Latest E-commerce News & Updates
Last updated October 1, 2026
Shein revives its Hong Kong IPO plan with a confidential filing targeting a $40B valuation, down from its $100B 2022 peak
AWS invests $1B in a Forward Deployed Engineering unit that embeds engineers inside customer teams to build agentic AI in days
EU replaces de minimis exemption with a 3-euro per-item duty on low-value parcels, pressuring Shein, Temu, and AliExpress prices
Quantum acquires Cashback.co.uk and Custard from Submission Technology in its first move into direct-to-consumer cashback
Lantern pivots to AI search optimization, helping e-commerce brands get products recommended by ChatGPT and other LLMs
OpenAI found new optimizations that more than halve inference costs, cutting the GPUs needed to run ChatGPT for logged-out users
Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 5 at $2 per million input tokens, closing the Opus 4.8 gap as enterprises curb AI token costs
Anthropic and OpenAI customers still fear a U.S. kill switch after the undisclosed deal reversing Anthropic’s 18-day export ban
TikTok launches Agentic Hub, an AI Skills marketplace letting agents create and optimize ad campaigns through its Business MCP
Moburst acquires Amazon marketing agency Hyperzon to add marketplace expertise, following an $11.8M Chrysalis investment for M&A
Kappahl Group buys majority stake in Arkivet, Sweden’s leading second-hand chain, in a circular-fashion expansion play
Anthropic launches Claude Science, an AI research workbench for genomics and proteomics, and starts a drug-discovery program
TikTok plans 300 Dublin job cuts and confirms Indonesia layoffs in AI-led restructuring of its trust-and-safety operations
Square launches ChatGPT app and Claude plugin letting restaurants take AI-agent orders with no marketplace fees, undercutting DoorDash and Uber Eats commissions
WhatsApp rolls out reservable usernames globally to hide phone numbers as a core privacy feature, with India ordering Meta to halt it over fraud concerns
Anthropic added a new safeguard rerouting risky Fable 5 requests to a weaker model to win back Trump administration clearance after export controls took it offline
Palantir CEO Alex Karp says OpenAI and Anthropic’s token pricing has “gone completely wrong,” leaving enterprises burning tokens for no return
Kroger acquires family-owned grocery chain Giant Eagle for $1.65B to expand across the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, its first major deal since the failed Albertsons merger
Meta names longtime CMO Alex Schultz its first chief data officer overseeing AI analytics, elevating Denise Moreno to marketing chief
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