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McFadyen Digital · News & Insights

AI in Commerce News

Curated coverage of artificial intelligence across retail, B2B distribution, e-commerce platforms, funding, and policy — organized by topic and continuously updated.

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AI-generated. Summaries are AI-generated from cited sources. Click through for the original report.

AI-powered search and recommendations drive conversion gainsFEATUREDAI-generated
Retail / DTC › Office Supplies, Stationery, and Gift Retailers › Gift, Novelty, and Souvenir RetailersLLMSearchGoogle Cloud

Michaels' Ask Mike AI assistant doubles online conversion rates versus search

Michaels launched Ask Mike, a Google Gemini-powered AI shopping assistant that has generated 75,000 conversations since its May debut, with shoppers converting at more than double the rate of traditional search users. For commerce teams, the tool demonstrates how conversational AI can drive higher engagement and larger basket sizes by guiding customers from inspiration to multi-item purchases in a single session.

Jul 24, 2026Read full article →
New AI Commerce Platforms and Shopping Features Emerge
FEATURED
AI-generated
Technology Services › Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services › Advertising AgenciesEcommerceLLMAdthena

OpenAI launches product carousels for ChatGPT ads

OpenAI has rolled out product carousels that allow multiple items from a single retailer to appear in one ChatGPT ad placement at the bottom of conversations. The format gives e-commerce teams a more shoppable, discovery-focused ad unit ahead of Q4 holiday spending, similar to Google Shopping feeds.

Aug 6, 2026Read full article →
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New AI Commerce Platforms and Shopping Features EmergeAI-generated

Practical Ecommerce releases August 5 tool roundup

Transportation / Logistics › Couriers and Express Delivery Services
EcommerceLLM+1

Practical Ecommerce published its weekly rundown of new ecommerce services, featuring updates on drone deliveries, AI-powered creative tools, warehouse automation, agentic marketing platforms, and cross-border payment solutions. The digest highlights how merchants can adopt AI-native advertising, streamlined shipping workflows, and autonomous fulfillment technology to compete in an increasingly automated commerce landscape.

Aug 6, 2026Read full article →
Major Retailers Credit AI for Significant Revenue GrowthAI-generated

Shopify credits AI for 34% Q2 2026 revenue growth

Media / Information Technology › Software Publishers
EcommerceLLM+1

Shopify reported 34% year-over-year revenue growth to $3.6 billion in Q2 2026, with AI-driven traffic and orders to its stores tripling and its Sidekick assistant handling nearly 34 million merchant conversations. For commerce practitioners, the results underscore how AI infrastructure—from search to agent-driven checkout—is becoming a competitive necessity and structural advantage for long-tail merchants.

Aug 6, 2026Read full article →
Major Retailers Credit AI for Significant Revenue GrowthAI-generated

Wayfair credits Perigold and AI with Q2 momentum

Retail / DTC › Warehouse Clubs, Supercenters, and Other General Merchandise Retailers › Warehouse Clubs and Supercenters
CDPEcommerce+1

Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah attributed the retailer's revenue growth in fiscal Q2 to its luxury Perigold banner and AI-driven capabilities, including a proprietary image generation pipeline that reduced production costs by over 99%. For commerce practitioners, the case demonstrates how AI-powered personalization, content creation, and merchandising tools can unlock outsized value in high-margin, curated product categories.

Aug 6, 2026Read full article →
Major Retailers Credit AI for Significant Revenue GrowthAI-generated

Amazon AWS Q2 results signal AI investment returns to market

Media / Information Technology › Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related
DataLLM+1

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy revealed that AWS servers break even in under 3 years and AWS could become a $1 trillion revenue business, directly addressing Wall Street's concerns about AI capital returns. For commerce practitioners, this validates the ROI case for agentic commerce and AI-driven shopping tools like Alexa Shopping, which saw active users nearly double and interactions surge 5× year-over-year.

Aug 6, 2026Read full article →
Monetization Strategies Emerge as AI Shopping Tools Go MainstreamAI-generated

Kroger launches AI shopping assistant with ads from day one

Retail / DTC › Grocery and Convenience Retailers › Supermarkets and Other Grocery Retailers (except Convenience Retailers)
LLM

Kroger rolled out an AI shopping assistant across its websites and mobile apps with product listing advertisements built in at launch, developed in partnership with Cooklist. For retail media operators, this move compresses the typical timeline for monetizing AI tools—competitors like Walmart waited a year after launch to introduce ads—signaling that advertising integration is now a core commerce strategy from inception.

Aug 5, 2026Read full article →
AI Boosts Retail Conversion Through Personalized Customer DecisioningAI-generated

PetSmart Drives 22% Salon Booking Lift with AI Decisioning

Consumer Services › Other Personal Services › Pet Care (except Veterinary) Services
CDPData+1

PetSmart used AI-powered decisioning built on Databricks and Hightouch to test thousands of message combinations and boost grooming salon bookings by 22%. For commerce marketers, the case shows how AI can automate campaign optimization at scale while freeing teams to focus on strategy and creative direction.

Aug 5, 2026Read full article →
Monetization Strategies Emerge as AI Shopping Tools Go MainstreamAI-generated

Two-thirds of holiday shoppers use AI for gift purchases

Retail / DTC › Other Miscellaneous Retailers › All Other Miscellaneous Retailers
LLM

A survey by Attentive found that 67% of shoppers have used AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity in the last three months to manage purchases, with Gen Z adoption reaching 80%. Retailers that personalize experiences and leverage AI to understand customer preferences before the holiday rush will capture early-shopping demand and build stronger customer relationships.

Aug 5, 2026Read full article →
AI Boosts Retail Conversion Through Personalized Customer DecisioningAI-generated

Bloomreach's Loomi Agent Automates Multi-Channel Campaign Build

CDP

Bloomreach launched updates to its Loomi marketing agent that enable marketers to describe campaigns in plain language and have the AI automatically handle email and SMS orchestration, voucher assignment, and send timing. Commerce teams can now run complex multi-channel programs in a single conversation instead of spending hours on manual setup and consent logic.

Aug 5, 2026Read full article →
AI infrastructure and voice commerce reshape retail technologyAI-generated

Wesco data center sales surge 45% as AI infrastructure demand accelerates

Media / Information Technology › Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related
AnalyticsData

Wesco International reported record Q2 earnings with data center sales jumping 45%, driven by customer demand for AI infrastructure, and the distributor is now investing in AI for its own inventory and supply-chain operations. For commerce practitioners, this signals a structural shift: B2B suppliers are being pulled earlier into the sales cycle by power-intensive projects, creating cross-sell opportunities and requiring new capabilities in power solutions and infrastructure consulting.

Aug 4, 2026Read full article →
AI infrastructure and voice commerce reshape retail technologyAI-generated

Amazon Alexa for Shopping doubles active users in Q2 2026

Retail / DTC › Warehouse Clubs, Supercenters, and Other General Merchandise Retailers › Warehouse Clubs and Supercenters
Ecommerce

Amazon's Alexa for Shopping agentic AI assistant nearly doubled active users in Q2 2026, with interactions up five times year-over-year and over 350 million shoppers using the tool in the past 12 months. Commerce teams should note that U.S. customers using Alexa for Shopping spend 40% more per order on average, signaling strong ROI potential for voice-driven shopping integrations.

Aug 4, 2026Read full article →
AI-Driven Cost Optimization and Supply Chain EfficiencyAI-generated

Nissin Foods deploys Blue Yonder AI for demand and supply planning

Manufacturing › Other Food Manufacturing › All Other Miscellaneous Food Manufacturing
AnalyticsOMS

Nissin Foods is implementing an AI-powered demand and supply planning tool from Blue Yonder to improve inventory management, forecasting accuracy, and fill rates while reducing operational costs. For commerce practitioners, this signals how food manufacturers are shifting from capital-intensive infrastructure to predictive AI systems that better anticipate demand and strengthen customer partnerships.

Jul 30, 2026Read full article →
AI-Driven Cost Optimization and Supply Chain EfficiencyAI-generated

Advance Auto Parts deploys AI pricing and loyalty to boost ecommerce sales

Retail / DTC › Automotive Parts, Accessories, and Tire Retailers › Automotive Parts and Accessories Retailers
AnalyticsLoyalty

Advance Auto Parts launched its Advance Rewards loyalty program in Q1 and deployed AI-powered pricing and assortment tools developed with Palantir to drive customer engagement and repeat purchases. For commerce teams, the combination shows how loyalty programs paired with real-time pricing intelligence and inventory optimization can directly improve customer retention and competitive positioning in competitive retail categories.

Jul 30, 2026Read full article →
Retail Media and AI Shape Future Growth StrategiesAI-generated

Groceryshop 2026 Unites AI, GLP-1, and Retail Media as Interconnected Forces

Retail / DTC › Specialty Food Retailers › Fish and Seafood Retailers
AnalyticsCDP+1

Groceryshop 2026 will convene over 150 speakers from major retailers and brands to address how AI-powered shopping, GLP-1 adoption, and retail media are reshaping assortment, pricing, and customer journeys simultaneously. For commerce practitioners, the convergence means strategic decisions in one area now ripple across product discovery, loyalty, and revenue models—requiring integrated rather than siloed planning.

Jul 30, 2026Read full article →
Agentic AI reshapes consumer shopping experienceAI-generated

Agentic AI reshapes e-commerce through loyalty and promotions standardization

Media / Information Technology › Software Publishers
EcommerceLLM+1

Google, OpenAI and others are embedding AI agents into shopping experiences to handle end-to-end consumer journeys, with agentic commerce projected to influence 15–25% of U.S. e-commerce by 2030. Brands must make loyalty programs and promotions agent-readable now or risk losing margin control and competitive positioning as AI agents default to price-based decisions.

Jul 29, 2026Read full article →
Small retailers struggle with AI visibility gapAI-generated

ChatGPT Shopping Surge Locks Out Small Retailers from AI Discovery

Retail / DTC › Other Miscellaneous Retailers › All Other Miscellaneous Retailers
LLMSearch

ChatGPT now fields over 84 million shopping questions per week from U.S. consumers, but AI engines consistently recommend only large brands because small retailers lack the data infrastructure to compete. Without accessible tools to structure their catalogs for AI systems, independent merchants risk permanent invisibility as AI-driven commerce consolidates the market.

Jul 29, 2026Read full article →
Buy now pay later expands into hardware financingAI-generated

Klarna powers Apple's new hardware leasing program in US

Klarna announced it will be the leasing provider for Apple Upgrade, a new hardware leasing program available in the United States for iPhone, Mac, iPad, and Apple Watch with 12- to 36-month lease terms. This partnership expands Klarna's flexible payment offerings into the hardware leasing space, creating a new commerce channel for device upgrades and recurring revenue streams.

Jul 29, 2026Read full article →
AI transforms supply chain and inventory managementAI-generated

Retailgentic: Product Enrichment Must Enable AI Decision-Making, Not Just Fill Attributes

Retail / DTC › Warehouse Clubs, Supercenters, and Other General Merchandise Retailers › Warehouse Clubs and Supercenters
LLMPIM

Retailgentic argues that traditional product data enrichment—filling in missing attributes and basic metadata—fails to support agentic commerce, and vendors must instead layer conversational, buyer, market, and decision-ready context. Commerce teams investing in attribute completion alone risk falling behind competitors who optimize for AI reasoning and continuous context capture across multiple surfaces.

Jul 29, 2026Read full article →
AI transforms supply chain and inventory managementAI-generated

Nissin Foods USA deploys Blue Yonder AI for supply chain planning

Manufacturing › Grain and Oilseed Milling › Breakfast Cereal Manufacturing
OMSWMS

Nissin Foods USA has adopted Blue Yonder's AI-powered demand and supply planning solution in partnership with Highspring, transitioning from legacy tools to data-driven forecasting and inventory management. For commerce practitioners, the deployment demonstrates how AI-driven planning replaces manual processes and sales-driven forecasting, enabling faster market response and improved forecast accuracy across supply chain, finance, and operations teams.

Jul 29, 2026Read full article →
AI regulation and compliance reshape retail advertising landscapeAI-generated

New York law requires AI-model disclosures in product ads

Retail / DTC › Warehouse Clubs, Supercenters, and Other General Merchandise Retailers › All Other General Merchandise Retailers
Ecommerce

New York amended its advertising rules to require clear notices when product ads contain AI-generated images of people, prompting Amazon to ask third-party sellers to label such content. The requirement burdens smaller retailers while favoring large companies with traditional photography budgets, threatening the democratizing potential of generative AI in ecommerce.

Jul 27, 2026Read full article →
Retailers deploy AI for personalized health and wellness servicesAI-generated

Schnucks launches VitalityIP health-tracking AI shopping assistant

Retail / DTC › Grocery and Convenience Retailers › Supermarkets and Other Grocery Retailers (except Convenience Retailers)
CDPLLM

St. Louis grocer Schnucks partnered with Boston-based VitalityIP to launch an AI assistant in its Rewards app and website that offers nutrition guidance, meal ideas, and personalized product recommendations based on health conditions and dietary preferences. The move signals a shift toward agentic shopping where AI agents mediate purchasing decisions based on health goals rather than traditional search or shelf placement, reshaping how brands compete for consumer trust.

Jul 27, 2026Read full article →
General AI in CommerceAI-generated

Best Buy opens Meta AI shop-in-shops to drive experiential retail

Retail / DTC › Electronics and Appliance Retailers

Best Buy is rolling out 30-by-30-foot Meta AI shop-in-shops in select stores, with plans to expand to 50 locations by year-end and up to 200 by next year, after finding that over 50% of customers want to try Ray-Ban Meta glasses in person. The move signals how legacy retailers can redesign store footprints and staff training to position themselves as hubs for emerging AI-powered hardware and drive foot traffic in the digital age.

Jul 27, 2026Read full article →
General AI in CommerceAI-generated

Whatnot acquires Shaped to speed up AI-powered recommendations

Retail / DTC › Warehouse Clubs, Supercenters, and Other General Merchandise Retailers › Warehouse Clubs and Supercenters
LLMSearch

Live shopping platform Whatnot acquired machine learning startup Shaped to reduce recommendation latency to minutes, enabling real-time inventory updates as products sell during livestreams. For commerce practitioners, faster recommendations mean better inventory turnover and improved buyer-seller matching in fast-moving live commerce environments.

Jul 24, 2026Read full article →
Agentic AI transforms commerce operations and optimizationAI-generated

ReFiBuy launches ACO Everywhere framework for agentic commerce optimization

Retail / DTC › Health and Personal Care Retailers › Pharmacies and Drug Retailers
LLMPIM

ReFiBuy introduced ACO Everywhere, an 11-step framework that captures product context across answer engines, retailer agents, websites, and social media, then publishes updates in weekly loops to close competitive gaps. Commerce teams can now test the strategy on a handful of SKUs and see measurable results in under 30 days, making agentic optimization visible and actionable unlike traditional SEO or GEO.

Jul 24, 2026Read full article →
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