How Is Fashion Retail Harnessing Performance Marketing?
Fashion retailers are feeling the squeeze as customer acquisition costs climb roughly 15% year‑over‑year. Brands such as Lounge, Castore and Fairfax & Favor are turning to performance‑marketing tactics that blend AI‑driven audience targeting, shoppable social content, and loyalty‑data integration. These approaches aim to lower CAC, boost conversion efficiency, and improve lifetime value across both online and brick‑and‑mortar channels. The shift reflects a broader industry move toward measurable, data‑centric growth amid a crowded digital landscape.
Discovery Channels: How Consumers Are Using AI to Shop
Consumers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence across multiple discovery channels to inform and complete purchases. The analysis highlights how AI‑driven chatbots, visual search tools, voice assistants, and generative recommendation engines are reshaping the shopping journey. Data shows a surge...
OnePlus Removed From Best Buy Stores as US Shutdown Looms, Replaced by Nothing
OnePlus devices have been pulled from Best Buy store displays and replaced by Nothing phones, marking the latest sign of the brand’s retreat from the U.S. market. The removal follows the end of OnePlus’s carrier partnerships and a public statement that...
Pokemon Card Packs In Japan Are Being Damaged To Spite Scalpers
Japanese retailers are deliberately cutting the corners off Pokémon TCG booster packs to make them unusable for resale. The damage lowers the packs' secondary‑market premium, nudging collectors to buy directly from stores. This tactic joins other anti‑scalping measures such as...
Why Retailers Must Think Like Tech Companies to Thrive in a Data-Driven Economy
Retailers head into the holiday season buoyed by improving consumer sentiment, but optimism alone won’t secure sales. In the data‑driven economy, success hinges on adopting technology‑company practices—scalable data pipelines, AI‑powered insights, and robust cyber defenses. The Adyen Index shows 38%...
Ahold Delhaize USA Expands Digital Commerce Capabilities
Ahold Delhaize USA announced a partnership with SmartCommerce to roll out the Click2Cart solution across its five U.S. grocery brands—Food Lion, The Giant Company, Giant Food, Hannaford, and Stop & Shop. Click2Cart lets shoppers add products they see in digital ads, social posts or brand‑owned media directly into...
Jumia Is Cutting 200 Jobs as AI Takes over More of Its Business
Jumia announced it will cut at least 200 full‑time jobs as it rolls out AI tools across logistics, customer support, finance and software development, aiming to become leaner and profitable by 2026. The e‑commerce platform reported Q1 2026 revenue of $50.6 million...
Amorepacific Turns Its Seoul Flagship Into AI-Powered Beauty Lab
Amorepacific has relaunched its Seoul flagship, Amore Yongsan, as an AI‑powered beauty laboratory. The new space combines retail, personalized cosmetics, and advanced skin‑analysis services under one roof. Central to the concept are City Lab, an AI‑driven skin and scalp diagnostic...
Sauce Launches AI-Powered Cashback Loyalty Engine to Help Restaurants Increase Reorders by Up to 30%
Sauce, a first‑party ordering and retention platform for restaurants, unveiled Sauce Cashback, an AI‑driven loyalty feature that automatically credits customers on each order. Early beta data shows participating eateries can boost reorders by as much as 30% within weeks. The...
YouTube Is Turning Your TV Into a Shopping Cart, and It's Exactly as Bad as It Sounds
YouTube unveiled a "Buy with Google Pay" button for ads on its smart‑TV app, letting viewers purchase items with two clicks. The feature, announced at the Brandcast 2026 event, joins AI‑driven tools like Reimagine and custom sponsorships that tailor video ads. By...
Ulta Beauty Expands Uber Partnership
Ulta Beauty announced that more than 1,500 of its stores have been added to the Uber Eats marketplace, allowing customers to order beauty products for home delivery through the platform. The rollout expands the retailer’s on‑demand offering beyond its existing...
Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Burberry, Chanel, Prada and Dior Are Most Purchased Items on EBay This Year So Far
eBay’s 2026 Spring‑Summer Watchlist shows legacy luxury houses still dominate the resale arena, with Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Burberry, Chanel, Prada and Dior topping global purchases from January through March. Dior leapfrogs Hermès after Jonathan Anderson’s appointment, while handbag and watch...
91% of Shoppers Say Loyalty Programs Drive Them to Shop as US Consumers Become “Loyalty Lovers”
LoyaltyLion’s May 2026 survey of 2,000 U.S. shoppers shows loyalty programs have become a daily habit rather than a passive enrollment. On average, consumers belong to 3.16 e‑commerce loyalty schemes and actively use 2.77, logging in roughly 11 times a...
Fera Pets Expands Into Petco Stores Nationwide
Fera Pets announced a nationwide rollout of its veterinarian‑founded supplements in Petco stores, placing a curated assortment on end‑cap displays across the chain. The new shelf space features Hip + Joint Support, Multivitamin, Cardiac Support, Pumpkin Plus Fiber, and USDA...
3 Ways Edible Brands Has Grown Its AOV in 2026
Edible Brands lifted its average order value in 2026 by extending last‑mile delivery, adding AI‑driven personalization, and selling through major food‑delivery marketplaces. Partnerships with Nash, Uber Direct and Roadie let the retailer ship perishable gifts up to 70 miles while...
Dillard’s Is so Confident, It Opened a New Store
Dillard’s opened its first Dayton‑area store in The Mall at Fairfield Commons, taking over a former Macy’s anchor. In Q1, the retailer reported a 3% rise in retail sales to $1.5 billion and a 30‑basis‑point lift in gross margin to 45.8%....
Best Buy Debuts Consultation Spaces Within Ikea Stores
Best Buy has launched dedicated consultation spaces inside two Ikea stores—in Frisco, Texas, and Tampa, Florida—where its Blue Shirt specialists help shoppers choose appliances, place orders, and arrange delivery without leaving the Ikea showroom. The move flips the existing shop‑in‑shop model...
Ecommerce Trends: Which Online Retailers Use Subscription Models?
Subscription models are gaining traction among North American e‑commerce leaders. Chewy’s Autoship program accounted for $10.5 billion, or 83.3% of its 2025 net sales, while the Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000 report shows only 3.2% of retailers used subscriptions in 2026. Retailers...
Amazon's Least Competitive Marketplace Is Now Everywhere
Amazon’s average traffic per active seller jumped 25% in the past year to 3,544 monthly visits, extending a trend that began in 2021. While total web traffic across 23 marketplaces rose 5% to 5.5 billion visits, the number of active sellers...
States Rush to Ban AI-Generated ‘Surveillance Pricing’ That Uses Shoppers’ Personal Data
Retailers are increasingly using AI-driven algorithms to set individualized, real‑time prices—a practice dubbed “surveillance pricing.” Consumer Reports uncovered price gaps of up to 23% for identical groceries on Instacart, potentially adding roughly $1,200 to a four‑person household’s annual bill. State...
How to Convert Your E-Store Visitors Into Customers
The U.S. ecommerce market now sees over 288 million shoppers, making traffic acquisition less of a hurdle than converting that traffic into sales. About 70% of visitors abandon carts, often because of unfamiliar payment options, complex checkouts, or hidden fees. Platforms...
AI Shopping Agents Are Already Ranking Your Store. Do You Know Where You Stand?
AI shopping agents are already evaluating retailers before a human ever sees a website, using delivery data to rank options. nShift’s Johan Hellman outlines a five‑stage maturity curve that shows why most stores are invisible and how they can become...
Amazon Wants to Be a Beauty Powerhouse. Is a Big Beauty Sale the Answer?
Amazon closed its fourth‑annual Summer Beauty Event, offering discounts up to 50% on makeup, skincare and vitamins. The retailer reported $8 billion in U.S. beauty sales for Q1 2026, underscoring its growing foothold in the category. To shift from a discount‑driven...
Unpacked: What Maryland’s Dynamic Pricing Ban Says About the Electronic Shelf Label Debate
Maryland became the first U.S. state to enact a law banning dynamic pricing on tax‑exempt groceries, prohibiting retailers from using personal data to raise prices. The Protection From Predatory Pricing Act, effective Oct. 1, 2026, targets stores of 15,000 sq ft or larger and...
Why Physical Retail Shops Are a Dying Breed
Physical retail in the United Kingdom is losing ground as online shopping delivers speed, price transparency, and 24/7 access. Declining foot traffic, rising rents, energy costs, and higher business rates are squeezing margins for both independent stores and large chains....
TikTok Announces New AI Advertising Solutions
TikTok unveiled a comprehensive AI‑driven advertising suite at its 6th‑annual TikTok World summit. New premium formats such as TopReach combine TopView and TopFeed for single‑day, high‑visibility buys, while Branded Buzz and Search Hubs enable creator‑powered buzz and top‑of‑search placement. The...
Amazon Launches an AI Shopping Assistant for the Search Bar, Powered by Alexa+
Amazon unveiled Alexa for Shopping, a new AI‑driven assistant that supersedes the earlier Rufus bot. Powered by Alexa+, it works via voice or text on mobile, desktop and Echo Show devices, delivering personalized product suggestions, price‑tracking and recurring‑order automation. The...
Winning the Human Behind the Algorithm: The New Loyalty Playbook for the AI Era
OpenAI’s decision to drop ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout highlights a growing split: AI chatbots excel at product discovery, yet shoppers still prefer to complete purchases themselves. Retail analytics show AI‑referred visitors are up to 30 times more likely to buy, turning chatbots...
Forget Dances. TikTok Wants People To Shop
TikTok is accelerating its shift from a short‑form video app to a full‑stack ecommerce platform. In March it unveiled TikTok GO, letting users book travel and activities directly in the feed, and introduced Branded Buzz and Search Hubs to scale creator‑driven...
World Cup 2026 Set to Drive a New Wave of Retail Spend as Fans Shop the Moment, Not Just the...
Unified commerce agency Visualsoft predicts the 2026 FIFA World Cup will spark a new wave of online retail spend that extends far beyond traditional sports merchandise. Building on trends from the Women’s EURO 2025 and Paris 2024 Olympics, the agency...
Lessons Learned From Adobe’s 2026 Q2 AI Traffic Report via @Sejournal, @Slobodanmanic
Adobe Analytics’ Q2 2026 AI Traffic Report reveals AI‑referred visits to U.S. retailers surged 393% year‑over‑year in Q1 2026 and now convert better than any other channel. Engagement metrics jumped—time on site up 48%, pages per visit up 13%—while revenue per visit...
Ulta Beauty Joins Uber Eats Platform
Ulta Beauty has joined Uber Eats, enabling the retailer to deliver its full range of beauty and wellness products through the on‑demand platform nationwide. The partnership extends Ulta's omnichannel strategy, allowing customers to receive items within hours without visiting a...
Angling Direct UK Sales Top £99 Million as Loyalty Scheme Drives Record Year
Angling Direct posted record UK sales of £99.2 m (≈$126 m) in FY26, lifting group revenue 13.8% to £103.9 m (≈$132 m). Adjusted EBITDA surged 42.9% to £4.8 m (≈$6.1 m), driven by a 46.8% jump in MyAD loyalty membership to over 600,000 and a store...
Paper Receipts Fall Out of Fashion: 76% of Shoppers Now Opt for Digital Receipts In-Store
New research from digital‑receipt specialist Yocuda shows that 76% of fashion shoppers now opt for digital receipts at checkout, up from negligible levels a few years ago. Convenience tops the motivation, with 52% citing ease of storage and 61% saying...
How Anita Fung Plans to Unlock Levi’s Next Chapter in China
Anita Fung, former Asia‑Pacific head of Burberry and Alexander McQueen, becomes managing director of Levi Strauss & Co. Greater China. She is tasked with restoring denim authority, accelerating disciplined direct‑to‑consumer growth, and making Levi’s a brand Chinese consumers deliberately choose. Fung...
EXCLUSIVE: Saks Fifth Avenue Downsizing in Greenwich, Conn.
Saks Fifth Avenue is consolidating its Greenwich, Conn., footprint from three separate stores into a single flagship location, closing the men’s store and moving the women’s shoe shop into the main 35,000‑square‑foot store. The company emphasized the move is a...
Dick’s to Open Hamptons Pop-Up Focused on Private Brands
Dick’s Sporting Goods is launching its first pop‑up store in East Hampton, showcasing its private labels Walter Hagen, Maxfli, Calia and DSG. The temporary shop opens in May, runs through October 18, and will rotate its merchandise from golf apparel to...
VTEX Revenue, GMV Grow Double Digits in Q1
VTEX reported Q1 FY26 revenue of $60.7 million, a 12.1 percent increase year over year, and GMV of $5.1 billion, up 17.1 percent. Subscriptions accounted for 98.8 percent of revenue, growing 14 percent, as the company deepened its AI‑driven commerce suite. More than 20 Top‑2000 retailers...
EBay Rejects GameStop’s Acquisition Offer
eBay’s board formally rejected GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen’s unsolicited proposal to acquire the marketplace, calling the offer neither credible nor attractive. Cohen valued eBay at about $55.5 billion but could only account for under $30 billion in funding, creating a sizable financing...
Congressman Launches Inquiry Into How Food Retailers Use Surveillance Pricing
Chairman Frank Pallone Jr., ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has sent a formal inquiry to 25 major food and drug retailers, including Albertsons, Walmart, and Amazon, asking how they collect and use personal data to set...
OroCommerce Partners with Intellias, Introduces a New Integration with iPaaS.com
OroCommerce announced two strategic moves in May: a strategic partnership with AI specialist Intellias and a new integration with iPaaS.com. The Intellias deal adds artificial‑intelligence capabilities, such as predictive demand forecasting, to OroCommerce’s B2B platform. The iPaaS.com integration creates a...
Five Below's Gen Z Focus Strengthens Brand Relevance & Sales Growth
Five Below is intensifying its focus on Gen Alpha, Gen Z and millennial parents, reshaping product assortments, marketing and store experience to match youthful trends. The shift to creator‑driven digital ads and faster‑new product cycles has lifted fiscal 2025 sales 23% to over...
Signs Your Retail Catalog Workflow Won’t Scale Without More Manual Work
Retail catalog workflows often hit a scaling ceiling when manual judgment dominates the process. As product assortments expand, undefined “ready to publish” criteria, data‑content drift, and growing review workloads cause the team to shoulder more decisions, limiting efficiency. While AI...
BJ’s Wholesale Club To Open Location In Grand Prairie, TX
BJ’s Wholesale Club will debut a new location at 1021 IKEA Way in Grand Prairie, Texas on May 15, expanding its Texas presence. To launch the club, BJ’s Gas will sell regular gasoline for $2 per gallon on May 13,...
Coca-Cola Is So Good at Marketing, Everyone Forgot to Notice
Coca‑Cola reported a blockbuster first‑quarter, with net revenue up 12% to $12.5 billion and EPS climbing 18%, while operating margin expanded to 35%. The growth came without a new product launch, relying on price discipline, distribution strength, and a consistent master‑brand...
Inside Amazon’s Push to Open Its Logistics Network to Everyone
Amazon announced it will open its extensive supply‑chain and logistics network to any business, not just sellers on its marketplace. The move stems from seller demand, growing off‑Amazon volume, and the need to detach internal‑only processes. Leveraging its AI‑driven speed,...
Why Nike’s SNKRS App Isn’t Going Anywhere
Nike’s SNKRS app continues to drive consumer engagement even as U.S. footwear sales have flat‑lined, underscoring the platform’s role as an inflation‑defying sales channel. At the same time, Under Armour reported another weak year, trimming roughly a quarter of its...
Mini Melts Teams with The Magnum Ice Cream Co. For Distribution Deal
Mini Melts USA has entered a strategic partnership with The Magnum Ice Cream Co. to operate Magnum‑branded vending machines across the United States, with a rollout beginning in summer 2026. The collaboration will place Magnum’s portfolio—including Good Humor novelty bars and...
Olivia Jade Launches Her Beauty Brand, O.Piccola After 5 Years of Formulation, Testing, and a Major Product Overhaul
Olivia Jade, a 26‑year‑old influencer with over four million followers, spent five years developing a cosmetics line after a failed partnership with a California manufacturer. The setback led her to a South Korean factory, where she spent three additional years...
Omnisend Launches MCP to Bring Ecommerce Marketing Into ChatGPT
Omnisend introduced Model Context Protocol (MCP), allowing ecommerce marketers to access its email and SMS platform inside ChatGPT. The feature lets users ask plain‑language questions about revenue, campaign performance, and root‑cause analysis without leaving the AI chat. MCP also generates...