Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.

Retail Brew

Katishi Maake

retailbrew.com

Gen Zers are more resistant to ‘doom spending’ than you’d think

80% say doom spending and soft saving don’t reflect their financial habits: survey.

Gen Zers are more resistant to ‘doom spending’ than you’d think 

Resale is growing increasingly popular online: report 

45% of younger shoppers would prefer to buy secondhand online.

Alex Vuocolo

Shoppers’ pickier habits are spreading to essentials

Consumer spending reveals priorities.

Shoppers’ pickier habits are spreading to essentials, data shows  

E-Commerce

Vidhi Choudhary

AI is making sweeping changes to everything from product recommendations to checkout and changing the way consumers shop online.

Nowadays, agentic checkout is the latest battleground for AI dominance within e-commerce. Online payment incumbents like Mastercard and Visa released their respective agentic checkout programs in April—

. In May, Google said it plans to launch 

 in the coming months. And PayPal is offering developers its Agent Toolkit to support order creation, invoicing, and shipping.

By definition, agentic checkout is built on the same principles as AI shopping agents. Both are derived from 

, a more sophisticated AI system, which is trained to reason and act on behalf of shoppers. Three experts said the success of agentic checkout will rely on strong partnerships between payment providers, e-commerce platforms, and technology innovators.

Dave Anderson, VP of product marketing for digital analytics company Contentsquare, told Retail Brew that this moment is like “the dawn of a whole new industry, much like when SEO [search engine optimization] and PPC [pay-per-click] first started,” Anderson wrote in an email.

“The payment companies and e-commerce platforms that position themselves as the infrastructure powering AI agents, rather than competing against them, will capture the most value as this market develops,” Anderson said.

Meanwhile, PayPal is paying it forward with new improvements. “We’re upgrading our infrastructure built over decades to handle the heavier event volume of AI-driven transactions,” Michelle Gill, GM of small business and financial services at PayPal, told Retail Brew in an email.

“To make agentic commerce real, we’re equipping developers with open, interoperable tools like PayPal’s Agent Toolkit to support order creation, invoicing, and shipping. This unlocks the ability to build production-ready, agent-powered experiences with confidence,” Gill said.

While this sounds like a lot of work, Mastercard’s Co-President of Global Partnerships Sherri Haymond said that retailers won’t need to “rip out” their entire technology infrastructure for this transition: “As a retailer…I don’t think they’re going to be running to change their e-commerce platform provider or anything like that, so long as those e-commerce platform providers—which I know they are—are working to make these environments accessible to their merchant community.”

“I would encourage merchants to have an open mind, and to be willing to explore this new technology, and to lean in and do the work to make their environment accessible in this new way,” Haymond said.

 said it will build checkout functionality within ChatGPT.

At a high level, Haymond said that agentic checkout really is changing what’s possible in online shopping: “I think it has the potential to bring a whole different level of…with consumer consent, personalization and speed and efficiency.”

“For what it’s worth, we don’t think that anytime soon [that] all transactions are going to be autonomous or anything like that, [or] agents are going to go buy things without humans…without their consent, or anything like that,” Haymond added.

“Agentic commerce requires open infrastructure, verified identity, and seamless, secure payments—and that’s what we’re delivering,” Gill said. She added PayPal’s tools “integrate easily into agent frameworks without locking developers into a closed ecosystem.” The general sense in the industry is that “rather than competing, these stakeholders increasingly collaborate to harness the potential of agentic AI,” she said.

Ultimately, whether AI will get along with e-commerce and payment providers remains to be seen. Anderson said that the ecosystem is evolving to include AI, but “not necessarily” for AI to replace current players in e-commerce and/or payment providers completely.

“Over time, their ability to get along will come down to how AI firms will recoup their costs,” he said. “It’s likely they’ll take commissions just like any marketplace, and retailers will probably end up paying for better positioning in AI recommendations—similar to how they bid on Google today.”

AI dominance in e-commerce has a new focus: agentic checkout technology

As AI reshapes online retail, e-commerce platforms and payment providers are united in their goal to create frictionless, secure, and tailored shopping experiences for consumers.

Shopify’s July shopping cart was ruled by parents, performers, and tennis enthusiasts, according to data shared first with Retail Brew.

Orders for items like umbrella strollers and baby bottles popped at a whopping 1,125% and 1,121%, respectively. Orders for related items for the little ones like bibs (up 518%), onesies (319%), sippy cups (278%), bottle warmers (167%), and nap mats (126%) also drew big numbers.

Hair bands experienced a staggering 906% surge in July orders, driven by performers upgrading their stage accessories. Form-fitting one-piece garments like leotards and unitards saw demand rise 394% and orders for specialized footwear for dancers rose 301%.

 As the US Open draws near, tennis players and fans are serving up serious demand for essentials like tennis shoes, which drew a massive 708% spike in orders for July. Orders for platform and paddle tennis paddles, tennis racket grips and tape, and tennis balls also spiked.

 Meanwhile, as students gear up for another school year, parents loaded up on uniforms, supplies, and everything needed to launch the semester successfully. Orders for school uniforms went up 471%, bulletin board trim orders went up by 261%, and orders for lunch boxes and totes rose 157%.

Separately, orders for athletic gear like sports uniforms went up 246%, track jacket orders rose 99%, and scoreboards rose 77% in July.

Shopify shoppers went all out for baby gear, hair bands, and tennis shoes

Shopify’s July data showed a spike in orders for umbrella strollers, baby bottles, tennis shows, hair bands, and school uniforms.

Shopify shoppers went all out for baby gear, hair bands, and tennis shoes in July

Last week, both Amazon and Meta threw their hats in the AI wristband ring.

 acquired Bee, which makes a $49.99 wristband equipped with AI and microphones that can listen to discussions and break them down into quick summaries, action items, and daily reminders.

 designed a new wristband with technology that taps into the electrical currents flowing through our muscles during finger movements. By detecting these brain-generated impulses, the system can predict your intended actions moments before you perform them.

 Both companies are going after data to deliver different AI experiences. Meta’s wristband represents a broader push to create hands-free technology that allows users to command their devices through pure intention rather than physical contact.

Meanwhile, Amazon’s interest seems more to collect more data to build AI models. Since generative AI excels at processing vast amounts of information, the more it learns about users’ daily routines and behaviors, the better it becomes at assisting them. Additionally, this consumer data, when aggregated across millions of users, serves as valuable training material to improve the AI systems themselves.

 Nova, a framework of massive data sets that can be used to build AI-powered, sophisticated shopping agents.

The Amazon-Meta rivalry has found its latest sidekick: AI wristbands 

Both tech giants view AI wristbands as the future of ubiquitous computing, with Amazon prioritizing voice-activated assistance while Meta emphasizes gesture-based control to power its Metaverse.

 Prime Day from two days to four days may have backfired—as it appears shoppers used the extra time to look for better deals at a major competitor, Bloomberg reports.

Credit and debit card transaction data from 

, a consumer analytics platform, found that spending on Walmart’s competing weeklong sales event grew 24%, or six times faster, than Amazon Prime Day’s annual growth.

In addition, the platform found that 8% of Prime Day customers also shopped online at Walmart, which is up from 5% in 2024.

And Walmart wasn’t the only competitor to drive sales around Prime Day. In what could be a clear case of a rising tide lifting all boats, Adobe Analytics found that 

 were up 30.3% year over year over the four-day period, while sales at Amazon alone were up just 4.9%.

The e-commerce giant also had a bit of a slower start this year, with Day 1 sales down 41% from the year before, per Momentum Commerce—though Amazon 

Some experts are calling this effect the “

Amazon, for its part, said this year marked its “Biggest Prime Day event ever,” emphasizing the number of deals on offer. “This year’s extended Prime Day event delivered incredible savings to our members across millions of deals,” Doug Herrington, CEO of Amazon Worldwide Stores, said in a 

The backdrop for these deals, however, is that Amazon raised prices on 1,200 low-cost essential items in the last five months, according to a Wall Street Journal 

, an analysis which the company notably called “

Walmart benefits from Amazon’s extended Prime Day

Online spending at Walmart increased six times faster than Amazon during the four-day event.

Walmart benefits from Amazon’s extended Prime Day: Bloomberg

Tariffs are giving consumer demand a complete makeover, and it’s not exactly pretty. The summer of 2025 has changed how Americans shop, according to a recent July 

 by Wunderkind, an AI-powered performance marketing platform. Tariffs and inflation are squeezing family budgets, and the pressure is forcing people to shop differently.

For instance, consumer spending during Prime Day and similar sales declined significantly in 2025, as just 28% of shoppers surveyed spent more during the event, while 39% spent less than previous years, Wunderkind reported.

The company said the data signals a climate where consumers are “more selective, weighing purchases carefully amid ongoing inflation and tariff uncertainty.” Wunderkind’s findings are based on survey data collected between July 11 and July 14 from 303 US consumers, evenly split across genders and adult age groups.

Shoppers surveyed who spent more during Prime Day did so mainly for better deals (32%), to stock up on essentials (25%), or to finish holiday and back-to-school shopping early (17%), per Wunderkind data. According to Adobe Analytics data, Prime Day 

“The event came down to a dramatic finish, with savvy brands fine-tuning their promotional strategies until the final hours while consumers responded with significant purchasing activity in the closing stretch,” John Shea, head of commerce at PMG, said in a 

Price anxiety has ruled the summer shopping season, with 64% of consumers naming higher prices as their biggest worry and 47% concerned about unpredictable increases. Other issues like out-of-stock products affected about 1 in 5 shoppers, but price remains the overwhelming concern.

According to Wunderkind data, holiday shopping will kick off later than usual for many US shoppers this year, with the majority waiting until September (15%) or October (23%), rather than starting earlier than September (11%).

Shoppers are already planning changes for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 shopping, and 30% surveyed said they plan to spend less money during the crucial holiday weekend.

However, there is one bright spot—Gen Z (36%) is more likely to shop early, in September or before, Wunderkind reported. But overall economic uncertainty is the reason why the majority of those surveyed plan to hold out for the best deals.

Tariffs have changed summer and holiday shopping in the US

Almost 40% of surveyed consumers spent less on Amazon Prime Day than in years past.

To say that everything has been on sale these days would be an understatement. This brings up a key question: How are retailers doing this summer in a big year of change for the sector overall?

The summer 2025 sales season kicked off with Amazon’s extended four-day Prime Day (July 8–11), which 

 $24.1 billion in US e-commerce sales across all retailers—representing 30.3% YoY growth and greater sales than two Black Fridays, per Adobe data.

Separately, Numerator data showed that Prime Day shoppers also reported shopping at other retailers’ summer sales events. Numerator 

 49% of respondents said they shopped or planned to shop at Walmart Deals, 38% said they shopped at Target Circle Week, and 11% shopped at Best Buy Black Friday in July.

This summer sales season also stands out for its longer duration. The time periods of 

 starting with Amazon and extending to week-long events by other rivals is what some experts are now calling the “Prime week” phenomenon.

“I think we’re looking at this early July period as a big holiday sales peak period, which could rival like Cyber 5 weekend, the Black Friday weekend, in terms of shopping activity,” Sky Canaves, eMarketer principal analyst for retail and e-commerce, told Retail Brew.

“Summer has cemented itself as an important sales period for retailers,” Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, wrote in an email. “With $24 billion spent online during Prime Week alone, it’s clear that consumers are treating this time of year as an opportunity not just for flash deals, but to stock up on everyday essentials, back-to-school supplies, and even early holiday buys.”

Digital marketing agency PMG’s Senior Principal for Strategy Erica Rix told Retail Brew via email that recent performance data at PMG from the July 4 and Prime Day windows showed a clear pattern: “Many brands that ran promotional campaigns significantly outperformed those that didn’t.”

“The majority of participating retailers saw double-digit year over year gains in both traffic and conversion, underscoring how critical promotions remain in an environment where consumers are being more selective with their discretionary dollars,” Rix added.

 Canaves said that Walmart was the shopping platform consumers were most likely to turn to either compare prices with or shop for their deals, citing data from CivicScience shared with Retail Brew. Per this data, 43% of respondents said they shopped at Walmart around the same time as Prime Day.

Another surprise winner during these summer sales was electronics retailer Best Buy. Placer.ai 

 showed that Best Buy received the largest visit boosts during its July promotional event with visits increasing between 13.2% to 21.9% every day between July 7 and July 11 compared to same-day year-to-date averages.

“This year, Best Buy was very competitive with its discounts, and I think that helped boost some of the activity we saw around demand for computers, consumer electronics, and appliances that Adobe has noted. Those were some really strong categories,” Canaves said. Electronics as a category saw 95% jump during Prime Day, Adobe data showed.

Overall, Rix said shoppers are making more deliberate buying decisions, driving up average order value: “Consumers are exhibiting more intentional purchase behaviors leaning in more heavily during promotional windows and taking advantage of these opportunities when they arise.”

Ultimately, Canaves said, the big takeaway is that traditionally, there was a lull in the summer, but now it’s becoming more like Prime week thanks to a longer Prime Day hosted by Amazon.

“Amazon leads, but other retailers, I think, will find it valuable to participate in a big sale during that period as well,” she said. “Now we have a whole week of sales events in July, and it will be pretty well coordinated and consolidated around the same time [as] Amazon.

Weeklong sales lead to strong summer for some retailers online

Walmart and Best Buy are among two standout winners besides Amazon, which takes the top spot.

Erin Cabrey

SEO is pushing 30, and another upstart acronym could be coming for the search discovery throne—GEO, or generative engine optimization.

As consumers are increasingly utilizing large language models like ChatGPT—72% use these tools regularly, per Accenture—they’re often using them for product recommendations, making these engines “the new influencers," and creating the need for brands to make themselves visible.

While the tools are new, they’re quickly gaining momentum. The traffic AI sources are driving to retailer websites has risen 1,200% between July 2024 and February 2025, per Adobe Analytics, and grew 3,300% year over year during Amazon’s Prime Day event last week. For generative AI users, 18% say it’s a top tool for purchase recommendation, behind only physical stores and ahead of social media, according to an Accenture survey.

And the engines themselves are leaning into commerce. In April, OpenAI 

 assisting consumers in product research through ChatGPT, while Perplexity and PayPal 

“It’s going to change the way people shop,” Jill Standish, global retail lead at Accenture, told Retail Brew, and retailers and brands may need to shift their marketing strategies to keep up.

Consumers can use these tools for everything from vacation outfit options to grocery shopping list suggestions based on a given recipe. Of consumers who have used AI tools to make a purchase, 57% bought groceries and household supplies, 32% for apparel and beauty, and only 3% for luxury, according to Bain, so comfort declines among higher price points, Natasha Sommerfeld, partner at Bain & Company, said.

Some may find LLMs easier than search to interact with because they can ask them questions rather than type key words, Standish said.

“I could say, ‘What should I wear to my son’s wedding in July in California?’ versus ‘Help me find a maxi length dress in blue,’” she said. “It’s very much a recommendation.”

And consumers tend to trust generative AI engines’ product recommendations because they’re essentially training the tools themselves by asking for different options if they don’t like the first recommendation, she noted.

If brands and retailers are interested in adapting to the rising use of LLMs, they could start by looking at where their traffic is coming from—if the majority is still coming from traditional search, they can stay focused on SEO for now, Standish noted. But if traffic is increasingly coming from other sources, they may need to adjust their marketing to ensure their products are showing up.

“Double down on your brand,” Standish recommended, meaning not only being clear with messaging and marketing, but also optimizing product attribution to make them discoverable by the crawlers. In apparel, for example, beyond just product dimensions, material, and style, occasions it could be worn for are useful when it comes to LLMs. And use of natural language, almost in a FAQ-style, rather than just key words, is essential, Sommerfeld noted. Price and availability in store are also factors the engines take into account, especially when it comes to grocery items.

Some brands have already begun to make this shift. At Shoptalk Europe, Mark Elkins, general manager of global ecommerce at L'Oreal, noted the new need for “consumer-centric” context in marketing to adjust to shoppers’ use of gen AI engines.

“It’s going to require changes, which I think are very good for consumer goods companies, because it’s going to force us to go away from just functional descriptions of product features to need states, occasions, intent,” he said. “For example, rather than just having the SPF benefits of sun cream, it needs to be linked to the fact that you’re going on holiday.”

Elkins also noted this could make ratings, reviews, and communications across channels more important for brands. Bain’s Sommerfeld echoed this, as beyond ecommerce sites, LLMs also take into consideration what consumers are saying about brands and retailers across the web, particularly on 

 (cited heavily by OpenAI and Google AI summaries). This means where customers are searching, what information these engines can pull, and, of course, what consumers are saying, is important to consider.

“One big shift for marketers is that old school reputation management becomes much more important and customer lifecycle management becomes much more important,” Sommerfeld said. This could require more top-of-funnel marketing investment focused on brand awareness as bottom-of-funnel search-related marketing could be less fruitful for brands.

 While all of these changes are a lot to consider, one difference between SEO and GEO will likely be welcomed by marketers: Because these engines are constantly scraping the web for answers, brands and retailers can make adjustments and see results quickly, Sommerfeld noted, unlike SEO, which could suffer a monthslong flop era before showing signs of improvement.

Two shopping bags next to a smiling AI robot wearing headphones and a web browser displaying shoes