabilities Following String of Executive Exits
Elon Musk’s xAI announced the recruitment of Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg, both former heads of product at the code‑generation startup Cursor. The duo will spearhead efforts to enhance xAI’s programming‑oriented capabilities, reporting directly to Musk. Their hiring comes after...
State Department Shifts StateChat to OpenAI After a Presidential Ban on Anthropic
The U.S. State Department has replaced Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4.5 with OpenAI’s GPT‑4.1 for its internal StateChat platform following a presidential directive that bans Anthropic models from federal use. The switch also rolls the chatbot’s training‑data cutoff back to May 2024, undoing a...
Converted Acquires Egyptian Fashion E-Commerce Platform Mitcha to Expand Its AI Advertising Ecosystem
Converted, an AI‑driven advertising technology firm focused on emerging markets, has acquired Egyptian fashion e‑commerce platform Mitcha. The acquisition brings Mitcha’s network of local designers and shoppers into Converted’s suite, accelerating the launch of its new Converted Orders product that...
Coupang Builds Stablecoin Legal Team to Issue Digital Assets and Save up to $200M in Annual Fees
Coupang announced it is hiring an in‑house legal team dedicated to stablecoin issuance and regulatory compliance. The initiative will enable the e‑commerce giant to embed blockchain‑based digital assets across its South Korean and Taiwanese operations, as well as its Farfetch...
Klarna and Affirm Integrate BNPL Into Stripe Payment Tokens to Capture $1T U.S. Agentic Commerce Market
Klarna and Affirm have integrated their buy‑now‑pay‑later (BNPL) services into Stripe’s shared payment token platform. The move enables AI‑driven shopping agents to automatically offer installment plans at checkout instead of defaulting to stored credit cards. The partnership targets the “bridge‑millennial”...
OpenAI Holds Talks with The Trade Desk to Sell ChatGPT Ads and Hit $17B Revenue
OpenAI is in early talks with ad‑tech giant The Trade Desk to sell advertising on its ChatGPT platform, part of a broader push to generate $17 billion in consumer revenue this year. The company has already partnered with Criteo to launch...
Depop Increases Boosted Listing Ad Fees From 8% to 12% as Sellers Blame eBay Ahead of $1.2B Buyout
Depop announced that its Boosted Listing advertising fee will increase from 8% to 12% starting March 23, 2026. The change comes as eBay prepares to acquire Depop from Etsy in a $1.2 billion deal slated for the second quarter. Sellers have...
EBay Waives Final Value Fees on 25 Fashion and Home Items for U.S. Sellers Amid Vinted Competition
eBay has launched an invite‑only promotion that waives final value fees on up to 25 items for selected U.S. sellers. The fee exemption applies to completed sales in the baby, fashion, and home‑decor categories and is valid through March 31, 2025....
Google Sets $5 Daily Minimum Budget for Demand Gen Campaigns, Forcing Small Advertisers to Spend More
Google will enforce a $5‑per‑day minimum budget for all Demand Gen campaigns starting April 1, aiming to give its AI enough data during the 7‑ to 14‑day cold‑start learning phase. The rule primarily hits small advertisers who run low‑budget, hyper‑segmented tests,...
Cargojet Secures UPS Contracts to Offset the Loss of China E-Commerce Volume Caused by US Tariffs
Cargojet, the Canadian cargo airline, signed new service agreements with UPS to replace capacity lost after the FAA grounded its MD‑11 fleet. The move cushions a sharp drop in transpacific revenue caused by Great Vision HK Express suspending its contract...
Wix Launches Website Creation App in ChatGPT Through OpenAI Collaboration to Simplify Design
Wix announced a partnership with OpenAI to embed its website‑building application inside ChatGPT. The new app lets users generate production‑ready sites using plain‑language text or voice commands, leveraging Wix’s proprietary protocols. The feature is being rolled out globally, aiming to...
Military Strikes on Iran Delay Middle East E-Commerce Deliveries as Shipping Costs Threaten to Double
Military strikes on Iran have forced major container lines to suspend cargo bookings to the Middle East, triggering widespread delivery delays for e‑commerce giants such as Amazon and Temu. Freight forwarders warn that shipping costs could nearly double as transit...
Miso Robotics Acquires Operations Platform Zignyl to Launch AI Dashboard Zippy for Restaurant Tech
Miso Robotics, the U.S. restaurant automation specialist, announced the acquisition of Zignyl, an operations platform provider. The purchase enabled the launch of Zippy, an AI‑driven dashboard that lets restaurant operators query data through a conversational chatbot. By embedding Zignyl’s workflow...
Stay22 Lands US$122M Investment From Summit Partners to Accelerate International AI Expansion
Stay22, a Montreal‑based creator‑economy platform, secured a $122 million growth capital infusion from private‑equity firm Summit Partners. The company reported processing more than $1 billion in transactions last year, underscoring its rapid adoption among event‑driven merchants. The new funding will be directed...
Block Cuts 40% of Workforce as Dorsey Says AI Tools Have Changed How to Build and Run a Company
Block announced a 40% workforce reduction, cutting more than 4,000 jobs as it pivots toward artificial‑intelligence‑driven operations. CEO Jack Dorsey said AI tools have fundamentally altered how companies are built and run, prompting the restructuring. Despite the layoffs, the company...
UK Appoints Former Amazon Exec Doug Gurr as CMA Chair
The UK government has confirmed former Amazon executive Doug Gurr as the permanent chair of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Gurr, who previously led Amazon’s UK operations, had been serving in an interim capacity before his appointment. He will...