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
Naver Prepares ThingsBook Launch with Potential Poshmark Ties
Naver, the South Korean tech giant behind Poshmark, announced the launch of ThingsBook, a social curation app targeting North American users. The service, described as a “personal museum,” lets shoppers organize and showcase favorite items in a visual feed. Scheduled for a Jan 26 debut, ThingsBook will initially operate as a standalone experience but is designed to share data signals with Poshmark’s search and discovery engines. The move signals Naver’s push to blend content creation with commerce in a single ecosystem.
Cisco Integrates OpenAI Codex for Enterprise Engineering
Cisco has partnered with OpenAI to embed Codex into its engineering workflows, creating an autonomous AI teammate that assists with complex system development. The deployment has slashed build times by 20% and freed roughly 1,500 engineering hours each month through...
Humain Secures $1.2B to Expand Saudi AI Infrastructure
Saudi AI firm Humain, backed by the Public Investment Fund, has secured up to $1.2 billion from the National Infrastructure Fund to expand its data‑center footprint. The financing will fund the construction of 250 MW of capacity, part of a broader plan...
USPS Rate Increases Are Back to Once a Year
The Postal Regulatory Commission approved rules that cap USPS market‑dominant rate increases to a single fiscal‑year adjustment through 2030, effective March 1, 2026. This reverses the 2021 expansion that allowed bi‑annual hikes, restoring the predictability merchants once enjoyed. While the total pricing...
Google Denies that It Will Use Universal Commerce Protocol for “Surveillance Pricing”
Google publicly denied allegations that its new Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) will enable "surveillance pricing" through AI shopping agents. Consumer watchdog Groundwork Collaborative and activist Lindsay Owens warned that the system could use chat data to personalize price hikes and...
Commercetools Dedicated NRF to Showcasing Its Agentic Experience
At NRF 2026, commercetools unveiled its AI Hub, a plug‑and‑play infrastructure that lets enterprise retailers expose product, pricing and inventory data to AI‑driven shopping assistants without custom integrations. The company highlighted JD Sports as the first retailer to run Stripe’s Agentic Commerce...