Shopifreaks E-commerce Industry News Recap ?? Week of Jan 27th, 2025

Shopifreaks E-commerce Industry News Recap ?? Week of Jan 27th, 2025

Hi LinkedIn - I'm Paul Drecksler and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-Commerce Newsletter.

This is a summary recap of the 210th Edition published Jan 27th, 2025. Check out the full edition for links and sources and subscribe here.


STAT OF THE WEEK: In Q4 2024, Google search spending rose 10% YoY while click growth remained relatively flat at 3% and CPC increased by 7%. Meanwhile, Meta saw 15% ad spend growth during the same period and TikTok saw 13% growth, a noticeable decrease from its 27% growth in Q3 and 64% growth in Q4 2024. Many advertisers pulled back on TikTok spending during the previous quarter given the uncertainty of the platform's future in the US.


eBay, DoorDash, Instacart, & Uber are among the companies that have signed on to participate in the research preview of OpenAI's new Operator agent, which the company describes as “an agent that can use its own browser to perform tasks for you.” Operator acts as a virtual assistant, autonomously preforming tasks across the Internet such as shopping, filling out forms, and booking travel based on the user's instructions. Operator is currently available to Pro users ($200/month) in the US, with plans to eventually expand it to Plus, Team, and Enterprise users as well as integrate the capabilities into ChatGPT in the future. Operator is currently in an early research preview, and OpenAI warns users that while it’s already capable of handling a wide range of tasks, it’s still learning, evolving and may make mistakes.


Walmart is launching a program allowing verified customers to receive products at their homes, test them, and provide feedback to suppliers. The in-home user test program is exclusively for suppliers that subscribe to the company's insight platform, Walmart Luminate (being rebranded as Scintilla in February), which helps brands design surveys to collect customer feedback on new or existing products. The new in-home tests will be exclusively available to Walmart's Customer Spark community, which is an invitation-only group of shoppers that Walmart has used to conduct surveys with since 2018 and began utilizing for Luminate clients in 2022. Modern Retail notes that suppliers often turn to third-party research companies rather than retailers to perform product testing, but now Walmart can provide the service directly by tapping into its massive customer base and data capabilities.


DeepSeek, a relatively unknown AI research lab from China, released an open source model that's quickly risen in popularity to become the #1 free download on Apple's App Store, leaving ChatGPT behind in second place. According to a paper authored by the company, DeepSeek-R1 beats the industry's leading models like OpenAI o1 on several math and reasoning benchmarks. It's also significantly cheaper to use because it was significantly cheaper to develop. CNBC published a great video report a few days ago that dives deeper into DeepSeek's history, including how it's been able to outperform America’s best AI models despite only taking two months and less than $6M to build, all without access to the top of the line processors that American AI companies are hoarding and the government is withholding from Chinese competitors.


Alongside the launch of the Galaxy S25 series last week, Samsung announced two updates coming soon to its Samsung Wallet that mirror existing features on iPhones with some improvements. Instant Installment is a new Wallet feature that facilitates customer purchases and turns payments into what Samsung says is “the first offline payment plan experience.” Samsung isn't offering credit to consumers directly, but instead is simplifying the process for users to turn their purchases into installments at checkout and then letting the customer keep track of their installment payments through the Wallet app. Tap To Transfer is the company's new peer-to-peer payments feature, similar to Apple's Tap to Cash, which allows iPhone owners to hold their phones together to send money to each other. However unlike Apple's solution, Samsung's method will work with third-party digital wallets as well, and rather than tying the transaction directly to Samsung Wallet, the feature works with the debit or credit card linked to the users' Samsung Wallet account.


Wix launched an integration with YouTube Shopping that enables merchants to sell their products directly through the platform with increased visibility across their profile. The update allows merchants to display their products in a dedicated store format on their YouTube profiles, tag products in YouTube videos, livestreams, and shorts, and have their products appear on the YouTube store tab, making it easy for viewers to purchase. Wix automatically syncs product details like descriptions and images between platforms. Several other e-commerce platforms have integrated with YouTube Shopping to enable merchants to showcase and sell products directly through YouTube including Shopify, Fourthwall, Spreadshop, and Spring (formerly Teespring). BigCommerce doesn't offer a direct integration, but third-party apps make it possible.?


On his first day in office, President Trump came through on his promise and signed an executive order delaying the enforcement of the TikTok ban for 75 days, providing additional time to negotiate a resolution. Despite the executive order, Apple and Google have not reinstated TikTok in their US app stores because they don't want to risk the $5k fine, per user, for violating the law if Trump's executive order doesn't withstand the test of time. Consequently, new downloads and updates of the app remain unavailable for US users. As a result, people are selling smartphones with TikTok pre-installed on platforms like eBay and Facebook Marketplace for thousands of dollars! Initially, Beijing was opposed to a forced sale of TikTok. However, recent reports suggest that Chinese officials are now more open to the idea, especially if it helps prevent a nationwide ban in the US. Several parties have expressed interest in acquiring TikTok's US operations, including Perplexity AI which submitted a revised merger proposal to ByteDance, suggesting the creation of a new entity where the US government could own up to a 50% stake post-IPO. There have also been discussion about a proposal where Oracle and American investors would manage TikTok's US operations, with ByteDance retaining a stake.


Instagram is about to look a lot more like TikTok after implementing changes to its app like a vertical grid to replace its historically square profile grid. Some users were upset over the changes because they had spent time carefully aligning their square profile grids into beautiful experiences, but I'm sure they'll get over it, as Instagram says it has additional changes in the works to give users more control over how their profiles look. Additionally, coming soon at Instagram, users will be able to adjust toe crop of grid images and reorder their grid entirely, as well as post directly to the grid without simultaneously posting to their feed. Highlights, which allow users to pin stories to the top of their profile, are also moving to the grid, and length of Reels are being increased from 90 seconds to up to 3 minutes.


Shopify laid off even more employees from its customer support division, according to Business Insider sources. It's not clear how many were let go, but one person familiar with the matter estimated that it was at least a dozen. So what, right? 12 employees got let go from a company with over 8,000 workers? That's not exactly headline news. Or is it…. Three people told Business Insider that Shopify has quietly laid off workers several times since its major restructuring in May 2023, in a manner similar to this week's layoffs. It appears that instead of performing massive layoffs that garner media attention, Shopify has been slowly but surely churning customer support staff without replacing them.


Remember Tumblr TV? Me neither…?Tumblr launched the GIF discovery feature in 2015 as an experimental product, but now, given all the TikTok drama and the fact that every other platform is launching a TikTok competitor, Tumblr has?decided to add video?to Tumblr TV and make the feature official. Users will now see a prominent tab in the app promoting the video feed, which leaves a lot to be desired at the moment because creators hadn't been making vertical videos for it, but may improve over time if folks start uploading videos.?


Threads?began rolling out?a “limited, early test of ads” within the app, beginning with a handful of brands in the US and Japan. The ads will appear as images between posts in your home feed, and Meta will use your activity on Threads and Instagram to deliver a personalized advertising experience. Man, I'm sure Zuckerberg and the team at Meta have been chomping at the bits to get ads onto Threads and now the day has finally arrived!


eBay?is hoping to?increase the number of buyers?on its platform by incentivizing new sellers to become buyers too, offering a $15 coupon to spend on a purchase of $50 or more, if they sell an item for more than $10. Liz Morton of Value Added Resources notes that CEO Jamie Iannone's willingness to give up fee revenue in order to boost GMV and Active Buyers was a strategy that he had been highly critical of when the previous CEO Devin Wenig implemented it back in 2018-2019. eBay's active buyers grew to 133M in the most recent quarter after being stuck at 132M for 5 quarters, but the company has still had 10 consecutive quarters with less active buyers than Q1 2018.


In other eBay news…?the company?acknowledged a problem?with its search engine yielding unrelated items in its results. Buyers and sellers have been discussing the poor search experience on the platform for several months, such as the issue of adding a word to a search query bringing back more results instead of fewer, which is contrary to typical search expectations. eBay says it is working on the issues. They should simply power their search engine with Google, Perplexity, or OpenAI.?


President Trump?signed a?full and unconditional pardon?for?Ross Ulbricht, aka: Dread Pirate Roberts, who operated the dark web marketplace Silk Road, which facilitated the sale of illicit items from 2011 until it was shut down in 2013. (Anyone else mis-remember Silk Road as operating for longer? Everyone knew about it!) Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 in a narcotics and money-laundering conspiracy and sentenced to two life sentences, plus 40 years, which the judge at the time said was to set an example for any potential copycats. The pardon is basically a free pass for Andy Jassy and any other online marketplace leaders to do whatever illegal things they want with immunity. “Well, if Ulbricht got out…”


Amazon?restarted the application process?for foreign workers to obtain green cards after a two-year pause in which the company suspended new PERM filings. Amazon didn't provide a specific reason for resuming the program, but likely its to prepare for a more competitive labor market. The Program Electronic Review Management process, or PERM, requires companies to prove that hiring foreign employees won't harm job opportunities or wages for US workers, and the process takes between 2-3 years and can cost up to $20,000 per employee.


TikTok?launched?GMV Max in the UK, a new AI-powered tool that brands can use to minimize the time it takes to create a campaign for their TikTok shopping efforts. The new solution was designed to maximize gross merchandise value by using AI to optimize brands' product listings within the app.


WhatsApp?users will soon be able to?sync their accounts?to Instagram and Facebook, allowing single sign-on and the ability for users to share status updates across all three platforms. The link won't be activated automatically, which means it's up to users to choose whether to connect their accounts.?


The U.K.’s antitrust regulator?opened investigations?into?Apple?and?Google?over their business practices in the mobile market to determine whether the companies engage in anticompetitive practices. The probe picks up where the agency left off last August, when it closed a pair of investigations that it had launched in 2021 and 2022. The agency explained at the time that it was planning to restart the reviews under the UK's DMCC Act, which went into effect earlier this year.


Sheryl Sandberg, Meta's former COO and board member, was?sanctioned?by a Delaware judge for allegedly deleting e-mails related to the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal, despite being instructed not to do so by a court. The e-mails were from her personal Gmail account, which she apparently used to communicate about business related to the scandal.? Now Sandberg must prove her defense by “clear and convincing” evidence


IMDb's founder and CEO, Col Needham, is?stepping down?as CEO after 35 years to be replaced by Nikki Santoro, who has served as the company's COO since 2021. Santoro has been with IMDb since 2016, leading the company in expanding its database and improving its Pro membership. She previously held leadership positions at Amazon (which acquired IMDb in 1998), Microsoft, and The Weather Channel.


Ulta Beauty's?chief marketing & e-commerce officer, Michelle Crossan-Matos, is?stepping down?from the position, which she's served in since January 2023. Her departure comes on the hells of a CEO shakeup at the company. Dave Kimbell is retiring as CEO to be succeeded by Kecia Steelman, the company's president and COO.


In a?leaked e-mail?reviewed by The Wall Street Journal,?Elon Musk?said that X's “user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we're barely breaking even.” Musk denies ever sending that e-mail, but nonetheless, banks are getting ready to sell billions of dollars in debt borrowed by Elon Musk for the acquisition.


Meanwhile in Europe…?an increasing number of European politicians and government agencies have?suspended their accounts?on X in response to Elon Musk's antics. The “X-odus” is part of a growing trend of European leaders looking for ways to reduce their dependency on Donald Trump-aligned US tech. Probably a smart move for the EU.


The UK's Competition and Markets Authority, a watchdog agency which has repeatedly investigated Amazon's business practices,?will now be run?by former Amazon executive Doug Gurr for some reason. The decision was explained as wanting to see regulators “supercharging the economy with pro-businesses decisions that will drive prosperity and growth, putting more money in people's pockets.”


ByteDance?plans to spend?more than $12B on AI infrastructure this year, about half of which would be used to acquire AI chips, doubling the amount it spent last year. The other half would be invested overseas to beef up its foundation model training capabilities using advanced Nvidia chips. ByteDance released its AI chatbot Doubao in August 2023, which has since become China’s most popular AI app.


Checkout.com, which was once Europe's most valuable private tech startup,?turned a profit?at the end of 2024 and is now targeting a full-year of profitability in 2025. The London-based payment processor reported a 45% YoY net revenue growth across its processing business last year after adding 300 new enterprise partners including Alibaba, Adidas, Delivery Hero, and Uber Eats.


Meta?is?offering deals?to creators to promote Instagram on other short-form video apps including TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube, attempting to seize the opportunity to promote the app while TikTok is not currently available for download from Apple and Google's app stores. As part of the deals, creators must promote Instagram twice a month on other platforms and exclusively post their content on Instagram for three months before posting it elsewhere. That sounds highly anti-competitive, but unfortunately anyone in the government who would've done something about it will soon no longer be in the position to do so. I'll miss you Lina Kahn!


Amazon?announced?that it will shut down its facilities in Quebec in the coming weeks and cut nearly 2,000 jobs to instead outsource deliveries to smaller contractors. The company insisted that the decision was not related to the recent unionization of 300 employees at one of its Quebec warehouses, and that it only has to do with cost savings. LOL, but you happened to choose to save cost at the unionized warehouse? Definitely sends a message to other facilities thinking about unionizing.?


Google?agreed to take firmer action?against British businesses that use fake reviews to boost their star ratings on its platform. This includes deactivating the ability to add new reviews for businesses found to be using fake reviews, and deleting all existing reviews for at least six months if they repeatedly engage in suspicious review activity, as well as placing prominent warning alerts on the profiles of businesses using fake reviews.


LinkedIn?is?being sued in California?for sharing private user data with 3rd party companies for AI training without adequately notifying users or giving them the opportunity to opt out. The lawsuit also accuses the Microsoft-owned network of concealing its actions a month later by changing its privacy policy to say user information could be disclosed for AI training purposes. Half of LinkedIn is AI at this point, so does that mean AI companies are paying LinkedIn to train their LLMs on AI-generated content??


Amazon?removed statements?advocating for LGBTQ rights and racial equality from its public listing of corporate policies. This move follows the company's deletion of statements to commit to “equity for Black people” and “LGBTQ+ rights” in December, along with any mentions of the word “transgender.”


Meanwhile north of the border,?Shopify?removed pages?from its website for its Build Native with Shopify, Empowered by Shopify, and Social Impact programs. The Build Native program provided resources and incentives for Indigenous-led companies to grow their e-commerce presence, while the other two programs were employee-initiated directories of Black and Indigenous-owned businesses.?


YouTube users?are experiencing?extremely long, unskippable ads that are sometimes up to an hour long. Google says the ads are part of its global effort to “urge viewers with ad blocks enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad free experience.” So effectively Google is bullying ad blocker users into ditching the software or subscribing to premium? Okay, I get that… but what companies are making these ridiculously long ads in the first place?


PayPal?was?fined $2M?by regulators in New York over cybersecurity failures which exposed personally identifiable information including names, social security numbers, and e-mail addresses of tens of thousands of customers. The fine follows an investigation by the New York State Department of Financial Services into shortcomings in cybersecurity practices that led up to the December 2022 breach, which determined that PayPal failed to use ‘qualified personnel' to manage key cybersecurity functions and didn't provide adequate training to address risks in cybersecurity.


Generic User Acquisition Organization, a newly launched company based out of New York,?announced plans?for TikTokToo, a social media platform designed to “redefine digital interaction” by simply copying TikTok. In a two and a half minute?introduction video, the company's founder Mr. Lee says, “China steals everything from US. Why we no steal from China?” Likely this is a troll video and TikTokToo won't ever see the light of day, but we all deserve a good laugh once in a while!


Plus 15 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest including?Anthropic raising $1B from Google, just two weeks after it became public that the company was in advanced discussions to raise $2B from Lightspeed Venture Partners at a $60B valuation, and two months after Amazon invested an additional $4B in the startup.


I hope you found this recap helpful.

For the full editions each week delivered straight to your Inbox with more details and links to sources, subscribe free at https://www.shopifreaks.com

See you next week!

Paul Drecksler

Faheem Abbas

Virtual Assistant (E-commerce) | Agriculture Entomology (Pest Control ) Consultant | eBay Expert |Drop shipping| Amazon |Walmart |Marcari |Seller Center Expert ???? |Passionate & Sincere About Challenging Work??????????

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