All articles tagged with #ecommerce
Shein reportedly acquired Everlane, which says it will remain independent and uphold its sustainability commitments, but the deal could broaden Everlane's reach while raising questions about greenwashing, future quality, and the brand's affordable, ethical model.
Walmart posted a 7.3% rise in quarterly revenue to $177.8 billion with U.S. same-store sales up 4.1%, helped by e-commerce growth and membership fees, but its guidance for the next quarter came in below expectations amid ongoing inflation and higher fuel costs that are squeezing households and shaping consumer behavior.
Amazon launches Alexa for Shopping, an AI-powered personal shopper that blends Alexa+'s context with deep product knowledge to personalize searches, compare items, show price history, set price alerts, automate carts and orders, and even shop across the web—available now in the US on the Amazon Shopping app/website and Echo Show, with a week-long rollout and no Prime required.
Amazon Now’s ultrafast 30-minute delivery is expanding beyond its initial Seattle/Philadelphia test to Atlanta and Dallas–Fort Worth, with ongoing expansions in Austin, Houston, Minneapolis, Orlando, Phoenix, Denver and Oklahoma City (some markets noted as limited availability). Thousands of items are eligible, and delivery costs are $3.99 per order for Prime members ($14.99/month or $139/year) or $13.99 without a membership, plus a small order fee for orders under $15. The move aims to compete with DoorDash and Instacart and marks a broader push to bring ultra-fast delivery to more shoppers.
Amazon is expanding its ultra-fast 30-minute delivery service, Amazon Now, to dozens of U.S. cities, using small dark-store micro-fulfillment centers and on-demand Flex drivers to offer 24/7 delivery. Prime members pay $3.99 plus $1.99 for orders under $15; non-Prime customers pay $13.99 plus $3.99 for orders under $15. The program, already piloting in a handful of cities, is expanding to places like Austin, Denver, Minneapolis, Phoenix and more, with the goal of reaching tens of millions of customers by year-end and intensifying competition with other quick-delivery apps.
GameStop proposes a $28 billion, partly cash and partly stock deal to acquire eBay and parcel it into a new, differently led company. eBay shareholders would get a cash payout plus 70% of the new entity, in a package valued around $49 billion for investors, financed by a $20 billion loan arranged by TD Bank and GameStop debt. Framed as an activist-style acquisition rather than a straight takeover, the plan hinges on governance, cost cuts, and whether GameStop’s meme-stock appeal and CEO Ryan Cohen can translate into durable value for eBay holders, all while bearing a heavy debt load (roughly five times ebitda) and governance questions.
GameStop has offered to buy eBay for $55.5 billion in a 50/50 cash-and-stock deal, aiming to create a legitimate competitor to Amazon by pairing eBay’s online marketplace with GameStop’s roughly 1,600 U.S. stores for authentication, fulfillment and live commerce; CEO Ryan Cohen would lead the combined company, and financing includes up to $20 billion in debt. eBay has been rebounding with AI investments and a recent revenue uptick, and shares moved on the news as the deal is evaluated.
GameStop proposed a $55.5B unsolicited bid to acquire eBay at $125 per share, split 50/50 cash and stock, after building roughly a 5% stake. CEO Ryan Cohen would lead the merged company and leverage GameStop’s 1,600 US stores for authentication, intake and live commerce; if rejected, a proxy fight could follow. eBay reported Q1 GMV up 18% to $22.2B and continues with plans to cross-list Depop to expand market share.
QVC Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as traditional TV home-shopping loses ground to social-commerce platforms, notably TikTok, signaling a broader shift away from televised shopping.
After the Supreme Court ruled one Trump-era tariff unlawful, consumers and small businesses are pressing for refunds on duties paid for overseas purchases, with some charged directly by shipping companies and others embedded in prices by sellers. There is no government-wide refunds process yet, and courts will decide how to handle repayments. The government collected about $400 million in tariffs on lower-value imports during the exemption period, and lawsuits—including one led by Costco and others by consumers—seek recovery of tariffs and related processing fees, while shipping firms say refunds will be possible once legal guidance is issued.
Amazon experienced a major outage that left many users unable to complete purchases and caused mobile app issues. Downdetector logged around 160,000 reports in 15 minutes, with checkout problems accounting for a large share. The disruption, not tied to a specific provider, eased after about two hours, and Amazon acknowledged the issue without offering a cause. Separately, Iranian drone strikes damaged Amazon data centers in the Middle East, but officials said the U.S. outage was likely unrelated to those regional incidents.
OpenAI has scaled back its plan to enable shopping directly inside ChatGPT, instead directing checkouts to external apps that plug into ChatGPT after noting that only a small number of merchants used the in-chat checkout and that users weren’t consistently converting to purchases within the chatbot.
Xu Yangtian, Shein’s long-secret founder, made his first major public appearance at a Guangdong government event to stress the company’s Chinese roots, praise local party and government support, and announce a RMB 10 billion investment in Guangdong supply chains over three years, even as Shein pushes for an offshore IPO amid global regulatory scrutiny.
Bath & Body Works has opened its first authorized brand storefront on Amazon, selling its best-selling fragrances, body washes, soaps and candles with Prime shipping while retaining inventory ownership and pricing while using Amazon’s fulfillment network. The move treats Amazon as a logistics partner rather than a retailer for a vertically integrated brand, aligning with campus-store expansions and the company’s consumer-first growth plan led by CEO Daniel Heaf.
Amazon surpassed Walmart to become the world’s largest company by revenue in 2025, posting $717 billion in sales to Walmart’s $713 billion. Amazon credit’s growth in AWS, advertising, and Prime subscriptions for the lead, while Walmart remains strong in physical retail and recently hit a $1 trillion market value and shifted its listing to Nasdaq. US sales at Walmart rose about 4.6% last quarter as it leans into price competitiveness in a shifting retail landscape, and AWS remains a major profit engine helping offset retail-margin pressures.