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Shopify pegs ecommerce at 0.19%, while MailerLite cites a global average of .08%. Over 40% of US consumers unsubscribe weekly鈥攄riven by overload, poor targeting, and privacy concerns鈥攎aking Gmail鈥檚 new unsubscribe tool more timely than ever. Our take: Gmail鈥檚 new feature raises the bar for email marketers.

Nano-influencers have the highest overall engagement rate (2.53%), and engagement decreases as follower count increases, with mega-influencers averaging .92%, per a HypeAuditor report cited by Shopify. And the higher the engagement rate, the more likely followers are to make a purchase. TikTok is dominated by nano-influencers, representing 87.7% of all influencers on the platform.

Ecommerce companies: Shopify and Etsy. Telecom providers: Verizon and AT&T. Google services: YouTube, Gmail, Drive, and Nest. The details: Cloudflare, whose customers also experienced service issues, blamed Google Cloud for the disruption. The failure crashed everything from APIs to developer tools, underscoring the fragility of today鈥檚 cloud-first digital economy.

Prior moves to integrate ecommerce into YouTube鈥檚 platform include its partnership with Shopify, which helps connect creators and brands for marketing campaigns. Key stat: 47.7% of adults worldwide say YouTube is the most useful social media platform for researching brands and products, per ESW in partnership with 蘑菇AV.

Brands running loyalty programs have reported an increase in customer lifetime value, average order value, and customer retention, per a November 2024 Censuswide/LoyaltyLion survey of brands using Shopify in the UK, US, and Canada. But the loyalty space is crowded.

Shopify and Duolingo stated that they are now AI-first companies and will only invest in human workers if there鈥檚 proof that AI can鈥檛 do the job. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which laid off 3,500 employees in sweeping Trump administration cuts, is adding genAI tools to speed up regulatory processes, per BioSpace.

Major players include Shopify Payments, Stripe, PayPal-owned Braintree, and Visa-owned Authorize.net. They are racing to find ways to seamlessly integrate with social commerce features, reducing friction in these transactions and boosting conversion rates. Understanding consumers鈥� payment preferences across these platforms is now crucial for providers.

Duolingo will only hire more employees if teams can鈥檛 automate the work needed鈥攁 move also made by Shopify. AI experience will be considered in the hiring process and use of AI at work will be evaluated during performance reviews. One of the most likely areas for contractor cuts is coding.

Marketplaces are fighting for the crown in US ecommerce. Though Amazon remains solidly atop ecommerce sales, Walmart and Shopify are attempting to carve into Amazon鈥檚 revenues. Here are the latest updates in ecommerce, advertising, and partnerships from these major players.

Shopify looks to competitors for help as growth slows: The company鈥檚 partnerships with TikTok and Amazon should help with customer retention and acquisition.

A year in, Buy with Prime is struggling to attract retailers: Opposition from Shopify and UX limitations are keeping merchants away, despite the opportunity to reach Amazon Prime users.

Roku and Shopify team up on shoppable ads: Viewers will be able to purchase items from Shopify merchants directly from their TVs.

The initial wave of excitement over generative AI is fading, leaving many retailers asking, 鈥淣ow what?鈥� Some might want to look toward Shopify, which is incorporating generative AI capabilities across its platform to help sellers build and scale their businesses more quickly. Or maybe take a cue from eBay, which is using the tech to make more accurate and helpful product recommendations. Meanwhile, Etsy is working to democratize access to machine learning models to help speed up deployment across its organization.

Target looks to its online marketplace to drive growth: The retailer鈥檚 new partnership with Shopify could expand its selection online and in stores, while also boosting its retail media business.

ChatGPT鈥檚 latest update could turn it into a shopping engine: Instacart, Klarna, and Shopify are experimenting with offering users personalized recommendations.

鈥淏arbie鈥� is the top-searched term on Amazon. Shopify has seen a 56% increase in doll sales. And despite a fall in Q2 Barbie doll sales, Mattel believes there will be significant growth for the property in the coming months and years. All of this has Greta Gerwig鈥檚 movie to thank.

Shopify, Wix, and GoDaddy have rolled out POS systems that incorporate hardware, software, and customizable features to enable selling across a range of physical channels.

2024 is shaping up to be the year of the AI-powered shopping assistant. Just two months in, retailers from Walmart and Amazon to Ikea and Chevron have released a flurry of AI-based updates, hoping to make the shopping experience easier and more relevant.

Companies like Google and Microsoft are racing to incorporate generative AI into their search engines, while Grammarly and Shopify are using it to round out their offerings. We asked our analysts what generative AI-driven changes we can expect for advertising. 鈥淚 think transparency is one of the bigger issues surrounding generative AI,鈥� said Insider Intelligence analyst Gadjo Sevilla.

This focus on video is also driving results on TikTok and YouTube, where B2B brands like Semrush and Shopify use short-form videos to share tips, customer stories, and approachable content tailored to professional audiences. Influencer marketing has become a major part of B2B strategies. Influencer marketing budgets are increasing.

Stripe now lets Shopify merchants accept Circle's USDC stablecoin. PayPal is exploring new stablecoin-based payment and banking solutions in collaboration with Coinbase. World Network, Sam Altman鈥檚 crypto project, is reportedly in talks with Visa to launch a stablecoin payments wallet. Customers aren鈥檛 widely on board yet, but FIs still need to act.

Our take: Some companies, like Shopify, are already limiting new hires if the job can be done with AI. While those policies will eliminate some jobs, humans will still be needed to oversee AI to ensure it doesn鈥檛 go off the rails, as it鈥檚 wont to do. We expect AI-centric job postings to continue rising as more companies lean into the tech.

Leaders like Shopify and Amazon Rufus are adapting to AI-driven discovery through intent mapping, conversational content formatting, and personalized search experiences. But risks and unknowns remain. Concerns linger around traffic loss from zero-click summaries and the lack of clear attribution. Marketers are still learning how to measure impact and ensure their content isn鈥檛 surfaced without credit.

According to data cited by Shopify, 69% of customers trust influencer recommendations over traditional ads. This has prompted brands to invest in authentic, creator-led marketing. Q: With impulse buying rising, how can retail and ecommerce brands fine-tune their strategies to capture spontaneous purchases while building lasting customer relationships?