Commerce

Amazon disputes report that it raised prices of popular items since Trump took office

Commerce /

A report in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) last week found that prices on Amazon’s low-cost essentials had risen since President Trump announced his plans for massive tariffs on international goods. Amazon responded with a lengthy blog post in response to the article, which describes the WSJ’s reporting as “fundamentally flawed.” WSJ analyzed the prices […]

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Itch.io is the latest marketplace to crack down on adult games

Commerce /

Indie video game marketplace Itch.io announced this week that it has “deindexed” adult and not-safe-for-work games, removing them from its browse and search pages. The move, the company said, was in response to a campaign by Collective Shout (an advocacy group that has previously criticized video games, rap music, and lingerie commercials) targeting both Itch.io

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India expands its e-commerce crackdown with a new $200M case against Walmart’s fashion arm Myntra

Commerce /

India’s financial crime watchdog has filed a complaint against Walmart-backed fashion e-commerce giant Myntra, alleging the company violated foreign investment rules by channeling over $191 million through a related-party scheme that disguised retail operations as wholesale trade. This complaint marks the latest move in a broader crackdown by Indian authorities, which previously targeted Amazon and

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Etsy faces user boycott over ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ branded products

Commerce /

The Florida GOP isn’t the only one profiting from the detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” by selling merchandise. A subset of Etsy buyers and sellers began a boycott of the online marketplace this month over its decision to allow “Alligator Alcatraz”-branded merchandise on its site. Today, this sort of merchandise — including T-shirts, hats,

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Prime Day event drove over $24B in U.S. e-commerce sales, gen AI traffic was up 3,300%

Commerce /

Amazon’s Prime Day, which leads to an overall boost to U.S. e-commerce thanks to competitive sales, saw a significant increase in retail traffic driven by generative AI products, including chatbots and browsers. According to a post-Prime Day analysis by Adobe Analytics, gen AI traffic to U.S. retail sites increased by 3,300% year-over-year — which was

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GenAI as a shopping assistant set to explode during Prime Day sales

Commerce /

A new report estimates that AI will be a larger-than-ever part of the online shopping process during Amazon’s Prime Day sale, which began Tuesday morning. Amazon’s annual sale, which this year spans four days (July 8-11), is predicted to drive $23.8 billion in online spending across U.S. e-commerce retailers, as other businesses run their own

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OneText raises $4.5M from Y Combinator, Khosla to reinvent shopping by text

Commerce /

The typical online checkout experience has become bloated with friction. And while more companies are building solutions around online checkout, few are rethinking it from scratch. One such company is OneText, which is building what it calls a “text-to-buy network,” that lets shoppers complete purchases via text message. The company, founded by former PayPal employees,

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Bookshop.org mocks Jeff Bezos wedding invite in anti-Prime Day promo

Commerce /

The independent online bookseller Bookshop.org took a swipe at Amazon to celebrate the start of Prime Day, Amazon’s annual sale (which, despite its name, is actually four days this year). Like many other retailers, Bookshop.org holds a sale to coincide with Amazon’s big event — it’s a way to lure away consumers who may be

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OpenAI hires team behind AI recommendation startup Crossing Minds

Commerce /

Crossing Minds, a startup that provides AI recommendation systems to e-commerce businesses, said on Thursday that its team is joining OpenAI. The startup was backed by Index Ventures, Shopify, Plug and Play, and Radical Ventures, and had raised more than $13.5 million across multiple rounds, according to Crunchbase. Crossing Minds largely worked with e-commerce companies

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Julie Bornstein’s Daydream is releasing an AI-powered chatbot for fashion-related shopping

Commerce /

Nearly a year after raising a mega seed round of $50 million, ecommerce veteran Julie Bornstein’s startup Daydream is releasing its AI-powered chatbot for shopping with a focus on fashion. After testing the product with select users, the company is today releasing the chatbot to all users in a public beta. People can sign up

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