Editor’s note: We’re rerunning stories this week from our yearlong Quarter Century Project, in which we examined the last 25 years in retail.

In late June, while much of the US sweltered under an early-summer heat wave, things were heating up at the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, too.

Anker’s eufyMake E1, which is about the size of a microwave oven and claims to be the “first personal 3D-texture UV printer,” enabling consumers to print directly on a range of materials and objects, became the most funded project ever for Kickstarter.

The 60-day campaign, which had a $500,000 goal, ended on June 28 having raised $46.8 million, besting the previous record of $41.8 million by fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson, whose project involved publishing four novels over the course of 2023.

With the popularity of crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe, you’d be forgiven if you thought these platforms had been around for decades. But not so long ago these funding platforms for startups were themselves upstarts: Indiegogo launched in 2008, Kickstarter in 2009, and GoFundMe in 2010.

Among the brands that launched on Kickstarter are VR headset maker Oculus in 2012, Peloton in 2013, and both Allbirds (then named Three Over Seven) and Brooklinen in 2014.

While the raison d’être for these platforms—raising cash to produce a product or project—is nothing to sneeze at, many brands who turn to them find that a well-run fundraising campaign delivers much more than capital.

Keep reading here.—AAN

Back in 2014, while most of us were still swiping our credit cards or rifling through our wallets for cash, Apple was plotting to take over digital payments.

“From the outset, we envisioned a world where you could use your iPhone to seamlessly pay for everything—from groceries to train tickets, in person and online, across the globe—all while keeping your personal and financial information safe and private,” Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s VP of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, wrote in a blog post in 2024.

In retrospect, Apple’s sweeping vision seems justified. The iPhone-based digital wallet is now available in 84 markets and through 11,000 banks, and penetration has grown from 3% of US retailers accepting Apple Pay to 85% in just over a decade.

That is a “lightning speed” transition in the world of payments, Christopher Uriarte, payment expert at Glenbrook Partners, told Retail Brew. But it didn’t happen by accident.

Keep reading here.—AV

We asked our reporters, who play so well with others, to choose a favorite story from 2025 by a Retail Brew colleague.

For a retail reporter, it’s been hard not to think about all the ways in which AI is about to change online shopping.

So it makes perfect sense why Jeena Sharma’s story about people turning to each other for shopping advice caught this reporter’s attention. Jeena dug into data by review platform Trustpilot that seemingly went against retailers’ glossy AI press releases.

[Trustpilot’s National Write a Review Week], which ran October 20–24, attracted ~4 million visitors nationwide—a 63% jump from the same period in 2024—signaling how heavily shoppers are relying on feedback from real buyers.

Trustpilot’s AI and Black Friday shopping analysis reinforced the trend as 86% of shoppers checked reviews before making a holiday purchase. And in the lead-up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, 40% of respondents said they waited for others to post reviews before deciding what to buy.

Jeena was able to pick valuable customer data that others may have missed/skipped/ignored because of the sheer volume of surveys reporters get and highlight a crucial shopping trend that gives yours truly hope for the future.

Read the original story: Move over Instagram, consumers are turning to each other for shopping advice—VC