How Cybercriminals Are Exploiting Retail Brand Identities to Scam Customers – And What Retailers Can Do About It
The online retail sector, projected to reach $12.35 trillion by 2030, is confronting a surge in cybercrime that hijacks trusted brand identities. Scammers deploy fake support emails, cloned storefronts, bogus shipping alerts, AI‑generated phishing, social‑media impersonation, and search‑engine ad hijacking to steal credentials and funds. Retailers are countering with multi‑factor authentication, dedicated monitoring teams, customer‑education campaigns, and advanced fraud‑detection platforms. Despite these measures, the threat intensifies during peak shopping events, keeping the risk landscape volatile.
Commercial Property: Newmark Expects a Rise in International Brand Openings in France
Newmark’s Retail Lab study shows French retail is defying a weak macro backdrop, with 141 development plans targeting 2,355 potential openings in 2026—up from 130 projects a year earlier. The surge is powered by foreign brands and franchise models, especially...
How Enamor Is Emerging as the Crown Jewel of Modenik Lifestyle's Portfolio
Modenik Lifestyle, backed by Advent International, is shifting its growth engine from mass‑market Dixcy to premium women’s lingerie brand Enamor. Enamor now contributes about 25‑26% of the group’s revenue and is slated to reach roughly 34% of the mix as...
The 5C’s of Agentic Commerce
Azoma, the leader in agentic commerce optimization, partnered with the Digital Shelf Institute to launch “The 5 C’s of Agentic Commerce,” the first industry‑standard framework guiding AI‑driven retail strategies. The model, already embraced by giants such as Mars, Unilever, Beiersdorf,...
Half of Germany’s Online Spending Abroad Goes to China
German e‑commerce hit €92.3 bn (~$100.6 bn) in 2025, growing 3.9%. While most purchases stay domestic, 12% of online spend goes abroad, and China absorbs nearly half of that cross‑border volume at 49%, followed by France (22%) and the Netherlands (19%). Germans...
Amazon Targets Faster Grocery Fulfilment with New UK Delivery Options
Amazon announced new ultra‑fast grocery delivery options in the UK, including the Amazon Now service that promises 30‑minute delivery from ten micro‑fulfilment centres in London, with plans to double the network and add hubs in Manchester and Birmingham. The company...
Belgian Ecommerce Worth 18 Billion Euros
Belgian consumers spent €18.3 billion ($19.9 billion) online last year, a 5.4% increase over the prior year. While overall e‑commerce grew modestly at about 3.4%, most of the surge flowed to foreign marketplaces such as Shein and Temu. Clothing and shoes topped...
Albert Heijn Promises to Use Even More AI
Albert Heijn, the Netherlands' largest supermarket chain, announced a broader rollout of artificial intelligence across its physical stores and digital platforms. Employees at the corporate headquarters now have access to an internal tool called “AH GPT,” which lets them design and...
Amazon Launches Prime Service in South Africa
Amazon has introduced its Prime subscription in South Africa, bundling fast delivery, video streaming, and cloud gaming. The service costs R59 per month (about $3.20) or R399 per year (about $21.60) with a 30‑day free trial. Members receive unlimited same‑day...
Loblaw Advance Upgrades Data and Analytics Platform
Loblaw Companies has upgraded its Loblaw Advance retail media network with a new AI‑driven Data Insights & Analytics platform. The agentic AI lets marketers ask plain‑language questions and receive instant analysis from subscribed datasets. Customizable homepages, key insights and dashboards...
Sonos Elevates Dealer Experiences Within B2B Buyers’ Portal
Sonos revamped its B2B dealer portal by migrating to Salesforce B2B Commerce and tightly integrating its CRM, ERP and order‑management systems. The redesign introduced a unified dashboard, type‑ahead product search, quoting tools, and an AI‑driven self‑service agent for order tracking...
Identity Sector Moves to Close Trust Gap in Agentic Commerce
The identity sector is confronting a trust gap as autonomous AI agents begin handling purchases, prompting firms to prove who an agent represents and its authorization. Mastercard’s Agent Pay initiative showcases live, consent‑based agentic transactions across European banks, emphasizing tokenization,...
Ecommerce Trends: What Matters as Much as Tech to Get Omnichannel Experiences Right
Omnichannel fulfillment is now a baseline for North American retail chains, with 85.9% of the Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000 offering services such as curbside pickup and BOPIS in 2025. A new 2026 Omnichannel Report, based on a March survey of...
Adidas Takes Over 35 Nordstrom Stores in Major World Cup Moment
Adidas has expanded its partnership with Nordstrom to a national retail program for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, covering 35 stores across the United States. The rollout features an immersive “At The Corner” installation at Nordstrom’s New York flagship, a...
SN Super50: Costco Takes the Fourth Spot
Supermarket News’ inaugural Super50 list, which ranks grocers on shopper‑centric factors rather than revenue, placed Costco Wholesale at fourth overall. The Issaquah‑based club retailer’s private‑label offerings now account for roughly 32% of its sales, underscoring the strength of its Kirkland...
Gopuff’s Shopping Assistant Is One for the Space Ages
Gopuff teamed with SpaceXAI to launch Go, an AI‑powered personal shopping assistant embedded in the Gopuff app. The tool blends Gopuff’s 13‑year order history, real‑time cultural signals from X and advanced voice, image and reasoning models to generate personalized carts...
The ‘Memento Economy’: Why Gen Z Is Heading Back to Stores
Snapchat and Portas, via a YouGov study of 2,000+ Gen Z shoppers, found that 51% prefer the in‑store experience to instant online buying. The research shows 75% visit physical stores to see or try products, and 59% shop to spend time...
Wave Cash App’s Magic Wand to Pay for Stuff
Cash App, the payments arm of Block, introduced a $25 "Cash App Wand," a pearlescent NFC‑enabled tag that functions like a debit card via tap‑to‑pay. The wand is the first product in a new Cash App Tag series, limited to...
Metro Retail Opens 83rd Store, Deepens Eastern Visayas Presence
Metro Retail Stores Group Inc. opened its 83rd store, Metro Naval, in Biliran province, marking its 12th outlet in Eastern Visayas. The new location combines a supermarket, department store and home‑lifestyle offerings, extending modern retail to a previously underserved area....
British Heart Foundation Plans Closure of 150 Shops Amid Rising Costs
The British Heart Foundation will shutter roughly 150 of its 640 UK shops over the next two years, with about 90 closures slated by March 2027 and the remainder by March 2028. The move follows a review that highlighted rising...
AI Apps Take Aim at Major Online Shopping Problem
Online shoppers are overwhelmed by fragmented sales, promo codes, and endless brand sites, prompting AI‑driven solutions. The Mall app consolidates personalized brand feeds, alerts and sales into a single iOS experience, while Phia uses large‑language models to compare prices, surface...
Walmart Marketplace Growth Reaches Fastest Pace in Years
Walmart’s U.S. third‑party marketplace posted a near‑50% year‑over‑year increase in Q1 FY27, its fastest growth in years. The platform now generates roughly $15 billion in gross merchandise value, about 10% of Walmart’s $150 billion U.S. e‑commerce sales, yet still trails Amazon’s 69%...
Athos Commerce Report Reveals AI, Fragmented Discovery, and Rising Consumer Expectations Are Reshaping Fashion Ecommerce
Athos Commerce and Drapers released the Connected Consumer 2026 report, showing that 60% of shoppers now use AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini while browsing fashion and 39% feel comfortable completing purchases through AI platforms. Only 14% of...
‘Ecommerce Remains the Growth Engine of German Retail’
The German Retail Federation (HDE) projects ecommerce revenue to hit €96.3 billion (about $105 billion) this year, outpacing physical‑store growth of just 1.6%. Marketplaces already account for 56.7% of online sales and are expected to grow further, though at a slower pace....
Instacart and Weis Markets Launch AI-Powered Caper Carts to Transform In-Store Shopping
Instacart and Weis Markets have introduced AI‑driven Caper Carts in select Pennsylvania stores, with additional rollouts slated for the year. The smart carts let shoppers track spend in real time, clip personalized coupons, and enroll in Weis Rewards directly on...
Luxury Chain Closes Flagship Store After 112 Years
Saks Global announced that its Neiman Marcus flagship on Main Street in downtown Dallas will close on September 30, 2026, ending a 112‑year legacy. The decision follows the retailer’s Chapter 11 filing in January 2026 and a broader cost‑cutting program that already shuttered multiple Saks...
Amazon Wants Sellers to Be More Precise with Handling Times
Amazon announced that starting June 29 it will enforce accurate handling times for sellers’ self‑fulfilled SKUs. Any SKU consistently shipped faster than its listed handling time will be flagged, and sellers must correct the estimate within 30 days or Amazon will manage...
Interview: Rithum’s Mark Howell on How Retailers Can No Longer Rely on Inventory-Led Growth
Retailers are turning to dropshipping to expand assortments without tying up cash or warehouse space, according to Rithum’s EMEA retail director Mark Howell. The model shifts fulfillment to suppliers while the retailer remains responsible for the customer experience, demanding new...
Mastercard Expands Offers Network in Asia
Mastercard announced the expansion of its Mastercard Offers Network across the Asia‑Pacific region, allowing banks to embed merchant‑funded promotions directly within their mobile apps. The move taps a market where digital payments reached nearly $16 trillion in 2025 and intra‑regional travel...
Better Product Images Build Buyer Trust in Resale Marketplaces
Visual quality is emerging as a decisive competitive edge in U.S. resale marketplaces, where the second‑hand market is projected to hit roughly $73 billion this year. Photoroom’s research shows that high‑fidelity, realistic product images are the top factor influencing shopper decisions,...
Why Beauty Brands Can’t Afford to Ignore TikTok Shop
TikTok Shop’s sales have surged over the past year, turning the platform into a major e‑commerce hub for cosmetics, skincare and hair care. Ulta Beauty became the first U.S. specialty beauty retailer to launch a storefront on TikTok Shop, signaling...
NRF’26 Apac: Golden ABC, Gill Capital and Zalora on the Next Era of Retail
At NRF 2026 Asia Pacific, leaders from Golden ABC, Gill Capital and Zalora outlined how the next era of retail hinges on speed, authenticity and immersive experiences for a digitally native, value‑conscious generation. In the Philippines, a median age of 26 fuels a...
It's Hard to Make Sense of Amazon's AI-Generated Images While You Search
Amazon is rolling out visual‑search upgrades in its shopping app, featuring AI‑generated images that appear as users type descriptive terms like color, texture, or pattern. The images dynamically shift with each added word, aiming to help shoppers locate items they...
10 Best E-Commerce Personalization Software I Recommend
The article ranks the ten best e‑commerce personalization platforms for 2026, drawing on hundreds of G2 reviews and the Winter 2026 Grid Report. It highlights Insider One, ActiveCampaign, AB Tasty, ContactPigeon, MoEngage, Luigi’s Box, Netcore, edrone, NotifyVisitors and Bloomreach as the top choices across...
The Invisible Shopper Rewriting Asia’s E-Commerce Playbook
The Morph "Agentic Economy" report reveals that AI‑driven software buyers are already reshaping retail, with $67 billion of Cyber Week spend in 2025 directly influenced by agents. Open standards such as Google’s AP2, Stripe‑OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol, and Ethereum’s ERC‑8004 enable autonomous...
UK Footfall Fails to Impress in May, Consumers Becoming More 'Intentional'
MRI Software’s May 2024 footfall report shows overall retail traffic slipped 0.8% year‑on‑year, with high streets down 1.9% and shopping centres down 0.6%. Retail parks bucked the trend, rising 1.4% as shoppers focused on grocery, BBQ and DIY essentials. Weekend...
Nest New York Brings Its Fragrance-Layering Strategy to the UK
Nest New York, a prestige fragrance brand, is entering the United Kingdom this month via e‑tailer Cult Beauty and department stores Harrods, Selfridges, and John Bell & Croyden. The launch leverages the brand’s layerable fragrance model, which lets shoppers mix perfume oils, eau...
Inside Chewy’s Push to Build a Pet-Focused Retail Media Network
Chewy’s retail‑media arm, Chewy Ads, has rapidly scaled since its May 2023 launch, doubling the number of advertisers and campaigns between fiscal 2025 and 2026. The platform boasts a one‑in‑three click‑to‑sale conversion rate and reports that advertisers generate roughly $7 in...
Google’s Universal Cart Will Soon Be Available to Walmart, Target Shoppers — Getting Their Buy-In May Be the Hard Part
Google announced its Universal Cart, an AI‑powered shopping cart that will debut this summer in Google Search and Gemini, later expanding to YouTube and Gmail. The cart aggregates product listings from any retailer, monitors price changes, alerts on stock, and...
JudyDoll Opens First Brick-and-Mortar Store in Hong Kong
JudyDoll, the Shanghai‑born beauty brand owned by Joy Group, opened its first brick‑and‑mortar store in Hong Kong, stepping beyond its e‑commerce‑only model. The flagship shop displays more than 800 SKUs, featuring best‑sellers such as the 3D Curling Iron Mascara and...
Amazon Applies AI Shopping Tech to Customer Retailer Agents with AWS
Amazon has launched Agentic Shopping Assistant on AWS, a turnkey platform that lets retailers create their own conversational AI shopping agents. The service builds on Amazon Bedrock, AgentCore and OpenSearch, promising deployment in weeks rather than years. Kate Spade New...
Retail Logistics Faces Growing Demands for Flexible Delivery & Fulfillment
Retail logistics is under mounting pressure as U.S. shoppers demand flexible delivery, reliable fulfillment, hassle‑free returns, and rapid refunds, according to Locus’s Q2 2026 consumer survey of 1,000 respondents. While speed remains important, the full delivery experience now drives purchase...
Amazon Prime Day Will Lean Into Grocery
Amazon’s 2024 Prime Day, scheduled for June 23‑26, will spotlight grocery, fresh food and household essentials. The retailer is expanding its Amazon Now 30‑minute delivery service to seven new cities, including Austin, Houston, Minneapolis, Orlando, Phoenix, Denver and Oklahoma City. Prime...
How AI Decides Which Products Consumers See
AI-powered chat tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are reshaping e‑commerce by turning vague consumer goals into product recommendations. Nearly half of global shoppers (45%) now begin their purchase journey with an AI assistant, moving demand creation upstream. To appear...
RSA America Partners with AWG to Help Independent Grocers Expand Digital Commerce and Retail Media
RSA America announced a strategic partnership with food wholesaler Associated Wholesale Grocers (AWG) to roll out its integrated digital commerce and retail media platform across AWG’s network of more than 1,100 independent grocery members and 3,500 stores. The collaboration gives...
Amazon’s Long Game in South Africa
Amazon has rolled out its Prime subscription in South Africa, pricing the full bundle at R59 (~$3) per month or R399 (~$21) annually, undercutting local rivals. The move follows a two‑year retail presence and years of AWS investment, with Amazon earmarking over...
Pressed Juicery to Open in 27 CloudKitchen Locations
Pressed Juicery announced a partnership with CloudKitchens to roll out 27 delivery‑only locations by the end of summer. CloudKitchens operates 90 facilities in major U.S. metros, giving Pressed a nationwide digital footprint without new storefronts. The juice brand, which already...
Skechers India Partners with Brandman Retail to Manage E-Commerce Marketplace Portfolio
Skechers India has appointed Brandman Retail as its authorized reseller to run its e‑commerce portfolio across Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Ajio, Tata CLiQ, Nykaa Fashion and select quick‑commerce sites. Brandman will enforce authentic product availability, price controls and Skechers’ global brand standards....
Picnic to Start Delivering Meals in the Netherlands: “A 4-Billion-Euro Market”
Picnic, the Dutch online grocery retailer, has launched "Picnic Kookt," a freshly prepared meal service offering about twenty dishes at roughly €10 (≈ $11) each. The meals, made in Picnic’s own kitchen with local, organic ingredients, are delivered for free alongside...
Walmart and Magnite Signal Retail Media’s Next Phase
Walmart announced a partnership with ad‑tech firm Magnite to expose its first‑party audience data through an open supply‑side infrastructure, initially via the Yahoo DSP. The collaboration lets agencies and multi‑location brands activate Walmart data on existing programmatic platforms, cutting through...