Ecommerce News from the Last Week
Amazon Prime Day set to lift US online sales to $23.8 billion, Adobe estimates
Adobe forecasts that deep discounts and extension from two days to four will drive Prime Day 2025 up 10.2% year-over-year, despite broader retail declines.
Key Insight: Remember when ecommerce was all about holiday? For most categories, Prime Day is now larger than holiday, in some cases by 2x. But that doesn't mean the 4-day event will drive 2x the revenue of a 2-day event. Watch budgets carefully as sustained increased CPCs will drain budgets quickly without the incremental upside to show for it. As I've been saying, the biggest winner will be Amazon in both top and bottom line - particularly as those high CPCs juice profits.
Online shopping see biggest slowdown in over decade as tariffs disrupt e-commerce: Survey
Online retail in the U.S. just posted its slowest growth in 10 years, with new tariffs on Chinese goods cited as a key factor. Categories like electronics and home goods are seeing the most pressure.
Key Insight: I've seen so many doomsday articles this week talking about how this is the beginning of the end for ecommerce and brick and mortar is making a resurgence. One data point underpinned by the most disruptive megatrend the industry has seen since COVID (tariffs) does not spell the death of ecommerce. Nonetheless, brands need to watch this carefully and adjust forecasts accordingly.
Kroger is striving for e-commerce profitability. What will it take to get there?
Kroger executives say digital sales are rising, but profitability continues to lag due to fulfillment and delivery costs. The focus is shifting to pickup and rethinking assortment to improve margins.
Key Insight: While it may be surprising that most retailers are still struggling with ecommerce profitability, keep in mind how long it took Amazon and Walmart to get there - and all of the companies who now occupy the dot com graveyard (Peapod? drugstore.com?). Unfortunately, it's brands who will pay the price as retailer pressure to optimize for profitability will inevitably materialize in the form of merchandising, fees, and fulfillment partnerships.
Amazon launches a new AI foundation model to power its robotic fleet and deploys its 1 millionth robot
Amazon announced it now operates over 1 million robotics units across its fulfillment network, increasingly guided by advanced AI models. Robotics are being deployed not just for speed, but also for safety and efficiency.
Key Insight: This isn't just about robots running around FC's. Imagine Amazon dropping a giant autonomous brain on top of robots, tractor trailers, delivery vans, and drones. The Matrix and Terminator movies aside, brands relying on Amazon must understand how AI and automation are reshaping the cost, pace, and structure of delivery.
Best Buy, Lowe's chief marketing officers explain why they launched new influencer programs
The two retailers are expanding their influencer strategies to better connect with younger audiences and drive omnichannel traffic. These programs focus on creator partnerships with measurable ROI.
Key Insight: Take it from someone married to one - there is a big difference between influencers and creators. The industry has moved passed flashy influencers with big (often artificially inflated) follower numbers for creators who can reach shoppers in a genuine way. Brands need to be thinking about how they can extend their own creator strategies to key retailer partners, and vice versa.
Amazon Offering Free Fulfillment Tours to the Public
Amazon is now offering free public tours of its fulfillment centers to increase transparency and consumer trust. The move aligns with broader efforts to humanize automation and dispel misconceptions.
Key Insight: Let's call it what it is: Amazon has a PR problem and opening up FC's to public tours are designed to address those perception issues. That said, I will never forget touring an Amazon FC and a J&J DC with reps from the J&J supply chain team, trading ideas with their Amazon counter parts. if you've never toured an FC and you're in ecommerce, stop what you're doing and make a plan to join one of these tours. It will blow your mind and likely spark some ideas on how to improve your own operations to be more efficient (and profitable).
Cloudflare will now block AI crawlers by default
Cloudflare will now block AI crawlers by default, aiming to give publishers more control over how their content is scraped and used in model training. This move could reshape the data supply chain for generative AI.
Key Insight: Please don't tune this one out - if your business has anything to do with ecommerce or search, this is a must-learn topic. Cloudflare is setting up a toll booth in front of 20% of all internet traffic (read that again!). Many speculate this won't apply to ecommerce but regardless, the advent of AI is giving the internet's gate keepers an opportunity to "right" what once went wrong with search - this time, free lunch has been cancelled.
What can AI agents actually do?
This thoughtful post breaks down the types of tasks AI agents can (and cannot) reliably perform—ranging from simple lookups to complex decision-making, with nuance around planning, tool use, and multi-step workflows.
Key Insight: It's never too late to start learning about AI and it can give you, your team, and/or your brand super powers. While it gets a bit technical, this article breaks down what agents are, how they work, and some top use cases so you can get up to speed with less fluff and more facts.
Podcast Episodes from the Last Week
FMCG Guys: 251. Claudia Calori, VP Global Marketing Personal Health at Philips: Marketing Fundamentals in the Age of AI
Sat, 05 Jul 2025 - In this episode, we’re joined by Claudia Calori , VP of Global Marketing for Personal Health at Philips , to talk about what it takes to be a modern marketer. From her early days at P&G to leadership roles at Heineken, Nike, and now Philips, Claudia shares how marketing has evolved—and what fundamentals still hold true. We dig into in-house vs. agency capabilities, the rise of retail media, and why trust is the foundation of strong teams.
Ecommerce Braintrust: Crave-Worthy Nutrition: Trubar’s Path from Concept to Shelf | Category Disruptors - Erica Groussman of TRUBAR - Episode 399
Tue, 01 Jul 2025 - In this final episode of the series spotlighting powerhouse female CEOs and founders, we’re joined by Erica Groussman, co-founder and CEO of TRUBRANDS, the company behind the fan-favorite TRUBAR and its mission to bring “Indulgent Nutrition” to the masses. Includes the evolution of Trubar’s e-commerce strategy—from direct-to-consumer startup struggles to explosive Amazon growth—and the ongoing importance of controlling the brand experience online.
Better Advertising with BTR Media: Creative Studio: AI, Video & What’s Ahead
Thu, 03 Jul 2025 - Destaney joins Jay Richman (VP, Product & Technology) from the Amazon team covering how AI is reshaping creative, what’s changed with Creative Studio, and what’s coming next. This isn’t the same tool it was a year ago and the updates keep coming.
CPG Guys: Brand & Creator Commerce with TikTok’s Ajay Salpekar
Wed, 02 Jul 2025 - The CPG Guys are joined in this episode by Ajay Salpekar, the GM of Brand & Creator Commerce at TikTok, the world's leading social destination for short-form video.
The Digital Deep Dive With Aaron Conant: Tariffs and Prices on Amazon With Scott Needham
Fri, 04 Jul 2025 - In this episode… As global tariffs shift and economic uncertainty looms, brands are under pressure to make informed pricing decisions and maintain margins. Many rely solely on internal data for scenario planning, making it difficult to benchmark against the broader market. Without visibility into industry-wide pricing trends, how can businesses decide whether to raise prices or maintain their threshold?
Unpacking the Digital Shelf: Trends in Amazon Brand Strategy and Innovation, with Jay Lovelace, CEO at Jungle Scout
Mon, 7 Jul 2025 - These are, how should I say it, interesting times to be a seller on Amazon. It’s good to be able to make decisions based on data in the midst of the chaos, so Jay Lovelace, CEO at Jungle Scout joined the podcast to lay out the trends that the data is identifying overall and across some specific categories that are on the move.
FMCG Guys: 250. Michelle Williams, Data Product Owner at The Very Group: Retail Meets GenAI at Scale - Live at AWS
Wed, 02 Jul 2025 - Daniel is joined by Michelle Williams , Data Product Owner at The Very Group , to explore how the UK’s leading digital department store is embedding GenAI into its business. Michelle shares the company’s pragmatic approach—focusing on efficiency, scalability, and real business value rather than hype. From launching an AI Guild and upskilling teams to using AWS-powered models to automate 40,000+ product descriptions, she breaks down how GenAI is helping The Very Group accelerate its digital transformation.
Commerce Collective: This Month Above the Fold w/ Patrick Miller - The Big Shift - Redefining ROI with Return on Consumer
Wed, 02 Jul 2025 - Flywheel's annual whitepaper, The Big Shift, is back! In this episode, Patrick and Emma (co-authors of the paper) explore how forward-thinking brands are leveraging SKU+CID data to maximize their return on consumer across each retailer, every campaign, and the entire portfolio. Listen in to discover why the future belongs to brands that verticalize ROI, treat CIDs like annuities, and use real behavioral signals to fuel long-term growth.
EMARKETER Behind the Numbers: What Makes Walmart Unstoppable? The Retail Empire Reinventing Itself | Reimagining Retail
Wed, 02 Jul 2025 - On today’s podcast episode, we discuss the ingredients of Walmart’s current recipe for success and the technology that’s most likely to propel them into the future. Listen to the conversation with our Senior Analyst Sara Lebow as she hosts Vice President of Content Suzy Davidkhanian and Analyst Rachel Wolff.