The Digital Commerce Daily
Your 8-minute briefing on the platforms, players, and profits driving digital commerce today. Hosted by Marco and Klara.
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Walmart Welcomes AI Agents, Amazon Blocks Them, Kevel Raises $52M
<p>Walmart is building infrastructure for AI agents to shop autonomously while Amazon locks them out — a fork in the road that will reshape how brands sell in the US. Plus, Kevel's $52M raise signals retail media consolidation is accelerating fast.</p> <p>In this episode:</p> Walmart is actively enabling AI agents to browse and purchase on its platform on behalf of consumers, while Amazon is blocking the same agents entirely — a public strategic split between the two largest US retailers on agentic commerce. Retail media infrastructure company Kevel has closed a $52 million Series D funding round and plans to u...
Salesforce Buys Braze, Allegro Enters Ukraine & Wallet Loyalty
<p>Salesforce just dropped $5.66 billion on Braze — the retention tool thousands of DTC brands depend on. Plus Allegro unlocks Ukraine and loyalty rewards move inside your mobile wallet.</p> <p>In this episode:</p> Salesforce is acquiring customer engagement platform Braze for $5.66 billion — one of the biggest martech deals of 2026 — with plans to use Braze's AI for real-time personalisation across channels. Allegro, Central Europe's largest online marketplace, is opening its Polish seller catalogue to Ukraine's 35–38 million consumers via cross-border access, with no localised site or logistics build required. Wildfire Systems and Badge are partnering to embed merchant cashback and loyalty offers d...
Google Launches Universal Cart, UK Extends Marketplace VAT
<p>Google just launched a shopping cart that keeps buyers inside Search — and never sends them to your site. Plus, UK marketplaces like Amazon and eBay may soon own VAT collection for domestic sellers.</p> <p>In this episode:</p> The UK government proposes extending marketplace VAT liability to larger domestic sellers, meaning platforms like Amazon, eBay and Etsy would be directly responsible for collecting and remitting VAT to HMRC on third-party sales. Bonobos migrated its entire ecommerce operation to Shopify as of October 2026, building omnichannel fit profile capabilities that bridge in-store guideshop data with online purchasing. Google's Universal Cart — an A...
AI Ignores 78% of Brands & Too Good To Go Expands
<p>78% of ecommerce brands are invisible to ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. Plus Too Good To Go is opening a non-food surplus channel across Europe — and your Shopify sales data may now be your credit score.</p> <p>In this episode:</p> A new report found that ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity never recommended 78% of ecommerce brands in their own product categories, with the same small cluster of names dominating AI-generated results across all three platforms. Too Good To Go is expanding its marketplace into non-food surplus categories for the first time in its 10-year history, giving European DTC brands and retailers a...
EU Parcel Tax Cuts Shein & Temu Volumes 42%, Retail Media Rises
<p>The EU's new parcel tax is already reshaping trade flows — Shein and Temu volumes through Liège Airport collapsed 42% in months. Plus: why brands are spending more on retail media even as growth slows.</p> <p>In this episode:</p> Europe's top 100 marketplaces are on track to generate €175.8 billion in GMV this year, with 79.5% of that coming from cross-border transactions — making domestic-only strategies increasingly unviable for European sellers. Consumer brands are increasing retail media budgets on platforms like Amazon and Zalando even as overall sales growth softens, raising the question of whether the spend is driving new revenue or simply...
Amex Verifies AI Agents, Target's Ad Metric Fails to Convince
<p>American Express just built the trust layer agentic commerce needs. Meanwhile, Target's retail media push is hitting a measurement credibility wall — and The Independent's revenue flip signals where product discovery is heading.</p> <p>In this episode:</p> The Independent CEO Christian Broughton confirmed that in September 2026, social commerce revenue overtook SEO-driven affiliate revenue for the first time — a concrete inflection point in how digital publishers monetise product content. A senior Target executive publicly acknowledged that most brand partners are not yet on board with the retailer's new ad metric designed to connect spend directly to sales outcomes, exposing a tr...
Meta Sells Prime-Time Feed Slots, Dunelm Hits 41% Digital
<p>Meta is letting brands book feed ad windows like TV prime-time slots. Dunelm just proved homewares can cross 41% digital revenue. Both numbers should change how you plan.</p> <p>In this episode:</p> Meta launched Ads Super Burst, a reservation-style ad product letting advertisers lock in concentrated feed windows with guaranteed reach — a direct shift away from pure auction-based buying toward TV-style planning. Whatnot Germany GM Isabell Weiser argues live commerce is expanding well beyond collectibles into mainstream categories, with seller personality and authenticity — not product specs — identified as the primary conversion driver in the German market. Dunelm reported that d...
TikTok Shop Backs Small Creators, Google Ads Adds Budget Control
<p>TikTok Shop's own data is challenging how brands spend creator budgets. Google just handed advertisers real control over Performance Max. And Shopify says AI is converting shoppers better than Google Search.</p> <p>In this episode:</p> TikTok Shop's internal data reveals that smaller creators posting higher volumes of videos are outperforming big-name influencer deals, with the platform naming this its core success formula heading into Q4. Google Ads has launched channel prioritisation controls and budget allocation tools, letting advertisers override automated decisions and direct spend toward specific channels like Search or Shopping instead of leaving it to Performance...
easyShop Launches Across Europe, Obsero Raises €1M for AI Search
<p>Stelios Haji-Ioannou just launched easyShop.com across 21 European markets to take on Amazon — and a London startup called Obsero raised €1M to solve the AI search problem brands don't know they have yet.</p> <p>In this episode:</p> easyShop.com, backed by easyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou, launched simultaneously across 21 European countries today, positioning itself directly as a challenger to Amazon in the pan-European marketplace space. London startup Obsero closed a €1 million seed round to help brands monitor and improve their visibility inside AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT, which increasingly intercept traditional Google-driven shopping journeys. A Practical Ecommerce analysis challe...
Temu & Shein Lose Germany, Ikea Enters Recommerce
<p>Shein, Temu and AliExpress just had their worst quarter in Germany — and Ikea is making a serious move into recommerce. Here's what both mean for European ecommerce strategy.</p> <p>In this episode:</p> German sales for Shein, Temu and AliExpress collapsed 35.5% in Q3 2026 versus Q3 2025, driven by intensifying EU regulatory pressure on low-value imports and parcel taxation — but with Amazon holding 63% of German online retail, the lost volume is unlikely to flow to European alternatives. Ikea is simultaneously launching its pre-owned furniture marketplace in the UK, Ireland and Germany, putting it in direct competition with Vinted and eBay and...
