☕ Your Ecommerce Coffee Break (Issue 185)

👋 It’s Thursday, and here’s your ecom update to help you sell smarter this holiday season. Online sales are set to rise 5.3%, shoppers are searching for fresh gift ideas, and AI is driving a surge in orders across Shopify and Walmart.

Grab your coffee—this is a 1-min skim or a 3-min read to make you a smarter online seller.

In Today’s Edition:

📰 Top Headlines: Marketplaces, AI trends, and platform updates
🎧 On the Pod: Agentic Commerce Explained: How AI Search is Reshaping eCommerce
📣 BREAKING: Walmart + ChatGPT just made websites optional

Don’t keep us a secret: Share this newsletter with friends and fellow sellers: Subscribe here.

📰 WHAT’S HAPPENING

📈 General Ecommerce News

• Adobe Analytics predicts online sales will grow 5.3% this holiday season [read more]

• Holiday 100: The gifts everyone’s searching for [read more]

• 6 Proven Ways to Boost 2025 Holiday Sales [read more]

• Walmart introduces AI tools for in-store and online holiday shopping [read more]

🛒 Platforms & Marketplaces

• Amazon sues AI startup over browser’s automated shopping feature [read more]

• Shopify: AI traffic is up 7x, AI-driven orders are up 11x [read more]

• Shopify Expands Into AI and B2B [read more]

• Shopify reports a 32% revenue growth in Q3 earnings [read more]

📱Social Media & Advertising

• Google Merchant Center Adds Promotions For Top Performing Products [read more]

• Threads launch “ghost posts” that disappear after 24 hours [read more]

• Facebook will allow private groups to switch to public [read more]

• 5 Google Ads tactics to drop in 2026 [read more]

🎙️ ECOMMERCE COFFEE BREAK PODCAST

The AI revolution is happening right now—here's what it means for your SEO strategy

Agentic Commerce Explained: How AI Search is Reshaping eCommerce

In this episode, we dive into the massive shift impacting online sellers as shoppers use ChatGPT and other AI search tools for product discovery.

Erik Wikander, CEO and co-founder of Wilgot.ai, unpacks the concept of agentic commerce — where AI completes the end-to-end purchase for the user.

He shares what this revolution means for D2C brands, why the old SEO playbook is dead, and how to use Agentic Product Optimization to make your product content AI-ready and capture new, hyper-relevant customers.

🎧 Play Episode: [Website] [Apple Podcasts] [Spotify] [YouTube]

Please Rate & Review: Help others discover the show by rating the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

📣 BREAKING: Walmart + ChatGPT just made websites optional

AI + chat = retail’s next big shift. Walmart just teamed up with OpenAI so shoppers can now find and buy products inside ChatGPT—no site visit, no clicks, just a conversation.

Why it matters: This move shows how AI will reshape product discovery. Search is turning into chat. Voice. Prompts. That means the path to purchase gets shorter—and expectations for convenience get higher.

For small stores and DTC brands (<$1M ARR):

• Be findable in chat. Make sure your listings, SEO, and metadata clearly describe what you sell. AI relies on language.

• Experiment early. Integrate with AI tools or plugins that let customers ask, not click.

• Double down on trust. AI commerce will only work if delivery and support keep up.

• Use your edge. Personal touch, niche focus, and authenticity still win against big retail automation.

The play: Think beyond “website traffic.” Think AI-driven intent. Ask: If a shopper told ChatGPT what they need, would my product be the answer?

👉 Next step: audit your product descriptions and checkout flow—optimize them for natural-language discovery.

🔗 Read more: Walmart x OpenAI Partnership Details 

BTW: Brands using Gorgias saw 41% ticket deflection when they added AI answers to their helpdesk. If you’re scared of AI support volume this Black Friday, click here to get your solution.

🗨️ ECOM QUOTE OF THE DAY

Conversions don’t come from cleverness. They come from clarity.

👋 BECOME A SUPPORTER
Support independent ecommerce media on Patreon and get real perks: ask questions for our “Business Queries” Q&A episodes, enjoy an ad-free newsletter (2x/week), and unlock full access to our DTC & Online Seller Portal + private community. → Join here

📰 PARTNER WITH US
Want to put out your message in front of over 30,000 online sellers, ecommerce operators, and direct-to-customer (DTC) brands? Find our Partner Kit here.