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# EcomWatch – Ecommerce News, Insights & Analysis: EcomWatch is a trusted global publication delivering fast, accurate, and authoritative ecommerce news, insights, and analysis. Our mission is to help brands, founders, and digital leaders stay ahead with expert reporting on the latest trends, platforms, strategies, and innovations shaping the ecommerce industry.

## Sitemaps
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## Posts
- [China’s Richest Person Just Said Ecommerce Platforms Have Become the New Mafia. He Has a Point.](https://ecomwatch.com/news/chinas-richest-person-just-said-ecommerce-platforms-have-become-the-new-mafia-he-has-a-point/): There is a specific kind of credibility that comes from being the founder of China's largest packaged drinking water company, China's richest person, and someone whose business has grown to 52.55 billion yuan in annual revenue precisely through the distribution systems he is now criticising. Zhong Shanshan has all three kinds of credibility.
- [Shein Blames Sales Slowdown in the USA on Tariffs](https://ecomwatch.com/uncategorized/shein-blames-sales-slowdown-in-the-usa-on-tariffs/): After a long period of major growth and profitability in the USA, Shein is now going through some major struggles in the region. Ahead of its upcoming initial public offering (IPO), documents have shown that the company blames its higher costs for the slowdown, which were driven by U.S. regulatory changes like new tariffs and the closing of the de minimis exemption.
- [Brunello Cucinelli Deleted Its Website and Replaced It With an AI That Builds a Different Store for Each Visitor](https://ecomwatch.com/news/brunello-cucinelli-deleted-its-website-and-replaced-it-with-an-ai-that-builds-a-different-store-for-each-visitor/): Brunello Cucinelli, the Italian cashmere label whose founder describes his business philosophy as "humanistic capitalism" and closes the factory at 5:30pm so employees can have dinner with their families, replaced its website with an AI. Of course it did.
- [The Global Ecommerce Holiday Hiring Machine Is Starting Up](https://ecomwatch.com/news/the-global-ecommerce-holiday-hiring-machine-is-starting-up/): The holiday season hiring surge is the moment when ecommerce's promise to consumers becomes a labour mobilisation question. Every commitment made at checkout about delivery timing, every "order by December 22 for Christmas delivery" guarantee, every 10-minute delivery that arrives in 8 minutes, is ultimately redeemed by a person who is almost certainly a temporary worker, in a fulfillment centre or on a delivery route, during the most operationally intense period of the year.
- [USPS Growth is Being Driven by Aggressive Price Increases](https://ecomwatch.com/news/usps-growth-is-being-driven-by-aggressive-price-increases/): Amidst the organization’s liquidity crisis, the United States Postal Service (USPS) had some promising Q3 2026 results, such as increased operating revenue, decreasing controllable loss, and a narrowing net loss.
- [Tomorrow, Every Brand Shipping Packaged Goods Cross-Border Into the EU Needs a Local Representative in Each Country](https://ecomwatch.com/news/tomorrow-every-brand-shipping-packaged-goods-cross-border-into-the-eu-needs-a-local-representative-in-each-country/): This is the EU regulatory story that has been almost entirely absent from ecommerce media coverage this month, which has focused on the July 1 parcel duty, the AI Act transparency rules from August 2, and the DMA/DSA enforcement escalation. All of those matter.
- [She Started Making Jewellery With Cotton Rope. Now Her Designs Are Stocked by the Barbican](https://ecomwatch.com/leaders-interviews/she-started-making-jewellery-with-cotton-rope-now-her-designs-are-stocked-by-the-barbican/): Paulomi Debnath has always been surrounded by colour.
- [Use These Crucial B2B Ecommerce KPIs to Measure Your Success](https://ecomwatch.com/business-strategy/use-these-crucial-b2b-ecommerce-kpis-to-measure-your-success/): While your B2B ecommerce site may be up and running, and you get some sales here and there, it’s hard to know just how successful your site is without tracking key performance indicators (KPIs). These indicators and metrics give you an inside look into the real performance of your site.
- [24/7 Support Costs More Than Three Times an Eight-Hour Operation](https://ecomwatch.com/news/24-7-support-costs-more-than-three-times-an-eight-hour-operation/): The decision to offer 24/7 customer support sounds straightforward when framed as a customer satisfaction question. If customers are shopping at midnight, they should be able to get help at midnight. But framed as a cost-structure question, it looks significantly different, and most mid-market retailers approach it with the simple math of "three shifts means three times the cost" and are surprised to find the reality is worse than that.
- [Emotion-Led Ads Cut Acquisition Costs 30%](https://ecomwatch.com/news/emotion-led-ads-cut-acquisition-costs-30/): There is a gap between what brands think their customers want and what their customers are actually feeling when they make a purchase. Sarah Levinger has spent six years measuring that gap, and she has found it is almost always wider than the brand's internal team believes, and almost always more expensive than they realize.
- [Amazon’s AI Rewrote 984 Million Product Titles. Sellers Are Nervous About What It Changed.](https://ecomwatch.com/news/amazons-ai-rewrote-984-million-product-titles-sellers-are-nervous-about-what-it-changed/): The number Amazon quietly dropped into its seller announcement this week is worth pausing on: 984 million product titles updated since the new 75-character limit was announced in June. That is not a small compliance action. That is a catalog-level restructuring of how products are presented on one of the world's largest ecommerce platforms, executed by sellers across hundreds of categories in roughly six weeks.
- [These Should Be Your Priorities Ahead of a Busy Holiday Shopping Season](https://ecomwatch.com/news/these-should-be-your-priorities-ahead-of-a-busy-holiday-shopping-season/): The holiday season is without a doubt the busiest time of the year for many retailers. But despite this heavy demand, simply having an online store during the holidays isn’t enough to guarantee you’ll make sales and achieve your desired results.
- [eBay Live’s Growth Shows the Potential of Live Selling](https://ecomwatch.com/news/ebay-lives-growth-shows-the-potential-of-live-selling/): Despite only being a few years old, eBay Live has quickly become one of the major players in live commerce, and just saw record growth in Q2 2026. The platform is quickly becoming a major priority for eBay following these impressive results, as the company plans to expand to new markets and has already made several product improvements.
- [Vinted Plans a Major Expansion in the USA](https://ecomwatch.com/news/vinted-plans-a-major-expansion-in-the-usa/): After becoming one of the most popular online second-hand marketplaces in Europe, Vinted has its sights set on the USA. While it has been going through early testing in the country, it hopes to eventually expand this into a full-scale rollout, especially after encouraging early results.
- [Here’s How People Plan to Shop the Biggest Sale of 2026](https://ecomwatch.com/news/heres-how-people-plan-to-shop-the-biggest-sale-of-2026/): While there are several huge shopping events throughout the year, such as Christmas shopping, back-to-school events, and Amazon Prime Day, these all pale in comparison to Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM).
- [She Left Her Teaching Job to Sell “Rituals,” Not Skincare. And It’s Working.](https://ecomwatch.com/leaders-interviews/she-left-her-teaching-job-to-sell-rituals-not-skincare-and-its-working/): Ulla, 49, founded Elephant and Moon from her kitchen with no business background, just a mental health crisis that taught her something most ecommerce brands never learn: people don't want another five step routine, they want permission to stop.
- [AI Search Is Killing Publishers and Making Shopify Merchants Rich. The Difference Is One Word: Intent.](https://ecomwatch.com/news/ai-search-is-killing-publishers-and-making-shopify-merchants-rich-the-difference-is-one-word-intent/): Two stories about AI search are running simultaneously right now and they point in opposite directions. For publishers, AI search is catastrophic: Google's AI Overviews and ChatGPT answer questions that used to require clicking a link, traffic drops by 50% or more, advertising revenue follows. For Shopify merchants, AI search is a windfall with more traffic, better-converting traffic, orders from categories that traditional search was never surfacing.
- [Argos Launches New Online Marketplace, Focusing on Quality, Safety, and Customer Confidence](https://ecomwatch.com/news/argos-launches-new-online-marketplace-focusing-on-quality-safety-and-customer-confidence/): The growing digital marketplace in the UK has just gotten more competitive as retail giant Argos has launched its own digital marketplace. The move not only expands the company’s product range, but also offers a more convenient way for its customers to shop.
- [Google is Being Sued for Alleged Unlawful Ad Tech Monopolization](https://ecomwatch.com/news/google-is-being-sued-for-alleged-unlawful-ad-tech-monopolization/): Teads has officially filed a lawsuit against Google in New York and is looking for financial compensation. The suit follows a ruling by a judge last year, which found that Google had engaged in unlawful anticompetitive practices and monopolistic conduct in digital advertising markets.
- [American Eagle Sold $68.9 Million in Tariff Refund Claims for $18.6 Million](https://ecomwatch.com/news/american-eagle-sold-68-9-million-in-tariff-refund-claims-for-18-6-million/): The tariff refund story in US retail has had two chapters so far. Chapter one: the Supreme Court struck down the IEEPA-backed tariffs in February, meaning retailers that paid them were potentially owed refunds. Chapter two: CBP launched a refund portal in April and began processing claims.
- [New eBay Feature Aims to Improve Seller Outcomes](https://ecomwatch.com/news/new-ebay-feature-aims-to-improve-seller-outcomes/): eBay auctions are about to undergo a major change in Australia, as extended bidding is moving from just a limited test to a full expansion to all auctions. This change is a major shift for eBay, as it keeps the final moments of an auction open for longer as long as bids are still flowing in.
- [Shopify CEO Sparks Boycott Campaign That Punishes Merchants Instead of Shopify](https://ecomwatch.com/news/shopify-ceo-sparks-boycott-campaign-that-punishes-merchants-instead-of-shopify/): Tobi Lütke's comments are now someone else's problem. Specifically, the hundreds of thousands of small and independent businesses that run their stores on Shopify and have nothing to do with their CEO's political views on voting rights.
- [Circle K Has 200 Million Monthly Impressions and No Ecommerce Website](https://ecomwatch.com/news/circle-k-has-200-million-monthly-impressions-and-no-ecommerce-website/): Every retail media network story this month has followed the same template: retailer has first-party data, retailer builds advertising product around that data, brands pay to reach shoppers already in the buying mindset. Home Depot, The Iconic in Australia, Kroger, Target, Walmart. The data is the asset. The advertising product is the monetisation. The ecommerce platform is where most of the transactions happen.
- [Sellers Can Now Offer Bundle Discounts on eBay](https://ecomwatch.com/news/sellers-can-now-offer-bundle-discounts-on-ebay/): eBay is rolling out a new feature that lets sellers set up automatic bundle discounts if their buyers purchase more than one item in an order. While sellers need to opt in to the feature before it’s active, once they do, they have plenty of control over which listings are eligible and how large the discounts are.
- [Amazon Customers are Engaging with Alexa for Shopping More Than Ever](https://ecomwatch.com/news/amazon-customers-are-engaging-with-alexa-for-shopping-more-than-ever/): Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently shed some light on the stunning growth of Alexa for Shopping in Amazon’s recent Q2 2026 earnings call. Active users of the technology have grown dramatically, with interactions also rising year-over-year.
- [The EU AI Act Is Fully Enforced as of Today](https://ecomwatch.com/news/the-eu-ai-act-is-fully-enforced-as-of-today/): Two years after the EU AI Act entered into force, the regulation becomes broadly applicable today. That sentence has been written in future tense by compliance teams across Europe for the better part of two years. It is now present tense.
- [UPS Fired Amazon as a Customer and Made a Billion Dollars More Doing It](https://ecomwatch.com/news/ups-fired-amazon-as-a-customer-and-made-a-billion-dollars-more-doing-it/): The conventional wisdom about losing your largest customer is that it is bad. UPS spent the past 18 months testing whether that conventional wisdom applies when the largest customer is also your least profitable one.
- [UK Online Sales Were Up 14% in June. They Just Turned Negative in the Final Week of July.](https://ecomwatch.com/news/uk-online-sales-were-up-14-in-june-they-just-turned-negative-in-the-final-week-of-july/): The UK retail data for July arrives with an almost perfect narrative arc. In June, online sales grew 14.4% year on year according to Office for National Statistics figures, a number strong enough to make retail analysts briefly optimistic about the second half of the year. Then July happened.
- [Boutique Shopping May Be Making a Return](https://ecomwatch.com/news/boutique-shopping-may-be-making-a-return/): While online shopping is still incredibly popular and not going anywhere anytime soon, it seems many people are making the switch back to physical retail, at least for things like fashion. Whether they’re doing it for a sense of community, easier returns, better curation, or any number of other things, many stores are noticing an in-person shift.
- [Amazon and Walmart Accused of Failing to Flag Fraud](https://ecomwatch.com/news/amazon-and-walmart-accused-of-failing-to-flag-fraud/): While Amazon and Walmart’s shopping assistants, Alexa and Sparky, can detect when a “Made in USA” label is fake, the retailers aren’t making use of this technology to crack down on these listings. This is according to a new study done by the former Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Lina Khan.
- [Kentucky Is About to Tax the Companies That Sell Your Data](https://ecomwatch.com/news/kentucky-is-about-to-tax-the-companies-that-sell-your-data/): Most tax compliance stories for ecommerce sellers follow a familiar pattern. A state tweaks its economic nexus thresholds, the compliance burden shifts slightly, sellers adjust their registration and filing. Important, practical, not especially interesting to anyone outside the affected category.
- [USPS Broke Its Own Postage System and Kept Charging Sellers Anyway](https://ecomwatch.com/news/usps-broke-its-own-postage-system-and-kept-charging-sellers-anyway/): The USPS Automated Package Verification system has, since launching in 2017, collected more than $1.4 billion in underpaid postage and issued approximately $300 million in refunds for overpayments.
- [Congress Is Trying to Give Amazon Sellers the Right to Sue Amazon](https://ecomwatch.com/news/congress-is-trying-to-give-amazon-sellers-the-right-to-sue-amazon/): Every marketplace seller has a version of the same story. The email arrives with no warning. Account suspended. Funds held. Inventory stranded. The reason given is a policy violation, described in language vague enough to apply to almost anything. The appeal instructions point to a form that generates an automated response. The automated response says the decision is final. The funds sit frozen while the seller tries to figure out what happened and whether there is anything they can do about it.
- [New Adobe Tool Optimizes Your Product Details for AI](https://ecomwatch.com/news/new-adobe-tool-optimizes-your-product-details-for-ai/): To help companies improve their product discovery in AI and Large Language Model (LLM) platforms, Adobe has added a new tool to Adobe Commerce. This tool helps companies make behind-the-scenes changes that improve AI discovery optimization, without altering their storefronts.
- [Interview with the Founders of Tyndrum Pottery](https://ecomwatch.com/leaders-interviews/interview-with-the-founders-of-tyndrum-pottery/): Today I sat down with Nicola & Iain behind Tyndrum Pottery, a family-run ceramics studio in the Scottish Highlands.
- [PayPal and Amazon Introduce BNPL For German and Austrian Customers](https://ecomwatch.com/news/paypal-and-amazon-introduce-bnpl-for-german-and-austrian-customers/): Amazon and PayPal have partnered together to introduce a new Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) solution aimed at giving German and Austrian shoppers more flexibility in how they pay for the things they buy on Amazon.
- [Shein’s U.S. Operations Are Under Investigation ](https://ecomwatch.com/news/sheins-u-s-operations-are-under-investigation/): With a planned Hong Kong Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the horizon, Shein has disclosed that its operations in the USA are under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). While Shein hasn’t said why the company is under investigation, it said that the outcome of the investigation may require it to make significant monetary payments.
- [Vietnam Continues to Be One of the Rising Stars in Ecommerce](https://ecomwatch.com/news/vietnam-continues-to-be-one-of-the-rising-stars-in-ecommerce/): Vietnam continues its run as one of the fastest-growing ecommerce markets on the planet, with sales reaching over $11 billion throughout the first half of 2026. This is up 44% compared to the first half of 2025, and sales volume also experienced massive growth.
- [DHL Boosts Presence in Baltic States With New Acquisition](https://ecomwatch.com/news/dhl-boosts-presence-in-baltic-states-with-new-acquisition/): As it aims to increase its presence in the Baltics, DHL has made a move to acquire one of the largest parcel operators in the region, Venipak. While the Venipak brand will remain, the company will become part of DHL ecommerce.
- [Facebook Introduces a Brand-New App For Marketplace Sellers](https://ecomwatch.com/news/facebook-introduces-a-brand-new-app-for-marketplace-sellers/): Whether you’re an individual selling a pair of shoes or a business selling your newest handmade product, Facebook Marketplace is among the most popular places to sell. Thanks to a new app, the experience of selling on the platform and managing your sales has just gotten easier.
- [The EU is Pressed to Act Against Unexpected Duty Charges](https://ecomwatch.com/news/the-eu-is-pressed-to-act-against-unexpected-duty-charges/): Around a month after the EU’s new customs duty came into effect, the European Commission is being pressured to ensure that online shoppers aren’t hit with unexpected or hidden charges to cover these duties for businesses.
- [Google Just Told You Which Products People Are Actually Clicking on in Your Ads](https://ecomwatch.com/news/google-just-told-you-which-products-people-are-actually-clicking-on-in-your-ads/): Here is a question that ecommerce advertisers running Performance Max campaigns could not answer twelve months ago: which specific products in your ads are getting direct clicks, and which products are showing up in ads but driving brand engagement rather than direct product traffic?
- [Google Just Made AI Ad Creative Better. Every Platform Also Just Made AI Ad Disclosure Mandatory.](https://ecomwatch.com/news/google-just-made-ai-ad-creative-better-every-platform-also-just-made-ai-ad-disclosure-mandatory/): The timing of Google's latest update to its AI image generation tool is worth noting. The new feature, spotted this week by advertiser Arpan Banerjee, allows advertisers to upload a reference image when generating AI creative inside Google Ads.
- [Interview with the Co-Founder of Bebek Jewels](https://ecomwatch.com/leaders-interviews/interview-with-the-co-founder-of-bebek-jewels/): Today I sat down with Sonia Aslam from Bebek Jewels.
- [New NY Advertising Law Targets AI ](https://ecomwatch.com/news/new-ny-advertising-law-targets-ai/): A recent advertising change in New York could have wide-reaching effects, especially for ecommerce brands that use AI-generated images and videos of people in their ads. The law now requires that businesses clearly label any ad that includes AI-generated people, or risk large fines.
- [Interview with the Founder of Elemental Wellness Shop](https://ecomwatch.com/leaders-interviews/interview-with-the-founder-of-elemental-wellness-shop/): Today I sat down with the founder of Elemental Wellness Shop, a handcrafted wellness brand built on skincare, herbal remedies, aromatherapy, teas and tinctures.
- [Stripe Just Posted Its Fastest Growth Since 2021. The Reason Is Not What You Would Expect.](https://ecomwatch.com/news/stripe-just-posted-its-fastest-growth-since-2021-the-reason-is-not-what-you-would-expect/): Stripe's 2025 results are impressive by any absolute measure. Revenue of $6.8 billion, up roughly a third year over year, is the fastest growth rate the company has posted since 2021. Free cash flow of $3.2 billion on $6.8 billion in revenue is a 47% margin that most public software companies would consider exceptional. Q1 2026 revenue of $2 billion annualizes to an $8 billion run rate. Total payment volume of $1.9 trillion in 2025, up 34%, is roughly equivalent to 1.6% of global GDP flowing through Stripe's infrastructure.
- [China’s Online Shopping Festivals are Running Out of Growth](https://ecomwatch.com/news/chinas-online-shopping-festivals-are-running-out-of-growth/): There is a pattern in how economic weakness shows up in ecommerce data before it shows up in headline retail numbers. Basket sizes shrink before transaction volumes fall. Premium categories lose share before budget categories do. And secondhand markets boom precisely when disposable income is under enough pressure that the gap between new and used starts to feel worth navigating.
- [China Threatens Retaliatory Measures Against France for Anti-Fast-Fashion Law](https://ecomwatch.com/news/china-threatens-retaliatory-measures-against-france-for-anti-fast-fashion-law/): This is only the latest in a long string of issues between France and low-cost ecommerce platforms like Temu and Shein, and the issues aren’t exclusive to France, as other countries like Germany are also having issues with the platforms.
- [New Jersey Just Made It Illegal to Charge You More Because an Algorithm Decided You Would Pay It](https://ecomwatch.com/news/new-jersey-just-made-it-illegal-to-charge-you-more-because-an-algorithm-decided-you-would-pay-it/): Surveillance pricing has been one of those practices that everyone in ecommerce knew was happening and nobody could quite prove was illegal. The technology has been available for years. The FTC opened an inquiry into it in 2024. Some retailers have quietly tested it. None of them called it surveillance pricing. They called it personalization, dynamic pricing, demand-based optimization, or simply did not call it anything at all.

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