The Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest: Recent Episodes
Rick Watson @ RMW Commerce
Join Rick Watson, 20+ year eCommerce veteran and CEO & Founder of RMW Commerce Consulting, to hear all the latest in the world of eCommerce — from established players like Amazon and Shopify to the new startups, fresh off their latest round of funding. From Marketplaces to Direct-to-Consumer to Supply Chain to Payments, it’s all here.
New episodes every Monday, just in time for your morning commute!
Find more great content from Rick on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
Four companies reported. Three of them are paying more to grow.
UPS did $22.8 billion in the second quarter, up 7.6%, raised full-year guidance, and watched the stock fall 6%. The model right now is charging more for fewer packages, and domestic operating profit took transformation charges on the way through.
PayPal put up $8.68 billion, up 5%. Volume keeps climbing. Take rate and operating margin keep sliding. Buybacks are doing the work of holding EPS flat.
Amazon hit a record $200.6 billion quarter with strong AWS growth, though part of the earnings line came from a paper remeasurement on its Anthropic stake rather than from operations. Capex is going up again, and it is going into AI capacity.
Shopify grew 34% to $3.58 billion and spent much of the call on AI. Management says AI-driven orders tripled year over year. Management did not say what that is worth in dollars.
The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Avalara. Learn more at avalara.watsonweekly.com
Then the Investor Minute: Poshmark, Procter & Gamble buying Thorne, Domo going to Progress Software, Calilmacus, and King Kullen finding a buyer on Long Island.
watsonweekly #paypal #ups #shopify #amazon
Shopify's Q2 makes the SaaS apocalypse thesis hard to defend. Revenue grew 34% to $3.5 billion on GMV of $115 billion, up 32%, with gross profit up 31% and free cash flow up 55%. Operating expense keeps falling as a share of revenue, which is exactly what analysts reward, and also what happens when a company spends a couple of years cutting headcount.
Rick and Jessica work through what's actually moving those numbers. Merchant solutions grew 37% and now accounts for 78% of total revenue, while the subscription line isn't growing anywhere close to GMV. Sales and marketing spend grew 20% against 32% GMV growth, and R&D grew 13% even with the AI investment story running at full volume, which is the ratio that keeps analysts quiet. Read that revenue mix honestly and Shopify looks like a payments and lending business that happens to sell software.
That's the setup for the Stripe question. Merchants process on Stripe, but their relationship is with Shopify, so if Shopify ever swaps processors, Stripe is the one holding the bag. Meanwhile the Shop brand creeps forward another notch every year, from a checkout button to a consumer login to its own installment product. Identity is the wedge into a consumer internet strategy that has very little to do with helping merchants sell more socks.
Analysts wanted to know whether Shopify will sell AI as a separate line item, and Harley Finkelstein has one answer he'll give you 27 different ways. Shopify is the layer underneath every agentic surface, so GMV has to flow through it and the register rings on the way past. The risk buried in that plan is an agentic front end that becomes the wallet itself and routes around Shopify entirely, which stops being hypothetical when PayPal is in play and Stripe is circling. Whether Shopify would ever make a run at PayPal depends on how cheap it gets, and on whether Harley decides he needs a wallet of his own before somebody else builds one.
Also in this episode, why Sidekick's real moat is context rather than model quality, what happens to app developers who don't hand their data over, and transaction and loan losses running at $141 million against $80 million.
The Watson Weekly Weekend episode by Avalara. Accurate tax at checkout, visibility into tariffs and duties before an order ships, and fewer surprises for your customers. See what Avalara has built for growing brands at avalara.watsonweekly.com
watsonweekly #shopify #stripe #paypal #shoppay #ecommerce #retail
Holden Bale runs strategy at Merkle, the dentsu-owned consulting firm with roughly 16,000 people worldwide and about 4,000 of them sitting in data science. He came on to walk through what Merkle's consumer research actually shows about AI and shopping. The numbers do not line up with the conference talk track.
Twenty-two percent of consumers across North America, Central America and most of EMEA now name an AI app as a first stop for product search and evaluation. Google still sits around 78 percent, Amazon around 49. More than half of men and over a third of women say they already use AI tools to shop. That is self-reported, and Holden is the first to discount it.
The gap brands keep missing is what happens after discovery. Fifty-three percent say they leave the AI app and buy on a website. Eleven percent claim they bought inside the app. Holden says that second number is fiction, and explains why the GMV math cannot carry it. He has a slide he brings to conferences in red type: agentic commerce does not exist.
Then he gives the forecast anyway. A quarter of an eight trillion dollar B2C market flowing through discrete AI apps by the end of the decade, most of that share taken out of marketplaces. Somewhere between 10 and 25 percent of commerce running autonomously. The condition for all of it is Amazon and the LLM firms working out a commercial arrangement instead of a lawsuit.
One more number worth sitting with. Merkle surveyed 100-plus companies above a billion dollars in revenue. Eighty-eight percent had deployed something powered by a large language model. Six percent could prove it moved EBITDA.
Holden's advice to brand executives has almost nothing to do with AI and everything to do with the product data most companies still cannot pull out of nineteen different systems.
This episode is brought to you by Avalara. Tax, tariffs and duties get complicated the moment you add a channel or cross a border. See what Avalara has built for growing brands at avalara.watsonweekly.com
Newsletter: watsonweekly.com
Chapters
00:00 What Merkle actually does, and why strategy and execution stopped being separate jobs
03:15 The Shoptalk data: AI is eating search, not shopping
06:11 Is AI traffic invisible, or are brands just not tracking it
08:25 The social commerce comparison, and why perceived attribution matters
11:36 Avalara
13:07 The 2030 forecast: 25 percent inside AI apps, 10 to 25 percent autonomous
16:47 Who has time to train a personal AI
17:49 Order history is the one thing the LLMs do not have
21:34 What a brand executive should start now
24:34 Test and learn, minus the learn
CRM is heading for the same automation wave that erased the ad operations team fifteen years ago — and brand marketers aren't ready. Eric Miao of Attentive explains what survives, why most companies don't really have a brand, and why earned media is getting impossible to trust.
Rick Watson talks with Eric Miao, chief strategy officer at Attentive, about the coming shift in CRM: why the daily hand-made-decision model was always a gap filled by weak tools, why channel best-practices keep getting confused with brand voice, and how fake avatars and planted virality are draining trust from earned media. Eric also cools the Google-to-zero panic for commerce, points to shopping as the lowest category for LLM referrals, and lays out what CMOs should stop doing — and where their people's real advantage lives.
This episode is sponsored by Avalara. Learn more at avalara.watsonweekly.com
Chapters
0:00 Cold open: CRM's ad-ops moment is coming
0:43 Eric's ad-side origin: from Twitter to Attentive
1:06 Why the ad-ops team disappeared
2:16 CRM's data gap: 100 billion points vs six
3:55 Do brand marketers know what's coming?
4:27 Where brand captures all the profit
6:17 AI tailwinds and the pop-up nobody remembers seeing
9:04 The company with four brand voices
16:47 Owned relationships as the last trusted channel
18:24 Is Google going to zero for commerce?
20:16 What CMOs are underweighting on Mondays
23:34 Attentive's real problem: automating journeys without the black box
26:35 The marketer is the process
The free Watson Weekly newsletter — the why behind the week's biggest ecommerce & retail stories, every week: https://www.watsonweekly.com
watsonweekly #attentive #crm #ecommerce #brandmarketing #retailmedia #ai
Most enterprise AI strategy looks the same on a slide: pillars, a center of excellence, a list of pilots. Chandhu Nair has to turn that picture into shipped product across more than 1,700 stores.
As SVP of Store Technology, AI, Data and Innovation at Lowe's, Chandhu runs everything through one filter: shop, sell, work. If a project doesn't land in one of those three buckets, it doesn't get funded. That discipline produced six lighthouse areas and 20 crown jewel use cases, scored on ROI, technology readiness, organizational change readiness, and brand risk.
We get into what that looks like in practice. How the Milo Companion app started as a store scorecard tool and got redirected by the head of store operations, who said it would only matter if it could answer questions about every product in the building. How Chandhu pitched a two-store pilot at 60% accuracy and grew it into five million associate questions. How watching associates talk to their Zebra devices instead of typing forced a roadmap pivot to two-way voice. And how Pro Companion cut call prep from two hours to minutes, while Materials AI turns a contractor's handwritten list into a quote in minutes instead of days.
The Watson Weekly interview is sponsored by Avalara - the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. For more details: https://avalara.watsonweekly.com.
Also in this one: why Chandhu measures leading indicators before lagging ones, when he kills a project, and what the Foundation Building Materials and Artisan Design Group acquisitions mean for agents sourcing across three catalogs at once.
His closing advice is worth the listen on its own. Don't take any of this as a playbook.
It's the model, stupid. OpenAI just had its worst run of news in months, and Rick Watson thinks the fix is simpler than anyone inside OpenAI wants to admit.
This week Rick and Jessica Lesesky work through three stories about platforms and owners deciding what business they actually want to be in.
First, Shopify pulls the plug on vapes. Every merchant selling them got a notice to strip the products by July 8 or lose the store. States leaned on Shopify over illegal sales, and Shopify answered with a blanket ban rather than a state-by-state fix. To Rick, this is not Shopify taking a stand for entrepreneurs, it is Shopify reading the writing on the wall and staying on the right side of the law. If your category is drifting from gray to red, the payment processor is the pressure point, and you may want to own your software before someone else decides your business for you.
This episode is sponsored by Avalara. Learn more at avalara.watsonweekly.com
Second, the great private equity traffic jam. Nearly a decade into the exit drought, PitchBook's midyear scorecard is not pretty. Per their data, the big buyout deals that were supposed to reach a quarter of all activity have slipped toward 19% by May. Rick counts roughly 13,000 US companies sitting in PE portfolios, an eleven year backlog at the current selling pace. Sellers don't know what their asset is worth. Buyers can afford to wait. His take is that the AI bubble may have to deflate at least a little before the ordinary software deals start moving again.
Third, OpenAI's worst Thursday: lawsuits, exits, and a dead browser. Apple trade secret allegations, a top lieutenant stepping back for health reasons, the head of safety systems out the door, and the Atlas browser shut down less than a year after launch. The new model, ChatGPT 5.6, draws strong benchmarks and better press, and OpenAI positions it as beating Opus at a fraction of the cost. Rick argues the deeper problem is governance. The list of ex-OpenAI founders now running billion dollar startups keeps getting longer, and you cannot win a race this fast while your talent walks out the side door.
Can a $20 subscription outrun Google's distribution, Apple's install base, and Anthropic's grip on enterprise? The magic eight ball points to no.
watsonweekly #shopify #openai #privateequity #apple #anthropic #ecommerce #chatgpt
Retailers quietly deduct three to five percent of a brand's invoice for compliance mistakes that have nothing to do with the product itself: a label an inch out of place, a carton that breaks the routing guide, a shipping notice the retailer's scanner can't read. Across the US that's roughly $40 billion a year, and it comes off the top line, not the cost line. You made the product, you shipped it, and you simply don't get paid for part of it.
Rick Watson sits down with Elle Smyth, cofounder and CEO of RetailReady, and Art Nimbley, IT Director at Pierre Fabre USA, to work the chargeback problem from both sides. Ellie built an AI-native compliance platform that ingests the 399-page Walmart routing guide so warehouse operators don't have to memorize it. Art rolled it out during a 3PL switch and watched technical chargebacks fall to near zero on the very first order.
They get into what a routing guide actually is, why an ASN transmitted at 12:55 and 55 seconds still isn't always enough, how one Pierre Fabre employee was losing 40 hours a month building shipping notices by hand, and why Art keeps challenging billion-dollar retailers when he's convinced they're wrong. He's three for three so far. If you sell into retail and you've been writing off chargebacks as the cost of doing business, this conversation is worth your time.
The Watson Weekly interview is sponsored by Radial and Avalara.
Nike says net income jumped 407%. Strip out a single tariff refund and full-year profit actually fell. That gap is the whole week in one number.
Rick Watson runs through it: Shopify moving its incentivized-review ban from partner guidelines into hard App Store policy, and deleting reviews tied to fake accounts across listings. Nike's headline quarter and the one-time $986M refund propping it up, with profit down 3% and China still unresolved. Walmart pulling Walmart Connect, Connect International, and Sam's Club Connect into a single ad business built on data from 10,000-plus stores. Target Plus adding Forever 21 and Clarks, chasing K-beauty, and offloading electronics risk while its marketplace grows nearly 60%, though curation may be too small to matter at Target's size. And the Investor Minute: Kroger and Giant Eagle at $1.65B, Jersey Mike's filing to IPO, and The Zero Proof buying The New Bar.
Sponsored by Avalara.
The Swift–Kelce wedding turned into a marketing free-for-all, and Rick and Jessica sort the brands that pulled it off from the ones that face-planted. The Knot circled Madison Square Garden with billboard trucks. A fake antique-shop ad about furniture rolling into the arena still racked up 11,000 likes. From there they get into Target finally waking up to the marketplace it's ignored for years, and Shopify's promise to clean up fake app-store reviews, which will probably sweep out a pile of legit ones too. Retail news with opinions attached.
The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Avalara. It works with platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce, helping teams manage compliance faster and scale with confidence. Learn more at avalara.watsonweekly.com.
The era of the weird, different storefront is over. On Shopify, design that converts beats design that surprises.
That is the argument in the third and final episode of our Enterprise Shopify series. Rick Watson sits down with Elara Verret, Chief Digital and Customer Officer at Reitmans, and Isaac Newton, Co-Founder of Pattern (part of Domaine).
Reitmans is a 100-year-old retailer with roughly 400 stores. It moved its flagship onto Shopify in under a year. Elara's own team had scoped that work at two to three years.
The conversation stays specific. Why the enterprise case for Shopify is agility and focus rather than cost cutting. Where customization earns its keep and where it just leaves you a maintenance bill. What happens when merchants start editing the storefront in VS Code and someone has to ask, politely, to turn off their Sidekick access. And the plateau Isaac sees over and over: brands that grew fast three to five years ago, then watched a dozen copycats erase what made them different.
Headless comes up. Both have opinions.
The Big Green Bag Of Promise: Enterprise Shopify Webinar Series is sponsored by Avalara, Domaine, and Pattern.
The Big Green Bag Of Promise: Enterprise Shopify Webinar Series is not sponsored by Shopify.
Every big commerce name put up growth in the first half of 2026. Rick's question is what it cost them.
Shopify had its best quarter in years and passed $100 billion in GMV, though loan losses at Shopify Capital crept up over the same stretch. Amazon beat estimates and then turned around and spent $44.2 billion in three months on AI infrastructure. UPS is doing something stranger. It's shrinking revenue on purpose, walking away from Amazon volume and booking about $1.2 billion in separation costs to chase higher-margin work. Walmart's real growth engine now looks like advertising. FedEx spun off its freight business and is trying to pull a billion dollars of cost out of the network. And PayPal keeps moving more money while the profitable part of the business sits nearly flat.
The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Avalara. It works with platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce, helping teams manage compliance faster and scale with confidence. Learn more at avalara.watsonweekly.com.
None of that shows up in a headline growth number. Rick's case is that the cash flow does, and that it separates the companies actually getting healthier from the ones renting the look of it.
watsonweekly #shopify #amazon #ups #walmart #fedex #paypal
Half of 2026 is behind us. We went back through the first six months and split the big commerce and AI stories into two groups, the bold moves and the cold ones.
Start with Anthropic. While the attention stayed on OpenAI, it kept its head down and aimed at one customer, the enterprise buyer. The Snowflake deal landed. Opus shipped over the holidays and picked up real developer momentum. Claude Code gave those developers somewhere to work that wasn't a browser tab. That's a company that knew what it was ignoring.
The Watson Weekly Weekend episode is sponsored by Avalara. Its Agentic Tax and Compliance automates behind-the-scenes work for ecommerce brands, enabling accurate checkout tax calculation, clearer tariff and duty visibility, and fewer customer surprises. Avalara integrates with platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce. Learn more at avalara.watsonweekly.com
Then Ryan Cohen. He aimed GameStop at eBay, took the board's rejection on the chin, raised his stake to 7.8%, and told anyone listening he wants to own it. Gutsy. The follow-through has been weaker than the opening move.
The cold list is shorter and sadder. eBay's roughly $1.2 billion deal to buy Depop from Etsy is still sitting in regulatory review, and Depop sellers are already watching boost fees jump to 12% and wondering what the integration does to the rest. eBay does not have a great record of making acquisitions work. OpenAI, for its part, backed away from checkout. Commerce has a way of humbling anyone who thinks returns, fraud, and merchant-of-record rules are somebody else's problem.
Unified commerce is a data strategy first and a Shopify decision second. Rick Watson tests that idea with two operators who have lived it. In episode two of the Shopify roundtable series, Rick talks with Elara Verret, Chief Digital and Customer Officer of Reitmans and Max Rolon, CTO of Domaine, about what enterprise retail runs into on the way to unified commerce. They get into the back-end systems large retailers cannot rip out, the staging environment Shopify does not give them, and the BOPUS and promotion gaps that still need work at scale. There is a stack conversation too, covering where a PIM, a dedicated IMS, and orchestration tools earn their place. The panel keeps returning to one idea. The software is rarely what stalls a migration. The people are.
The Big Green Bag Of Promise: Enterprise Shopify Webinar Series is sponsored by Avalara, Domaine, and Pattern.
The Big Green Bag Of Promise: Enterprise Shopify Webinar Series is not sponsored by Shopify.
This week on the Watson Weekly, four stories about who controls what you see and what you buy.
Papa John's wanted to reach you the moment your fridge runs empty, so it bought the data to know when that happens. Instacart supplied it. The company confirms this is the first time it has handed first-party purchase data to a brand outside packaged goods, served on NBCU streaming inventory. The targeting is clever. The results do not exist yet.
Amazon moved Prime Day to June for the first time since 2021. The stated reason is a crowded July. The real reason is a holiday Amazon never has to share. Adobe projected $26.3 billion in spending across the window, but CPI rose 4.2% in May and average order values fell 17%, with more shoppers reaching for buy now, pay later. Read that headline slowly.
The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Avalara. It works with platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce, helping teams manage compliance faster and scale with confidence. Learn more at avalara.watsonweekly.com.
FedEx grew revenue 13%. Strip out the fuel surcharge and adjusted operating income grew 3%, with margins down 70 basis points. The company spun off freight on June 1st at the bottom of its cycle and switched its fiscal calendar. The December report covers a seven-month stub year.
Cannes sold agentic commerce for five days on the Riviera. Amazon launched agentic ads on Alexa. Retail media hit a number near $150 billion, according to the people selling it. Capability and intent were everywhere. Proof was not.
Plus the Investor Minute: Redo, Orderful, Walmart's $1.4 billion move on Vibe, Tiger Finance and Glossier, and Bed Bath & Beyond buying a real estate platform.
watsonweekly #papajohnspizza #instacart #fedex #amazon #cannes
Tourists flew in for the World Cup and went viral filming trips to Buc-ee's and Waffle House. Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky unpack what that attention is actually worth, then move to two bigger bets.
The Watson Weekly Weekend episode is sponsored by Avalara. Its Agentic Tax and Compliance automates behind-the-scenes work for ecommerce brands, enabling accurate checkout tax calculation, clearer tariff and duty visibility, and fewer customer surprises. Avalara integrates with platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce. Learn more at avalara.watsonweekly.com
OpenAI is selling ChatGPT as an ad platform, with claims of 900 million weekly users and a target of a $100 billion ad business by 2030. The pitch is conversational intent. The problem is everything the older platforms already learned the hard way about guardrails, minors, and regulated categories.
Then Shopify Editions Spring 2026, where the catalog is suddenly the whole strategy. Shopify wants to be the feed AI shopping agents read from, and Shop Pay is now available on any platform, anywhere. Rick makes the case that this is Shopify finally aiming at Amazon
watsonweekly #bucees #wafflehouse #worldcup #openai #shopify #ShopifyEditionsSpring2026
Most brands still evaluate enterprise Shopify on license cost. The operators in this conversation evaluate it on opportunity cost, and that reframe changes the whole decision.
Rick Watson opens a three-part series on the business case for enterprise Shopify with three people who have actually run the migration.
Elara Verrett, Chief Digital and Customer Officer at Reitmans made the move to get closer to the customer without standing up an army of engineers.
Renee Halverson, CMO at Marine Layer, has run on the platform for more than a decade and scaled the brand without hiring a CTO to babysit the stack.
Scott Lux, VP of Digital Commerce at Stanley 1913, came from the Salesforce and Demandware world and now uses Shopify to survive high-heat drops, where the only question that matters is how many orders per minute the platform can clear.
The number that came up: one brand cut its tech partner count from 40 to 10. The argument underneath it: a fashion retailer's core competency is retailing, not running a development shop.
It isn't all upside. Scott's warning is blunt. The front end is nimble, but the downstream integrations into OMS and ERP are where "easy" goes to die, so pressure test them before anyone signs. Lara's warning is about people, not software. The agility is real, and most large organizations are not built to absorb it.
One point they all landed on, and it cuts against instinct: standardization beats customization where it counts. Checkout is the example. Shoppers trust the flow they already know, and rebuilding it rarely pays for itself.
The Big Green Bag Of Promise: Enterprise Shopify Webinar Series is sponsored by Avalara, Domaine, and Pattern.
Shopify wants to be the checkout layer under every AI agent, and its Spring 2026 edition shipped 150-plus updates to prove it. Meanwhile air freight spot rates climbed 41% year over year while demand grew 4%. Somebody is paying for that gap.
Shopify Spring 2026: building the plumbing for agents
Checkout now runs inside Microsoft Copilot, paid with Shop Pay. There's a universal commerce protocol built with Google. A new agentic commerce plan lets brands sell across ChatGPT and the Shop app without ever being on Shopify. Native B2B is getting pushed down to every plan, aimed at a $36 trillion market. The bet is clear: own the merchant-of-record layer before the agents do.
Kimberly-Clark: $3 billion to fix the supply chain
Two years into a five-year productivity program. CFO Nelson Urdaneta points to simpler manufacturing, a redrawn distribution network, and more automation. A $1 billion automated DC is going into Beech Island, South Carolina, plus an advanced plant in Ohio. The Kenvue merger closes in the back half and lets them pack trucks tighter by mixing heavy and high-volume goods.
Amazon's Peter DeSantis at VivaTech: AI is nowhere near done
DeSantis says models need to get 100 to 1,000 times more efficient before they're genuinely useful. The next leap comes from speed: a 40-millisecond reaction time to match human conversation. His fix is a flywheel where chips and models get designed together to drop cost and lift performance.
Air freight: 41% up on 4% demand
Spot rates hit $3.40 per kilo in May. Surcharges, fuel swings, and Middle East instability are doing the work, not volume. Northeast Asia is up 39%, Southeast Asia up 33%, and Europe to North America has softened. Most of that cargo is data center hardware and semiconductors.
The Investor Minute contains 5 stories this week.
The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Avalara. It works with platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce, helping teams manage compliance faster and scale with confidence. Learn more at avalara.watsonweekly.com.
TikTok Shop moved $4.4 billion in beauty and wellness. Saks wants $9 billion by 2030. Castle claimed $1.4 billion and was worth $16 million. This week is about which numbers actually hold up.
Three companies put big figures on the table. Only one of them earned it, and even that one comes with an asterisk. Rick Watson and Nick Kaplan have a thought provoking conversation on these 3 stories.
TikTok Shop: reach without trust
- Roughly $4.4 billion in wellness and beauty sold since the 2023 launch
- Brand executives call it a "mafia" because of the traffic it forces through them. The honest scorecard is the halo it throws onto Amazon and Ulta, not the checkouts happening inside the app
- Awareness is the strength. The weakness is trust: missing shipping confirmations, sellers you can't place, a buying experience that still feels provisional
The Watson Weekly Weekend edition is sponsored by Avalara. Its Agentic Tax and Compliance automates behind-the-scenes work for ecommerce brands, enabling accurate checkout tax calculation, clearer tariff and duty visibility, and fewer customer surprises. Avalara integrates with platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce. Learn more at avalara.watsonweekly.com
Saks Global: out of bankruptcy, into a target
- A Texas court approved the Chapter 11 exit plan. Debt cut 75% to about $1.2 billion
- $500 million in fresh financing, paired with a mandate to reach $9 billion in GMV by 2030
- The model that got Saks here is still intact: leveraged, low-margin, carrying expensive real estate. And the vendors who went unpaid earlier this year are not feeling generous
CaaStle (Gwynnie Bee): a $1.4 billion fiction
- The rental subscription business once known as Gwynnie Bee was sold as a $1.4 billion company. The real number was around $16 million
- Founder Christine Hunsicker admitted to securities fraud in March
- The part that should worry everyone: professional investors and auditors missed invented financials. One investor was reportedly paid off to stay quiet, and audit documents from a recognizable firm were falsified
What ties these together is how cheap a number is to produce and how hard the thing underneath it is to fake. TikTok has the reach but hasn't built the trust. Saks has the target but not yet the model to hit it. CaaStle had neither and sold the story anyway. The question worth sitting with: how many of the valuations you read this week are closer to Saks, and how many are closer to CaaStle?
Salesforce renamed Commerce Cloud to Agentforce Commerce and calls this its biggest release in years. Rebrand, or substance? Nitin Mangtani makes the case.
Every enterprise vendor is bolting "agentic" onto its roadmap this year. Salesforce went further and renamed the whole product. Nitin Mangtani, who runs Commerce and Retail Cloud, came on to defend the release line by line.
We get into Storefront Next, the new storefront meant to serve both the merchant who wants clicks and prompts out of the box and the developer writing code with AI-native tools. The agentic layer: a search engine built on shopper intent instead of keywords, native chat, a ChatGPT catalog integration going live in June, and a shopper agent that's supposed to behave like the associate you'd get in a good store. The B2B story the B2C headlines tend to bury, including round-trip quoting, multicart, and a buying flow that runs on WhatsApp. And modern POS, where the bet is that systems nobody has rethought in twenty years are finally worth rebuilding.
Nitin came in through the PredictSpring acquisition two years ago and ran Google's shopping team back in the early 2000s, so he's watched the discovery layer move before. His line throughout: technology for its own sake is worthless. Tie it to ROI and a better customer experience, or don't ship it.
So I pushed on the question every merchant on the platform is actually asking. Hear Agentforce Commerce, Storefront Next, and a ChatGPT integration in the same week, and what changes for you, and how soon? Listen and decide whether the rebrand earns the airtime.
The Watson Weekly interview is sponsored by Avalara - the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. For more details: https://avalaratax.watsonweekly.com.
She told investors $440M. The real number was $15.7M. This week: the CaaStle fraud, Walmart's Subway play, and Shopify's $5B bet.
In this episode:
Walmart + Subway. Walmart folded Subway into its delivery app, with express orders coming off the Subway counters already sitting inside its stores. Live now in six states (Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas), with roughly 1,400 locations targeted by end of summer. Flat delivery fee, in-store menu pricing, 30 minutes or less. It rides on the Spark drivers and drones Walmart is already paying for, pointed straight at Uber Eats and DoorDash.
The CaaStle fraud. CaaStle told investors it booked $440 million in net revenue for fiscal 2023. The real figure was $15.7 million. Founder and CEO Christine Hunsicker confessed to doctoring the financials on a video call with her board in December 2024, then kept her job for three more months while investors heard nothing. She controlled that board. Co-founder Jaswinder Pal "JP" Singh sold $6 million in stock back to the company around the time investors started asking questions. Hunsicker pleaded guilty to securities fraud in March, admitting she defrauded investors of $283 million, and she's scheduled for sentencing this summer.
Apple rents the brains. At WWDC on June 8, Apple introduced Siri AI: a rebuild that reads what's on your screen, pulls context from your messages and email, and takes actions across apps. The part Apple said less about is who's powering it. Reporting puts Apple at more than $1 billion a year to Google for a custom Gemini model running Siri's cloud features. The China rollout waits on regulators. For a company that has spent decades insisting it owns its entire stack, renting the model from a rival is the real headline. Tim Cook hands the company to John Ternus in September.
Shopify's $5 billion vote. Shopify added $3 billion to its repurchase program on June 2, taking total authorization to $5 billion. Buybacks usually get read as "we've run out of ideas." Then Q1 revenue rose 34% to $3.2 billion and merchants cleared $100 billion in GMV for the second quarter in a row. Decide for yourself which signal you believe.
This week on the Watson Weekly weekend edition, Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky discuss: Shopify pushes its buyback to $5 billion while every other tech giant pours cash into AI. We ask the obvious question: built for the AI era, or built for the next earnings call? Then Apple's new Siri arrives at WWDC running on Google Gemini, a roughly $1 billion-a-year arrangement that sits next to the $20 billion Google already pays to be Apple's default search. And Anthropic drops a memo on three possible AI futures on its way to an IPO, with Rick putting the whole thing on an 18-month-to-two-year clock.
The Watson Weekly Weekend episode is sponsored by Avalara. Avalara integrates with platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce. Learn more at avalara.watsonweekly.com
Software agents are now the highest-converting shoppers on the web, and most stores are built to lock them out. Rick Watson sit down with Stripe's Danny Smith, who leads global agentic commerce solution architecture, to work through what changes when your buyer is a piece of software.
The Watson Weekly interview is sponsored by Avalara - the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. For more details: https://avalaratax.watsonweekly.com.
They cover why agents convert about 4x better than humans, why two-thirds of agent checkouts fail on sites built for people, and the four ways merchants can let agents pay, from approving every purchase by hand up to agents transacting with each other directly. Danny closes with three concrete moves to make now, starting with treating your robots.txt like a doorman instead of a bouncer.
It's June 8th, 2026, and Rick Watson breaks down the week's e-commerce news with his usual habit: put the press release down and look at the calendar.
This week: Amazon yanks Prime Day forward to June 23rd–26th and blames the World Cup and America's 250th birthday. Rick isn't buying it. With Q2 closing June 30th and a nervous consumer pulling back, this looks like a P&L decision aimed squarely at Walmart's grocery turf.
Then FedEx Freight starts trading on its own as FDXF and the new CEO promises to "leapfrog" the competition. The stock closed down 7% on day one. Rick stress-tests that word against the actual target: 15% operating margin by 2029, up from roughly 12 today. That's catching up, not leaping.
This week's episode is sponsored by Avalara. It works with platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce, helping teams manage compliance faster and scale with confidence. Learn more at avalara.watsonweekly.com.
Plus Anthropic's confidential IPO filing and why "confidentially" is the word everyone's skipping. The growth is real and genuinely insane, but most of the eye-popping numbers are run rate, the real annual figure is $10 billion, and the gross-margin question under 5 gigawatts of Amazon-funded compute is the one nobody can answer yet.
And the ShipStation Global merger: WEX and Auctane combine into a 3-billion-shipment Thoma Bravo roll-up. Rick's read on whether welding a freight desk to label-printing software actually holds together.
Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky sit down to unpack a busy stretch across tech, shipping, and commerce. They open with Anthropic's confidential IPO filing, submitted to the SEC on June 1st, and what it signals about the AI lab's trajectory. After a $65 billion Series H that pushed its valuation to $965 billion, Anthropic now sits ahead of OpenAI on that measure, and Rick and Jessica dig into how it got there: a revenue run rate that climbed from roughly $10 billion a year ago to about $47 billion by May 2026, helped by a developer-first bet through Claude Code that has made it a serious contender for enterprise spend.
The Watson Weekly Weekend episode is sponsored by Avalara. Its Agentic Tax and Compliance automates behind-the-scenes work for ecommerce brands, enabling accurate checkout tax calculation, clearer tariff and duty visibility, and fewer customer surprises. Avalara integrates with platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce. Learn more at avalara.watsonweekly.com
From there the conversation turns physical. USPS and DHL have signed a multi-year contract valued at well over $10 billion, with DHL handling pickup, sorting, and transport while USPS covers final-mile delivery. It lands at an awkward moment for the Postal Service, which posted a $9.5 billion loss in fiscal 2025 and whose Postmaster General has warned of a possible cash crisis within a year absent action from Congress.
The last segment covers Salesforce's push to wake up a commerce cloud that had been growing under 2%. The reported Contentful acquisition (somewhere in the $1 to $1.5 billion range) fits a long pattern that runs through MuleSoft, Tableau, Slack, and PredictSpring. Rick and Jessica close on whether the integrated Agentforce suite can hold up against focused players like Shopify.
Christina Hagopian has spent 24 years running her own brand strategy and creative practice. In this episode she joins Rick Watson to explain why a brand is far more than a logo: it's what people think and feel about you before your message ever lands, and it has to trace back to a company's actual mission, vision, and values.
She and Rick talk through the real and the overstated parts of AI in marketing. It earns its keep on brainstorming, competitive audits, brand voice, and rough first drafts of positioning or naming. It falls down on original, trademarkable work because it leans on the average of what's already out there, and Christina describes a case where it couldn't get something as specific as REM sleep brain waves right for a medical site. Her argument: AI replaces average design, not designers.
The Watson Weekly interview is sponsored by Avalara - the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. For more details: https://avalaratax.watsonweekly.com.
The throughline is differentiation. In a crowded digital space, a clear point of view is what gets you noticed, and a strong brand is the foundation everything else stands on. You have one either way. The only question is whether you've built it on purpose.
Rick Watson runs through a busy week in retail. Walmart posted a $177.8 billion quarter, with revenue up 7.3%, U.S. comps up 4.1%, and global e-commerce up 26%, yet free cash flow landed at negative $1.9B as automation capex climbed. Advertising grew 37%, marketplace sales jumped close to 50%, and new shoppers skewed upper-income. At Sam's Club, more trips but smaller baskets.
Authentic Brands Group named a new CEO: founder Jamie Salter moved to executive chairman, and former MGM Resorts chief Matt Maddox took over. ABG holds 50-plus brands, $38B in system-wide sales, and 77% of the company behind Saks, Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman. Salter floated an IPO within the year.
At Google I/O 2026, the Universal Cart follows shoppers across Search, Gemini, YouTube, and Gmail, AI Mode crossed a billion monthly users, and native checkout opened to UCP merchants. Kroger hit $16B in e-commerce with a first profit in sight, wages past $20, two senior exits, and 70 to 80 stores planned. Plus an Investor Minute on Global-e, Insider, and Brown-Forman.
This week's episode is sponsored by Avalara. For e-commerce brands, tax compliance grows more complex with every new channel, state, product, and market. Avalara Agentic Tax and Compliance automates the behind-the-scenes work so merchants can offer a smoother checkout, with accurate tax calculations, clearer visibility into tariffs and duties, and fewer surprises when orders arrive. It works with platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce, helping teams manage compliance faster and scale with confidence. Learn more at avalara.watsonweekly.com.
Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky break down Walmart's Q1 numbers and what they say about where retail is heading. Revenue was up 7.3%, U.S. comps rose 4.1%, and global e-commerce grew 26%, but the more telling figures sit elsewhere: advertising up 37% globally and the U.S. marketplace up nearly 50%. Rick and Jessica make the case that Walmart is quietly becoming a digital services business, pulling in wealthier shoppers with celebrity lines and faster delivery, and backing it all with a $1.7 billion-a-year bet on fulfillment automation that Kroger and others will struggle to match.
The Watson Weekly Weekend episode is sponsored by Avalara. Its Agentic Tax and Compliance automates behind-the-scenes work for ecommerce brands, enabling accurate checkout tax calculation, clearer tariff and duty visibility, and fewer customer surprises. Avalara integrates with platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce. Learn more at avalara.watsonweekly.com
From there the conversation moves to Google I/O and the "agentic" pitch, including a universal cart meant to follow you across Search, YouTube, and Gemini through Google Wallet. Then the happiness index returns for a look at a K-shaped economy, where affluent buyers keep spending (Amex reported 10% growth in card member spending) while a lot of people are cutting back on basics like gas. Rick closes with advice for brands: shrink the gap between deciding and doing. Take out the friction, lean on convenience and automation, and you win the customer.
WatsonWeekly #Walmart #Retail #Ecommerce #GoogleIO
In this Watson Weekly interview episode, Rick Watson is joined by Lennart Stevens, VP of Product Management for Agentforce Commerce at Salesforce, who walks through Storefront Next, the latest evolution of Salesforce's commerce storefront.
Storefront Next is built for developers and for a world where AI and agentic coding are the default. You can spin up a new storefront inside Business Manager with a click-based setup. Under the hood it runs on Salesforce's Managed Runtime as a hosted headless surface, with an enhanced SCAPI layer that lets apps, kiosks, and other channels pull from the same data. The stack standardizes on React, Shadcn, and Tailwind. Existing customers keep their catalogs, prices, and promotions and surface them through the new API.
The Watson Weekly interview is sponsored by Avalara - the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. For more details: https://avalaratax.watsonweekly.com.
Lennart also gets into the agentic tooling (agent shopper, agentic merchandising), quiet AI like product readiness scores that flag missing info without nagging, reusable content blocks and embedded Page Designer components, and turnkey industry templates for retail, cosmetics, and furniture that convert well out of the box. He covers the upgraded CLI, the growing library of skills, and support for UCP as the channel-selling standard.
The whole point: cut the standup busywork so developers spend time on what actually moves the business.
watsonweekly #agentforce #storefrontnext #agentic
Two big retail earnings reports, two very different stories. Home Depot grew total sales 4.8% to $41.77 billion, but comparable sales barely moved (up 0.6%) and net income slipped to $3.29 billion from $3.43 billion a year ago, a sign of margin pressure. Target posted the louder top line, with net sales up 6.7% to about $25.15 billion and comps up 5.6%. The catch: net income fell 24% to $781 million, and the stock dropped nearly 5% after management guided comps down to roughly 1% for the rest of the year.
On the tech side, Google and Blackstone are launching an AI cloud company with as much as $25 billion behind it, built on Google's own TPU chips to take on Nvidia and CoreWeave. France's Publicis Group bought the data platform LiveRamp for $2.2 billion in cash, a wager on "data co-creation" for AI agents.
And 5 Investor minute stories from the world of venture capital, IPOs, and mergers and acquisitions.
The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Avalara. For ecommerce brands, tax compliance gets more complicated with every new channel, state, product, and market. Avalara Agentic Tax and Compliance helps automate the work behind the scenes, so merchants can deliver a smoother customer experience — with accurate tax calculation at checkout, clearer visibility into tariffs and duties, and fewer surprises for customers when their order arrives.
Avalara works with ecommerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and more, helping teams manage compliance faster and scale with more confidence. To learn more about Avalara’s ecommerce compliance solutions, and explore resources built for growing ecommerce brands go to avalara.watsonweekly.com for more details.
Home Depot just told the market it's treading water, and Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky dig into why the remodeling boom never showed up. People are tapping their home equity to consolidate debt, not rip out the bathroom. Paint and outdoor are fine. Lumber, flooring, mill work? Not so much. So Home Depot is quietly walking away from the consumer and betting the house on pros, HVAC, and a $700 billion market.
The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Avalara. Its Agentic Tax and Compliance automates behind-the-scenes work for ecommerce brands, enabling accurate checkout tax calculation, clearer tariff and duty visibility, and fewer customer surprises. Avalara integrates with platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce. Learn more at avalara.watsonweekly.com.
Then: TikTok is now the fourth largest health and beauty retailer in the country at $4.4 billion, and the action isn't even in the videos. It's in the comments. We break down why brands should build the conversation first and let the comment section do the selling.
And the one that broke the internet: Everlane sold to Shein for $100 million, down from a $550 to $600 million peak. Common stockholders get nothing. We get into whether Shein actually paid cash for brand equity or just bought itself a respectable-looking front for a not-so-respectable supply chain. Jessica says the quiet part out loud. Rick's head hurts.
Plus a quick read on AI maturity from The Lead conference floor, and why the people who are most "AI-pilled" somehow ended up busier than ever.
watsonweekend #homedepot #remodel #tiktok #comments #everlane #shein
The Watson Weekly for May 18, 2026. Amazon launched a 30-minute delivery to take on DoorDash. eBay shuts down GameStop's bid. OpenAI puts $14 billion behind an enterprise AI play.
The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Avalara. For ecommerce brands, tax compliance gets more complicated with every new channel, state, product, and market. Avalara Agentic Tax and Compliance helps automate the work behind the scenes, so merchants can deliver a smoother customer experience — with accurate tax calculation at checkout, clearer visibility into tariffs and duties, and fewer surprises for customers when their order arrives.
Avalara works with ecommerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and more, helping teams manage compliance faster and scale with more confidence. To learn more about Avalara’s ecommerce compliance solutions, and explore resources built for growing ecommerce brands go to avalara.watsonweekly.com for more details.
Amazon Now is live. Thirty-minute delivery for groceries and household essentials, starting in Atlanta, Dallas, Fort Worth, Philadelphia, and Seattle, with seven more cities queued up. Prime members pay $3.99 an order. Non-Prime pays $13.99. The strategy is direct. Smaller fulfillment centers in residential zones, aimed straight at DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Instacart.
eBay's board said no to GameStop. Chairman Paul Pressler called the unsolicited bid "neither credible nor attractive." The rejection wasn't really about price.
OpenAI launched the OpenAI Deployment Company, valued at $14 billion, with $4 billion freshly raised under TPG's lead. The investor list reads like a consulting roster: McKinsey, Bain, Capgemini. The mission is forward-deployed engineers embedded inside enterprises to rebuild workflows.
We also break down the Watson Weekly’s Shopify three-part June webinar series, The Big Green Bag of Promise, with operators from Stanley 1913, Reitmans, and Marine Layer talking honest numbers on enterprise migration. The webinars are not sponsored by Shopify but by Avalara, Domaine, and Pattern, Register here: https://streamyard.com/watch/ibqNx46Z88Bf
And the Investor Minute: Co-pilot Kit ($27M for an AGUI protocol), Cognizant's roughly $600M Australian acquisition, District's $14.7M seed for community marketplaces, Recharge buying Skio for $105M, and PayPal splitting into three new business units.
Three retail moves worth talking about this week.
Amazon is retiring the Rufus name. The shopping chatbot has hit roughly 300M users since its 2024 beta, but Amazon is folding the whole thing into Alexa and calling it "Alexa for shopping." We get into why that branding choice is risky given Alexa's history with kids accidentally ordering things and the privacy lawsuits, and what it signals about an "Alexa for healthcare" or "Alexa for law" coming next.
The Watson Weekly Weekend edition is sponsored by Avalara - the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. For more details: https://avalaratax.watsonweekly.com
Then GameStop's Ryan Cohen and his $56 billion unsolicited bid for eBay, half cash, half stock. The eBay board's response was a 216-word letter calling the offer "neither credible nor attractive." We dig into whether Cohen ever expected a yes, or whether the whole thing was theater aimed at GameStop's stock price and the $100 billion valuation target tied to his own bonus plan.
Finally, Lululemon. Heidi O'Neill, 30 years at Nike, took the CEO job on April 22. Founder Chip Wilson is already on record saying she's not the transformation the company needs. We talk about why Alo Yoga and Vuori are pulling away on the celebrity side, why the men's line feels over-assorted, and what it means when Amazon, Costco, and Target all stock convincing dupes of your core product.
Logicbroker brought back Connected Commerce this year, set up outside Central Park, because the conversations the team has been having with customers couldn't wait for the usual conference cycle. The pace of change forced the issue.
Rick Watson had the opportunity to speak with Logicbroker CEO Omar Qari at the event.
The dominant theme was the agentic shift, and it landed in a specific way for LogicBroker. They sit as the connective tissue between retailers and suppliers, which turns out to be exactly where LLMs are now hunting for product data. The network already has what the models want.
A few other things the room kept circling back to. Most AI experiments fail, and attendees were comfortable saying so. One real win out of twenty counts as a strong batting average when the work is closer to science than to product launches. The shape of leadership came up too: the people running companies in this next stretch will need to build things, not just manage the people building things. Omar walked through his own setup, including Claude, a Slack bot he named Omar GPT, and a contract lifecycle tool he wired together himself instead of buying.
Rick Watson talks with Alan Gaffney (CEO, Townchest), Nick Boetcher (Avalara), and Justin Samakow (Mirakl) about what breaks when a marketplace scales.
Townchest runs a "shopping for good" program where schools partner with manufacturers to fund themselves through retail sales. A regional launch created nationwide Nexus exposure within weeks, because supporters of a school in Ohio live in Texas, California, and everywhere else. Alan unpacks the hybrid seller-of-record setup that followed: Townchest carries that role for some partners, not others, and the operational cost runs both ways.
Justin and Nick cover the back-end. Mirakl's Catalog Transformer normalizes supplier data and pushes it into thousands of school storefronts. Avalara's Avi agent assigns tax codes from a global library against the data Mirakl sends through. The two also get into where strict SLA automation earns its keep (auto-deactivating sellers who miss order acceptance) versus where alerts suffice (high return rates).
The Private Storefronts, Shared Suppliers, One Compliance Nightmare webinar was sponsored by Avalara and Mirakl.
Shopify posted its strongest quarter in four years and the stock fell 7%. Rick walks through why Wall Street wasn't impressed, what the LVMH signing actually means for the "Shopify is only for startups" narrative, and the credit-loss line item that's quietly getting bigger.
Also this week:
Amazon Q1: three numbers Wall Street missed, including a $150B grocery run rate and free cash flow down 95%
The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Avalara—the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. Go to avalaratax.watsonweekly.com for more details.
Alphabet's Universal Commerce Protocol, now signed by Kingfisher, Target, and Wayfair
GameStop's $55.5B bid for eBay, with Ryan Cohen pitching it as "Chewy on steroids"
Investor Minute: PayPal restructure, Recharge buys Skio for $105M, Cognizant grabs Astreya for $600M, Lipton takes a $245M CVC investment, District raises $14.7M seed
Three stories on the table this week, and none of them small.
Saks Global plans to exit Chapter 11 on June 22nd carrying $1.2 billion in debt, with a reorganization plan targeting $9 billion in GMV by fiscal 2030. That's nearly double where they sit today. Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky walk through the vendor mess (720 brands stopped shipping at the worst of it), the repair work underway, and why exiting bankruptcy this leveraged sets up another round of trouble down the road.
The Watson Weekly Weekend edition is sponsored by Avalara - the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. For more details: https://avalaratax.watsonweekly.com
Over at Victoria's Secret, Australian investor Brett Blundy's BBRC Worldwide has built a roughly 13% stake and is pushing to remove two directors: chair Donna James and Miriam Naficy. The complaint is acquisitions like Adore Me. CEO Hillary Super is running a "path to potential" plan built around body positivity and a return to the Angels heritage. Fiscal 2025 sales are up 5%. The question is whether that's enough to keep the activist quiet.
Then earnings. Alphabet did $109B in Q1, with Google Cloud growing 63% YoY to a $20B run rate and a $462B backlog. Amazon hit $181B, AWS grew 28% to $37.5B, and the chip business crossed a $20B run rate of its own. Shopify cleared $100B in quarterly GMV for the first time, with operating income up 88% on the back of all the layoffs and restructuring.
The thread underneath all of it: AI compute is getting more expensive, not less. The pricing power is sitting with the infrastructure layer. Amazon, Nvidia, and the LLM owners are collecting the rent. The businesses adopting AI are paying it.
Rick Watson sits down with Mike Hogenmiller, who has spent more than forty years inside home improvement retail and watched the consumer reinvent themselves at least three times.
Mike was at The Home Depot in 2001 when the company quietly acquired a 4,000-customer wholesale distributor in Baton Rouge, LA called Your Other Warehouse. That distributor was, at the time, Amazon's biggest and most profitable home-improvement supplier. The acquisition (plus a later decision to stop opening new stores and make existing assets more productive instead) is how Home Depot got roughly 15 years ahead of its closest competitor on digital fulfillment without ever calling it e-commerce.
The Watson Weekly interview is sponsored by Avalara - the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. For more details: https://avalaratax.watsonweekly.com.
The story Mike tells about then-CEO Craig Menear is the part most people miss. Home Depot wasn't building an e-commerce business. They were building commerce. The customer decided what they bought, when, where, and how it arrived. Everything else followed from that.
We also get into:
• Why Walmart's culture survives and Target's didn't
• The Sprouts problem and what happens when a specialty grocer stops buying with confidence
• Why every "Amazon of [insert vertical]" pitch ignores the customer
• Where CPG brands keep going wrong inside the store
• The advice Mike gives DTC founders thinking about their first physical stores
H&M just listed on a US online marketplace for the first time, and they picked Nordstrom. Rick Watson and Nick Kaplan break down what that signals about both brands, and why marketplaces with no inventory commitment keep working when standalone marketplaces keep dying.
Next up, GLP-1 hits the bridal industry. 10% of couples planning weddings this year are on a GLP-1, and more than half started the medication specifically for the wedding. Some users drop a clothing size every two to three weeks, which is a problem when a wedding dress takes nine months and costs five figures. Bridal shops are now asking buyers to sign waivers. Rick and Nick widen the conversation into plus-size assortments, the longevity boom in CPG, and why protein and creatine are having a moment.
The Watson Weekly Weekend edition is sponsored by Avalara - the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. For more details: https://avalaratax.watsonweekly.com
Then the big one: the e-commerce organization of the future. Unilever cut from 3,000 agencies to under 800, saving half a billion dollars. P&G in-housed media for $750M in fee reductions. A retail "season" is now two weeks. Where does the merchant sit in all of this, and is ChatGPT a better buyer than a human? Nick argues the merchant role contracts but never disappears. Rick pushes on whether the 2026 merchant is really just one person editing algorithms instead of product.
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What does B2B digital transformation look like when your end user is an HVAC contractor standing on a rooftop in 95-degree heat? In this episode of The Watson Weekly, we sit down with Lindsay Althouse(Johnstone Supply), Bryan House (Elastic Path), and Lee Trotter (Data Realm) for a candid panel discussion on modernizing legacy B2B businesses without breaking what already works.
Johnstone Supply—a $4 billion HVAC distributor with 450 stores—offers a fascinating case study in real-world transformation. After shifting from a co-op model to an LLC, the company faced a daunting challenge: building a unified digital experience on top of 72 store groups, each running its own ERP system. Lindsay walks us through how a headless commerce architecture made a modern mobile app possible, why deep customer discovery (including interviews with contractors in the field) shaped every design decision, and how a phased alpha-to-beta rollout helped them validate the product with real users.
The conversation also dives into Johnstone's AI assistant rollout, where the stakes go beyond bad recommendations—suggesting the wrong furnace part could cause physical harm. Lindsay explains why they chose a private LLM in a restricted environment, limited to verified product data, to keep trust and safety at the center.
This B2B webinar is sponsored by Avalara , Elastic Path , and Data Realm.
Beyond the case study, the panel unpacks the strategies that separate successful B2B modernization from expensive failures:
- Why customer-centric design beats feature checklists every time
- How commerce platforms can abstract legacy ERP complexity without a rip-and-replace
- Change management tactics for aligning sales teams with digital channels (hint: give reps credit for digital orders)
- Why every project decision should ladder up to a clearly defined goal
Whether you're leading a digital transformation, building B2B products, or just curious about how a 70-year-old distributor competes with Amazon-era expectations, this conversation is packed with practical insight.
B2BCommerce #DigitalTransformation #HeadlessCommerce #HVAC #UX #AI #WatsonWeekly
This week on the Watson Weekly, Rick Watson breaks down the biggest stories shaping commerce, technology, and AI infrastructure.
Tim Cook is stepping down as Apple CEO after 14 transformative years that took the company from a $300B market cap to $4 trillion. John Turnis takes the helm September 1st.
The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Avalara - the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. For more details: https://avalaratax.watsonweekly.com
Anthropic just inked a $100 billion, 10-year infrastructure deal with AWS for 5 gigawatts of compute, while Amazon pours another $5B (potentially $20B more) into the AI lab.
Brad Jacobs strikes again: QXO is acquiring Top Build for ~$17B, his third deal in under a year.
Plus, a tribute to industry leader Jon Panella.
The Investor Minute with 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
On this weekend edition of The Watson Weekly, Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky break down the biggest stories shaping tech, retail, and AI.
Amazon is doubling down on its Anthropic bet — with a new deal that has Anthropic committing $100B to AWS over the next decade, while Amazon pumps in an additional $5B(with up to $20B more on the table) and locks in guaranteed compute capacity. With over 100K customers already using Claude on Bedrock and Amazon holding a reported 15% stake, this partnership is reshaping the cloud AI landscape.
Home Depot quietly acquired SIMPL Automation, a scrappy robotics startup that had raised just $100K before piloting its warehouse density technology at Home Depot's Locust Grove DC. Rick and Jessica unpack what this signals about the arms race between Home Depot and Lowe's to modernize supply chain and distribution.
The Watson Weekly Weekend edition is sponsored by Avalara - the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. For more details: https://avalaratax.watsonweekly.com
Plus, the end of an era at Apple: Tim Cook is stepping down as CEO after 15 years to become executive chairman, handing the reins to 25-year Apple veteran John Ternus. Cook leaves behind a company transformed — from a $350B market cap to $4T, and a services business that now tops $100B. What does a hardware-focused CEO mean for Apple's AI strategy and search partnerships?
When Helen Lo founded Lo & Sons at 65, she was solving her own travel problem. Fifteen years later, her family-run DTC brand is navigating one of the toughest environments in consumer goods: a flood of dupes, shrinking development windows, and a rapidly shifting AI landscape.
Rick Watson is joined by Katie Omstead, President at Lo & Sons, and Sonal Gandhi, Chief Content Officer at The Lead.
The Watson Weekly interview is sponsored by Avalara - the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. For more details: https://avalaratax.watsonweekly.com.
In this Watson Weekly interview, we dig into how Lo & Sons compressed its product development cycle from two years to nine months (with four to five months on the horizon), why 90% of the business remains direct-to-consumer, and how AI is reshaping everything from ideation to inventory.
We also preview The Lead, the commerce summit landing in New York on May 20–21, where 3,000 operators and 150 speakers will gather — no vendor spin, just real talk on building brands in 2026.
In this memorial episode of the Watson Weekly, host Rick Watson is joined by Kelly Goetsch, President, Pipe17 Jeff Oh, Growth Leader, Commerce, Publicis Sapient, Jason “Retailgeek” Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer, Publicis, Giancarlo Anania, Senior Director, Global Strategic Alliances & GTM — Partner & Ecosystem Strategy, and Octavio Delgado, Digital eCommerce Engineering Leader, GM to celebrate the life and legacy of Jon Panella, the Group Vice President at Publicis Sapient and a titan of the retail technology industry.
Over a career spanning more than 30 years, Jon became a cornerstone of the commerce world, known as much for his encyclopedic knowledge as for his role as a super connector and information broker.
The conversation dives into the personal stories that defined Jon, including:
- A Master Mentor: Colleagues share how Jon led by example, always sharing recognition and lifting those around him.
- The "Old-School Gentleman": The panel reflects on Jon’s diplomatic nature, his Socratic method of leadership, and his unique ability to treat competitors with kindness and generosity.
- Industry Presence: From the halls of trade shows to his leadership as Chairman of the MACH Alliance, Jon’s influence was felt globally.
- Life Beyond Commerce: A look at Jon’s deep devotion to his family—particularly his wife, Linda—and his unwavering (and championship-winning) love for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
On May 2, a celebration of the life of Jon Panella will take place in Fort Worth,Texas.
Today on the Watson Weekly: Google treats compute like a moat, Amazon finally figures out groceries, Vinted runs the Amazon playbook in Europe, Apple shows up late to the glasses party — and finally, The Investor Minute with 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Avalara - the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. For more details: https://avalaratax.watsonweekly.com
Google's Compute Discipline — Compute isn't just infrastructure anymore, it's the moat.
Amazon's Grocery Crystallizes — The 2025 shareholder letter dropped a $150 billion gross grocery number.
Vinted's Breakout — 47% GMV growth to €10.8 billion.
Apple's Glasses Play: Late but Lethal
Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky break down three stories reshaping the consumer and tech landscape. First, why GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro are expected to unlock $13B in new retail spending — and which brands stand to win as 80% of users size down.
Then, Nike's latest innovation shake-up: new chief Andy Caine steps in as the stock slides 32%, with Project Amplify, Nike Mind, and Aerofit on the horizon.
The Watson Weekly Weekend edition is sponsored by Avalara - the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. For more details: https://avalaratax.watsonweekly.com/
Finally, Amazon's $200B and Google's $185B infrastructure bets — and why Sundar Pichai spends an hour a week personally rationing compute.
Subscribe to the newsletter at watsonweekly.com.
The Agentic Debate Series Lunch @ Shoptalk Las Vegas 2026, Presented by Logicbroker. Recorded live in Las Vegas on March 24, 2026. Rick Watson hosts an agentic commerce debate with three retail practitioners who aren't selling anything — just calling it like they see it.
Chris Silver (CTO, JustFoodforDogs), Gina Lombardo (VP of Digital, Retrofête), and Dave Finnegan (Managing Director, BlackFinn Partners) go head-to-head on three questions the entire industry is dancing around:
Will ads ever work inside AI agents — or does injecting ads into a trusted conversation destroy the whole model? Is agentic commerce actually going to drive incremental revenue, or is it a hype cycle with a nice deck? And the big one: are websites doomed when an AI agent can just buy for you?
The answers are more nuanced — and more honest — than what you're hearing from the main stage. Topics include cost-per-action ad models, why "retail therapy" isn't going away, how luxury brands could use agents to increase AOV, the consumer trust crisis around hallucinations, and why your product data strategy matters more than your payments infrastructure right now.
If you're a merchant trying to figure out what to actually do about agentic commerce in 2026, this is the conversation.
The Agentic Debate Series Lunch @ Shoptalk Las Vegas 2026, Presented by Logicbroker, was sponsored by Logicbroker, Avalara, SCAYLE, and Fortier.
Timestamps
0:00 - Introduction
01:45 - Rick Watson setting the scene/background
05:10 - Panel members welcomed
07:35 - Will ads ever work in a trusted medium?
24:43 - Sponsor message from Logicbroker CEO Omar Qari
24:13 - Agentic commerce: a nothingburger or incremental?
49:38 - Sponsor message from SCAYLE Commerce Engine, Jake Wright
52:07 - Are websites doomed?
watsonliveatshoptalk #agenticcommerce #nothingburger #advertising #website
Amazon cuts USPS volume, BNPL shapes where Gen Z gets their teeth cleaned, and why your product data is now an AI infrastructure problem.
This Watson Weekly episode covers:
The Amazon-USPS tentative deal and what a 20% volume reduction actually signals about Amazon's logistics endgame.
The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Avalara - the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. For more details: https://avalaratax.watsonweekly.com
New April 2026 data on Buy Now Pay Later — not an acquisition tool, a retention weapon.
Walmart-backed Eko and the quiet war for AI-ready product catalogs.
How Revolve turns an absurd return rate into a full-price sales machine.
The Investor Minute with Accenture's Ookla acquisition, ProfitMind's Series A, Lio's $30M procurement automation raise, and OpenAI buying Promptfoo.
Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky break down three retail stories that challenge conventional wisdom this week.
Revolve runs a 60% return rate — triple the online average — and just posted a 60% profit surge. They explain how baking return costs into margins and offering frictionless two-day shipping produces 80% full-price sell-through and a customer base that treats their bedroom like a fitting room. Physical storefronts in Aspen and LA are next.
The Watson Weekly Weekend edition is sponsored by Avalara — automated tax compliance built for Shopify merchants, from calculation to returns. For more details: https://avalara.watsonweekly.com/
Lowe's just launched Home Care Plus: $99 a year gets you two Red Vest associate visits for dryer vent cleaning, HVAC filter swaps, smoke detector batteries, and water heater flushes. The real story is what Lowe's gets in return — appliance age data and a direct line to upsell the aging homeowner market.
And Buy Now, Pay Later is no longer just a checkout option. Millennials and Gen Z are 13x more likely than Baby Boomers to choose a merchant based on available financing. Fifty-five percent of Gen Z say installment options influence their choice of healthcare provider. BNPL is now a customer acquisition channel — and merchants paying 4.5–5% in fees may be getting the better end of the deal.
Rick Watson breaks down four stories shaping e-commerce and retail this week:
Shopify's partner town hall reveals a company that treats API chaos as a brand attribute — and why that's a problem for any hyperscaler ambition.
Lowe's bets $99 can put a red vest inside your home twice a year, and why that physical touchpoint is worth more than any app can replicate.
The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Avalara — automated tax compliance built for Shopify merchants, from calculation to returns. For more details: https://avalara.watsonweekly.com/
USPS wants an 8% fuel surcharge — the first in its history — and what the gap between that and Amazon's 3.5% tells you about structural efficiency.
And Allbirds is done: not restructuring, not pivoting — dissolved, with a $4 billion brand selling for $39 million.
Plus the Investor Minute: Zipline's $200M Series H, Cintas acquiring UniFirst for $5.5B, OpenAI snapping up Astral, Puratos buying Dawn Foods, and why Bark isn't going private yet.
Apple just turned 50. Amazon quietly acquired two robotics companies. And Allbirds — once valued at $4B— sold for $39M. Rick Watson and Nick Kaplan work through what these three stories have in common: the relentless pressure to find a next act before the first one runs out.
The Watson Weekly Weekend edition is sponsored by Avalara — automated tax compliance built for Shopify merchants, from calculation to returns. For more details: https://avalara.watsonweekly.com/
Topics this week: whether Tim Cook's Apple needs a visionary or just needs to win in AI, what Amazon's Rivr and Fauna acquisitions tell you about where last-mile delivery is actually going, and why Allbirds is a cautionary tale that applies to almost every DTC brand built on a single product. Plus: ambient AI through AirPods, the Rounders theory of the AI market, and why Rick switched from ChatGPT to Claude.
Subscribe for weekly retail and commerce analysis: watsonweekly.com
Rick Watson is out. Nick Kaplan is in — and he's not giving the mic back.
In this special Kaplan Wednesday episode, Nick takes the research prompts Watson built for his agentic commerce analysis and turns them on the very stories they were designed to interrogate.
On the docket: Adyen's white paper claiming infrastructure is the constraint on agentic commerce (it isn't — and their own 95% AML false positive rate says why). Shopify's one-toggle Agentic Storefront promise and the data ownership problem it quietly creates. Klaviyo and Reebok Europe's Locale Aware Catalogs announcement — and the 149,999 merchants who aren't Reebok. The EU AI Act, which starts enforcement in five months and would like a word with every agentic protocol on the market. And the number that breaks every GMV projection: only 14% of shoppers trust AI recommendations enough to transact.
The Kaplan Weekly is sponsored by Avalara. — automated tax compliance built for Shopify merchants, from calculation to returns. For more details: https://avalara.watsonweekly.com/
The constraint isn't infrastructure. It's trust. Build that first.
Happy April Fools. Rick will be back next week.
Subscribe for weekly retail and commerce analysis: watsonweekly.com
ecommerce #kaplanwednesday #AIact #watsonwednesday
Live from the chaos of Shoptalk 2026 — where every booth promised an AI future and the floor proved retail is still fundamentally a contractual promise to a customer. Retail and e-commerce influencer Rick Watson is out on assignment in Las Vegas.
This episode cuts through the agentic commerce noise. We get into what AEO (Agentic Commerce Optimization) actually requires operationally, why Shopify continues to eat the market while facing real limits at enterprise scale, and what the Stripe-Shopify relationship tells you about where payments infrastructure is heading.
The Watson Weekend is sponsored by Avalara. For more information on Avalara, visit - https://avalara.watsonweekly.com/
Plus: the honest conversation about AI ads, MCP protocols, and why building an AI Council too early might be the fastest way to slow your company down.
Fix your margin problem first. Agentic commerce will not rescue a broken business model — it will just surface the damage faster.
Subscribe to the Watson Weekly newsletter: https://www.watsonweekly.com
Darren Heaphy has spent his career at the intersection of e-commerce and logistics — AOL, Scurry, and now eDesk, where he leads product. His take on AI-driven support is blunt: brands are holding AI to a standard they never applied to their seasonal hires, and that double standard is costing them.
In this episode, Rick Watson interviews and discusses the real shift happening in customer support — not chatbots replacing agents, but human teams moving from execution to orchestration. Darren calls it the "digital colleague" framework: start AI on low-risk work, build trust through auditability, and expand its scope as it earns it.
The Watson Weekly interview is sponsored by Avalara — automated tax compliance built for Shopify merchants, from calculation to returns. For more details: https://avalara.watsonweekly.com/
We also dig into a number most brands are sitting on without realizing it: 30–40% of support tickets are pre-purchase questions. Not complaints. Buying signals. And AI can convert those around the clock.
What you'll hear:
- Why AI mistakes feel scarier than human mistakes — and whether that fear is rational
- The "glass box" approach to AI transparency that actually builds team trust
- How support roles are evolving from typing to judgment
- Why the fundamentals — speed, accuracy, reduced uncertainty — haven't changed and won't
If you've been watching AI take over the support conversation and wondering where your team fits, this one's for you.
CustomerSupport #AIinEcommerce #watsonweekly #interview
Rick Watson breaks down four stories worth your attention before Shoptalk.
OpenAI's internal "code red" and what a pivot to enterprise and coding revenue actually signals ahead of a potential IPO; Dollar General and Dollar Tree earnings — both beating expectations, but with very different stories underneath the numbers; Apollo's credit chief calling private equity valuations "literally fiction," and why that matters for tech-focused PE portfolios still carrying COVID-era marks; and the three questions Rick is bringing to his Agentic Debate at Shoptalk this week — including whether brands are being sold snake oil on AI.
Plus the Investor Minute: Agent Mail, Rhoda AI, Cart.com, Ernesta, and Quince.
Watson Weekly is Sponsored by Avalara — Shopify's tax automation partner for US and global compliance., for more details: https://avalara.watsonweekly.com/
Dollar stores are quietly winning, Prime Day is jumping the calendar, and the AI arms race just hit its first major reboot. Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky break down what actually moved this week in retail and commerce.
Dollar General doubled its operating profit, Dollar Tree shed Family Dollar and beat estimates, and Five Below kept growing — while 99 Cents Only filed for bankruptcy. The value shift is real, and it's not just low-income shoppers driving it.
Amazon is moving Prime Day to June. Is this a Q2 earnings play, a back-to-school land grab, or both? And what does that mean for Walmart, Target, and everyone else chasing the same wallet?
The Watson Weekly Weekend edition is sponsored by Avalara. For more information on Avalara, visit - https://avalara.watsonweekly.com/
Then: the agentic reboot. Adyen's co-CEO drops a white paper on infrastructure problems in agentic commerce. OpenAI's applications chief reportedly called a "code red" on internal focus. Amazon is adding senior engineer oversight to rein in autonomous code. Anthropic is quietly picking up enterprise market share — and OpenAI's people. Rick's verdict: we are in the early innings, and the wholesale strategy changes are just beginning.
Chapters
00:00 — Welcome & Intro
01:14 — Dollar Store Earnings: Why Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and Five Below are winning — and who isn't
04:24 — Amazon Prime Day Moves to June
07:23 — The Agentic Reboot: Adyen's white paper, OpenAI's "code red," Anthropic's enterprise surge, and what it all means for brands building on AI
Tom Schmitt is CEO of Radial, North America's largest third-party fulfillment provider — and a company about to become something bigger. As part of the Bpostgroup's rebranding to Paxon, Radial is merging with its sister companies into a single global logistics brand built on decades of e-commerce infrastructure.
The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Avalara. For more information on Avalara, visit - https://avalara.watsonweekly.com/
Tom sat down with Rick Watson to talk about what he's actually seeing on the ground as AI enters supply chain — and the answer is more nuanced than most headlines suggest.
Three things worth your time from this episode:
- The trust gap is real and measurable. Radial surveyed 1,000 US consumers: nearly two-thirds are uncomfortable sharing payment information with AI agents. That's not a technology problem — it's a brand problem operators need to solve first.
- Most AI projects are failing their ROI test right now — and that's expected. Tom's crawl, walk, run framework isn't a hedge; it's a diagnosis. Demand forecasting and pick-path optimization have measurable returns today. Fully autonomous warehouse orchestration does not — yet.
- Agentic commerce has a data standards problem nobody is talking about. Radial is a founding member of ONX — the Order Network Exchange — an open industry standard for how order, inventory, and fulfillment data moves between systems. Agentic commerce only works if agents read the same language. That work is already underway.
Plus: the history of GSI Commerce, how Michael Rubin invented the direct-to-consumer industry, and why Fred Smith's old line about FedEx still tells you everything about where supply chain AI is headed.
Subscribe to the Newsletter: Get it at https://www.watsonweekly.com/subscribe
Stripe just released an Agentic Technology Suite and positioned it as the infrastructure layer for the next era of commerce.]So who is Stripe actually building this for?
The Watson Weekly Interview is sponsored by Avalara. For more information on Avalara, visit - https://avalara.watsonweekly.com/
Salesforce Marketing Cloud posted -1% growth in Q4 FY2026 — the end of four years of deceleration and the start of something worse. Rebranding to Agentforce doesn't fix a product growth problem, and acquisitions are a slower fix than they look.
The Watson Weekly is also sponsored by Mirakl. You don't need another tool; you need a growth partner. The Mirakl platform is powering the next era of retail for brands and retailers who are ready to move, powered by AI and built for what's next.
Costco reported $2B in revenue, up 13.8%, driven by a limited SKU model and a merchandising strategy that creates genuine discovery. Digital is working too — personalized carousels drove $470M in e-commerce sales. The CEO is watching tariffs closely for the next 150 days.
And the big structural story: retail's share of total consumer spending dropped from 34.3% in 2022 to 30.8% in Q4 2025. Amazon is absorbing the majority of what remains. The market is consolidating around Walmart and Costco for necessities and Amazon for everything discretionary — leaving mid-market and specialty retail in a structurally difficult position.
Investor minute covers 5 stories from the world of IPOs, funding, private equity and more.
watsonweekly #stripe #costco #salesforcemarketingcloud #walmart #amazon
In this week’s Watson Weekly weekend edition, hosts Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky talk about Dick’s Sporting Goods' viral Move moment, Elliott Hill in the New York Times, and the gap between consumer spending at Amazon and Walmart.
Dick's Sporting Goods is number three in the App Store. Nike is running a PR campaign dressed as a turnaround. And the consumer spending data has already picked the winners of the next decade of retail — most people just aren't reading it correctly.
The Watson Weekend edition is sponsored by Avalara.
This week: what Dick's Move app gets right that every other retailer gets wrong about loyalty, why Elliot Hill's "innovation platforms" are a story for investors and not consumers, and what a nine-point drop in retail's share of consumer spending actually means for Amazon, Walmart, and everyone else fighting for what's left.
The short version: utility beats AI features. NPS doesn't fix itself with a robot shoe. And if you're not Amazon or Walmart, you need a reason to exist — not a broader assortment.
watsonweeklyweekend #dickssportinggoods #nike #amazon #walmart
What does it actually take to go from AI experimentation to real business impact? In this episode of the Watson Weekly, Rick Watson sits down with Anne-Claire Baschet, Chief Data and AI Officer at Mirakl — the enterprise marketplace platform powering some of the world's largest retail brands.
Anne-Claire shares how she went from a passion for sci-fi and mathematics to leading AI transformation at scale — spanning French national rail, a refurbished car marketplace IPO, and now a bold mandate at Mirakl: disrupt the business responsibly with AI.
In this conversation, you'll learn:
- Why 95% of AI projects fail to deliver ROI — and it's not the technology's fault
- How Mirakl jumped from 50% to 95% Gen AI adoption by eliminating the "copy and paste game"
- The self-driving car framework (L0 → L1 → L2) and how to use it to assess your own SaaS AI journey
- How Mirakl's Catalog Transformer reduced categorization errors by 50% and cut onboarding time from 15 days to under 2 hours
- Why solving the right problem matters more than solving a problem the right way
- What agent commerce means for the future of retail — and how Mirakl Nexus is preparing for it
Whether you're a product leader, an AI executive, or building B2B SaaS, this episode is packed with hard-won lessons on strategy, adoption, and shipping AI that actually works.
🔔 Subscribe for weekly conversations on commerce, technology, and the future of retail. 📧 Newsletter:watsonweekly.com
Chapters:
- 0:00 – Introduction
- 2:00 – Anne-Claire's background & career journey
- 6:30 – AI adoption inside Mirakl: from 50% to 95%
- 11:00 – The "copy and paste" problem & agentic unlock
- 15:00 – Catalog Transformer: L0 to L2 explained
- 20:00 – Choosing the right problems to solve
- 23:00 – Agent commerce & the road ahead
ArtificialIntelligence #AIStrategy #GenerativeAI #AgenticAI #AIAdoption
The AI shopping revolution is here — but who actually controls it? In this week's Watson Weekly, Rick Watson breaks down four stories reshaping the future of e-commerce.
The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Avalara. For more information on Avalara visit - https://www.avalara.watsonweekly.com/
🛒 Shopify vs. AI Agents — Shopify is making a bold bet: positioning itself as the back office of record for the agentic web. But if LLMs keep getting smarter, does the middleware even survive? Rick walks through two scenarios that every e-commerce operator needs to understand.
💳 The Stripe Annual Letter — $1.9 trillion in payment volume, a "stablecoin summer," and a controversial vision for Level 5 agentic commerce (AI that buys things before you ask). Is this a consumer-friendly future or a payments provider's dream dressed up as progress?
The Watson Weekly is also sponsored by Mirakl. You don't need another tool; you need a growth partner. The Mirakl platform is powering the next era of retail for brands and retailers who are ready to move, powered by AI and built for what's next.
🤖 The Amazon-OpenAI $50B Deal — What it means for AWS, Nvidia, and Alexa — and the one glaring thing that's missing from the deal that tells you everything about how these negotiations really work.
🚚 The Logistics Rollup — Thoma Bravo is merging Auctane (ShipStation, Stamps.com, Metapack) with WWEX Group to build an end-to-end logistics intelligence stack. Could this be the most important supply chain bet of the decade?
Plus: this week's Investor Minute covers Salesforce's acquisition of Momentum, Aritzia's buy of Fred Segal, and two fresh seed rounds in supply chain tech.
📬 Subscribe to Rick's newsletter:watsonweekly.com 🎙️ Find the podcast on all major platforms.
WatsonWeekly #AgenticAI #Stripe #Shopify #OpenAI #Amazon
Welcome to this weekend edition of Watson Weekly with Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky! Today, we’re breaking down the biggest moves in retail and e-commerce from the past week..
We start with Target’s latest earnings, where a 1.7% dip in net sales has triggered a major turnaround strategy focused on beauty, food, and the Target Circle 360 premium membership. Then, we dive into Shopify’s investor event to discuss Agentic Commerce—is AI the new front door for online shopping?
Finally, we analyze the massive $50 billion investment/partnership between Amazon and OpenAI. Why is Amazon mandating the use of its Trainium chips, and what does this mean for the future of AWS?
The Watson Weekly Weekend edition is sponsored by Avalara.
Key Chapters
0:00 - Introduction
0:49 - Target Earnings: Sales Slump & The 2026 Turnaround
6:09 - Shopify’s Agentic Commerce Front Door
9:50 - Amazon & OpenAI: The $110 Billion Funding Round
retailtech #Amazon #OpenAI #Shopify #TargetEarnings #EcommerceNews #AICommerce #AWS #WatsonWeekly
The dust has settled on Q4 and full-year 2025, and the numbers tell a fascinating story about the future of how we buy, ship, and sell. From Amazon’s record-breaking AWS growth to Walmart laying down the gauntlet, we are diving deep into the ripple effects these giants are creating across the entire ecosystem.
In this episode, Rick Watson breaks down the split personalities of Meta, the agentic jump ball between Shopify and Stripe, and why UPS finds itself in an incredibly tight spot between Amazon and union contracts. Whether you’re a David moving fast or a Goliath trying to transform, these are the trends you cannot afford to ignore.
Inside the Briefing
- Amazon’s AI & Grocery Bet: Online stores are a $278 billion business. While physical retail has struggled, Amazon is doubling down on Whole Foods with a 20% increase in store count. Meanwhile, they are pouring $200 billion into capital expenditure, primarily for data centers and chips to fuel their AI driver.
- The Walmart Juggernaut: Walmart is executing at an elite level, with 60% of stores now using automated freight and 50% of e-commerce shipments being automated. Their membership and ads business has scaled significantly, reaching one-third of Amazon’s operating profit.
- The Shopify/Stripe Power Couple: Shopify saw a 30% revenue increase to $11.5 billion. Their B2B sector is a hidden gem, growing 96%. Notably, 64 cents of every dollar in Shopify’s merchant services business goes to their partner, Stripe.
- Meta’s $83 Billion Gamble: Meta’s advertising business remains highly profitable with a 30% operating margin, but the Reality Labs division has lost $83 billion to date. Mark Zuckerberg is betting that smart glasses will be a cognitive necessity within five years.
- UPS & PayPal in Transition: UPS is facing a massive volume decline as Amazon moves a million parcels a day away from their network. PayPal is currently described as a ship without a rudder, with rumors circulating that the company—or its crown jewel, Venmo—could be headed for a sale.
The biggest risk right now isn't being small; it's being a giant that cannot move. If you're an underdog, use your speed to your advantage because you can move faster than the incumbents.
Check out the full newsletter and more insights at:www.watsonweekly.com.
Huge thanks to our sponsors:
- Avalara: The gold standard in tax and compliance solutions.
- Kasama: A premier software integrator and agency.
Chapters:
Introduction
Amazon commentary
Meta commentary
Shopify commentary
PayPal commentary
UPS commentary
Walmart commentary
watsonweekly #webinar #amazon #meta #shopify #paypal #ups #walmart
Today on our show:
- Walmart Continues Its Tear: eCom Growth at 27%
- Perplexity Abandons Advertising to Maintain User Trust
- The Great Parcel Reconfiguration No One is Talking About
-
About That 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis
-
and finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.watsonweekly.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@WatsonWeekly
The Big Retail Shakeup: Stripe’s PayPal Play & Walmart’s High-Income TakeoverThe retail and fintech worlds are moving faster than a 150-day tariff cycle, and this week, Watson Weekly Weekend edition hosts Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky break down the seismic shifts you can’t afford to ignore. From "sharks in the water" at PayPal to Walmart’s sneaky-good transformation into a tech-first powerhouse, we’re unpacking the data behind the headlines.
Is Stripe about to carve up the "Good Ship PayPal" to fuel its own world domination? And how has Walmart managed to win over the $100k+ crowd while automating its way to record margins? We’re diving deep into the "tale of two cities" in consumer spending and why being "bold" is the only strategy for 2026.
In this episode:
- The PayPal Pivot: Why Stripe might be circling Venmo and what it means for the future of Stablecoin.
- Tariff Redo: Navigating the Supreme Court’s recent ruling and why your CFO shouldn't be the one making marketing decisions.
- Walmart’s Trillion-Dollar Climb: How 72% grocery penetration and automated fulfillment are widening the gap with the competition.
- Agentic Commerce: Is "Sparky" the real deal or just a higher AOV glitter?.
Stay Ahead of the CurveSubscribe to the Newsletter: Get the deep dives Rick and Jess mention atwatsonweekly.com.
Join the Conversation: Are you a "turtle shell" business or are you playing for growth this year? Let us know in the comments.
Stay bold. Stay classy.
Chapters:
0:00 - Welcome to the Watson Weekly Weekend
1:00 - PayPal without a captain
6:29 - Trump Tariff Redux
10:06 - Walmart earnings
10:10 - https://youtu.be/K-IPpyhtwMM
FintechNews #WalmartEarnings #Stripe #PayPal #EcommerceStrategy #WatsonWeekly #BusinessTrends2026 #SupplyChainInnovation #AgenticCommerce
The "subscription box" era might be over, but the membership era is just beginning.
In this episode, Rick Watson sits down with John Roman, CEO of BattlBox, to pull back the curtain on how they survived the collapse of the 2015 subscription craze to become a powerhouse in the outdoor and survival space.
John shares the unfiltered truth about why he prefers the term' membership' over 'subscription box,' and how shifting the focus to community and content saved their business. We dive deep into their unique content strategy—where 15% of their staff is dedicated to video production—and why John believes every modern brand should function like a media company.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
-
The "CrateJoy" Origins: How BattlBox validated product-market fit on a niche marketplace before moving to their current scale.
-
The Inventory Nightmare: Why scaling to 10,000+ members requires production runs and forecasting six months out.
-
The Content Flywheel: Why 80% of BattlBox’s highest-value customers are regular YouTube viewers.
-
Hiring Your Customers: The story of how Brandon (Current 1776), a paying customer, became a full-time face of the brand.
-
Data-Driven Leadership: How John’s background as a professional poker player influences his obsession with churn, LTV, and retention.
-
The Future of D2C: Why John believes 70-75% of their 2026 revenue will still come from their core membership model.
Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction to BattlBox and Subscription Box Era
0:58 - Evolution from Subscription Box to Membership
5:00 - Inventory Management Challenges
8:53 - The Power of Content and Community
18:02 - The "Current 1776" Story: Hiring Customers as Creators
22:20 - Data-Driven Leadership and Business Metrics
26:10 Advice for Large Retailers and the Future of D2C
Subscribe to the newsletter at https://www.watsonweekly.com/subscribe
Today on our show:
- Stripe’s $140 Billion Question
- Why Temu is the New Cross-Border Standard
- The UPS $150k Exit: Strategic Rightsizing or a Teamster Trap?
-
Is Agentic Commerce a Nothingburger? The Agentic Debate Series, presented by Logicbroker.
-
and finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.watsonweekly.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@WatsonWeekly
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This week on the Watson Weekly Weekend edition, Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky are breaking down a massive shift in the retail and tech landscape. From the dramatic fall of a luxury giant to Walmart's historic milestone and the high-stakes risks facing Silicon Valley’s finest, we’ve got the insights you need to stay ahead.
In This Episode🎭 As the House of Luxury Turns: The Saks Global SagaWe track the "episodic drama" of Saks Global’s decline, from unpaid vendors and empty shelves to the January Chapter 11 filing. We dive into the friction with Amazon and the aggressive store closures impacting Saks Off Fifth and Neiman Marcus.
🛒 Walmart’s $1 Trillion MilestoneWalmart has officially joined the elite tech-heavy $1T market cap club. We discuss how their massive investments in supply chain automation and a "dot-com culture" (thanks to the legacy of Jet.com) are now allowing them to outpace Amazon’s e-commerce growth.
📦 FedEx: Better, Not BiggerFedEx is pivoting away from "tiny cheap shipments" to focus on high-margin sectors like healthcare and aerospace. We look at their Network 2.0 strategy and how they are navigating the rise of de minimus shipments from players like Shein and TikTok Shop.
+⚠️ The Existential Risks of Big Tech
What keeps CEOs up at night? We identify the "one big risk" for the giants:
- Amazon: Will the $200B AI backlog actually materialize?
- Shopify: Is a "high-performance sports team" culture sustainable for a 100-year company?
- Meta: The massive bet on "face computers" and ongoing legal distractions.
- OpenAI: The "show me the money" moment and the lack of native distribution.
Retail #Ecommerce #Walmart #SaksGlobal #FedEx #BigTech #Amazon #SupplyChain #WatsonWeekly
Is SaaS really dead? Will AI take your job next year?
In this Watson Weekly Interview, Rick Watson talks with Dr. Daniel Hulme, Chief AI Officer at WPP and CEO of Satalia, to debunk the biggest myths surrounding Artificial Intelligence. From the changing architecture of software to the rise of "Economic Singularity," Dr. Hulme provides a masterclass on how businesses and individuals can navigate the rapidly evolving tech landscape.
We dive deep into:
- The Future of SaaS: Why LLMs are amplifying—not killing—software.
- The WPP Open Strategy: How AI unlocked creativity and content creation at scale.
- Why AI Projects Fail: From "intoxicated graduate" syndrome to the trap of low-hanging fruit.
- The Job Market: Transitioning from economic disruption to a world of abundance and UBI.
- GSO (Generative Search Optimization): Move over SEO—learn how to brand your business inside the "brains" of LLMs.
Whether you are a SaaS founder, a marketer, or simply curious about the future of humanity, this conversation offers a grounded, expert perspective on the AI revolution.
Chapters1. 0:00 - Introduction to Dr. Daniel Hulme 2. 2:15 - Myth: Is SaaS Dead? 3. 5:40 - The 3-Layer Architecture of Modern Software 4. 8:20 - How WPP Open uses AI for Creative & Content 5. 12:45 - 5 Reasons Your AI Initiative Will Fail 6. 18:30 - AI vs. Jobs: The Path to Economic Singularity 7. 23:10 - Universal Basic Income and the Future of Work 8. 26:50 - Introduction to Generative Search Optimization (GSO) 9. 30:00 - Closing Thoughts: Living Your "True Humanity"
AI #SaaS #FutureOfWork #WPP #MachineLearning #GenerativeAI #TechTrends
Today on our show:
- Amazon is a Vertically Integrated Utility
- Shopify Fiscal Year 2025 Earnings: a Pony with One Great Trick, Could it Be More?
- Kroger Opens a New Marketplace
-
Paypal Earnings and David Marcus
-
and finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.watsonweekly.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@WatsonWeekly
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Welcome to the Watson Weekly Weekend Edition. Hosts Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky dive into the post-Super Bowl landscape to break down the biggest moves in retail, tech, and AI. From the high-stakes world of $7 million for 30 second ads at the big game to the massive earnings reports from industry titans (hello Amazon), we’re unpacking what these shifts mean for the future of commerce.
In This Episode:The AI Ad Wars: We review the ads from the big game spots from Claude (Anthropic), OpenAI, and Gemini. Is Anthropic just throwing shade at competitors, or is there a method to the "negative ad" madness?
Target’s Executive Carousel: Target is shuffling the deck chairs again. With a new CEO and a history of moving merchants into marketing roles, we ask: why does Target seem "allergic" to a real CMO?
Spotify vs. Amazon (The Book Edition): In a surprising move, Spotify is partnering with Bookshop.org to sell physical books. We explore why they’re helping independent bookstores while indie artists feel left behind.
Amazon Earnings Deep Dive: AWS is back on "high-speed rail" growth, and the new AI assistant Rufus is already driving billions in sales. Plus, we discuss the genius of the "add to delivery" feature.
Shopify’s AI Strategy: Shopify is growing at nearly 30% a year, but investors have one question: What is the AI strategy? Rick explains why Shopify’s "one trick"—the checkout—is still their greatest strength.
The Watson Weekly Weekend Edition is sponsored by Mirakl: Powering the next era of retail.
Video Timestamps0:00 - Welcome to Watson Weekend
0:54 - The Big Game Ad Economics: $233,000 Per Second
2:18 - The AI Ad Wars: Anthropic (Claude) vs. OpenAI
3:56 - Google Gemini’s "Heartstrings" Ad Campaign
5:14 - Target’s Leadership Shuffle: Why the "Roach Motel" Strategy?
8:17 - Spotify’s Strange Pivot into Physical Books
9:54 - The Indie Artist Royalty Gap which Should Make Publishers Worried
11:13 - Amazon Earnings: AWS High-Speed Growth & Rufus+2
13:06 - Amazon’s New "Add to Delivery" Feature
14:26 - The Future of Amazon Grocery & Whole Foods
15:05 - Shopify Earnings: B2B and International Growth
16:51 - Shopify’s AI Narrative: "It's the Checkout, Stupid"
19:54 - Final Thoughts
Stay Bold. Stay Classy
Subscribe to our Newsletter:watsonweekly.com and YouTube channel.
In this episode, host Rick Watson is joined by Mark Rubin, CEO of Kasama, to cut through the noise of the current agency landscape. Mark brings decades of experience from his time at Lyons Consulting, Precision Design Studios, and Moku Collective to discuss why the "AI Gold Rush" might be a trap and why replatforming your e-commerce site might be a mistake in 2026.
In this episode, we discuss:
- The PE Cycle: Mark’s firsthand experience with private equity acquisitions and the "ticking clock" that begins once the checks clear.
- The AI Trap: Why clients are demanding AI provisions in contracts and how it’s creating a "margin pressure" that forces agencies to move from deliverables to results-based models.
- Hiring in the AI Era: The challenges of vetting developers who use AI tools and why "hiring slow and firing fast" is more important than ever.
- To Replatform or Not?: Mark’s controversial take on why brands should maximize their current tech stacks rather than chasing a "sexy" new platform that may result in a massive internal distraction.
🕒 Timestamps:0:00 – Introduction: Cutting through the Agency Noise
2:15 – Mark’s Journey: From .NET Developer to CEO
5:30 – The Reality of Private Equity and "The Clock"
9:45 – Is the AI Gold Rush a Trap for Agencies?
14:20 – The Evolution of Agency Pricing: Time & Materials vs. Results
18:10 – Why You Probably Shouldn’t Replatform This Year
22:45 – Closing Thoughts: Focus on the Basics
watsonweekly #watsonweeklyinterview #agency #ai #replatform
The Watson Weekly podcast, sponsored by Rithum, presents the keynote speech delivered in New York City on Sunday, January 11th, prior to the National Retail Federation Big Show. The. Watson Weekend Live at NRF Presented by Radial, keynote speech focused on "being bold in 2026.”
The core idea is the "Goliath paradox," which argues that while David won, businesses often forget why Goliath lost. Rick Watson contends that the belief that "scale is safety" is a "lie," and in today's economy, the only real "moat is actually motion" because "size without motion is just a target". Larger companies risk slowing down, becoming heavy and slow like Goliath, who couldn't dodge the rock.
The current era is the "age of intelligence," demanding that brands not just respond to demand but "anticipate demand before it even comes". The speaker uses Lululemon versus Alo and Victoria's Secret versus Skims as examples of bold challengers. In the case of Skims, the brand won by selling "the combination of high fashion engineering and body positivity," meeting customers "exactly where they are," while Victoria's Secret sold a fantasy.
The ultimate challenge for 2026 is that brands need to compete on identity and "stand for something". The choice is between being a "giant who can't move" (a path of paralysis and incrementalism) or the "giant who learned how to dance," driven by a mindset of "speed, agility, and most importantly, adaptability".
The Watson Weekly podcast is sponsored by Rithum. In commerce, every second counts. Rhythm helps brands and retailers connect every channel with AI-powered automation and insights, giving you the clarity to make smart decisions, adapt fast, and grow efficiently. Learn more at tithum.com. That's R-I-T-H-U-M.com.
If you find conversations like this helpful, make sure you’re following the show so you don’t miss future episodes. Also, if you’re not subscribed to our newsletter, check that out atwww.watsonweekly.com.
Join your Watson Weekly Weekend Edition hosts, Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky, as they break down the biggest shifts in tech, retail, and e-commerce. From Pinterest’s AI pivot to Starbucks’ massive loyalty shakeup, we’re diving deep into the news moving the needle this week.
📌 Pinterest’s AI EvolutionPinterest is cutting 15% of its workforce (approx. 700–800 roles) to go all-in on AI. We discuss whether this is a genuine transformation or a "playbook" move to appease investors as user growth plateaus. Is the shift to "AI-proficient talent" enough to fend off TikTok and Reels?
☕ The New Starbucks Rewards (Launching March 10, 2026)Starbucks is reimagining loyalty with three distinct tiers designed to gamify your morning coffee:
- Green: The standard $1 = 1 star.
- Gold: Accelerated earning (1.2 stars/$) and non-expiring points.
- Reserve: A 2,500-star threshold (or $2,500 spend) with perks like all-expenses-paid trips to Tokyo, Milan, or Costa Rica.
- Note: The "free customization" era is ending with a new $10 cap on 200-star drinks.🛍️ Shopify vs. The "Robot Agents"
Shopify’s latest partner update provides a blueprint for the AI era. They are redefining "partners" to include digital entities and tightening the reins on data—prohibiting developers from using merchant data to train external models. Plus, third-party apps must now feed directly into the Shopify AI Sidekick.
🃏 Whatnot & The Live Selling ExplosionLive shopping has evolved far beyond QVC. Whatnot has reached $8 billion in GMV by gamifying the collector experience. We explore why midsize cities like Rochester and Dayton are out-earning Chicago on a per-resident basis, and how categories like Beauty (up 791%) are exploding.
"It’s not shopping; it’s entertainment." – Special Correspondent Shephard Lesesky on the addictive nature of live auctions.
The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Mirakl.
0:00 – Intro
1:25 – Pinterest’s Strategic Pivot
5:31 – Starbucks Loyalty 2026
8:58 – Shopify’s New Rules
13:15 – The Rise of Whatnot
🚀 Stay Connected
Subscribe to our podcast and YouTube channel for your weekly dose of commerce insights.
Visit our website: https://www.watsonweekly.com
WatsonWeekly #EcommerceNews #StarbucksRewards #Shopify #Pinterest #LiveShopping #Whatnot #AI #RetailTrends
Is retail suffering from "buzzword fatigue"? In this 25-minute deep dive, Nick Kaplan and Rick Watson debrief the biggest themes, surprises, and reality checks from NRF 2026: Retail’s Big Show. From the noise surrounding "agentic commerce" to the practical startups actually moving the needle, we break down what brands need to know to survive the next era of retail.
Key Takeaways:
The Buzzword Barrier: Why brands are feeling lost in a sea of repetitive jargon and how to spot the difference between hype and high-impact tech.
Practical Innovation: A look at the NRF Innovation Hub, featuring startups like Marpipe that are solving real-world problems in product feed and ad optimization.
The Virtue of Patience: Navigating the rapid release cycle from giants such as OpenAI and Google requires a steady hand and a long-term view.
The NRF Debrief is sponsored by Avalara and Freshmint.
📈 The Evolution of Commerce
We trace the journey of the industry through four distinct eras:
The Age of Presence (1990s): The race to get online.
The Age of Efficiency: Streamlining the back end.
The Age of Social: The rise of community-driven buying.
The Age of Intelligence (Today): A fundamental shift from managing supply to generating demand through AI.
💡 Strategy for 2026
Success this year isn't just about having the biggest budget; it’s about adaptability. We discuss the importance of experimenting with technology budgets, verifying vendor claims with hard data, and managing the increasing complexities of the modern supply chain.
"The barriers to entry for new businesses are lower than ever, but the noise is louder than ever. Boldness and adaptability are your best assets in 2026."
📌 Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction & NRF 2026 Overview
3:15 - Cutting through the Buzzwords (Agentic Commerce?)
7:45 - Innovation Hub Highlights: Practical Solutions & Marpipe
12:30 - The Evolution of Commerce: From Presence to Intelligence
18:10 - How AI is Reshaping Retail Jobs & Processes
22:00 - Final Thoughts: Being Bold in 2026
Enjoyed the debrief? Make sure to Subscribe and hit the notification bell 🔔 to stay updated on our ongoing commerce insights.
Today on our show:
- ChatGPT's 4% Fee Confirms Marketplace Economics
- American Eagle to Close Quiet Logistics Business
- UPS Releases 4Q 2025 Earnings and Provides 2026 Guidance
-
Meta Earnings in Superintelligence We Trust
-
and finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Rithum.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
In this Friday edition of Watson Weekly, Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky dive into the major shifts rocking the retail and tech landscape. From Shopify’s controversial partner strategy to Apple’s "defensive sprint" into wearable AI hardware, we break down what these moves mean for the future of the industry.
On this week's episode:
-
The Fall of Quiet Logistics: American Eagle is sunsetting its Quiet Logistics business. Rick and Jess explore why owning your own supply chain can be a "heavy burden" if it’s not your core business.
-
Apple’s Ambient Ambitions: Is Apple panicking over all the OpenAI hype? Learn about the new AI pin designed to combat OpenAI, and why Apple is reportedly paying Google a billion dollars for the use of the Gemini model inside Siri.
-
Vinted’s American Dream: The European secondhand giant enters a crowded U.S. market. Can their buyer-fee model disrupt established players like Poshmark and The RealReal?
*Shopify’s "Partner Massacre": Is Shopify abandoning the enterprise? Rick and Jess discuss the recent cuts to Shopify’s partner teams and CEO Tobi Lütke’s drive for "productivity over people".
Key Takeaways:
Why the "platform dream" failed for American Eagle.
The difference between owning a logistics company and owning its "crown jewels".
Why Shopify views anyone between them and their merchants as a "middleman".
Support the Show: 🔔 Subscribe for more deep dives into retail and e-commerce news.
Ecommerce #Shopify #RetailTech #AppleAI #Logistics #Vinted #WatsonWeekly #thewatsonweekly
In this episode of The Watson Weekly, Rick Watson sits down with Gareth Cummings, CEO of eDesk, to discuss the massive shift in how brands interact with their customers. From pioneering domain-specific language models in 2018 to navigating the rise of TikTok Shop and Agentic Commerce, Gareth shares a masterclass in staying ahead of the tech curve.
Gareth Cummings is the CEO of eDesk, an AI-native customer support platform built specifically for e-commerce. With a background in banking and telecom, he brings a unique, data-driven perspective to online retail.
In this interview, you’ll learn:
The Evolution of AI: Why customer skepticism has turned into an expectation for AI-driven support.
Surviving the SaaS Slump: How e-commerce brands are pivoting toward profitability and value.
TikTok & Authentic Engagement: Why new channels are essential for building brand trust in 2026.
The Rise of AI Agents: What happens when AI starts making the purchases for us?
Chapters / Timestamps
0:00 - Introduction: Meet Gareth Cummings, CEO of eDesk
2:15 - Career Evolution: From Banking and Telecom to E-commerce Tech
5:40 - The Early Days of AI: Building Language Models in 2018
9:25 - The Shift in Consumer Mindset: From AI Skepticism to AI Expectation
13:10 - Navigating the Modern SaaS Economy: Profitability vs. Growth
17:35 - Building Brand Loyalty: Why Trust Outperforms Price
21:50 - TikTok Shop and the Power of Authentic Engagement
26:15 - Turning Support Data into a Business Strategy Engine
30:40 - The Future of Agentic Commerce: When AI Does the Shopping
35:20 - Leadership Advice: Embracing the Pace of AI Change
38:45 - Closing Thoughts and Where to Follow Gareth
The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Rithum. In commerce, timing is everything. That’s where Rithum comes in. We help brands and retailers keep every channel connected, so when the moment comes, you’re ready to act—launching faster, adapting quicker, and growing smarter.
See how your business can grow at rithum.com. that's R-I-T-H-U-M.com
Ecommerce #AI #SaaS #CustomerSupport #TikTokShop #AgenticCommerce #TheWatsonWeekly #WatsonWeekly
Today on our show:
- Sam Altman Testing Ad
- Lowes to license its checkout
- AI meets Davos and a Jassy Sighting
-
Claude Code Is Having a Viral Moment
-
and finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 3 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Rithum.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Most AI pilots fail—at least, that’s the headline. But today’s guest is proving that doesn’t have to be true.
In this Watson Weekly interview, Rick Watson goes behind the scenes with Chris Kellner, CEO of DigitalGenius, to discuss how a decade-old AI pioneer is navigating the modern LLM explosion. We move past the hype to explore how AI is actually rewriting the playbooks for sales, marketing, and customer support.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
-
The "Locomotive" Metaphor: Why DigitalGenius didn't have to reinvent itself, but rather accelerated on existing tracks.
-
Sales & Marketing Rewired: How Chris’s team uses AI for call coaching, MEDPIC scorecards, and CRM automation to let humans focus on high-value closing.
-
UK vs. US Market Mismatch: Why traditional outbound playbooks failed when crossing the Atlantic and what they did to fix it.
*The Competition for Culture: How an internal "Agent-Building" competition spurred unexpected creativity across the company.
3 Hard Lessons in AI Support: The essential checklist for any leader deploying AI in customer service today.
Chapters
00:00 – Intro: Turning AI buzz into customer wins
03:15 – Chris Kellner’s journey from Banking to SaaS CEO
07:40 – Acceleration vs. Reinvention: Building the AI train line
14:20 – Rewiring GTM: AI call coaching and MEDPIC scorecards
22:10 – Market Mismatches: Lessons from scaling from the UK to the US
30:45 – Culture & Internal Adoption: The AI Agent competition
38:30 – Why most AI pilots fail (and how to make yours succeed)
45:15 – Build vs. Buy: When to go in-house and when to use a vendor
52:00 – Closing thoughts and key takeaways
watsonweekly #ai #customersupport
Today on our show:
- Walmart Shakes Up Its Leadership Ranks
- NRF 2026 Recap
-
More Content Coming To You from the Watson Weekly
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 4 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Rithum.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- It’s Time to Be Bold in 2026
-
Welcome to NRF
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Rithum.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show it’s no news, just thank yous.
It’s been a roller coaster of a year for everyone, and despite everything, you have tuned in. Walking your dog, on the way to work, even in the shower you were there. Listening, laughing, cringing, and hopefully, even learning.
I started this podcast back in 2021 and look forward to doing it for many more years. The fact that our content and presence continue to grow each year is a testament to you.
So, here it is. Thank you for listening. If you like what we’re doing, reach out. Tell us what you like about it, recommend it to a friend. And of course, have a Happy Holidays wherever the end of this year takes you.
This is Rick Watson, signing off for the year. I also wanted to say a huge thank you to my partners in crime Hendrik, Libby, Kaylea, Jacque, Vinny and Ron, without you this podcast would not be possible.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
-
Shopify Winter Editions 2025 Special Podcast
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Black Friday Cyber Monday - You Devil You!
- Sam Altman Calls a Code Red to Stop Google Threat
- Amazon and Visa Partner on Agentic Payments
-
Nike CEO Purges John Donahoe’s Lieutenants
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 3 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Walmart Plans a CEO Transition
- Commerce Operations Foundation Critical to Our Common Agentic Future
- Intuit's Announcement Makes it Clear: OpenAI Coming for Operating Systems
-
Walmart Earnings Call Important for Everyone to Understand
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Rithum.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Same-Day Facilities Key to Amazon's New Powerful Grocery Strategy
- Walmart CEO Doug McMillion Steps Down
- TheRealReal Records Record GMV During Earnings
-
Google Releases Some AI Shopping Updates
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Rithum.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Implications of Amazon Working with OpenAI and ChatGPT
- Shopify Reports Great Q3 Earnings
- Some of the Worst Mistakes I Made First Time as CEO
-
Klaviyo’s Earnings Answer Some Key Questions
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Rithum.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Walmart Holiday Plans Shows There Will Be Blood
- UPS Gains Margin, Plans Strong Peak, But Remains Mired in Uncertainty
- Amazon All In On Agentic - Reports Great Earnings
-
Shopify Merchants Go Live with ChatGPT Instant Checkout
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Rithum.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Commercetools CEO is out, so what’s next?
- Bigcommerce partners with Paypal to improve monetization
- Will the new Ulta Beauty marketplace cook?
-
Shopify and Lovable Integration Shows a Fire and Motion Strategy
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Walmart Partners With OpenAI, Cannot Hold Back the Tide
- S&P Global Puts Tariff Costs at $1.2T This Year
- Salesforce Partners With OpenAI
-
Saks Struggles to Deliver in Q2
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Process Re-Engineering Is a Key Skill in the Age of AI
- Stripe Link Moving More Consumer Facing
- Is OpenAI Building a Super App?
-
Shopify CRO Bobby Morrison Forced Out
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
In this second episode of The CEO Spot, Rick Watson sits down with Matt Harris, Founder of Harris Digital.
The interviews were conducted at Shoptoberfest 2025, discussing the state of B2B e-commerce and the challenges of 'hard commerce' faced by manufacturers and distributors.
Harris explains that many companies struggle with legacy ERP systems, analog data management, and complex pricing models involving tiered and customer-specific discounts. He emphasizes the importance of product information management (PIM) systems in cleaning and centralizing data before launching e-commerce platforms.
Harris shares his background, starting in the 1990s, with early e-commerce projects and how his agency helps mid-market manufacturers (with up to $1 billion in revenue) modernize sales by augmenting—not replacing—existing ERP systems.
He discusses the friction caused by generational mindset shifts and private equity consolidation in these industries. On AI, Harris notes that while small-scale AI and analytics are useful, most enterprise AI projects fail to deliver revenue due to siloed data and unrealistic expectations; he advocates for building unified data lakes and warehouses as a foundation for future AI-driven business improvements.
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- ChatGPT Is Actually The Ultimate In Influencer-Driven Commerce
-
OpenAI x Stripe Agentic Commerce Protocol Has Makings of Silicon Valley Catfight
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- What the Hell Will Happen At Tiktok?
- Ryder Releases New eCommerce Study
- Klaviyo Innovations Made Possible By Different Ecosystem Approach
-
OpenAI Announces They Are Pursuing Ads
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Rithum.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Google and Paypal Announce New Commerce Partnership
- Fireside Chat With Andy Jassy at Amazon Accelerate Conference
-
The First Q4 Holiday Predictions Appear
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Rithum.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
We have a special episode of the podcast this week. Today we preview a new podcast from RMW Commerce — actually a Youtube Exclusive, called “Oh Shift! Where SaaS Meets AI”.
In this week’s episode, I interview the Shailesh Kumar, the SVP Of Engineering at Salesforce Commrece Cloud to talk about the company’s approach and pilots in the world of AI and Model Context Protocol or MCP. To be clear, this is not any kind of sponsored interview. It’s just an exploration of how the platforms - and I have asked them all to come on the program - are approaching AI and MCP, and what implications it has for brand and merchants.
Today's episode is sponsored by Rithum.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Shopify Betting Big on Design
- Amazon Still Stuck Muddling Through Day 2
- Why Software Sales Is Still Hard in 2025
-
A New Podcast where SaaS Meets AI: Oh Shift
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Best Buy Relaunches Its Marketplace
- Target Earnings: Like a Slow-Moving Train Wreck
- Upcoming RMW Commerce Events in Second Half of the Year
-
Walmart Raises Revenue Guidance in Earnings Call
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Join Rick and special guest Nate Skiver, founder of LPF Spend Management, as they dive into a fiery discussion about the state of shipping in e-commerce. In this spicy wing-eating challenge, Nate debunks a major shipping myth and shares his expertise from over two decades in the retail and consulting world.
In this episode, we explore:
- The biggest myth in shipping and why it's finally dying a slow death.
- How the e-commerce market has changed, creating more options beyond the "big three" carriers.
- The role of regional carriers and why more retailers are turning to them.
- How shipping technology advancements are making multi-carrier shipping easier to manage.
Grab a glass of milk and get ready for a fast-paced, insightful conversation that will change the way you think about your shipping strategy!
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- We Once Made a Deal with Google. The Deal Has Changed
- The Unspoken AI Enthusiasm Gap At Large Companies
- The Road Ahead for Commerce.com
-
An Update On Gnawing Your Arm Off, or Replatforming
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Amazon Reports Earnings, Dogged by AI Questions
- Shopify Q2 Earnings Show Its Not Going Anywhere
- Klaviyo Delivers Growth, But Efficiency Still Lacking
-
Recap from Austin: Auctane’s Spicy Innovation Delivered Event
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 4 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Bigcommerce Rebrands as Just Commerce
- UPS Q2 Earnings Highlights Strange Economic Times
- Last Flight of the Aggregator: OpenStore Valuation Burns
-
Amazon Pulled out of Google Shopping for AI, not for Advertising
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
In this debut episode of The CEO Spot, Rick Watson sits down with Dipti Desai, Founder and CEO of crstl, for an unfiltered look into one of the most quietly powerful protocols in commerce—EDI.
From her early days as an electrical engineer in Silicon Valley to building mission-critical infrastructure for today’s omni-channel brands, Dipti shares the journey that led her to found crstl—a SaaS network designed to modernize the way suppliers and retailers communicate.
We explore:
- The surprising origin story of crstl during the PPE crisis
- Why EDI is more like the English language than a piece of legacy tech
- The difference between the application layer and the protocol layer—and why it matters
- How penalties, complexity, and digital transformation are reshaping supplier operations
- Why crstl doesn’t charge by seat and how it's enabling real collaboration at scale
- The future of B2B commerce in an age of AI, API, and protocol convergence
Whether you’re a founder, brand operator, or just EDI-curious, this episode unpacks how structured data exchange is fueling the future of retail—and why ignoring the "boring" infrastructure could be your biggest mistake.
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- NRF Files Suit Against NY State Law
- Why Is There No Best Practice for ECommerce Org Structure
- Amazon Quietly Cornering Market on Robot Patents
-
LuluLemon in Markdown Hell
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Klarna CEO Claims They Will Be a Super App
- Walmart Investor Event Sheds New Light
- Should You Put a Chatbot In Front Of Your Retail Store
-
Musings from CommerceNext and Mirakl’s Summit
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Saks Global Still Sounds in Trouble
- Facebook Says eCommerce is Great -- For Other People
- Jassy’s AI Memo Was a Snoozefest, In a Good Way
-
Amazon Extending Prime Day Doesn’t Give me Warm Fuzzies
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Palantir Partners with Bolt
- Amazon Releases AI Video Generation Tools
- Sezzle Sues Shopify For AntiCompetitive Practices
-
Walmart Releases New AI Tools
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Shopify MCP Server Raises More Questions Than Answers
- Could the AI Race Become a Hardware Race?
-
Temu Half Off - Just In Time For Summer
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Salesforce to acquire Informatica
- Social Commerce Panel Reveals Influencer Importance
- Lowes Launches Its Marketplace
-
Tariff Feud Event with Passport Recap
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
In this special CEO spotlight edition of the Watson Weekly, host Rick Watson welcomes Scott Eckert, newly appointed CEO of Mirakl, for an inside look at how his leadership is poised to accelerate Mirakl’s role at the heart of modern commerce.
With a distinguished career spanning innovation leadership roles at Dell, Rethink Robotics, and Walmart’s Store No. 8, Scott brings deep experience navigating the intersection of scale, agility, and emerging technology. Now at Mirakl, he’s guiding a platform that is redefining how retailers, brands, and third-party sellers thrive in an increasingly ecosystem-driven world.
💡 Key Themes Include:
- Scott’s journey from enterprise innovation to platform leadership
- Why now is a pivotal moment for marketplaces and retail media
- Mirakl’s vision: enabling, not owning, the commerce ecosystem
- How AI and first-party data are reshaping competitive advantage
- Building a flywheel for retailers, sellers, and consumers alike
💬 Scott also shares:
- What drew him to Mirakl at this stage of his career
- His priorities for Mirakl in the next 12 months
- What U.S. retailers must get right when launching a marketplace
- Why platform thinking beats platform ownership in today’s landscape
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Rapid Fire Headline Update
-
Shopify Releases Its Summer Editions
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today’s Watson Weekly is a special edition that is one of a series of three interviews recorded at Shopware’s Partner Day on April 24th, 2025. These were recorded in the basement of a German beer hall and restaurant, so I think those interested in the digital commerce complexity of serving manufacturers and distributors should find it a lot of fun.
In the final installment of our Shopware Partner Day series, Rick Watson chats with Ashley Laing of Pimcore to uncover how product information management is reshaping complex B2B ecosystems. From managing fitment data in industrial catalogs to orchestrating multi-channel content for sales, customer care, and ecommerce, Pimcore is tackling the data mess head-on. Ashley shares his global journey from consultant to VP, explains how AI is transforming catalog digitization, and offers strategic guidance for companies that are "too hard to do business with." Expect practical takeaways for building buyer-ready systems and future-proofing your product data stack.
📘 Curious how regulated complexity meets composable tech? Don’t miss Shopware’s whitepaper: Winning B2B in Regulated Industries
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Amazon Announces New AI Tool to Enhance Product Listings
- Venture Capital Dominated by AI Right Now
- FedEx and Amazon Strike Up a Partnership
-
Klaviyo Reports Q1 2025 Earnings
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today’s Watson Weekly is a special edition that is one of a series of three interviews recorded at Shopware’s Partner Day on April 24th, 2025. These were recorded in the basement of a German beer hall and restaurant, so I think those interested in the digital commerce complexity of serving manufacturers and distributors should find it a lot of fun.
Rick Watson sits down with Aysnd’s leadership duo, Carrie Weidenbach and Chris Harrison, for a conversation that dives into purpose-driven digital transformation. Broadcasting from the Shopware Partner Day beer hall, the trio discusses Aysnd’s mission to help brands with complex commerce needs—particularly in regulated industries. From global eCommerce replatforming at AB InBev to real-time prioritization frameworks and the value of first-party data, this episode is packed with insights on how to move fast, test smart, and build agile systems without sacrificing long-term goals. If you're navigating transformation in uncertain times, this one's for you.
📘 For more on how commerce is evolving in regulated sectors, check out Shopware’s whitepaper: Winning B2B in Regulated Industries
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
In this week’s Watson Weekly, we will discuss Fidji Simo is out at Instacart CEO to join OpenAI. This is a huge feather in Simo’s cap and leaves an opening at Instacart which I predict will be filled by their Chief Product Officer Daniel Danker. Not only did Danker and Simo overlap from their time at Facebook, but Danker was promoted by Simo into his current role as Chief Product Officer.
You’ll find this and other stories every Monday morning on the Watson Weekly, headed straight to your earhole wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
Today on our show:
- Shopify Needs Incentive Alignment to Win in Enterprise
- 3 Notables From BigCommerce earnings call
- Instacart CEO Departs for OpenAI
-
Shopify Reports Solid Earnings Amid Global Uncertainty
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today’s Watson Weekly is a special edition that is one of a series of three interviews recorded at Shopware’s Partner Day on April 24th, 2025. These were recorded in the basement of a German beer hall and restaurant, so I think those interested in the digital commerce complexity of serving manufacturers and distributors should find it a lot of fun.
In this special edition of the Watson Weekly, Rick Watson heads to the basement of a German beer hall at Shopware's Partner Day to sit down with Rob Miller of Smith Commerce. Together, they explore the intricacies of modern B2B digital commerce—from account hierarchy challenges and dynamic pricing rules to the evolving role of CRM. Rob shares real-world insights from years of working with wholesale distributors and manufacturers, including the critical role of AI in orchestrating complex systems. Tune in for a grounded, behind-the-scenes take on the future of enterprise commerce and why embracing change is easier than ever before.
📘 Learn more about the structural shifts in B2B and private equity’s role in transformation with Shopware’s whitepaper: Winning B2B in the Age of Private Equity
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Amazon Reports Q1 2025 Earnings
- Walmart Releases an Annual Shareholder Letter
- UPS Reports Q1 2025 Earnings
-
Kohl’s Fires Its CEO
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
In this insightful episode, The Watson Weekly welcomes Alex Yancher (Yon-cher), CEO of Passport, just hours after the U.S. government announced sweeping new global trade tariffs. With $3.3 trillion in cross-border e-commerce at stake, this conversation couldn’t be more timely.
Guided by a Thomas L. Friedman-inspired prologue, we dive deep into the new frontier of Cross-Border Trade (CBT) — where data, logistics, and geopolitical tension collide. Alex shares the origin story of Passport, and why global brands like Carpe, Ogee, and Tommy John trust them to turn complex international challenges into seamless consumer experiences.
From navigating 25% tariffs on EU steel to leveraging bonded warehouses and real-time FX for international growth, Alex outlines how Passport is helping brands not just survive—but thrive—in a volatile environment. We explore how Shopify and others are reshaping the landscape, and why transparency, logistics branding, and TikTok-era customer experience are no longer optional—they’re essential.
Key Topics:
The real impact of April 2025 tariffs on global ecommerce
Why “asset-light” CBT might outpace localized fulfillment
Lessons from Carpe and Ogee’s global expansion strategies
Logistics as CX: the new battlefield for consumer loyalty
How Passport is future-proofing brands against regulatory shocks
Don’t miss: Alex’s take on what archaic global trade structure he’d tear down if given the chance.
👉 Whether you're a founder, operator, or curious observer of global commerce, this episode will shift how you think about borders, branding, and the future of trade.
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Composable Conference in Chicago Shows MACH Progress
- ChatGPT and Shopify Partnership Teased
-
Shopify Promotes Internally for Chief Design Officer: What's Going On?
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Is Walmart More Exposed to Tariffs Than They Are Admitting?
In a recent investor day, Walmart indicated that only one-third of its products are not made in the USA. Are we sure about that number? Given the fact that there is no universal definition of made in the USA, I think that number could be a lot higher than the company is letting on.
Learn about this and more in this week’s Watson Weekly podcast, headed straight to your earhole every Monday morning, wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
Today on our show:
- Walmart Investor Day Shows Strong Tariff Headwinds
- Is 2025 The Year to Eat the Entire Enchilada
- Shop for Brands on Amazon Seen in the Wild
-
Amazon Surveys Its Sellers on Tariffs
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
The biggest debate in eCommerce.
The business case for replatforming
Replatforming can either be trying to use a band-aid on a large wound or it could be like squeezing juice. Vince Santo (The Maze Group) debating Chris Silver (Discoverist AI) on replatforming.
Architecture: The headless straw man debate.
Headless technology enables brands to move quickly without blockages. Should that cash investment be made in customer acquisition and retention? Nick Kaplan (RMW Commerce) debate Victor Castro (Commercial Leader) on the pros and cons of headless technology.
How can we make replatforming more enjoyable?
System integrators (SI) can either make a painful process painless or painful due to the SI overselling themselves to get the business. Mark Rubin (Kasama Digital) debating Tarek Muller (ABOUTYOU) on the pain and perils of system integrators.
Employees: Who is going to use the platform?
Do we really know the impact of AI on employees? On the one hand, it will lead to modifying what employees do, or will 60-70% of staff be impacted? Rob Garf (Cordial) debating Rama Aluri (GSPANN Technologies) on the future of AI and employees.
0:00 Introduction
11:39 The business case for replatforming
22:09 Architecture: The headless straw man debate.
35:35 How can we make replatforming more enjoyable?
49:24 Employees: Who is going to use the platform?
01:01:14 Closing remarks and more about SCAYLE
The debate was sponsored by SCAYLE in cooperation with RMW Commerce.
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
In this special episode of The Watson Weekly, we sit down with Dirk Hoerig, co-founder of Commercetools, to explore the company’s journey from Germany to global eCommerce leader. Dirk shares insights on their ideal customer, key pain points they solve, and why their North American market entry succeeded where others failed.
We also dive into the launch of commercetools InStore, a groundbreaking solution helping retailers unify online and in-store operations under one flexible backend. Dirk explains how InStore tackles legacy system challenges and enables seamless, personalized customer experiences.
Plus, we discuss Dirk’s recent transition from CEO and the top retail trends shaping 2025 and beyond. A must-listen for anyone focused on the future of unified commerce.
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Is There a Worse Owner For TikTok Than Amazon?
Look, I am going to bottom line it for you guys. I can’t think of a worse owner for Tiktok than logistics company Amazon. I know there are a lot of chocolate and peanut butter theories of how these two great companies could taste better together, but I think this would be the start of a slow boringification of Tiktok the likes of which.
In fact, I bet for this reason, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are cheering for Amazon’s bid to go through!
You’ll find this and other insights on the Watson Weekly podcast, headed straight to your earhole every Monday morning.
Today on our show:
- Key Takeaways on Public and Private Markets
- Shoptalk Did Not Answer My Key Industry Questions
- Consumers Getting Stressed Out
-
Amazon Makes Last Minute Bid to Buy TikTok
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Why is digital commerce still hitting roadblocks in 2025? In this special episode, Bryan House of Elastic Path joins us to unpack the paradox: companies claim to have a clear digital strategy, yet budgets for tech investment remain elusive. We tackle the real barriers—lack of knowledge, outdated mindsets, and the hidden opportunity cost of standing still.
From the evolving CFO-CMO dynamic to the role of AI, platform discovery challenges, and the tension between growth and efficiency, we’re breaking down the forces shaping modern commerce. Can we redefine success in digital strategy, or are we just running in circles? Tune in to find out.
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
-
Shoptalk Recap
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Is Adobe Hopeless or Will The New Product Teases Get Them Back in the Game?
This week on the Watson Weekly podcast, we unpack two new product announcements from Adobe that are expected to launch by June 2025. One is the Adobe Commerce Optimizer, an eCommerce front-end that can be used with any storefront platform. This is one that I’m excited to see, particularly for larger merchants.
Second is a new cloud version of the Adobe Commerce Suite. This is a managed cloud version of the current Adobe Commerce product, which seems like a nothing burger to me?
You’ll find this and other stories about BigCommerce and Klarna’s new IPO filing… on the Watson Weekly podcast, coming straight to your earhole wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
Today on our show:
- Adobe teases new commerce offerings
- BigCommerce launches new account functionality
- Klarna files IPO paperwork
-
Welcome to Shoptalk Week!
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Is Paypal Running an Affiliate Scam? That’s What Google’s New Chrome Rules Seem to Be Saying. Many users don’t realize that Paypal’s Honey Application, the plugin which is supposed to secure you discounts on items. Instead, it looks to be cutting certain publishers out of affiliate credits that they would otherwise be due.
You’ll find this and other stories about Shoptalk, AllBirds, and Walmart on this week’s Watson Weekly podcast, coming straight to your earhole wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
Today on our show:
- Paypal in hot water over its Honey application
- AllBirds sales plunge in 2024
- Why did Walmart buy a mall?
-
Upcoming eCommerce debate event at Shoptalk
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Target 2024 earnings shows company falling behind
- When will merchants stop treating data as a project?
- Commercetools layoffs throws into question IPO plans
-
Has Shopify Enterprise turned a corner?
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Is Beyond.com doomed?
- Klaviyo reports 2024 earnings
- Klaviyo coming for Salesforce Service Cloud
-
Paypal Investor Day offers problematic vision
-
and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Walmart reports fiscal year 2025 earnings
- Saks stopped paying vendors on time
- TikTok subscriptions could help creators
- BigCommerce reports 2024 earnings
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today’s episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Shopify Q4 2024 earnings: The age of efficiency comes to Shopify
- It’s not just you - age of efficiency accelerating
- Amazon Q4 earnings wins the Grammy for free cash flow
- Amazon ad engine getting hungry: look out Google Shopping
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today’s episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Trump eliminates the de minimis for China
- AI won't solve all the problems, but we don't realize it yet
- UPS Q4 2024 earnings: steering towards margin, away from Amazon
- AI is not the new SEO. Brands could be in a marketplace without realizing it
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today’s episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on a special edition of our show:
- Remembering Kent Allen
- Evolution of Global eCommerce
- Pioneers in Cross-Border Trade
- Current Trends and Players
Jim Okamura
Partner, McMillanDoolittle and co-founder, Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum
Jim has over 25 years of consulting experience focused on strategic planning in the retail industry. His work in retail innovation and digital transformation has resulted in industry-leading thinking on retailer best practices and strategy. Jim has published global and national retail studies and has been a featured speaker at the NRF, Shop.org, and many international conferences. In 2013 Jim co-founder the Global E-Commerce Leaders forum, a digital retail community and conference series focused on global growth strategies for consumer brands. Jim has developed growth strategies for clients such as Adidas, Bridgestone, Maurices, Dress Barn, Gap, DSW, LensCrafters, Nike, Neiman Marcus, Souris Mini, Timberland, Victoria’s Secret, Lowes, Crate and Barrel, MasterCard, Walgreens, Marriott and Emart.
Scott Silverman
Co-Founder CommerceNext; Co-Founder, Global Ecommerce Leaders Forum
Silverman has been active in the retail and ecommerce industries for more than 20 years and is passionate about digital commerce and the innovation driving the industry. In 2013, Silverman co-founded the Global Ecommerce Leaders Forum, a forum and series of conferences for international and cross-border ecommerce. In 2017, Silverman co-founded CommerceNext, a community, event series and conference for marketers at retail and direct-to-consumer brands.
Silverman began his career in ecommerce in 1999 where he led National Retail Federation’s digital division, Shop.org, until 2010. During his time at NRF he launched the Shop.org Annual Summit and a number of research studies. He co-invented “Cyber Monday” in 2005 and was the founder of Cybermonday.com in 2006, a shopping site that has generated more than $2.5 million for NRF’s Ray Greenly scholarship fund.
In honor of Kent Allen:
A digital commerce industry analyst for the last twenty plus years, Kent’s research and thought leadership has strongly influenced the development of the global/cross-border ecommerce sector. Since collaborating with Jim Okamura on the industry’s first international ecommerce benchmark study in 2008, Kent has published a wide collection of reports and articles chronicling the rise of global ecommerce ecosystems.
Kent also leads strategy, industry analysis, thought leadership and content marketing initiatives that focus on omnichannel commerce and digital marketing innovations. His work includes executive research, industry speaking engagements, white papers and case studies, social content, webinars, and retail tours for retail and consumer goods executives. His latest focus, The Global Customer Journey Project explores how the online shopping journey differs in markets around the world.
The Research Trust’s industry marketing programs help innovative digital companies tell their story and build ongoing relationships with prospects, established clients and partners. Kent’s practice provides a mix of strategic planning services, best practices research and market analysis for global brands and technology partners striving to better serve connected consumers around the world.
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Risks to Amazon in the AI Wars
- Private equity outlook in 2025
- Artificial Intelligence moving from creating to doing with OpenAI Operator
- How to grow faster is an elusive question
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today’s episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
In the final episode of this special 3-part Watson Weekly series, Rick Watson is joined by Kelly Goetsch, Advisor at Commerce Tools, to discuss what’s next for the world of commerce. Key topics include:
- The rise of social shopping and platforms like TikTok Shops
- How AI is redefining brand discovery and trust
- Predictions for retail growth and consumer behavior in 2025
- The enduring influence of earned media in building connections
This episode ties the series together with forward-looking insights and strategies to thrive in an ever-changing e-commerce landscape.
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Our 2025 NRF event analysis
- Recapping the first ever RMW Commerce Five Forces event in New York City
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today’s episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
In Part 2 of this special Watson Weekly series, Rick Watson and Kelly Goetsch dive deep into the complexities of B2B commerce. They discuss:
- The generational shift reshaping the industry
- Challenges like the "Bob Problem" and outdated practices
- The role of composable commerce in streamlining processes
- How solutions like Commerce Tools Foundry are enabling businesses to innovate
Explore how B2B is evolving to meet modern demands while navigating its unique challenges. Don’t miss this insightful conversation that bridges tradition and innovation.
Stay tuned for the final episode in this series, rolling out next week!
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Shopify 2025: The Entrepreneur, the Rulemaker and the Bridge-Builder
- Mastercard Holiday numbers show roses for eCommerce
- Is 2025 the year of the niche down?
- Amazon still the king of warehouse growth
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today’s episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
In this special episode of Watson Weekly, Rick Watson is joined by Kelly Goetsch, a Commercetools Advisor and industry thought leader. Kelly shares his unique insights into the evolving landscape of e-commerce, focusing on the intersection of technology and healthcare. Together, they explore key topics like consumer behavior trends, the growing role of composable commerce, and the untapped opportunities in health tech. From tackling HIPAA compliance to redefining retail experiences, this episode dives deep into the transformative potential of technology across industries. Don’t miss this engaging discussion packed with expertise and forward-thinking strategies.
About Kelly - Kelly Goetsch is a commercetools Advisor. Until January 2025, Kelly was the company’s Chief Strategy Officer, and prior to that, he served as the Chief Product Officer at commercetools for nearly six years. Goetsch is an industry thought-leader who champions the MACH (Microservices, API, Cloud-Native, and Headless) movement, and co-founded the MACH Alliance, a group of 100+ independent, future-thinking tech companies dedicated to advocating for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems. Prior to commercetools, Goetsch held senior-level product development and go-to-market responsibilities at Oracle and held the role of Senior Architect ATG (acquired by Oracle), where he was instrumental to 31 large-scale ATG implementationsHe is the author of four books - GraphQL for Modern Commerce (O'Reilly, 2020), APIs for Modern Commerce (O'Reilly, 2017), Microservices for Modern Commerce (O'Reilly, 2016) and E-Commerce in the Cloud (O'Reilly, 2014). He holds three patents, including one key to distributed computing.
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Amazon building 25% of all warehouses
- UPS hiking SurePost rates by 10%
- Lowes develops a new marketplace
- Quickbooks partners with Amazon Marketplace Seller Central
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today’s episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- Shopify releases a boring update
- Was Amazon haul launched sooner as political strategy?
- What is the potential impact of tariffs on eCommerce?
- Why use an outside consultant to help you solve a problem?
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today’s episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- 3 observations from Cyber Week
- The 3 coming wars in the next 5 years
- 5 reasons Klaviyo is growing faster than most anyone right now
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Today’s episode is sponsored by Mirakl.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Today on our show:
- John Donahoe steps down from Nike
- Amazon introduces new supply chain service
- What’s going on with the retail job market?
- The fight over de minimis and how this will end
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Shopify’s progress in the enterprise market
- Biden White House makes de minimis announcement
- Amazon’s return to office memo code for layoffs
- Salesforce makes several release announcements at Dreamforce - or does it?
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- What is going on with bolt?
- Walmart and StockX partner up
- Bankrate holiday consumer survey results
- Creating the perfect board presentation
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Walmart Marketplace expands services for sellers
- A few notes on planning
- Paul Graham’s “Founder Mode” essay
- Temu starting to recruit US brands
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- BigCommerce looks like it’s not selling
- Shopify hires a new Chief Technology Officer
- Why technology is not a business differentiator for brands
- Are layoffs the order of the day in eCommerce?
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Salesforce acquires POS platform PredictSpring
- Amazon announces new peak season fulfillment policies
- Ace Hardware plots a new stores strategy
- Temu founder shopping like a billionaire
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Amazon reports Q2 earnings
- Allbirds reports financial results
- Amazon signs deal with Pinterest and TikTok
- Shopify crushes its earnings
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Companies are trading down talent
- Top items from Paypal’s Q2 2024 earnings call
- Designer brand Prada posts revenue gains
- Temu announcements signal a company shift
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- UPS reports Q2 earnings
- Google not ending cookies after all
- Amazon Prime Day roundup
- New marketplace whitepaper released
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Amazon Prime Day expected to hit records in 2024
- Commercetools announces CEO transition
- The importance of reputation in eCommerce
- eCommerce sales will hit $1T this year
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Saks acquires Neiman Marcus Group
- Speaking about personalization at The Lead Event in NYC
- Nike is struggling trying to be a tech company
- Amazon previews direct from China program
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Attention, Watsonians! Pardon us as we were on a brief hiatus over the holiday week - we'll be back next week with a brand new episode!
Today on our show:
- Target reshuffles its leadership team
- Shopify releases summer editions
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- CMACH 3 event in New York City recap
- May retail sales data released
- Beyond loses a CEO
- Instacart expands retail media into Youtube
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Could Amazon deliver the mail?
- Costco expanding its ad network
- McKinsey state of the consumer 2024 report
- Loop and Happy Returns partner up
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Amazon Buy with Prime off to a slow start
- Shein launches Shein Exchange Resale Program in UK and Europe
- eBay expands its consignment service
- A call to action for brands
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Paypal is building an ads platform
- TJMaxx not afraid of Temu and Shein
- BigCommerce getting serious about its partner ecosystem
- Amazon growing its share of retail
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Target earnings indicate big trouble
- Macy’s provides preview into restructuring
- Salesforce unveils new Einstein features
- Walmart earnings stand out
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Amazon AWS CEO to step down
- Home Depot earnings disappoint
- Shein rejected from NRF membership
- Shopify acquires Peel Analytics founders
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- The Fall and Fall of Peloton
- Forrester’s New Wave Report
- What’s On My Mind About Digital Evolution
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Amazon reports terrific Q1 2024 earnings
- Nordstrom launches its marketplace
- Paypal earnings reflects life in the slow lane
- UPS to power Shein returns in Forever 21 stores
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Paypal’s coming battle with Shopify
- Nike’s failures highlight leadership issues
- UPS Q1 2024 earnings shows continued decline
- SaaS growth down from 2022 highs
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Confusing economic signals in 2024
- Shein faces new class action lawsuit
- GoPuff partners with Shopify to help CPG brands
- Macy’s kicks off its store closings
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- AllBirds gets Nasdaq delisting warning
- Revenue and profit at TikTok’s ownership growing
- Andy Jassy releases annual shareholder letter
- Inventory and cashflow key to the future of retail
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- UPS wins US Postal contract from FedEx
- Beyond.com has a new vision
- Home Depot acquires SRS distribution
- Amazon removes Just Walk Out From its Amazon Fresh stores
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- UPS announces new initiatives in Analyst Day
- Canada Goose announces shakeup
- Shein's supply chain as a service initiative a "Pearl Harbor" moment for retailers
- Commercetools releases a company update
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Shoptalk 2024 recap
- Nordstrom could be taken private
- Temu’s owner PDD doubles annual profit
- Google launches retail media beta
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- The end of the free shipping era is greatly exaggerated
- Software as a service keeps getting harder
- American Eagle’s logistics capitulation ends the pandemic logistics fever dream
- Shopify at Morgan Stanley tech conference 2024 takeaways
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Key learnings on Temu from recent report
- Klaviyo launches a professional services offering
- Amazon launching mini Whole Foods in New York City
- Target reports Q4 earnings
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Shopify GMV closing in on Amazon
- Macy’s announces a new vision
- Amazon aggregator Thrasio declares bankruptcy
- Klaviyo reports 2023 Q4 earnings
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Walmart’s Q4 earnings release
- Bed Bath and Beyond and Overstock name new CEOs
- Macy’s in a battle with investors
- What are UPS and FedEx telling us about the economy?
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Shopify reports Q4 2023 earnings
- Target has a new strategy: Become Tar-Mu
- Walmart may be Looking to buy TV maker Vizio
- Celebrating the 5th Anniversary of RMW Commerce
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Our recap of January 2024 eCommerce news
- Amazon releases their Q4 2023 earnings report
- Footwear brand New Balance adds a resale marketplace
- RMW Commerce’s 2024 Outlook
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Attention, Watsonians! The Watson Weekly will be on a brief hiatus as Rick and his family celebrate the arrival of their new baby. We'll be back with new episodes in February.
Until then, keep prosperous and we'll see you soon!
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Macy’s gets a buyout offer
- Recap from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on CNBC
- CommerceHub makes an acquisition and rebrands as Rithum
- Zulily files lawsuit against Amazon
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Shopify Investor Day recap
- Replatforming has slowed down significantly
- Amazon restructures its seller fees
- Neiman Marcus rejects Saks takeover bid
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Our Black Friday Cyber Monday wrap up
- Shein files for IPO
- Amazon becomes the biggest delivery business in the US
- Kohl’s decides eCommerce is not for them
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Walmart earnings update
- OpenAI explodes on itself
- Thrasio prepares for bankruptcy
- What I’m thankful for
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Target Q3 2023 earnings surprise
- Shopify’s recent outage
- Update on Amazon Fresh
- My 2024 outlook
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Join Rick Watson as he speaks about the supply chain needs of growing mid-market brands in a wide-ranging interview with the Dhruv Saxena, former brand owner and current CEO of ShipBob. The topics from the interview cover the origins of Shipbob, challenges facing brands, choosing the right solution partners, and more! RMW Commerce has proposed a new category of service provider to fit the needs of these growing brands called the Fulfillment Accelerator. The background of the interview comes from an extensive report written by RMW Commerce which you can find and download here: https://www.rmwcommerce.com/fulfillment-accelerator-whitepaper
Today on our show:
- UPS reports bad Q3 2023 earnings
- Amazon smashes their Q3 2023 earnings
- What everyone gets wrong about platform decisions
- Omnicom Group acquires Flywheel Digital
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- HomeGoods shuts down their eCommerce platform
- Overstock changes its name to Beyond
- Can we tap the brakes on the TikTok and Amazon comparisons?
- Update on retail inventory heading into the holidays
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- The growing battle between TikTok, Shopify, and Amazon
- VF Corp gets a new activist investor
- Flexport CEO says it’s not going public
- What should brands do about TikTok shop?
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Holiday deals kick off with Amazon, Walmart and Target
- Are people and processes keeping up with eCommerce technology?
- eBay sued in a DOJ environmental lawsuit
- Private equity exits declining
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- The Great Profitability Correction seems to be affecting everyone
- TikTok Shop feeds dominated by Schlock
- Toys “R” Us To open 24 new stores
- Holiday season retail predictions
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- FTC files suit against Amazon
- Amazon to rollout Prime Video ads
- Is the IPO market healthy?
- Shopify takes a stake in B2B marketplace Faire
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- TikTok Shop Launches in the US
- Shopify CEO Outlines Company Operating Principles
- Klaviyo and Instacart IPOs Mark Their Debut
- Holiday Season Kicks Off In October With Big Retailers
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Flexport CEO Dave Clark forced out as company releases an update
- Shopify CFO chat at Goldman Sachs event
- The Klaviyo and Instacart IPO valuation
- Amazon releases Supply Chain by Amazon
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 6 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Our discussion about Holiday season preparation
- Gap develops exclusive sleepwear line with Macy’s
- Google’s CEO releases 25-year update
- Amazon’s Buy with Prime partners with Shopify
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 6 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Gartner releases its digital commerce Magic Quadrant
- Shein and Forever21 build a partnership
- Learning from Instacart’s IPO filing
- Klaviyo IPO sets the bar for profitable software companies
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 6 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- How can Artificial Intelligence help eCommerce?
- Walmart reports Q2 2024 earnings
- Amazon launches a new US shipping program
- TikTok takes another firm step towards a marketplace
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 6 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Amazon crushes its Q2 2023 earnings
- Target Q2 earnings disappoint
- Amazon announces the return of Seller-Fulfilled Prime
- How I reached 50,000 LinkedIn followers
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 6 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- TikTok launches Fulfillment by TikTok in the United Kingdom
- WalMart expands its in-store advertising network
- UPS Q2 2023 earnings disappoint
- BigCommerce reports Q2 2023 earnings
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- TikTok Shop aspires to become fourth most important channel
- Etsy marketplace boycott
- Amazon resets its grocery strategy
- Shopify reports Q2 2023 earnings
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 7 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Shopify releases its Summer editions
- UPS agrees to terms with Teamsters
- Boston Consulting Group’s latest supply chain benchmarking report
- What’s with all the rebranding lately?
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 6 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Google kills Buy on Google
- 2023 halfway update on venture capital and markets
- Rumors of Shopify investing in Faire
- Amazon Prime Day recap
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 6 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Federal Trade Commission sues Amazon
- TikTok plans new US eCommerce venture
- My digital transformation talk at The Lead event in New York City
- Amazon Prime Day roundup
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 7 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show, we mark a momentous occasion - our 100th episode! To celebrate, Rick sits down with Victor Castro and Hendrik Laubscher to discuss all things eCommerce. Join the trio as they explore fundraising, venture capital, Amazon under Andy Jassy, Shopify, and much more.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Amazon gets open letter from activist investor
- Amazon announces Prime Day
- Google Domains sells to Squarespace
- Google launches virtual AI try-on feature
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 7 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Shop Pay launches for enterprise retailers
- FedEx reports its quarterly earnings
- New retail sales data from the Commerce Department
- Amazon seller-fulfilled Prime coming back
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 7 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Update from Retail Innovation Conference 2023
- Update on grocery eCommerce
- Walmart launches startup accelerator
- Payment provider Stripe joins MACH Alliance
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 6 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Stripe’s new charge card program can help Shopify
- Amazon may be considering mobile phone service
- Apple Vision Pro thoughts
- Buy Buy Baby could get bought
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Amazon’s Small Business Empowerment Report
- Shopify’s upcoming shareholder meeting
- McKinsey report on the beauty market
- Economists wondering where’s the recession?
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 7 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Walmart releases its Q1 2023 earnings
- TJ Maxx earnings indicate acceleration
- Takeaways from Paypal’s recent investor event
- Shopify’s road ahead
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Google’s AI and retail announcements
- Klaviyo’s IPO filing
- Target Q1 2023 earnings
- Shein’s marketplace expansion
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 7 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- BigCommerce reports earnings
- eBay prepares launch of international shipping program
- Flexport is missing the infrastructure to compete with large players
- Amazon gives shoppers incentives to pick up their orders
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 7 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Big commerce doubles down on B2B
- Pinterest ties up with Amazon advertising
- PitchBook report whines about the demise of unicorns
- Shopify reports earnings, chucks logistics business
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 7 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Bed Bath & Beyond bankruptcy
- UPS Q1 earnings call results
- Amazon’s new anti-counterfeit exchange
- Shopify announces a bill-pay service
And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 7 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Amazon’s 2022 shareholder letter
- Understanding the recent retail sales report
- Could Amazon seller’s expansion give reason for Shopify collaboration?
- Retailer David’s Bridal entering bankruptcy
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Amazon adds fees to reduce return costs
- Dollar General partners with a beauty incubator
- Inventory glut increasing supply chain costs
- Consumer shipping preferences changing
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette Steps Aside
- FedEx Announces Integration of Express and Ground
- American Eagle Outfitters Removes its Logistics Leader
- Walmart’s 2023 Investor Community Meeting
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today on our show:
- Recap of Shoptalk 2023
- New Data About Venture Startup Outcomes
- Fanatics Becomes Uniform Supplier for NHL
- Recapping My Headless eCommerce Presentation
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today's episode is brought to you by Olive, a next generation logistics company serving premium fashion brands. Are your e-commerce logistics costs going through the roof? Olive is here to help. Olive offers brands and retailers over 50% off on return shipping expenses instantly while offering customers a sustainable, waste-free packaging and delivery experience. The solution is turnkey and no development work required. You simply download their Shopify app to get started. To learn more visit shopolive.com/watsonweekly. Save Money, save the planet.
Today on our show:
- Clean Beauty at Walmart Launches
- FedEx Earnings Reveal Cost-Cutting
- Foot Locker Retrenching Brand and Stores
- Amazon Layoffs Signal Further Challenges
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today's episode is brought to you by Olive, a next generation logistics company serving premium fashion brands. Are your e-commerce logistics costs going through the roof? Olive is here to help. Olive offers brands and retailers over 50% off on return shipping expenses instantly while offering customers a sustainable, waste-free packaging and delivery experience. The solution is turnkey and no development work required. You simply download their Shopify app to get started. To learn more visit shopolive.com/watsonweekly. Save Money, save the planet.
Today on our show:
- Thoughts on the fallout of Silicon Valley Bank
- AllBirds stock crashes
- Shopify’s latest investor meeting
- Secret shopping Amazon Buy With Prime
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today's episode is brought to you by Olive, a next generation logistics company serving premium fashion brands. Are your e-commerce logistics costs going through the roof? Olive is here to help. Olive offers brands and retailers over 50% off on return shipping expenses instantly while offering customers a sustainable, waste-free packaging and delivery experience. The solution is turnkey and no development work required. You simply download their Shopify app to get started. To learn more visit shopolive.com/watsonweekly. Save Money, save the planet.
Today on our show:
- Amazon closing more retail
- Dick’s Sporting Goods offers a retail success story
- Is Target building the next-generation mall?
- Cloud software spend holding up surprisingly well
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today's episode is brought to you by Olive, a next generation logistics company serving premium fashion brands. Are your e-commerce logistics costs going through the roof? Olive is here to help. Olive offers brands and retailers over 50% off on return shipping expenses instantly while offering customers a sustainable, waste-free packaging and delivery experience. The solution is turnkey and no development work required. You simply download their Shopify app to get started. To learn more visit shopolive.com/watsonweekly. Save Money, save the planet.
Today on our show:
- Target releases cautious earnings and outlook
- ThredUp launches apparel resale store
- BigCommerce releases earnings and trims costs
- Amazon closes more warehouses
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today's episode is brought to you by Olive, a next generation logistics company serving premium fashion brands. Are your e-commerce logistics costs going through the roof? Olive is here to help. Olive offers brands and retailers over 50% off on return shipping expenses instantly while offering customers a sustainable, waste-free packaging and delivery experience. The solution is turnkey and no development work required. You simply download their Shopify app to get started. To learn more visit shopolive.com/watsonweekly. Save Money, save the planet.
Today on our show:
- Walmart reports Q4 and full year earnings
- Corporate deal activity fell in 2022
- Instagram killing live shopping
- Amazon cuts ties with European distributors
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today's episode is brought to you by Olive, a next generation logistics company serving premium fashion brands. Are your e-commerce logistics costs going through the roof? Olive is here to help. Olive offers brands and retailers over 50% off on return shipping expenses instantly while offering customers a sustainable, waste-free packaging and delivery experience. The solution is turnkey and no development work required. You simply download their Shopify app to get started. To learn more visit shopolive.com/watsonweekly. Save Money, save the planet.
Today on our show:
- Shopify announces over 100 new features
- Payments provider, Stripe, plans to go public next year
- David’s Bridal launches wedding vendor marketplace
- Shopify reports Q4 2022 earnings
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today's episode is brought to you by Olive, a next generation logistics company serving premium fashion brands. Are your e-commerce logistics costs going through the roof? Olive is here to help. Olive offers brands and retailers over 50% off on return shipping expenses instantly while offering customers a sustainable, waste-free packaging and delivery experience. The solution is turnkey and no development work required. You simply download their Shopify app to get started. To learn more visit shopolive.com/watsonweekly. Save Money, save the planet.
Today on our show:
- Amazon Reports Q4 2022 Earnings
- Maersk Sees Global Trade Contracting in 2023
- Fanatics Makes Push into Livestream Shopping
- Warehouse Construction in North America Slowing
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly
Today's episode is brought to you by Olive, a next generation logistics company serving premium fashion brands. Are your e-commerce logistics costs going through the roof? Olive is here to help. Olive offers brands and retailers over 50% off on return shipping expenses instantly while offering customers a sustainable, waste-free packaging and delivery experience. The solution is turnkey and no development work required. You simply download their Shopify app to get started. To learn more visit shopolive.com/watsonweekly. Save Money, save the planet.
Today on our show:
- Shopify’s major engineering shakeup
- Foot Locker sued for its customer chat feature
- The Department of Justice lawsuit against Google
- What UPS’s latest earnings report can teach business owners
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
Today's episode is brought to you by Olive, a next generation logistics company serving premium fashion brands. Are your e-commerce logistics costs going through the roof? Olive is here to help. Olive offers brands and retailers over 50% off on return shipping expenses instantly while offering customers a sustainable, waste-free packaging and delivery experience. The solution is turnkey and no development work required. You simply download their Shopify app to get started. To learn more visit shopolive.com/watsonweekly. Save Money, save the planet.
Today on our show:
- U.S. retail sales fell in December
- Shopify raises its prices
- Walmart launches its small business program
- Amazon cancels its AmazonSmile charity program
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
Today's episode is brought to you by Olive, a next generation logistics company serving premium fashion brands. Are your e-commerce logistics costs going through the roof? Olive is here to help. Olive offers brands and retailers over 50% off on return shipping expenses instantly while offering customers a sustainable, waste-free packaging and delivery experience. The solution is turnkey and no development work required. You simply download their Shopify app to get started. To learn more visit shopolive.com/watsonweekly. Save Money, save the planet.
Today on our show:
- NRF 2023 was the biggest big show ever
- Walmart to offer fulfillment tech and delivery services through salesforce
- Learning from Lacoste’s brand turnaround
- Amazon updates new fulfillment by Amazon capacity system
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
Today's episode is brought to you by Olive, a next generation logistics company serving premium fashion brands. Are your e-commerce logistics costs going through the roof? Olive is here to help. Olive offers brands and retailers over 50% off on return shipping expenses instantly while offering customers a sustainable, waste-free packaging and delivery experience. The solution is turnkey and no development work required. You simply download their Shopify app to get started. To learn more visit shopolive.com/watsonweekly. Save Money, save the planet.
Today on our show:
- Target stock downgraded by Wells Fargo
- Bed Bath and Beyond could go out of business soon
- Fanatics divesting its 60% stake in NFT firm Candy Digital
- Amazon launches Buy with Prime this month
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
Today's episode is brought to you by Olive, a next generation logistics company serving premium fashion brands. Are your e-commerce logistics costs going through the roof? Olive is here to help. Olive offers brands and retailers over 50% off on return shipping expenses instantly while offering customers a sustainable, waste-free packaging and delivery experience. The solution is turnkey and no development work required. You simply download their Shopify app to get started. To learn more visit shopolive.com/watsonweekly. Save Money, save the planet.
Today on our show:
- Shopify releases commerce components to create a path to its composable future
- Nike earnings top estimates but inventory and costs rise
- Meta acquires a smart lensmaker to bring augmented reality to market
- Chewy plans expansion of automated fulfillment
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
Today's episode is brought to you by Olive, a next generation logistics company serving premium fashion brands. Are your e-commerce logistics costs going through the roof? Olive is here to help. Olive offers brands and retailers over 50% off on return shipping expenses instantly while offering customers a sustainable, waste-free packaging and delivery experience. The solution is turnkey and no development work required. You simply download their Shopify app to get started. To learn more visit shopolive.com/watsonweekly. Save Money, save the planet.
On today’s show, Rick switches things up with a bit of a different format. He’ll be sharing his top three stories from 2022.
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
Today's episode is brought to you by Olive, a next generation logistics company serving premium fashion brands. Are your e-commerce logistics costs going through the roof? Olive is here to help. Olive offers brands and retailers over 50% off on return shipping expenses instantly while offering customers a sustainable, waste-free packaging and delivery experience. The solution is turnkey and no development work required. You simply download their Shopify app to get started. To learn more visit shopolive.com/watsonweekly. Save Money, save the planet.
It’s December 26th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on our show:
- VF Corp CEO Departs Unexpectedly
- Procurement SaaS Leader Coupa To Be Taken Private by Thoma Bravo
- Fast-Fashion Giant Shein Exploring Online Marketplace
- Amazon Settles Lawsuit with European Union
And the Investor Minute which contains 8 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
Today's episode is brought to you by Olive, a next generation logistics company serving premium fashion brands. Are your e-commerce logistics costs going through the roof? Olive is here to help. Olive offers brands and retailers over 50% off on return shipping expenses instantly while offering customers a sustainable, waste-free packaging and delivery experience. The solution is turnkey and no development work required. You simply download their Shopify app to get started. To learn more visit shopolive.com/watsonweekly. Save Money, save the planet.
It’s December 12th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on our show:
- Dollar General Adds Over 1,000 Stores and Fresh Items
- Walgreens Launches Same Day Delivery
- Etsy Sellers Report Inflation and Higher Fees are Hurting Their Holiday Sales
- Shopify Refreshes the Design of Its App Store
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
Today's episode is brought to you by Olive, a next generation logistics company serving premium fashion brands. Are your e-commerce logistics costs going through the roof? Olive is here to help. Olive offers brands and retailers over 50% off on return shipping expenses instantly while offering customers a sustainable, waste-free packaging and delivery experience. The solution is turnkey and no development work required. You simply download their Shopify app to get started. To learn more visit shopolive.com/watsonweekly. Save Money, save the planet.
It’s December 5th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- eBay Opens Store in NYC That Accepts Pre-Owned Luxury as Currency
- Live Shopping Comes to Holiday Windows
- Microsoft and AWS Both Release Supply Chain Platforms
- Our Black Friday Cyber Monday Roundup
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
Today's episode is brought to you by Olive, a next generation logistics company serving premium fashion brands. Are your e-commerce logistics costs going through the roof? Olive is here to help. Olive offers brands and retailers over 50% off on return shipping expenses instantly while offering customers a sustainable, waste-free packaging and delivery experience. The solution is turnkey and no development work required. You simply download their Shopify app to get started. To learn more visit shopolive.com/watsonweekly. Save Money, save the planet.
It’s November 28th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Macy’s and Kohl’s Earnings Show the Pressures on Department Stores
- Gap Looks to Amazon To Expand Its Sales
- Amazon Releases New FBA Pricing and Account Health Assurance
- Salesforce Data Shows Consumers Holding Out for Cyber Week Deals
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
Today's episode is brought to you by Olive, a next generation logistics company serving premium fashion brands. Are your e-commerce logistics costs going through the roof? Olive is here to help. Olive offers brands and retailers over 50% off on return shipping expenses instantly while offering customers a sustainable, waste-free packaging and delivery experience. The solution is turnkey and no development work required. You simply download their Shopify app to get started. To learn more visit shopolive.com/watsonweekly. Save Money, save the planet.
It’s November 21st, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Target releases Q3 earnings and it’s bad Yyall
- Walmart responds with Q3 earnings that show the industry how its done
- Tiktok launches an in-app eCommerce features in the US
- Announcing the launch of the RMW Commerce Community
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
Today's episode is brought to you by Olive, a next generation logistics company serving premium fashion brands. Are your e-commerce logistics costs going through the roof? Olive is here to help. Olive offers brands and retailers over 50% off on return shipping expenses instantly while offering customers a sustainable, waste-free packaging and delivery experience. The solution is turnkey and no development work required. You simply download their Shopify app to get started. To learn more visit shopolive.com/watsonweekly. Save Money, save the planet.
It’s November 14th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Stripe Laying Off 14% of Workers
- BigCommerce Q3 2022 Results Show Profitability and Sustainability Concerns
- UPS and Overstock Launch Returns Pilot Program
- Google Launches New Deals-Focused Shopping Updates
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ andhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s November 7th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Shopify earnings show strength of plus offering
- Disney + expands into eCommerce
- CB Insights valuations report reveals troubling late-stage trends for startups
- Amazon Q3 earnings reveal growth but also profit concerns
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ andhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s October 31st, and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Amazon announces new ads capabilities at Unboxed
- Google launches new shopping experience for search
- Instacart pushing off IPO as valuation continues to drop
- UPS Q2 earnings show continued great execution
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ andhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s October 24th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly: your essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on our show:
● Kroger and Albertsons merge to create grocery challenger to Walmart
● Ultra-fast fashion site Shein launches resale
● Toys “R” Us launches in 451 Macy’s stores ahead of holiday season
● Advertising and eCommerce analysts predict a mixed holiday quarter
and The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture
capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s October 17th, and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Upcoming Shopify API enhancements bring both potential and pain
- Walmart goes all-in one micro fulfillment with new acquisition
- Tiktok hiring to build global fulfillment network for its creators
- Amazon cost-cutting could give us preview of 2023
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ andhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s October 10th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Google can become essential search with its new shopping tools
- Walmart GoLocal continues its nationwide rollout
- Resale shopping site, Poshmark, acquired by Korean search giant, Naver
- Macy’s winning the inventory race so far
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ andhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s October 3rd, and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Prime Early Access event helps Amazon kick off the holiday season
- Gucci and Burberry join second hand luxury trend
- Amazon Air continues to grow according to new study
- Macy’s new marketplace aims at selection and profitability
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ andhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s September 26th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy, at Recode reveals core innovation questions
- How are apparel retailers trying to navigate shifts in consumer demand?
- Sustainability and diversity a major theme at association for supply chain management event
- Brands and retailers ignoring back-to-school results: Are we in for a tough holiday?
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ andhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s September 19, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential
eCommerce Digest!
Today on our show:
● Shopify changes its COO and CFO and the stock price is an important
reason
● Instagram scaling back its eCommerce ambitions
● Shopify introduces new cross-border features to accelerate its move
into Europe and Asia
● Amazon’s Accelerate conference takes Amazon in new directions
-And finally, The Investor Minute, which contains 5 items this week from the
world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
It’s September 12th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- CommerceHub acquires ChannelAdvisor in combination of two rivals
- Instacart running away from its former mission by acquiring software company Rosie
- Church & Dwight to acquire Amazon native brand Hero Cosmetics
- Target updates supply chain leadership and plans CEO succession
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s September 5th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s August 29th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Major Google SEO content update could test your relevancy
- Amazon testing a TikTok-like feed in its app
- Walmart eyes new payments opportunities to continue its business model shift
- Shopify launches Collabs to become its own affiliate network for creators
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s August 22nd, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Amazon reorganizes its grocery business
- ThredUp working with Tommy Hilfiger to introduce new brand customers
- DoorDash will start delivering your Facebook Marketplace purchases too
- Walmart and Target earnings shed light on economic worries
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s August 15th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Instacart is planning an IPO for the end of 2022
- Amazon makes another billion dollar acquisition with robotic vacuum maker, Roomba.
- American Eagle Outfitters’ Quiet Platform launches a nationwide "Asset-Light" logistics network
- Tax software provider, Avalara, is going private in $8.4 billion Vista Equity acquisition
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s August 8th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Amazon Q2 earnings beat revenue and reaffirms full-year guidance
- Paypal being targeted by activist investor, Elliott Management
- Shopify invests $100 Million in email marketing provider, Klaviyo
- Amazon Today offers same-day shipping from retailers, boosting Prime
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s August 1st, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Early reviews of Amazon’s Style Store in Los Angeles underwhelming
- Can we talk about what happened to Bed Bath and Beyond?
- UPS innovating through downturn, maintaining margin and revenue targets
- Shopify Q2 earnings call shows warnings signs for the company in 2022
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s July 25th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show we celebrate the one year anniversary of The Watson Weekly. Executive Producer, David Hoffman, of series production partner, CitizenRacecar, sits down with Rick to discuss the show’s amazing first year.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s July 18th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Coatue’s view of the market is cautious but still optimistic about GoodFirms long-term
- Glut of goods at Target and Walmart is good for liquidators
- Victoria’s Secret restructures its management team and executes layoffs
- Amazon Prime Day recap: always crazy but still great for Amazon
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s July 11th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- FedEx announces new strategy based on revenue quality, mirroring UPS’s approach.
- Instacart and Walmart Canada launch a virtual convenience store.
- TikTok cancels eCommerce plans in the US after terrible results in a UK test.
- Shopify launches editions and invests in content management system sanity.
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
Happy Independence Day!
It’s July 4th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Nike reports strong growth in its direct-to-consumer business in recent earnings
- Bed Bath and Beyond looks for a new CEO as the company resets again
- Pinterest CEO steps aside as Bill Ready joins as CEO
- Is Amazon planning a second prime day in October, and what does it mean?
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s June 27th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Global-e Acquires Borderfree In Further Consolidation of Cross-Border Market
- eBay Acquires NFT Marketplace KnownOrigin As Part of Its Metaverse Investments
- Walmart and Roku Team Up on Bringing Commerce to the TV
- Amazon Shuffles Its Consumer Team Leadership And Appoints Doug Herrington Leader of Stores Worldwide
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s June 20th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- The Great Resignation moves to Amazon as Amazon Consumer CEO, Dave Clark, departs
- Instant delivery firm, Jokr, announces it’s leaving the US market
- TheRealRealFounder out as we hold our breath for the second hand shoe to drop
- Amazon announces Prime Day on July 12th and 13th to help America get rid of excess inventory
And the Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s June 13th, 2022, and this is the Watson Weekly - Your essential eCommerce Digest.
Rick is out of town this week, but today on our show we have a new special edition interview with Hamaad Akmal, the Head of Operations and Global Logistics for trusted sneaker marketplace GOAT. Hamaad spends his days chasing fraudsters across the planet and creating a seamless supply chain experience for buyers and sellers. Today’s episode covers a few interesting topics in the world of cross-border eCommerce.
- How to stop fraud on marketplaces
- Trends in global eCommerce
- Tips to improve your cross-border eCommerce business as a brand owner
- The importance of diversifying your shipping carriers.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
Rick is out of town this week but today on our show, we have a new special edition interview with a dear friend, John Lawson.
John ColderICE Lawson is one of the OGs of eCommerce, and a small business coach for growing eCommerce sellers.
Today’s episode is a wide-ranging interview on a number of interesting topics such as:
-
How do you compete against Amazon as a retailer or brand?
-
The early days of eBay and what they got wrong
-
The history of eCommerce
-
Social selling
-
The importance of understanding your audience in eCommerce
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s May 30th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Stripe launches new app marketplace
- What do recent earnings calls say about the state of the consumer?
- Ulta announces its own retail media network in beauty
- Secondhand US market to reach $82 Billion by 2026
And the Investor Minute which contains 3 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s May 23rd, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Walmart’s quarterly profitability miss confirms economic slowdown
- REI’s circular commerce efforts show great progress
- Klarna’s new virtual shopping feature makes me worry for Buy-Now-Pay-Later
- Target Q1 2022 earnings highlights short-term profit challenges, but long-term outlook is still strong
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s May 16th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Instacart files for a confidential IPO after reducing its valuation
- Amazon shuts down its Selz acquisition with recent launch of Buy with Prime
- Shopify moves into the advertising space with launch of Shopify Audiences
- Amazon launches last mile rural delivery with independent convenience stores
And the Investor Minute which contains two items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s May 9th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Shopify finalizes its $2.1 billion Deliverr acquisition
- Warehouse market influx could mean opportunities for Amazon
- Walmart invests in apparel with launch of new private label activewear line
- Amazon aggregator Thrasio starts layoffs and and names new CEO
- What the heck is the economy doing right now?
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
Good Morning Watsonians! The production team is sad to report that Rick is a bit under the weather this week, so we're taking a quick break. We'll be back with the latest eCommerce news next Monday!
It’s April 25th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- The United States Postal Service released its mail plan for America
- Is the Buy Now, Pay Later industry fundamentally flawed?
- Walmart’s digital services growth gets another boost by adding PayPal’s CFO
- Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy, released his first shareholder letter
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s April 18th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Etsy Strike Fizzles Out Before It Begins
- Kroger and Bed Bath & Beyond launch eCommerce site
- Target Tiptoes Back Into Resale with New ThredUp Partnership
- Shopify Makes a Succession Plan for CEO Tobi Lutke, Among Other Human
And the Investor Minute which contains six items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s April 11th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Cross-border Marketplace Farfetch Invests in Neiman Marcus Group
- Raj Subramaniam is Promoted to President and CEO of FedEx
- Macy’s, Inc. Expands Supply Chain Operations with New Fulfillment Center In North Carolina
- Amazon Workers in Staten Island Voted to Unionize
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s April 4th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Red warning lights flashing on economy from recent retail earnings call
- EU passes sweeping privacy legislation called Digital Markets Act
- eCommerce brand SHEIN solidifying fast-fashion lead over its apparel rivals
- Target’s transformation has been powered by data science
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s March 28th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Guggenheim Partners research highlights recent eCommerce trends to notice
- Is this the beginning of the end for a lot of Amazon roll up companies?
- FedEx strategy and execution issues on full display at recent earnings call
- Google enters last mile supply chain space with its last mile fleet solution
And the Investor Minute which contains seven items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s March 21st, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Retail Stores Will Completely Die, Says Tech Investor Marc Andreessen
- Walmart Sees Stores as Linchpin of Last-Mile Strategy
- Macy’s Trying Very Hard to Stay Ahead of the Reaper
- New Data Suggests Amazon is Gaining Share in eCommerce
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s March 14th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Kohl’s looks to stave off activist investors by transforming itself
- Nordstrom plots ad expansion as its new retail media network generates $40 million
- Shopify launches a shipping platform in Europe with Shippo as its partner
- Amazon continues to invest in the eCommerce software market. Is a New Platform Coming Soon?
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
Welcome to a Special Edition non-weekly episode of the Watson Weekly! This is the start of a new series where every few months, we will be doing interviews with a series of interesting people.
I get asked from time to time about having guests on the show, as it would allow me to do a deeper dive on topics that perhaps I only have a few minutes to cover in a typical show.
This week’s guest is none other than Bill Williams. Bill is the founder and CEO of BWG Strategy, a firm which connects industry professionals in eCommerce, technology, and other areas and investment analysts who would like to learn more about the industry. They host thousands of calls per year across all sorts of interesting eCommerce topics such as advertising, payments and supply chain.
This episode dives into his background, an overview of the firm, as well as a few key areas of eCommerce related to advertising and payments.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s March 7th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Brands may need retailers more than they realize.
- Amazon continues to make digital investments in its stores with cashierless technology and display advertising.
- Grocer Albertsons starts a strategic review of its business.
- Target 2021 Q4 earnings roundup highlights continued focus on employees, stores as hubs, and merchandise
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s February 28th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
-
Walmart enters an economic environment that plays to the company’s strengths
-
Postal service launches new next-day local shipping service called USPS Connect
- Activist investor Daniel Loeb sees $1 trillion dollars of untapped value in Amazon
- Macy’s not breaking up but still a lot of hard work ahead
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s February 21st, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- What if Amazon is the best-positioned company to diversify sellers off Amazon?
- Shopify Q4 2021 earnings shows growth but there are still strategy concerns
- Hasbro and Mattel’s opposite economic views of toys’ industry future may have implications for other brands
- 2021 PitchBook venture capital report raises both optimism and concern
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s February 14th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Recent earnings calls indicate that Meta’s advertising lead is shrinking quickly, and Google is the biggest beneficiary
- CMS and eCommerce churn data shows WordPress maintaining market lead, Shopify gaining on WooCommerce
- Amazon advertising graduates from "Other" and 3P seller units set record
- Modern retailers must prioritize differentiation and freshness to survive
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s February 7th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Washington State Attorney General investigation shuts down Amazon price fixing program
- UPS 2021 Q4 earnings highlights their focus on revenue quality
- Glossier’s CEO learned a hard lesson in technology decision-making as it lays off 80 employees
- Recent declines at Bed, Bath and Beyond make you wonder if it can make it
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s January 31st, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Amazon's New "Style" Department Store Concept Kicks Sand In the Face of Investors Who Think Retail Innovation is Dead
- Gopuff Launches its First Private Label Line
- How Walmart GoLocal Plans to Stand out Among Delivery Businesses
- Shopify Fulfillment Seems to be Going Nowhere FasAudiogram
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s January 24th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Toyota and Amazon launch new Amazon Parts Store in the UK
- 2022 supply chain issues are looking remarkably similar to 2021
- Online grocery sales of alcohol to reach almost $2 Billion this year according to new report
- Kohl’s investor Macellum Capital wants to burn the company down
And the Investor Minute which contains four items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s January 17th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Shopify’s app store changes have some developers upset, but there’s really nothing to see here
- Accenture predicts social commerce will grow three times faster than eCommerce.
- Will you let Walmart into your garage? Its In-Home Delivery to expand to 30 million US households this year.
- Pricing moving on up at IKEA, in step with trends from many brands and retailers
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s January 10th, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Walmart drove 25% of click and collect and curbside orders in 2021
- Could Amazon build a new web stores product in the coming years?
- Fanatics is buying Topps trading card business in a nod to the digital future
- Mastercard report shows U.S. retail sales grew 8.5% in November and December
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s January 3rd, 2022 and this is the Watson Weekly - your essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on our show we’re going to do something a little bit different and review 2021’s top 5 stories, as seen by my LinkedIn feed:
Number 5. Supply Chain Crisis hits everyone hard.
Number 4. Retail Stores strike back
Number 3. Are Target and Walmart the New Malls?
Number 2. Investors Look to Split Up Several Large Retailers
Number 1. Shopify Executive Departures Cause Concern at the Company
It’s December 27th, 2021 and this is the Watson Weekly - your essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on our show:
- Could a new consumer probe blunt the rise of buy now pay later?
- Nordstrom is looking to split its off-price Rack business
- McDonald’s sells software provider Dynamic Yield to Mastercard in a warning to both retailers and technology companies
- Shopify board adds Instacart’s CEO Fidji Simo - What’s the Plan here?
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
It’s December 20th, 2021 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Is Meta Taking Aim at Shopify?
- Instacart’s President Carolyn Everson Departs After Just 3 Months
- What’s With All the New Marketplaces?
- What Does 2022 Have In Store for Buy Now, Pay Later?
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s December 13th, 2021 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Is Amazon Fooling the Market About Its Profitability?
- Kohl’s Is Next Up In a Long Line of Retailers Targeted by Activist Investors
- Allbirds’ Q3 Losses Prompt Debate Over Its Future
- Supply Chain Issues Will Take Longer To Sort Out Than Many Expect
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s December 6th, 2021 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- PopSugar partners with Target for new fitness line
- Cyber Monday sales drop but Amazon’s sales soar
- What’s really going on with the Metaverse?
- Is Amazon already king of the third-party logistics market?
And the Investor Minute which contains four items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s December 1st, 2021 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- eCommerce Platform Commercetools Takes Aim at the Mid-Market with a New Acquisition
- Tracking the Cyber Week Winners and Losers
- UPS and FedEx Looking Good for the Holiday Crunch
- Nike Invests in the Metaverse with a Roblox Partnership
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s November 22nd, 2021 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Shopify releases its hydrogen custom storefront framework - but more is needed
- Walmart’s Q3 earnings highlight its grocery gains
- Amazon introduces new payment options and delivers an ultimatum to Visa in the UK
- Target continues great operational execution triggered by growth in same day services
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s November 15th, 2021 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Saks eCommerce split sounds worse every day: What makes it so bad?
- Square stakes its claim on the future of currency and payments
- What’s the status of livestreaming in the United States?
- Retailer American Eagle Outfitters continues to acquire logistics capabilities - should other retailers be paying attention?
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s November 8th, 2021 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Advertising is slowing down with supply constraints
- Bed Bath & Beyond signs a big partnership with Kroger
- Amazon has surprisingly challenging earnings
- Shopify’s fulfillment strategy remains a mystery
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s November 1st, 2021 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Poshmark launches a new brand closet program to cozy up to big brands.
- Mailchimp and Shopify kiss and make up.
- UPS earnings highlight volume and profit growth.
- Amazon launches an in-store pickup option for marketplace sellers.
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s October 25th, 2021 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Transportation company J.B. Hunt looks for shipping costs to keep rising through 2022.
- Are instant delivery startups the new investment bubble?
- Instacart’s new acquisition Caper means it’s still searching for its next act.
- New data suggests that shoppers may spend more and sooner this holiday season.
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s October 18th, 2021 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Will Macy’s be forced to spin off its eCommerce business?
- Arts and crafts chain store, Michael’s, looks to launch its own eCommerce marketplace.
- Amazon aggregator, Thrasio, delays SPAC deal as executives exit.
- Port delays prompt big-company workarounds and government action.
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s October 11th, 2021 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- The holidays are starting early this year at Amazon and Target.
- Google is looking to update its eCommerce strategy, but is it enough?
- Home Depot signs up with Walmart GoLocal for same day delivery.
- Rent the Runway files for IPO, but the road ahead looks difficult.
And the Investor Minute which contains five items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s October 4th, 2021 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Amazon’s fall product event showcases its creativity.
- What do Bloomingdale’s new Bloomie stores add to the new small-format retail trend?
- Pinterest and Albertsons hook up in an interesting content play.
- Is the eCommerce world headed for an “IOU Christmas”? And what to do about it.
And the Investor Minute which contains six items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s September 27th, 2021 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Online pet retailer, Chewy, launches a new marketplace for veterinarians
- Kroger doubles down on Instacart with a new partnership
- Shopify’s Markets offering expands its cross-border services
- FedEx first quarter 2022 earnings point to structural issues for the firm
And the Investor Minute which contains six items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s September 20th, 2021 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Shopify invests in marketing provider Yotpo
- Top Amazon seller Packable looks to go public via reverse merger
- Are Walmart and Target the biggest beneficiaries of the decline of malls in America?
- Intuit’s acquisition of marketing provider Mailchimp continues its move into eCommerce
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s September 13th, 2021 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Disney is closing virtually all of its retail locations
- Are Square, Paypal and Shopify on a collision course?
- Amazon keeps investing more and more in planes
- Is Instacart nervous about its future?
- The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s September 7th, 2021 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- The Buy Now, Pay Later space continues to heat up with Affirm and Afterpay news.
- Two leading CPG brands are testing eCommerce.
- The entire global supply chain is in the trash can, but that trash is actually a treasure for off-price retail.
- Finally, we have The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, private equity, and IPOs.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s August 30th, 2021 and this is the Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Is Macy’s turnaround strategy working?
- Walmart is launching a local delivery service.
- Urban Outfitters is launching a second-hand clothing marketplace.
- Why is Amazon Investing in Department Stores?
- The Investor Minute!
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s August 23rd, 2021 and this is the Watson Weekly - your essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Is the Wish.com marketplace in a death spiral?
- Walmart’s Q2 earnings highlight the continued growth of digital & eCommerce
- Target’s shows leverage in its model in its own Q2 earnings call, including faster growth than Walmart.
- What’s happening at Instacart — something special, or do they need help?
- And a new segment on the show! The Investor Minute. This spot highlights all the news in venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs in the North American eCommerce universe.
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s August 9th, 2021 and this is the Watson Weekly - your essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
- Walmart to start selling software and Adobe Magento customers soon to be able to work natively with Walmart’s Marketplace
- What will Square’s $29B acquisition of AfterPay mean for its competition?
- Amazon’s drone program seems to have crash-landed
- Amazon’s advertising business has crazy potential
- Shopify’s recent earnings call highlights the continued growth of the platform but a few concerns as well
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
It’s July 26, 2021 and this is the Watson Weekly - your essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on the show:
-
New research from JLL and Coresight points to where malls are headed
-
Circular economy company Rent The Runway confidentially files for IPO
-
The Coming eCommerce Boom in the Construction Industry
-
The #2 grocer, Kroger is making investments, but are they headed in the right direction?
For more news from Rick, check out:
https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwatsonecommerce/
Welcome to the Watson Weekly: Your Essential eCommerce Digest! Join host Rick Watson as he gives you the news and analysis you need from across the eCommerce industry.