Management

Amazon.com illegally raised prices for advertisers by surreptitiously raising the minimum price required to place ads that ‌promote their products, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission alleged in a lawsuit filed in federal court earlier this week. The agency, joined by a bipartisan group of 22 U.S. states, said Amazon systematically inflated auction prices for advertisers…

A shopper messages a retailer's “product concierge” that looks and sounds exactly like the founder who launched the company a decade ago. A training video features an associate of the year, still greeting new hires long after she left for a competitor. Neither is science fiction. Generative artificial intelligence now makes it simple to turn…

International e-commerce has always operated on a simple assumption: if an order was inexpensive, it could move across borders with little friction. That assumption is changing. On July 1, 2026, the European Union quietly eliminated its €150 duty-free threshold for imports, replacing it with a new customs duty structure that applies fees by product category…

Shoppers today have more unprecedented access to international brands, far beyond what was possible a decade ago. In fact, many consumers are using marketplaces, social platforms, and direct-to-consumer sites to purchase products halfway across the world. But access alone doesn't seal the deal. What I hear from retailers today is that the opportunity has never…

Spencer Spirit Holdings, the parent company of Spirit Halloween and Spencer’s, has agreed to acquire Hot Topic and its portfolio of brands from private equity firm Sycamore Partners, Yahoo Finance reports. Financial terms weren’t disclosed, although Bloomberg reported that the deal is valued at approximately $350 million. The acquisition brings Hot Topic, BoxLunch and Her…

Amazon.com announced last week that that it has received $600 million in tariff refunds after the Supreme Court ruled that many of President Donald Trump’s levies were illegal. The online retail giant said it expects to return some of that cash to customers. “We’ve identified a limited set of circumstances where we can trace that we’ve…

Shein’s U.S. business is under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, the fast-fashion giant revealed in documents connected to its upcoming Hong Kong initial public offering. In the filing, the Chinese-founded company didn’t say what the FTC is investigating, but the disclosure appears to be the first time the probe was made public. Shein previously tried…

Nike is planning to cut off thousands of online distributors in China beginning in January as the sneaker giant looks to clean up what’s become a messy digital marketplace and get the region back to growth, the company said Tuesday. Starting next year, Nike’s online footprint will shift primarily to the retailer’s official website and…

Destination XL Group's (DXL) board of directors no longer believes its planned merger with FullBeauty Brands is in the best interests of DXL and its stockholders, reports Yahoo Finance. The company on Monday issued a preliminary proxy statement recommending that stockholders vote against an issuance proposal, which is needed to consummate the merger. DXL cited…

GameStop has nearly doubled its stake in eBay to 9.8 percent, escalating pressure on the online marketplace after its unsolicited takeover proposal was rebuffed earlier this year. According to a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, GameStop now owns 43.4 million eBay shares after significantly increasing its position over recent weeks. The…