#ecommerce Welcome to The V Spot your weekly dose of ecommerce news with more edge than your Q2 budget cuts. This week, sales dipped, robots rose, managers disappeared, and TikTok laid off the only humans left. It’s like retail is doing a full reboot... just without the plot. If you’re still trying to understand what’s happening relax. Nobody else does either. But we’ll help you pretend you do, with sarcasm, stats, and stories that definitely didn’t come from a McKinsey deck.
This episode is powered by Omnisend, the email and SMS platform for merchants who don’t have time to learn five other tools or decipher acronyms like CDP, ERP, or RFM. With Omnisend, brands earn $68 for every $1 spent or what Bolt might call “just another Tuesday valuation.”
“Retail Sales? More Like Retail Stalls”
Source: Reuters
US retail sales dropped 0.9% in May, the sharpest fall this year. Cars and furniture slumped, but online sales just about held steady.
“Consumers are choosing one-click checkout... for stress. But hey, at least Shopify’s still smiling.”
“Walmart Joins the Great Manager Mow-Down”
Source: Business Insider
Walmart and Wayfair are cutting layers of middle management to “flatten org charts.”
“Translation: Congrats, you’re now reporting directly to a Slack bot.”
“TikTok Shop is Now TikTok Chop”
Source: Business Insider
TikTok’s ecommerce arm is quietly letting go of even more staff. The algorithm might be sticky, but the HR policy is on shuffle mode.
“It’s like musical chairs, but the chairs are disappearing in real time.”
Amazon Hits the Budget Breaks
Source: Business Insider
Amazon’s frozen its hiring budget in retail for 2025. Growth? Yes. New humans? Not so much.
“Alexa, hire no one and double my EBITDA.”
Rise of the Robotic Middle Class
Source: TechCrunch
Amazon is redefining warehouse jobs. New roles include “robot babysitter” and “mechanical therapist.” Seriously.
Congratulations, you’re now managing Carl a 900kg shelf-lifting droid with no PTO and a better attitude than Steve in accounting.
Prime Day Will Be AI’s Coming-Out Party
Source: TechCrunch
Amazon Prime Day will generate $23.8B with GenAI shopping assistants playing a bigger role than ever.
“Your cart has never felt more judged, or more upsold. by a machine.”
Shopify AI Now Does Everything But Fulfill Orders
Source: TechCrunch
Shopify rolled out a generative AI tool to build your entire store for you. Voice prompts, banners, copy, all done by the robots.
Now you too can launch a DTC brand at 2am after three tequilas and a TikTok binge.”
Thanks again to Omnisend, the email marketing tool that’s genuinely useful, not just another SaaS you forget to cancel. It plays nice with Shopify, makes you look good in meetings, and yes, real humans still answer their support line.
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