The Watson Weekly: eCommerce Strategy & News

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 WayfairGameStop'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.comOver 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.comThen 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.Subscribe to the Watson Weekly newsletter at watsonweekly.com.

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 timeHow commerce platforms can abstract legacy ERP complexity without a rip-and-replaceChange 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 goalWhether 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.comAnthropic 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.comPlus, 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.comGoogle'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.Timestamps0:00 - Introduction01:45 - Rick Watson setting the scene/background05:10 - Panel members welcomed07:35 - Will ads ever work in a trusted medium?24:43 - Sponsor message from Logicbroker CEO Omar Qari24:13 - Agentic commerce: a nothingburger or incremental?49:38 - Sponsor message from SCAYLE Commerce Engine, Jake Wright52:07 - 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.comNew 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 rationalThe "glass box" approach to AI transparency that actually builds team trustHow support roles are evolving from typing to judgmentWhy the fundamentals — speed, accuracy, reduced uncertainty — haven't changed and won'tIf 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.Chapters00:00 — Welcome & Intro01:14 — Dollar Store Earnings: Why Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and Five Below are winning — and who isn't04:24 — Amazon Prime Day Moves to June07:23 — 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 faultHow 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 journeyHow Mirakl's Catalog Transformer reduced categorization errors by 50% and cut onboarding time from 15 days to under 2 hoursWhy solving the right problem matters more than solving a problem the right wayWhat agent commerce means for the future of retail — and how Mirakl Nexus is preparing for itWhether 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.comChapters:0:00 – Introduction2:00 – Anne-Claire's background & career journey6:30 – AI adoption inside Mirakl: from 50% to 95%11:00 – The "copy and paste" problem & agentic unlock15:00 – Catalog Transformer: L0 to L2 explained20:00 – Choosing the right problems to solve23:00 – 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 Chapters0:00 - 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 BriefingAmazon’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:IntroductionAmazon commentaryMeta commentaryShopify commentaryPayPal commentaryUPS commentaryWalmart 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 TrustThe Great Parcel Reconfiguration No One is Talking AboutAbout 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 at watsonweekly.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 captain6:29 - Trump Tariff Redux10:06 - Walmart earnings10:10 - 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 Community18:02 - The "Current 1776" Story: Hiring Customers as Creators 22:20 - Data-Driven Leadership and Business Metrics26:10 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 QuestionWhy Temu is the New Cross-Border StandardThe 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/@WatsonWeeklyhttps://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 TechWhat 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.Chapters0:00 - Introduction to Dr. Daniel Hulme2:15 - Myth: Is SaaS Dead?5:40 - The 3-Layer Architecture of Modern Software8:20 - How WPP Open uses AI for Creative & Content12:45 - 5 Reasons Your AI Initiative Will Fail18:30 - AI vs. Jobs: The Path to Economic Singularity23:10 - Universal Basic Income and the Future of Work26:50 - Introduction to Generative Search Optimization (GSO)30:00 - Closing Thoughts: Living Your "True Humanity"#AI #SaaS #FutureOfWork #WPP #MachineLearning #GenerativeAI #TechTrends

Today on our show:Amazon is a Vertically Integrated UtilityShopify Fiscal Year 2025 Earnings: a Pony with One Great Trick, Could it Be More?Kroger Opens a New MarketplacePaypal 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/@WatsonWeeklyhttps://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 Weekend0:54 - The Big Game Ad Economics: $233,000 Per Second2:18 - The AI Ad Wars: Anthropic (Claude) vs. OpenAI3:56 - Google Gemini’s "Heartstrings" Ad Campaign5:14 - Target’s Leadership Shuffle: Why the "Roach Motel" Strategy?8:17 - Spotify’s Strange Pivot into Physical Books9:54 - The Indie Artist Royalty Gap which Should Make Publishers Worried11:13 - Amazon Earnings: AWS High-Speed Growth & Rufus+213:06 - Amazon’s New "Add to Delivery" Feature14:26 - The Future of Amazon Grocery & Whole Foods15:05 - Shopify Earnings: B2B and International Growth16:51 - Shopify’s AI Narrative: "It's the Checkout, Stupid"19:54 - Final ThoughtsStay Bold. Stay ClassySubscribe 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 Noise2:15 – Mark’s Journey: From .NET Developer to CEO5:30 – 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. Results18:10 – Why You Probably Shouldn’t Replatform This Year22:45 – 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 at www.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 – Intro1:25 – Pinterest’s Strategic Pivot5:31 – Starbucks Loyalty 20268:58 – Shopify’s New Rules13:15 – The Rise of Whatnot🚀 Stay ConnectedSubscribe 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 CommerceWe 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 2026Success 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 Overview3:15 - Cutting through the Buzzwords (Agentic Commerce?)7:45 - Innovation Hub Highlights: Practical Solutions & Marpipe12:30 - The Evolution of Commerce: From Presence to Intelligence18:10 - How AI is Reshaping Retail Jobs & Processes22:00 - Final Thoughts: Being Bold in 2026Enjoyed 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 EconomicsAmerican Eagle to Close Quiet Logistics BusinessUPS Releases 4Q 2025 Earnings and Provides 2026 GuidanceMeta 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 / Timestamps0:00 - Introduction: Meet Gareth Cummings, CEO of eDesk2:15 - Career Evolution: From Banking and Telecom to E-commerce Tech5:40 - The Early Days of AI: Building Language Models in 20189:25 - The Shift in Consumer Mindset: From AI Skepticism to AI Expectation13:10 - Navigating the Modern SaaS Economy: Profitability vs. Growth17:35 - Building Brand Loyalty: Why Trust Outperforms Price21:50 - TikTok Shop and the Power of Authentic Engagement26:15 - Turning Support Data into a Business Strategy Engine30:40 - The Future of Agentic Commerce: When AI Does the Shopping35:20 - Leadership Advice: Embracing the Pace of AI Change38:45 - Closing Thoughts and Where to Follow GarethThe 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 AdLowes to license its checkoutAI meets Davos and a Jassy SightingClaude 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.Chapters00:00 – 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 RanksNRF 2026 RecapMore 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 2026Welcome 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