Costco is expanding its same-day delivery network as it looks to grow e-commerce sales and compete with retailers such as Walmart and Target. The retailer last week launched collaborations with DoorDash and Uber to pick up online orders at U.S. stores and drive them to customers' homes. The partnerships give Costco more channels to reach…

For years, retailers have focused on optimizing the physical store around one primary objective: the transaction. Where products are placed, how customers move through the store, and how quickly they can make a purchase have all been carefully considered. However, the role of the physical store is changing. As more transactions move online, the store…

Free shipping remains one of e-commerce’s strongest customer incentives, but the economics behind it are becoming harder to sustain. Deloitte found that 67 percent of retail executives expect to raise their free shipping thresholds in 2026, while Salesforce reports that free shipping remains the most important factor influencing where consumers across every income level will…

Marketplaces have spent a decade making participation intuitive and inviting. Sellers can list products or services in minutes and get paid quickly. Buyers can tap to check out, implicitly trusting the underlying platforms’ purchasing processes and technologies. However, with consumer and seller expectations for speed and emerging automation developments, exactly who (or what) is transacting…

Artificial intelligence is excellent at introducing shoppers to new retailers. It's far less forgiving when those retailers break their delivery promises. ChatGPT and Google Gemini are overtaking conventional search as starting points for product discovery. Agentic AI is then turning that discovery into real conversion as OpenAI and Google develop protocols that allow customers to…