The retailer has launched a multimillion-pound strategy centred on what it calls "AI-powered shopping", enabling its products to appear in recommendations generated by chatbots such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini. The move forms part of a wider digital expansion designed to place the brand directly within the new tools consumers increasingly use to search for products and inspiration.
Luke Arnel Cameron didn't launch his first year on TikTok Shop with a warehouse, a call center, or a giant ad budget. He launched with a camera and a livestream. "We launched November, 2024 ... in the UK. Our first livestream, we did 70,000 pounds," he says. "In our first year, we've done over 650,000 orders." It's not the typical outcome, but it is a revealing one.
Facebook will announce its second quarter earnings today, and the social giant appears to have solved its mobile problems. When Facebook launched its IPO two years ago, it was criticized for not having a clear mobile strategy. Just two years later, more than half of the firm's revenue comes from mobile ad sales and its stock is approaching an all-time high. Now that is has figured out mobile, it is moving on to an even more lucrative segment: commerce.
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Key stat: TikTok users ages 25-44 lead all age groups in taking action after seeing ads, with 54% gathering more info about products and 47% making purchases, according to an October 2025 survey from Edison Research. Beyond the chart: This shopping behavior tracks with broader social commerce trends. In fact, one-third of adults ages 18 to 34 have made a purchase on social media, compared with 23% of 35- to 54-year-olds, according to an August 2025 survey from Bizrate Insights and EMARKETER.
These consumers are navigating retail entirely on their own terms: discovering brands through TikTok and YouTube, engaging with live streams on platforms like Twitch (which just launched its Amazon-powered live-shopping feature), hunting for deals and secondhand finds online, and often making purchase decisions of their own, or influencing those of their family members. Gen Alpha and Gen Z will account for 40% of fashion spending in the next decade, according to a new BCG study.
Cyber Monday 2025 just became the biggest online shopping day of all time in the U.S. as consumers spent a total of $14.25 billion, up 7.1% year over year, according to Adobe's e-commerce analytics. At peak between 8AM to 10PM, Americans were spending $16 million per minute. The caps an also record-breaking Cyber Week as sales for the American Thanksgiving holiday season were up 7.7% year over year to $44.2 billion.
Marketplace is getting a new "collections" feature that lets users create groups of listings and invite friends to join. Users can get started by saving a listing, starting a new collection, and then choosing whether to make it public or private. They can then add friends to their collection and share updates through Feed, Messenger, WhatsApp, and more. Meta's also testing collaborative buying, which means users can invite a friend to join their chat with a seller.
Fashion and beauty probably has a head start on all of this thanks to fast trend cycles and Sephora tweens. A few weeks ago, I joined one brand that has made this work a priority: PacSun, the 45-year-old, now private equity-owned brand most recently reported to do around $1 billion in annual revenue. Millennials may remember PacSun from its mall heyday; it was originally founded as a surf brand. In recent years, it's had a comeback with Gen Z-it's all over TikTok Shop-and I found it fascinating how deeply PacSun is devoted to understanding these rising generations.
Retail's AI-driven digital transformation is well underway. In 2026, more than ever, customers are looking to technology for smoother, hassle-free shopping experiences, while businesses harness it to drive efficiency and hone their competitive edge. At the same time, the barriers between physical retail and e-commerce are blurring, and shifts in the way algorithms put products in front of us are shaking up the industry.
While there are plenty of brands that knock traditional retail out of the park (Sephora, Drunk Elephant, Huda Beauty), the throughline is the understanding that every channel needs to connect, ensuring customers can find your brand wherever they are in the shopping journey. That means ensuring brands are searchable on Google, discoverable on TikTok, reinforced with reviews on Amazon, tangible at Sephora, and community-led with engaging content on YouTube.
On this week's episode, co-hosts Gabriela Barkho and Melissa Daniels get into the news of Quince dodging claims from Ugg's parent, Deckers Brands, that it unlawfully copied two of its best-selling styles. Next, they discuss the announcement from cosmetics company E.l.f that it will be offering live shopping on streaming service Twitch, and the implications for the potential resurgence of streaming in social commerce.
E.l.f. Cosmetics wants to inject more performance into its Twitch advertising with the new in-stream shoppable integration. The capability is powered by Amazon Ads, allowing E.l.f. to draw on the e-commerce giant's troves of retail media data to better target and measure campaigns. The timing aligns with the gear up to the holiday season, a critical sales window for retail brands.
Consumers are using social media platforms like Instagram to search for new products and services. Forbes research found that 24% of people primarily use social media to search online (versus traditional methods like Google search). Furthermore, 44% of Gen Z actively discover new brands on social media every day. Your ideal customers are likely already searching for businesses like yours on Instagram. Show up where they are to give your small business the best chance to be discovered.
According to NIQ's State of Beauty 2025 report, online beauty sales are growing nine-times faster than in-store, up 21 percent in North America, 20 percent in the Asia-Pacific region and 10 percent in Europe. Brazil, India and Indonesia are also seeing significant, albeit more emerging, e-commerce growth. Total beauty spend is up, too, growing 10 percent globally during the last 12 months.
As retail chains scaled, the focus shifted to shelf space. The brands that occupied the most shelf space inside the store gained an immediate advantage. When shopping moved online, the fight shifted from real estate to clicks and traffic. Social commerce has fundamentally transformed the way people shop. Discovery and checkout are merging into a single cycle, creating both opportunities and chaos, which is precisely why brands need their own creator infrastructure.
Minimalist skin care brand Sonsie has named Kailey Bradt, formerly the founder of waterless hair care line Susteau, as chief executive officer. Sonsie is majority-owned by actress Pamela Anderson, who joined the 2023-founded line last year. Beauty manufacturer Solésence has tapped Kevin Cureton as president and CEO. Previously, Cureton served as chief operating officer of the Illinois-based manufacturer. He succeeds Jess Jankowski, who will retire from the company in November.
The TikTok challenger had just cracked the Apple App Store's top-five ranking. Downloads soared 855% month over month, Sensor Tower data showed, fueled by TikTok's imminent ban in the US. It was a dream scenario for an app that - with over $230 million in funding and a roughly $1.1 billion valuation - promised to reinvent social shopping through a mix of product reviews and entertaining videos.
