Retail Is Back

The "death of retail" was a myth. Ecommerce growth has plateaued, with customer acquisition costs soaring 60% in five years and return rates doubling. As a result, the same DTC darlings that once vowed to kill physical stores—Warby Parker, Allbirds, Skims—are now rushing to open them. Why? Because Gen Z actually prefers shopping in person, and physical stores have become the most profitable channel for acquiring loyal customers. → via YouTube & DBB NWA

The cost of the "AI agent" era is here. ChatGPT will reportedly charge a 4% fee on sales processed through its new Shopify integration. This premium rate—higher than standard credit card processing—signals that OpenAI views itself as a high-value acquisition channel, justifying a marketplace-style take rate. → via The Information

OpenAI is no longer just a chatbot company; it's becoming a shopping engine. With revenue surging to $20 billion in 2025, the company is aggressively expanding ChatGPT's commerce capabilities. The move signals a shift where product discovery happens via conversation, not search keywords, fundamentally changing how brands must position themselves. → via Digital Commerce 360

The flywheel keeps spinning. Amazon Prime membership in the U.S. hit 201 million in December 2025, a 4% increase from the previous year. With saturation nearly complete, the focus is now entirely on increasing "wallet share" per member rather than just acquiring new ones. → via CIRP

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has publicly acknowledged that new tariffs are forcing price hikes on the platform. While Amazon has tried to shield consumers, the rising cost of imports is leaving third-party sellers with a brutal choice: absorb the costs and crush margins, or pass them on and lose sales. → via Axios

In a classic Amazon power move, the company is demanding price concessions of up to 30% from suppliers. The logic? Recent reductions in specific tariff rates on Chinese imports (dropping from 57% to 47%) mean costs should be lower. Amazon wants those savings back immediately, reversing concessions made during the peak tariff scare. → via Emarketer

TikTok Shop is hungry for big brands. The platform has launched "Project Horizon," an initiative to recruit 100 ecommerce agencies specifically to onboard merchants with at least $10 million in annual sales. The goal is to drive $50 million in new GMV by 2026, moving TikTok Shop upmarket from cheap viral gadgets to serious retail brands. → via PYMNTS

The open web is losing traffic, but marketplaces are feasting. A new report shows that Marketplaces were the only subcategory to grow in 2025, reaching ~15 billion monthly visits. Meanwhile, standalone ecommerce sites in Fashion, Electronics, and Home saw traffic decline by 3% to 5% year-over-year. The data confirms a massive consolidation of attention: if you aren't on a marketplace, you are increasingly invisible. → via Market Maze

Zipline has raised a massive $600 million at a $7.6 billion valuation. The capital will fuel the expansion of its drone delivery network into four new U.S. states this year. While Amazon and Walmart fight for the streets, Zipline is quietly building a dominant lead in the skies. → via Axios

The carriers are playing a shell game. While FedEx and UPS have started offering deeper discounts to win back volume (up 0.7% for express), base rates are still 34% higher than in 2018. Worse, both carriers have introduced new "dimensional surcharges" that could triple costs for large, lightweight packages. Read the fine print. → via Supply Chain Dive

A major bullet dodged. President Trump announced he will not impose the threatened 10-25% tariffs on eight European countries, following a breakthrough in negotiations regarding Greenland and the Arctic. For importers of European goods, this removes a massive cloud of uncertainty that had been hovering over Q1 planning. → via Supply Chain Dive

The USPS is desperate for revenue. The agency has initiated a "reverse auction" bidding process, allowing large shippers to reserve guaranteed capacity in its last-mile network across 18,000 delivery units. It’s a move to monetize its infrastructure more aggressively, potentially squeezing out smaller players who can't bid for volume. → via Supply Chain Dive

Choosing the right system can either simplify your operations or compound the chaos. In this post, we break down how to evaluate a multichannel operating system based on how your business actually runs, which capabilities matter as complexity grows, and how to avoid tools that add visibility but not control. → Dive in

DTC brands are opening stores. Amazon is squeezing suppliers. TikTok is hiring agencies. The lines between "online" and "offline" are gone. You need an operating system that doesn't care where the sale happens—just that it gets fulfilled perfectly. Goflow unifies your inventory across retail, wholesale, and marketplaces, so you can adapt to the hybrid era without breaking a sweat. → See All Goflow Integrations

The "rocket ship" may have cooled, but it hasn't crashed. While headlines focus on slower growth rates, the structural shift to online commerce remains intact. The latest Q3 data confirms we have hit a new, mature baseline where hyper-growth is being replaced by steady optimization.

→ via Digital Commerce 360

In a terrifying (and slightly ridiculous) story, a man posing as an Amazon driver held a Connecticut couple at gunpoint. But the real story is the husband, who screamed at his wife to lock herself in the bedroom and call 911. She ignored him, came downstairs, and was attacked by a second robber. Thankfully, the husband hit the panic button. Moral of the story: When your spouse screams "call 911," maybe listen? → via CBS News