Your Ecommerce Coffee Break Newsletter ⭐ (Issue 131)

It’s Thursday, and a fresh wave of tariffs is turning routine restocks into a contact sport. Temu is tacking on “import charges,” and Shein just jacked some U S prices by a jaw-dropping 377%.

With shoppers balking at ballooning baskets and lawsuits nipping at platforms.

Luckily, we’ve sifted through the noise—from automation must-haves to marketplace shake-ups—so you can keep cash flowing instead of drowning in duty codes.

In Today’s Edition:

• What's Happening: The Latest Ecommerce News (Handpicked for you!)

• 🎧 On the pod: How I Turned My Podcast Into A Profitable Business

• ChatGPT's Shopping Play Threatens Google

Today's newsletter is 766 words — a 3-minute, 49-second read.

Grab your favorite drink and dive into this week’s ecommerce updates. 👇

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📰 WHAT'S HAPPENING: THE LATEST ECOMMERCE NEWS (Handpicked for you!)

General Ecommerce News

• Temu adds ‘import charges’ after Trump tariffs [read more]

• Consumer Pricing Isn't the Only Casualty of Tariffs [read more]

• White House slams Amazon over display of tariff effect on prices [read more]

• Shein hikes US prices as much as 377% ahead of tariff increases [read more]

• Online retailers in the US spent an average of $400k on AI last year [read more]

Platforms & Marketplaces

• Amazon teases July Prime Day [read more]

• OpenAI Adds Shopping to ChatGPT in a Challenge to Google [read more]

• Walmart delivery overhaul to reach 95% of U.S. by late 2025 [read more]

• How TikTok Shop Is Redefining Retail: The New Playbook for Business Success [read more]

• Shopify is hiring ChatGPT as your personal shopper [read more]

• Why eCommerce needs automation now [read more]

Social Media & Advertising

• Simplify your product image workflow: auto-resize, compress, and organize at scale. Save 100+ hours — get 6 months free, exclusively for Ecommerce Coffee Break readers*

• Facebook parent Meta Platforms launches standalone AI assistant app [read more]

• Meta adds dynamic overlays to Advantage+ Catalog ads [read more]

• Google Now Allows Top Ads To Appear At Bottom Of Search Results [read more]

• Meta’s Threads ads arrive fast, but advertisers move at their own pace [read more]

• Instagram Edits Achieves 7 Million Downloads in First Week, Outshines CapCut’s Debut [read more]

• How to Do an Actually Useful PPC Competitive Analysis Using AI [read more]

🎙️ ECOMMERCE COFFEE BREAK PODCAST

In this episode, I share my e-commerce and podcasting journey.

With over 20 years of experience in digital marketing, I discuss founding a SaaS startup and running a seven-figure Shopify store.

I dive into the origins and evolution of my podcast, its current success, and explain why podcasting is a powerful tool for businesses, despite the long-term commitment it demands.

🎧 Listen on your favorite podcast app: [Website] [Apple Podcasts] [Spotify] [YouTube]

💡 CHATGPT'S SHOPPING PLAY THREATENS GOOGLE

OpenAI just launched shopping features that let users get product recommendations and buy items directly through ChatGPT.

Why it matters: This could reshape e-commerce search, challenging Google's dominance and changing how we discover products online.

How it works: 

• Recommends products based on conversations, not keywords

• Pulls from editorial and user reviews (WIRED, Reddit)

• Redirects to merchant sites for purchases

• Currently ad-free, but likely to monetize via affiliate fees

The challenge: Publishers worry about losing affiliate revenue if their reviews are used without compensation.

The bottom line: ChatGPT's billion weekly searches and conversational approach could disrupt both search and shopping, but OpenAI must balance user experience with fair publisher compensation. Learn more here

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