#214 – USPS Privatization, Amazon Un-Inspired, & Apple gives in to UK demands

by Shopifreaks | Feb 24, 2025 | Recent Newsletters

Hi Shopifreaks

How many embarrassing things is HP going to do this week? Stick around to the end to find out…

This week I've got another jam-packed edition for you covering everything from USPS privatization rumors and Klaviyo CRMs to which Amazon services are hitting its project graveyard.

In this week's edition I cover:

OpenAI's big user milestone
Trump vs the USPS
Amazon ditches Inspire
Apple caves to UK spy demands
Klaviyo's new CRM for B2C brands
Apple's deal with Trump
Shopify and Affirm's partnership expansion
Adios Amazon Appstore
Too many Meta lawsuits
Walmart Wally
Saving the CFPB
The end of Humane

All this and more in this week's 214th Edition of Shopifreaks. Thanks for subscribing and sharing!

✨ Real quick, do me a favor…

If you get value from Shopifreaks each week, please take a moment to share this newsletter with your colleagues and help me grow. I'd also appreciate if you left me a review on Google.

As you've noticed, my weekly editions have gotten a lot more comprehensive since I launched the newsletter in 2021. Each week I spend 20+ hours curating news, doing research, and writing each edition. (No joke on the number of hours.) It's a big commitment, but I love doing it, and I learn a ton each week producing this newsletter. If you love Shopifreaks too, then please spread the word with your colleagues and network by sharing my website on social media, sharing the editions in your Slack channels, or forwarding my e-mails to folks that may find them beneficial. Thanks so much!

PS: I have an update on my ongoing earned media experiment with Linkifi, a PR agency that's been helping me earn high value backlinks to Shopifreaks.com. The team at Linkifi recently earned my fourth and fifth backlinks. Take a look at my live case study to see how this has impacted my SEO ranking.

Stat of the Week

OpenAI's weekly active users surpassed 400 million in February, while its paying subscribers crossed the 2 million threshold, more than doubling from its last update in September.

1. What's happening with Trump and the USPS?

President Trump is considering moving the US Postal Service under the control of his administration by terminating the service's governing board members and placing the agency under the control of the Commerce Department and Secretary Howard Lutnick, according to a Washington Post report. Members of the bipartisan board are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

Quick History of the USPS:

Before 1970, the U.S. Post Office Department operated as a traditional government agency but faced increasing financial strain, inefficiency, and political interference.
By the 1960s, mail volume surged, but outdated infrastructure, low worker wages, and poor working conditions led to widespread dissatisfaction among postal employees.
In March 1970, postal workers in New York City initiated a massive strike, which quickly spread across the country, disrupting mail delivery and prompting federal intervention.
In response, Congress passed the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, which transformed the Post Office Department into the United States Postal Service (USPS)—an independent, non-partisan, self-sustaining agency designed to operate with greater flexibility while still serving the public interest.
These actions removed direct political control over USPS operations, making it a mostly self-sustaining entity funded primarily through postage and services rather than exclusively taxpayer dollars. The core mission of USPS is neutral and focused on universal mail service rather than advancing any political agenda.

Back to the Future:

Trump told reporters Friday afternoon that Lutnick would be “looking at” the USPS and there would be “a kind of merger.” “He’s got a great business instinct, which is what we need, and he’ll be looking at it, and we think we can turn it around.”

The White House denies the Washington Post report, however, the USPS board is taking the rumor seriously enough that it's already retained outside legal counsel. Their plan is to sue the White House if Trump were to remove members of the board or attempt to alter the agency's independent status.

Last week, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy sent a letter to the board indicating his plans to step down. USPS reported a net loss of almost $10B in 2024, compared to a net loss of $6.5B the prior year.

However many argue that USPS’s massive net losses over the past two decades are largely tied to the requirement that it pre-fund retiree health benefits for the next 75 years, a financial burden no other federal agency or private business has ever faced.

So is the USPS going private?

The recent reports have resurfaced rumors that President Trump plans to take the postal service private.

Trump explored the idea of privatizing the USPS in his first term, going as far as issuing an executive order to create a task force to examine the agency's operations and financial struggles, however, Congress did not support privatization, so the efforts hit a brick wall. Now both the House and Senate are Republican led, so there would likely be less friction.

As recently as December 2024, then President-elect Trump said privatizing the USPS is “not the worst idea I’ve ever heard.”

However, in the past few days, Trump has not made any indication that he plans to privatize the agency. At Lutnick's swearing in ceremony on Friday afternoon, Trump confirmed he wants to see changes at the USPS, as well as an oversight role for Lutnick, but did not specifically mention privatization.

The reality is, whether the USPS is stripped of its independent status, made private, or left as-is — e-commerce merchants and consumers should expect even more substantial price hikes during the next four years, as the Trump administration seems to be focused on making the agency fully financially self-sustaining.

2. Amazon ditches its un-Inspired TikTok clone

Amazon shut down Inspire, a TikTok-style shopping feed inside its mobile app that the company launched in 2022. To be honest, Inspire was doomed from the start.

Back in December 2022 I wrote:

“A big difference though between Inspire and those other apps is that users are gravitating towards TikTok and IG for all sorts of entertainment — not just shopping — and then discovering products as part of the overall experience. Whereas Inspire is a predominantly product-based feed with no other types of entertainment.”

I'm personally a big TikTok user now. I think it's by far the best and most entertaining social media / content discovery network / whatever you want to call it. Basically, it's eons ahead of Instagram, Facebook, X, and YouTube in terms of its algorithm, community, e-commerce tools, and cultural relevance. Everything starts on TikTok now before making its way to the rest of the web.

I enjoy discovering new products on TikTok via fast paced videos of the products in action or humorous product placement videos from my favorite creators, and having them appear in between videos of Eminem freestyles, Family Guy and Malcolm in the Middle clips, home renovation videos, and comedy skits. (LOL, there's some insight into my FYP.)

However… would I login to TikTok and endlessly scroll — leaving all household and childcare responsibilities to my wife for hours on end — if the feed was just product discovery videos? No way! I'm not there to shop. I'm there to be entertained. Product discovery is merely a part of that entertainment, not the full experience. That's where Amazon went wrong with Inspire. It was “un-inspired” from the start.

The truth is, I don’t believe Amazon has what it takes to launch a genuine TikTok competitor, even if they put in a serious effort. It took TikTok years to build a culture on its app before getting more serious about its e-commerce and advertising offering, whereas Amazon executives would try to piss in the pool as soon as it had its first swimmers. In the case of Inspire, the entire pool was filled with piss before it even opened for business.

That's a weird analogy above, but maybe it gets my point across. Here's a less “pissy” example:

There's a reason why shopping malls have food courts, cafes, play areas for kids, an abundance of benches, and bring Santa Clause in during the winter months. Shopping malls have historically aimed to build a comfortable place for their community to exist and enjoy themselves — which led to more shopping. Amazon skipped that part and built a strip mall.

It's unfortunate for Amazon too, because out of all the major US tech companies, they've got the technological backbone, algorithmic expertise, financial backing, e-commerce and affiliate infrastructure, and employee talent pool to build a highly competitive TikTok clone. However doing so would require Amazon to put aside their e-commerce and advertising ambitions for an extended period of time in order to build a true community on the app — which they're simply incapable of doing.

Then again, maybe it means that Amazon is the frontrunner to acquire 50% of TikTok and decided that they didn't need their half-baked Inspire feed when the true gold is on the horizon. Who knows?

Either way, RIP Inspire. The feed that will be missed by no-one.

🔥 Partner News

Omnisend analyzed product listings, pricing strategies, and consumer trust on two major e-commerce marketplaces: Temu and Amazon. The findings reveal not only a fierce price war between the two, but also concerns over brand imitation and potential review manipulation. For example, 77% of Amazon-listed products have close matches on Temu, with every tenth product being identical, while many Temu products closely resemble well-known brands, often with blurred logos or modified packaging. Read the full report for more insights.

3. Apple pulls Advanced Data Protection from UK devices

Apple is no longer offering its end-to-end encrypted iCloud storage, Advanced Data Protection, to new users in the UK, and will require existing users to disable the feature at some point in the future, following UK security agencies requesting backdoor access to worldwide users' encrypted backups.

Apple launched ADP in 2022, allowing iCloud data including file backups and photos to be protected with end-to-end encryption, which means they can only be decrypted by the person who owns the device. Even Apple claims it doesn't have a key. Removing ADP means that users’ files in the UK will be accessible to Apple, and shareable with law enforcement, though that would still require a warrant.

To clarify one thing… Apple isn't entirely disabling encryption. It's merely being downgraded to standard encryption in the UK, which still keeps things safe in transit, only now, Apple holds the decryption keys, which it can hand to the UK government.

Apple spokesperson Julien Trosdorf said in a statement to The Verge:

“Apple remains committed to offering our users the highest level of security for their personal data and are hopeful that we will be able to do so in the future in the United Kingdom. As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will.”

However as one commentor plainly put it on a Techspot article:

“Apple has indeed blocked access via a backdoor, by welcoming them in thru the front door instead.”

Wait, so why the change? Hasn't Apple always prided themselves on being privacy focused?

Apple has fought against similar government demands for encryption backdoors in the past, particularly in the US.

One of the most high-profile cases was the 2016 Apple vs. FBI dispute, where the US government demanded that Apple create special software to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. Apple refused, arguing that building a backdoor would compromise the security of all iPhones and set a dangerous precedent. The FBI eventually accessed the device through a third-party hacking firm.

Apple has consistently maintained that end-to-end encryption is essential for user privacy and that weakening it for one government could open the door for abuse by others. The company has fought against various legislative attempts, such as the EARN IT Act and the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act, which sought to force tech companies to provide law enforcement with access to encrypted communications.

Unlike past cases, this recent legal order compels Apple to comply under UK law, and rather than weakening encryption globally, Apple chose to disable the feature in the UK to maintain its stance against creating backdoors.

Was it the right answer? I'd argue that Apple should simply shut down iCloud services in the UK, leaving almost 30M iPhone users in the region with bricked phones. That would've gotten customers in contact with their government fairly quickly in support of end-to-end encryption and data privacy. We're at a point where it's going to take major stands like this to fight for the data protection rights of consumers.

However in the non-ideal world we live in, the scenario isn't so black and white. Apple has fiduciary responsibilities to investors that involve NOT losing revenue from one of their key regions, legal responsibilities to adhere to the specific rules of the jurisdictions they do business in, and a broader strategic interest in maintaining its global reputation while balancing user privacy with government compliance.

It was a no-win situation for Apple that will unfortunately have ripple effects across the globe. It won't be long before another government (no names mentioned) follows suit.

4. Klaviyo launches a CRM for B2C brands

Klaviyo announced the launch of what it calls the “the only customer relationship management (CRM) platform built for consumer brands.”

The “only” part of that statement is questionable given that there are more than several self-proclaimed B2C CRMs on the market, but I'll skip being a stickler for semantics and move on with the story…

Klaviyo B2C CRM will comprise of several solutions:

Customer Hub – a signed-in shopper experience created to bring marketing and service together, allowing customers to track orders, manage subscriptions, and discover new products all in one place.
Marketing Analytics: – new AI-powered product designed to help brands better understand customer and purchase behavior and take action faster.
Expanded Marketing Tools – designed to help brands run campaigns across multiple channels, personalize outreach, and automate engagement for higher conversions and stronger customer relationships.
Custom Objects (Coming Soon) – a new way to store and use customer data like loyalty status, pets, or past purchases to make marketing even more personal.

Klaviyo says that the platform was inspired by B2B, but designed for B2C:

“Most CRMs were designed for B2B sales cycles, not the fast-moving, high-volume world of B2C. Consumer brands today juggle 16+ disconnected tools, making it nearly impossible to get a complete view of their customers and deliver the personalized, frictionless experiences modern shoppers expect.”

“Klaviyo B2C CRM changes that. Powered by Klaviyo Data Platform (KDP), it gives brands a newfound ability to handle huge volumes of data, transactions, and 1:1 relationships at scale, redefining what growth means for consumer brands. With KDP—and over 350 pre-built integrations and open APIs—brands can connect customer, purchase, and behavioral data from anywhere, store it without expiration, and make it actionable in minutes—no complex set-up, no data silos, just smarter growth. “

As a reminder, Shopify is a 45% owner in Klaviyo, and this new B2C CRM tool will fit nicely with its ambitions to attract more enterprise merchants.

5. Apple to add 20,000 new US jobs and manufacture AI servers in the US

Apple told the White House that it will make an additional $500B of investments in the US, hoping in exchange for relief from President Trump's tariffs on goods imported from China. Those investments include:

Hiring 20,000 new workers.
Building a new server manufacturing facility in Houston to begin producing the servers that power the cloud component of Apple Intelligence in collaboration with Foxconn Technology Group.
Expanding data center capacity in Arizona, Oregon, Iowa, Nevada and North Carolina, which are all states with existing Apple capacity.
Opening a manufacturing academy in Detroit, where it will help smaller companies with manufacturing.
Doubling its manufacturing fund in the US to $10B.

The disclosure comes days after Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook met in the Oval Office. Following the meeting, Trump said that Apple was making the investment because of “faith in what we are doing.” However Apple didn’t clarify whether the newly announced investments were already underway before Trump’s tariffs were announced.

During Trump's first term, Cook successfully swayed him into exempting the iPhone from tariffs by arguing that the tax would serve to benefit competitors like Samsung. Apple also made multiple announcements during Trump's first term about US investments and credited Trump with Mac Pro manufacturing in Texas, even though the company had been doing so since 2013.

Apple is taking a similar strategy now with its announcement about satisfying Trump's agenda, even though the plans were likely on the cards no matter who took office.

6. Shopify and Affirm expand their partnership

Affirm and Shopify announced an expanded partnership, cementing the BNPL provider's position as the “exclusive pay-over-time provider” for Shop Pay Installments in the US. The agreement also extends this exclusivity into Canada, with plans to enter the UK on the horizon.

This collaboration will enable Shopify merchants in Canada to offer Shop Pay Installments powered by Affirm at checkout in the coming months, with the option to to select from customized biweekly and monthly payment plans.

In 2020, Affirm partnered with Shopify to power Shop Pay Installments in the US, which has apparently been a success.

Shopify COO Kaz Nejatian said:

“Given the success of our long-standing partnership with Affirm in the U.S., bringing them to our merchants internationally is a no brainer. Affirm’s premier technology, world-class team, and commitment to transparency make them a natural fit to continue supporting merchants in the Shopify ecosystem, and we look forward to bringing this same value to our merchants in Canada, the U.K., and beyond.”

Affirm also powers BNPL for Amazon, Walmart, Target, eBay, Lowes, and many other major e-commerce platforms and marketplaces.

Does it ever feel like all the major retailers are collectively setting up Affirm to be left holding the bag on the inevitable BNPL consumer debt crash that's coming? Remember when Apple launched its own Apple Pay Later offering and then immediately was like, “Oh wait, this is dumb. Give that debt to Affirm…”

7. Amazon is shutting down its app store on Android

Amazon will discontinue its app store for Android on August 20th, according to a notice the company sent developers indicating that they will no longer be able to submit new apps to the store. The company also said it would be discontinuing its Coins digital currency, which could be used to purchase games and apps on the app store.

Quick Backstory: The Amazon Appstore for Android is an alternative app marketplace operated by Amazon, allowing users to download and install apps, games, and digital content on Android devices and Fire OS-powered devices such as Amazon Fire tablets and Fire TV. The app store came pre-installed on Amazon Fire devices and could be manually installed on Android devices as an alternative to the Google Play Store. Unlike Google Play, the Amazon Appstore does not offer Google services like Google Maps API or Google Play Services, which some apps rely on, but it's served as a decently popular alternative app distribution platform, especially for users of Amazon’s ecosystem.

An Amazon spokesperson said:

“We’ve decided to discontinue the Amazon Appstore on Android to focus our efforts on the Appstore experience on our own devices, as that’s where the overwhelming majority of our customers currently engage with it.”

Amazon Appstore also works on Windows devices, allowing users to install Android apps on their PCs, but the company already announced last year that it will discontinue support for its app store on Windows starting March 5, 2025.

Moving forward, after August 20th, the Amazon Appstore will only work on Amazon's own Fire devices.

Peculiar Timing

It's an interesting moment in history to shut down one of the only alternative app stores to Google Play and Apple App Store that had any existing traction, in light of recent regulatory changes in the European Union mandating that Google and Apple permit alternative app stores on their platforms to foster competition and provide consumers with more choices.

You'd think that this would be the exact moment for Amazon to double down on its app store efforts and cement its position amongst developers, while bridging a gap between its AI efforts and mobile devices. However apparently cost cutting is playing a more important role in the company's future.

In other Amazon shut downs this week… the company sunset Chime, it's underwhelming Zoom and Google Meet alternative that launched in 2017 with a focus on business usage. Chime had little adoption outside of Amazon, which largely contributed to its shutdown, according to an Amazon spokesperson.

8. Meta news this week…

I have so much Meta news for you this week that I decided to house it all in a dedicated section, as to not flood the “Other e-commerce news of interest” section below. Here's what's new at Meta this week. SPOILER: Lots of lawsuits!

Instagram is rolling out updates to its direct messaging service, including message translation (a feature Facebook Messenger has had since 2018), music stickers, and the ability to schedule messages. Additionally, group chats will be assigned a QR code that can be shared to invite other folks to join.
Facebook announced that live videos will only be stored on the platform for 30 days, previously having been stored indefinitely. All the videos that are currently older than 30 days will be removed from the platform as well as part of the change, however, before the videos are deleted, users will receive a notification and be given 90 days to download their videos or convert the content into a reel.
Meta is hosting its first-ever “LlamaCon” conference on April 29th, where it will share updates on open source AI developments to help developers create apps and products. The company also announced the dates of its annual Connect conference, which will be held this year on September 17th and 18th.
Meta settled its Israeli privacy lawsuit for $338,000, which alleged that the company collected and used phone numbers provided for two-step verification for other purposes. The plaintiffs and Meta reached a settlement without Meta admitting the claims, and last week, the Central District Court approved the agreement. Wow, Meta got off cheap!
Meanwhile in the US… Meta is urging a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit by two Facebook users who say they lost money after responding to fraudulent ads on the platform. The users claim in a class-action complaint that Meta violated its terms of service by failing to remove deceptive ads that were placed by outside companies. Meta countered by claiming that its TOS impose rules on users, but don't create “affirmative obligations” on the company.
Meta has been hit with a new privacy lawsuit for allegedly collecting location data about Facebook users via tracking software embedded in thousands of mobile apps. California resident Lisa Tsering alleges in a class-action complaint that Facebook collects the data through a software development kit that “enables backdoor access to consumers' devices and opens a direct data collection pipeline” to the company, and that Meta is violating a California anti-hacking law by accessing consumers' mobile devices without their permission, as well as violating state restrictions on collecting metadata associated with electronic communications.
Meta is cracking down on users buying and selling Instagram accounts and unauthorized account reinstatement services via two separate lawsuits, marking the first time the company has taken this type of legal action in the US. One suit alleges that a photographer named Daniel Folger sold Instagram usernames at prices ranging from $700 to $50,000, and cites documentation of content posted to his accounts, including a list of usernames for sale. A second suit is against Idriss Qibaa for allegedly selling unauthorized Instagram reinstatement services and fake engagement services intended to artificially inflate followers of Instagram users.
Meta approved executive earning bonuses of up to 200% of their salaries after posting strong Q4 earnings, increasing its “target bonus percentage” for execs from 75% of their base salary to 200% of it. The bonus increase comes just one week after Meta laid off 5% of its workforce, or around 3,600 employees, for being “low performers” — in case you were wondering where the bonus money came from.
Meta is setting up a new office in Bengaluru, India and currently hiring for 41 positions, primarily between software and machine learning engineer jobs, according to its careers webpage. The new center is part of Meta’s Enterprise Engineering team, which focuses on custom internal Meta tools, rather than Meta's public-facing products like Facebook and Instagram.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg lobbied US senators on AI intelligence last week, seeking to earn a voice in any potential AI regulation, given that he's spending $65B on AI this year. Zuckerberg has previously pledged to work with Trump to “push back on governments going after American companies and pushing to censor more,” hoping for support from the White house as the company faces a regulatory crackdown in Europe.

9. Other e-commerce news of interest

Adidas is the latest enterprise retailer to add Amazon's Buy with Prime option to its website and app, which means Prime members can receive Amazon's fast & free shipping right from Adidas' storefronts. Other big retailers to use Buy with Prime include Steve Madden, Belkin, Elizabeth Arden, Crocs' HeyDude, MrBeast, and recently Fossil.

Walmart introduced a new internal tool called Wally that helps its merchandisers quickly access and analyze relevant product information using generative AI. Wally uses a familiar chat-style interface to retrieve relevant data from Walmart's extensive databases and then generates quick answers, tables, or full reports as needed. Wally has also been given access to merchandizer training material, allowing it to make recommendations and interpret data in line with that internal guidance.

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority is investigating Apple and Google to determine how they use their operating systems, apps, or browser technology to give their own mobile wallets preferential treatment after receiving concerns over how the two companies can steer consumers to their own wallets because of the control they have over their own tech. The complaint also claims that the two companies limit less costly card alternative payment options such as account-to-account payments and digital currencies.

Twenty-three state attorneys general joined a lawsuit fighting the shutdown of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, arguing that closing the agency would harm consumers and make consumer protection laws harder to enforce. The filing follows a move by the Trump administration earlier this month that froze the CFPB’s enforcement activity and halted its future funding. New York Attorney General James Letitia James said, “The CFPB has put billions of dollars back in the pockets of Americans by going after predatory lenders, deceptive companies, and slashing junk fees. The only reason to get rid of this watchdog agency is to protect bad actors.”

The FTC, under its new leadership, is opening an inquiry into whether a wide range of online services including Meta and Uber censor users, which FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson describes as “un-American” and “potentially illegal.” Historically courts have given social media companies broad leeway to remove content from users as they see fit, and it's unclear how Ferguson plans to use antitrust and consumer protection laws to combat online censorship.

TikTok launched a custom ad solution called Automotive Ads to help auto sellers tap into the potential of its audience. The ads are designed to help match users with the right car or offer based on their in-market activity. Everybody wants a piece of the online auto sales market! In December 2024, I reported that Amazon launched “Amazon Autos” to enable car sales on its platform in partnership with US dealers, and last month I reported that eBay announced its acquisition of Caramel, a platform that facilitates car sales for private sellers and independent dealers.

TikTok plans to begin tracking how long its US e-commerce workers are in the office, requiring eight hours a day, five days a week. According to an internal memo, workers are expected to be tracked each time they use their badge to enter or leave office buildings to keep tabs on their hours.

Speaking of return to office mandates… Downtown Seattle is apparently popping again as of last month, inching closer to pre-pandemic norms, ever since Amazon mandated that employees return to office 5-days a week. In January, downtown Seattle recorded the second-highest daily average for weekday worker foot traffic since March 2020, and additionally saw 2M visitors on its sidewalks.

TikTok is laying off global staff at its trust and safety unit, which handles content moderation, as part of a restructuring, according to Reuters sources. In January 2024, TikTok CEO Shou Chew testified before Congress that the company would spend more than $2B on trust and safety efforts, however, it's unclear if these layoffs impact that pledge.

YouTube is bringing back its Premium Lite tier, which the company axed in 2023, that lets viewers watch ad-free videos without paying extra for a music subscription. The package will be announced soon in the US, Australia, Germany, and Thailand, with plans to expand to additional countries in the future, and will cost roughly half of what YouTube Premium currently costs in each country.

X has been threatening major advertising agencies, including Interpublic Group, to increase spending on the platform, or face the consequences of Elon Musk’s influence in Washington. Interpublic leaders interpreted recent communications from X as reminders that the recently announced $13B deal to merge Interpublic with rival Omnicom Group could be torpedoed by the Trump administration, given Musk’s powerful role in the federal government. Interpublic recently signed a new annual deal with X for potential client spending, but the company said, “We do not make spending commitments on behalf of our clients to any partner or platform, and decision-making authority always rests with the client.”

Hoan Ton-That, the former CEO and later President of Clearview AI, a facial recognition startup used by law enforcement and federal agencies to identify suspects, resigned from the company, but will remain a board member. Clearview appointed early investor Hal Lambert and cofounder Richard Schwartz as co-CEOs in December after Ton-That shifted roles from CEO to president.

Kiren Tanna, cofounder and CEO of Una Brands, a Singapore-based e-commerce aggregator, stepped down after four years serving in the position. Tanna said in a LinkedIn post that he plans to spend more time with his family and “explore new ideas at the intersection of consumer and AI while working with founders and the venture ecosystem as an advisor – particularly in company building, fundraising, GTM/expansion strategies, and scaling businesses.” Cho Weihao, the company's CFO, assumed the role.

Michaels brought on David Boone as its new CEO, succeeding Ashley Buchanan who became CEO at Kohl's in January after Michaels announced his departure in November 2024. Boone previously served as interim CEO at Essendant, a business and industrial supplies distributor, and before that served as CEO at Staples Canada.

Some eBay sellers in Canada failed to receive payouts due to them on Feb 4th for over two and a half weeks, with eBay support informing them that it's a glitch that may take 30-60 days to resolve. Sellers reported that they were finally paid, but eBay has not yet issued any official announcement in regards to what happened, leading some to speculate that there could be a larger issue in play that eBay is trying to keep quiet.

The SEC agreed to drop its lawsuit against Coinbase with prejudice, meaning it cannot be filed again, in a move that some say is a signal that the Trump administration plans to be more crypto-friendly than the previous administration. The lawsuit, filed back in 2023, alleged that crypto assets were securities and that Coinbase was operating as “an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency.” Coinbase spent $50M fighting back, arguing that the SEC hadn't established clear enough rules concerning crypto in order to sue over breaking them. That's actually a pretty good argument.

SellerX, a Berlin-based aggregator of Amazon brands, is laying off 20% of its workforce, or around 170 employees, in an attempt to cut costs. In September 2023, BlackRock announced that SellerX had defaulted on its €500M loan, leading to an attempted auction that was later canceled in favor of a debt-equity swap, converting its debts into shares. SellerX's CEO Olivier Van Calster said that BlackRock is “100% behind the new strategy,” which involves cost cutting, layoffs, and reducing the number of brands in its portfolio from 67 to 19.

The EU’s AI Act left a major legal gap in copyright protection, according to some experts, sparking concerns among writers, musicians, and creatives who fear their work is being exploited by generative AI without proper safeguards. Axel Voss, a key architect of EU copyright law, criticized the legislation for failing to enforce strong copyright protections, calling the omission “irresponsible” and warning that the AI Act’s text and data mining exemption is being misused by big tech to harvest intellectual property at scale. Some argue that the AI Act prioritizes corporate interests over creators’ rights, with no practical means for artists to opt out or track how their work is used, prompting calls for new legislation to close the loophole.

Inside Retail and Australia Post released their 10th annual Australia's Top 50 People in E-commerce report, featuring the top innovators shaping Australia's e-commerce scene. The finalists were recognized for their contributions to enhancing customer experience, expanding into international markets, and incorporating generative AI technology into their operations.

Protector, an app that describes itself as “Uber with guns,” has gone viral amongst people who can't afford it. The app, which allows clientele to hire an armed bodyguard on demand and claims that every guard is either active duty or retired law enforcement and military, launched in Los Angeles and New York. The annual membership fee is $129 and the rate to book a bodyguard is at least $1,000 for a five-hour minimum.

🏆 This week's award for most ridiculous story… HP artificially, unnecessarily, and assholingly added 15 minutes of wait time to support calls, hoping customers would hang up instead. Do companies actually believe that I am willingly calling them as my first attempt at support? That I've not already read through their outdated documentation, used their crappy AI bot, read through Reddit posts, and asked ChatGPT, before employing my last resort option of picking up the phone and calling them like it's Seinfeld-era? Yikes, HP. Luckily they ditched it after 3 days due to “feedback” — which really means “negative press attention” in corporate jargon. Check out the comments from HP on my LinkedIn post for a good laugh.

10. Seed rounds, IPOs, & acquisitions

Humane, the consumer electronics company infamously known for its AI Pin, was acquired by HP for $116M for some reason, which is less than half of the $240M it raised in VC funding, after unsuccessfully seeking a valuation between $750M and $1B since May 2024. The company's AI Pin, which launched less than a year ago in April 2024, faced immediate criticism and backlash from early reviewers and customers. Post-acquisition, Humane will discontinue sales of its $499 pins and existing pins on the market will no longer connect to their servers. So what did HP buy? The acquisition included some of the company's code and people behind the device, which will collectively serve as the basis for a new innovation team that will infuse its printers and conference room kit with AI. Umm, I think HP overpaid….

X is in talks to raise money at a $44B valuation, matching the price Elon Musk paid for the social network more than two years ago. At least some of the cash raised would be used to reduce the company's debit, according to Bloomberg sources. Here's a question: If X's existing investors think the company is worth around $12B, then what would folks actually be investing in? Supporting X feels more like buying favors with Elon Musk than a legitimate investment.

Shein is being pressured by investors to cut its valuation to $30B ahead of its planned IPO, down from $100B in 2022, $66B in 2023, and $45B in January 2024. Investors suggest that a valuation cut is needed because of the difficulty the company has faced in its attempt to go public, the uncertainty around global trade, and President Trump's decision to end the de minimis loophole for goods from China.

Amazon MGM Studios paid more than $1B for creative control of the James Bond franchise, striking a deal with Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson, the British-American heirs to the film product Albert “Cubby” Broccoli and longtime stewards of the Bond films. With creative control, Amazon will have the power to move forward with new films and even TV-spinoffs without approval from Wilson and Broccoli who have overseen the integrity of the Bond character since 1996. Some actors expressed concern that James Bond won't be as “British” anymore if Amazon is running the show. I'm more concerned about product placement ruining the franchise.

Reshop, a startup focused on improving the returns process for consumers by providing instant refunds to debit cards, raised $17M in a round led by Matrix Partners. The company claims that 50% of customers are making repeat purchases within 24 hours through its tool and plans to use the fresh funds to accelerate its go-to-market efforts.

Hightouch, a San Francisco-based platform that makes it easier to analyze marketing information like ad performance metrics, raised $80M in a Series C round led by Sapphire Ventures, at a $1.2B valuation. Hightouch's software runs as a layer on top of an enterprise's existing cloud data warehouse and makes it possible to assemble disparate marketing records into datasets called audiences, which a company's advertising team can then use to create personalized offers.

Geniemode, a B2B cross-border e-commerce startup for buyers in furniture, home textiles, apparel, and accessories, raised $28M in a Series B round led by Tiger Global, at a $162M valuation. The company will use the funds for global expansion and to enhance its tech-driven supply chain solutions.

Udaan, India's largest B2B e-commerce marketplace, raised $75M in a round led by M&G Prudential and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with a potential for an additional $25M this year, according to its CEO. Udaan saw its valuation reduced by 44% to around $1.8B in 2023, and the company has not disclosed its current valuation.

GrubMarket, a marketplace that connects farmers and food producers directly with consumers, acquired Bay Cities Produce, a California-based food service distributor that provides wholesale distribution services to restaurants, schools, government agencies, and retailers, for an undisclosed amount. The deal seeks to strengthen GrubMarket's position in the food service sector by bringing significant operational synergies between the two company's operations. Last month I reported that GrubMarket acquired Sally Produce, an Asian produce wholesaler that offers fresh fruits and vegetables sourced directly from local farms in California.

PayRange, a fintech company that provides mobile payment solutions for unattended retail machines such as vending machines, laundromats, and amusement devices, acquired Turns, an all-in-one laundromat operating system, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition combines the two platforms to provide a unified solution for small and multi-location laundromats to power everything from machine payments to wash-dry-fold service pickup and delivery.

Market Pay, a French fintech company that provides merchants with an omnichannel and international payment platform, signed an agreement to acquire AltaPay, a Danish fintech that offers payment management solutions for e-commerce and physical retailers, for an undisclosed amount. The deal marks Market Pay's fourth acquisition since 2021 and is part of the company's strategy to improve its payment solutions while speeding up the deployment of its platform throughout Europe.

Dubizzle Group, a Dubai-based company that operates classifieds platforms including dubizzle, Bayut and Drive Arabia, acquired Hatla2ee, an Egyptian online car marketplace, for an undisclosed amount. The group's plan is to integrate its technology and resources into Hatla2ee's platform to unlock new features for the platform's buyers and sellers.