If Q4 is the holiday shopping season, then Q1 might be the season of returns, or more specifically the season of return fraud. Retailers and ecommerce merchants are seeing a growing trend of returns and fulfillment scams that drain profit margins after big sales. This fraud was the impetus for Thursday's launch of Pinch AI, a startup that aims to mitigate such losses to fraud and marketing scams, with $5 million in venture backing.
UK businesses invest heavily in digital marketing. Yet many struggle to grow. The issue is not effort. The issue is disconnected systems. Ads, websites, and CRM often work apart. This makes it hard to track leads and sales or scale with confidence. This problem is common in: Home eCommerce brands, like furniture and home decor stores, that depend on online sales
Today, instead of typing "best running shoes," consumers simply ask their favorite AI, "What running shoes should I buy?" These models respond quickly, often drawing on vast stores of user-generated content, reviews, and discussion threads-a dynamic "source stack" that looks very different from traditional SEO rankings. What's more, they can answer highly specific, long-tail questions, from "Which running shoes are best for flat feet in rainy climates?" to "What sneakers do marathoners recommend in 2024?"
Microsoft has something special just for you. The company just introduced something called Copilot Checkout at the NRF 2026 retail conference. This is exactly what it sounds like. It's a shopping assistant embedded within Copilot. The feature is rolling out now in the US and integrates with PayPal, Shopify, Stripe and Etsy. It lets people complete purchases directly inside of Copilot without having to withstand the grueling experience of being redirected to a retailer's website.
Adobe Analytics, which analyzed online transactions and website traffic for its shopping trends report, said traffic from generative AI chatbots toward retailer's sites, increased by 693.4% from the 2024 holiday season, indicating a shift in the way people shop. Before the holiday season began, FedEx reported 97% of U.S. retailers were planning to use AI for shopping, including incorporating tools for customer service and pricing.
The Alibaba economy is a huge ecosystem comprising of the company's core commerce platforms (Tmall, Taobao, Ali Express and more), digital media and entertainment divisions (Youku, Alibaba Music, Weibo etc), local services, payment & financial services (Alipay), logistics, marketing services & data management and cloud computing. Connecting the entire ecosystem is the company's vast data technology, which Alibaba sees as the keys to the empire.
In March 2025, 900 U.S. adults shared their browsing behavior with the Pew Research Center. Roughly 58% of those adults encountered an AI Overview when searching on Google. Only 8% then clicked a traditional listing. Conversely, 42% of Google searchers received no AI Overview; 15% then clicked on a listing. The immediate impact - 8% vs. 15% - is material and measurable. According to eMarketer, zero-click searches have reduced traffic to many websites by 25% or more.
To use the interface, ChatGPT users need to make an Instacart account and then surface Instacart within their chat thread using a prompt like, "Instacart, help me shop for apple pie ingredients." From there, they can discuss recipes, ingredient swaps, and their preferred store with ChatGPT, which will help them order all of the items they need from Instacart without ever changing tabs or leaving the chat.
The Product Network shows items from across participating merchants where? Shop App? even if it that item isn't carried by the store any given person is browsing. For example, someone buying home supplies from a Shopify merchant's site might search for "organic cleaning supplies" or some particular soap fragrance. If that merchant doesn't carry anything that fits the search, the customer could see some of the closest-to options from that seller, interspersed with products from other sellers in the network with items that do fit the bill.
Case in point: Walmart told Business Insider exclusively that its shoppers will be able to place store-fulfilled express delivery orders as late as 5 p.m. local time on Christmas Eve - a full hour later than last year. "More people are using Express Delivery to get their items faster, and December is when it truly shines," Walmart's chief e-commerce officer David Guggina said in a statement.
This is all part of TikTok's major push to convert the platform into an eCommerce superpower, re-creating the same path to success that the app saw in China, with the local version of the app. On Douyin, the China-only version of TikTok, live shopping, in particular, has been a big winner, with the platform generating $US490 billion in gross merchandise sales in 2024. Douyin has expanded its in-stream sales to all elements of shopping, including groceries, meal delivery, and more.
While you're making preparations for Small Business Saturday at the end of November, make sure your website is optimized and ready to capture online shoppers. Don't just rely on foot traffic at your physical store - websites are a great way to capture online traffic and sales, too. American Express reported that 53% of consumers shopped online at small businesses on Small Business Saturday in 2023.
In October, the Trump administration secured new trade deals with Malaysia, Cambodia, and Thailand that included a call for a permanent end to tariffs and taxes on digital goods and online services. The agreements reaffirm the United States' long-standing position that digital commerce - software, streaming, cloud storage, and similar services - should flow freely across borders, untaxed and unrestricted.
"You'll notice that we don't sell the No. 1, 2 slots in search - like some of our competitors do," he said at Recode's CodeCommerce conference that year, positioning Walmart.com as the anti-Amazon in its approach to search results. Six years later, that line has all but faded. Sponsored listings now routinely appear at the top of Walmart's search results, pushing organic products further down the page. It's a shift that mirrors the evolution of Amazon's marketplace, where paid placements have become a core part of the shopping experience.
Instant Checkout in action. Source: ChatGPT. OpenAI is redefining online shopping with an agent-based checkout feature, allowing users to purchase products directly from Etsy and Shopify merchants within AI chats. Imagine searching for a housewarming gift for a friend or maybe a running t-shirt for yourself. ChatGPT suggests relevant Etsy or Shopify products; you pick the style, click the "Buy" button, and a green tick confirms your order. Voilà! No browsing. No cart. Just instant shopping.
The traditional customer journey has evolved to capture the complexity of how today's consumers discover, purchase, review and become loyal fans of products. On platforms like TikTok, crowded by bingeable creator unboxings, high-value influencer reviews and consistent content loops, the journey consumers take has evolved into an "infinity loop," a circular process that consumers continuously cycle through. In this loop, consumerism is at an all-time high; you can buy products with a simple tap, and then they're on their way to you.
Artificial intelligence has changed my business entirely. The majority of my business is ecommerce-based, and AI has allowed me to automate many of the most time-consuming tasks. This shift hasn't just saved me time; it's made daily operations more efficient and enabled smarter, data-driven decisions that have elevated both productivity and customer satisfaction. In the early days, I spent nearly every waking hour creating products and listing them online.
Google seems to be testing renaming the Shopping tab in Google Search from Shopping to "AI Shopping." Maybe the results in the new AI Shopping tab are more AI-driven? This test was spotted by Sachin Patel who posted some screenshots and a video on X - here are some of his screenshots: Here is a GIF of it in action:
In just under two decades, subscription services have changed the way people shop, play and work. Businesses are also taking advantage of subscription services. As we head for the middle of 2025, though, the subscription economy is showing signs of yet another shift as it expands beyond digital services. What may the future hold? Related: The Subscription Economy Is Growing Fast. Here's How Your Business Can Adapt and Thrive. The rise of the subscription economy
With one tap from an ad, shoppers can immediately view retailer options, allowing them to choose their preferred retailer and add the item to their cart for purchase. This gives shoppers the choice and convenience they expect, while brands gain higher-quality engagement from people ready to act. Advertisers gain transparent signals such as Purchase Intent Clicks, and Purchase Intent Value to understand the impact of every dollar without needing to track on retailer‑owned sites. And it's effective.
Winery owners face more pressure than ever to sustain growth while keeping operational costs lean. Seasonal sales cycles, shifting alcohol consumption habits, and increasingly fragmented media channels have made it harder for small to midsize wine brands to reach new customers - especially online. Source: eMarketer At the same time, US wine buyers are more price-sensitive and brand-loyal than ever. According to 2024 data from eMarketer, nearly half of US adults say price is a "very important" factor when purchasing wine, while just 20% say the same about brand or ratings.
Wix merchants link their site directly to a Pinterest account from the Wix dashboard. Once connected, the store's product catalog is automatically synced, meaning all changes (including new items or updated prices) appear on Pinterest, as well. Merchants can then run targeted Pinterest ads to the platform's users. When they click on the ads, they are taken back to the merchant's Wix site for checkout.
President Trump eliminated the de minimis exemption effective August 29, 2025. Most U.S.-bound shipments valued at $800 or less will incur applicable duties, taxes, fees, and other charges, although the change affected packages from China and Hong Kong as of May. And the U.S. Postal Service, in collaboration with other domestic postal providers, has a six-month transition period. Nonetheless, the change represents a dramatic shift for ecommerce.
