The convenience of sourcing online is fraught with more pitfalls than most of us want to admit. Try finding adequate photos of a vintage piece's condition-close-ups of the fabric, video of damaged areas, any images of a piece's rear or underside!
Our customers are busier than ever and are looking for new ways to save time while keeping their households running. We saw an opportunity to use our unique operational expertise and delivery network to help make customers' lives a little easier while unlocking even more value for Prime members.
Sourced directly from a manufacturer, private-label brands remove one or more layers of intermediaries from the supply chain, usually distributors or other brands. A nearly identical private brand can earn more margin, even at a low price.
Fashion fans are more visible - and influential - than ever before. The Met Gala - often called fashion's Super Bowl - garnered more engagement across social media and press than the actual American football championship last year, according to Launchmetrics. Just like Swifties, fashion fanatics gather online in communities and comment sections on accounts like Gvishiani's to dissect collections, magazine covers and red carpets.
Retailer-owned products not being seen as a cheap alternative anymore, but instead, a way to convey luxury and exclusivity. Price-Led Positioning is No Longer Dominating UK Supermarkets. Small UK businesses are aggressively growing, with price-led positioning becoming a dated trend. It's becoming evident that brands are no longer using their own branded products as a way to be a cheap alternative.
Performance has always been the foundation of commerce media because it tied spend to measurable behavior. From sponsored search to sponsored products, the category scaled by delivering outcomes that could be directly attributed to transactions. Automation, AI-driven optimization and closed-loop measurement accelerated that model and made outcomes-based buying the norm. Outcomes still matter. But as AI reduces friction and increases competition, outcomes alone no longer create separation.
Spend half an hour exploring #StrategyTwitter or #MarketingTwitter and you'll quickly discover huge swathes of talented folks arguing passionately about the correct way to market brands. On one end of the spectrum you'll find the staunch strategists quoting lines from Sharp's How Brands Grow (which is well worth a read), while on the other end you'll find people posting fairly nauseating Gary Vaynerchuk quotes in serif fonts about how the number one rule in marketing is 'love'.
When a transaction involves a cost, we instinctively weigh the downside. But when something is entirely free, we experience a positive emotion and perceive the offer as more valuable than it is mathematically. Retailers no doubt realise that offering free delivery is one of the most effective ways to stop a consumer from abandoning a digital shopping cart.
Discounting has been part of retail's toolkit for decades, and it can be effective, especially during high-stakes shopping seasons. But as promotions become more frequent across the industry, companies are taking a closer look at the downside: Short-term sales gains don't always come with long-term loyalty or durable margins, and customers remember how a brand made them feel far more than what they saved at checkout.
You're scrolling through an online retailer, like Amazon, Shein or eBay, and spot a shirt on sale for $40. You add it to your cart, but at checkout, a $10 shipping fee suddenly appears. Frustrated, you close the tab. But what if that same shirt was priced at $50 with free shipping? The likelihood that you would have bought it without a second thought is much higher.
Beyond their spending, high-value clients typically engage regularly, remain loyal over time, and align with the company's core offerings. For example, a high-value client that engages regularly could be a regular shopper who purchases often but also always likes and comments on the business's social media posts. These comments and likes on social media can have a positive impact on the business, showing other potential consumers that the business is reputable and valued by others.
That's a problem. Without a doubt, a great website and top-level marketing will help generate new sales, but it's the delivery experience that warrants future ones. This is because today's consumer not only has options for where they'll buy but also a high set of expectations. What's more, they remember the way a product arrives at their doorstep more than how it was sold.
The outlook for 2026 I'm watching 2026 with equal parts optimism and urgency. Optimism because consumer demand is still there. Retail sales have remained resilient in recent data. Urgency because the operating environment is only getting tighter. Coming out of FY2025, large retailers demonstrated resilience amid inflation pressure, shifting consumer behavior, and global supply-chain complexity. Walmart raised its outlook and leaned further into a model that blends physical stores, e-commerce scale, and execution discipline.
Remember grocery store runs? Amazon says those are going extinct. The company revealed that Prime members saved an average of 64 trips to physical stores last year by ordering basics online instead. That's a major shift. Groceries and household essentials now account for half of all fast deliveries to U.S. Prime members, compared to earlier years when fast delivery skewed toward purchases like electronics and clothing. Amazon has spent the past year integrating perishable groceries and prescription medications into its same-day delivery network.
Statistics from the 2025 holiday shopping season clearly show that AI is playing a huge role in how people shop. But new research from retail payment platform Adyen found that many consumers are ready for AI to become their personal shopper. Just over half-51%-said they're open to letting AI take over the entire shopping process, including making final purchases. Millennials are the most willing to let agents do their shopping, with nearly three in five saying they are ready for such a shift.
On Tuesday, Walmart execs said they would put ads in Sparky, its AI shopping agent, as well as provide generative AI-powered performance insights and creative. There's also Marty, Walmart's agentic advertising assistant, in beta for sponsored search campaigns to help with billing and bidding, with plans to make it available widely later this year. The announcements come on the heels of Walmart's tests last year with Sparky and Marty.
where I worked in the early 2000s in its rather pioneering e-commerce business (which launched, among other things, the first click and collect service). Argos was jostling with Tesco for first place at Christmas, and I've found myself reflecting on why DTC has become such a major issue for several sectors that have not traditionally had a direct path to purchase over the last few years.
You can use multi-channel products to manage your inventory for both online and in-store sales within a single, unified product listing. Google explained that "this approach simplifies how you manage your products and helps you reach more customers." With multi-channel products, you can oversee your online and in-store inventory together. Previously, you might have maintained separate listings for the same product if you sold it both online and in physical stores.
A digital product is any non-physical item sold online and delivered electronically. This category encompasses a wide range of offerings: ebooks that teach specific skills, online courses that provide comprehensive training, design templates that save creators hours of work, stock media libraries offering photography and video, printables like planners and checklists, software tools that automate tasks, and audio files ranging from music to guided meditations.