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Zara bets on live shopping following China success: The fast-fashion retailer is expanding its live commerce capabilities to the US, UK, and Europe.

But it still isn鈥檛 available at major ecommerce sites like Amazon, eBay, or Walmart. Availability on these platforms will be crucial for Paze to start gaining significant traction. Our take: Paze could transform the digital wallet industry鈥攂ut not for some time given its slow merchant rollout. Still, other wallets like Apple Pay and PayPal will need to prepare for Paze鈥檚 influence.

Amazon looks to its B2B ecommerce division for growth: The retail giant sees significant opportunities to expand Amazon Business into new markets in Europe and elsewhere.

Lululemon bucks China slowdown as international business gains momentum: The brand鈥檚 premium sportswear is resonating with Chinese shoppers鈥攂ut product challenges keep US consumers on the fence.

Why it matters: EPI is a coalition of major European banks, credit institutions, and other payments firms developing a unified, real-time payments system throughout Europe to challenge US-based players like Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal. While it鈥檚 had to scale back its ambitions due to financing concerns, wero could still shake up digital payments in Europe.

While the Italian Competition Authority鈥檚 probe is unlikely to cause most consumers to stop shopping at Shein, it is one more black mark against the company. There is a finite number of those types of stories that Shein can withstand before its proverbial bucket spills over.

Offering a seamless returns process can help merchants win repeat shoppers.

Online sales are back in growth in the UK, but the fortunes of key ecommerce retailers have been mixed, with some suffering a greater blow from the cost-of-living crisis than others.

The biggest ecommerce disruptors face a reckoning: The closing of the de minimis exemption is forcing Shein, Temu, and TikTok Shop to pivot, but it isn鈥檛 clear that shoppers will follow.

As inflation eases across Europe in 2024, retail, media, and marketing firms will turn their attention to regulatory headwinds on the horizon.

While it still faces hurdles, the company鈥檚 finances have improved markedly鈥攕etting it up for a strong IPO in 2025

France鈥檚 relative digital immaturity is shifting, with digital advertising growth leaving traditional channels behind. Retail media is leading the way, and Amazon is benefiting the most, with the creation of the new triopoly.

Not only are underbanked individuals using cash, but others are gravitating to the payment method for emergency protections and for budgeting reasons

TJX鈥檚 value proposition won over shoppers of all ages and incomes in Q3: That momentum has carried over into Q4, putting the off-price retailer in pole position to benefit this holiday season.

An EU court upholds decision that Google unfairly boosted its shopping services, likely influencing future cases under EU and UK competition laws.

The UK is one of the world鈥檚 most advanced ecommerce markets鈥攁nd it was chosen as the first location outside of Asia-Pacific for TikTok Shop. But it鈥檚 still playing catch-up with social commerce. There will be 16.7 million social buyers in the UK in 2023. That鈥檚 29.4% of the population鈥攑utting the UK ahead of the rest of Europe when it comes to social buying.

The company deprioritized underperforming business units: It sold off the assets of its ecommerce expert platform Hero for a pittance. It scrapped its open banking brand, Kosma, and just last month spun out and sold its Checkout business Kustom. Klarna also cut costs, partly by leaning on AI automation to trim its workforce. The company now employs 3,800 people, down from 5,000 a year ago.