Shopifreaks E-commerce Industry News Recap ?? Week of Mar 3rd, 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 215th Edition published Mar 3rd, 2025. Check out the full edition for links and sources and subscribe here.

STAT OF THE WEEK: 80 of the world's 250 largest e-commerce companies?have their headquarters in USA. Germany holds a distant second place with 22 company headquarters, followed by France and UK with 17 each.

Amazon is going global with Haul, its bargain basement marketplace that launched in November in the US to compete with Temu, Shein, and other low-cost direct-from-China marketplaces. Amazon's plan is to expand Haul to countries in Europe this year, according to a seller consultant who spoke with Amazon representatives. A recent job posting also indicated efforts to launch Haul in Mexico as part of a broader global expansion. Listings for Haul-related jobs from February said that the 2025 goals of the company's S-Team, a group of 29 executives including CEO Andy Jassy and retail chief Doug Herrington, include making Haul “Go Big” in the US and launching worldwide this year in a move that would put Haul in direct competition with Temu in potentially more than 100 countries where the Chinese marketplace operates.

At an event in New York City last week, Amazon presented the long awaited next generation of its Alexa assistant — creatively known as Alexa+. Alexa+ is based on generative AI and a more natural conversational UI, the goal being for users to move away from “Alexa Speak” towards a new type of conversational engagement that feels more natural and expressive. Users will be able to do things via voice commands like shift music being played from one room to another, query video recordings for things like package deliveries and letting pets out, skip to specific scenes in movies, and even send event invites. Amazon says that Alexa+ can tap into “tens of thousands” of other services and devices to take actions for customers, including with OpenTable, Dyson, Plex, Samsung, Xbox, and Hulu, and for online services that don't have API, Alexa+ should be able to visit and navigate their websites on your behalf, similar to OpenAI Operator.

Amazon is testing a new way to pay publishers for driving traffic to its marketplaces in a pilot program called “native commerce advertising” or “NCA.” Through the program, the publisher earns money when it sends readers to Amazon product recommendations, regardless of whether they end up buying a product or not, according to Business Insider sources. Amazon was one of the first online retailers to offer an affiliate program (Amazon Associates), which pays a commission on sales generated from referred traffic. The key difference between Associates and NCA is that the former only pays for sales, whereas the latter is paying for traffic on a cost-per-click basis, regardless of if it generates any sales. CNN, Vox Media, and Future are among the small group of publishers participating in the NCA pilot, which Amazon plans to expand this year with more publishers. Amazon is pitching NCA as a way for publishers to make additional money on top of its Associates program, which means publishers can enroll in both programs simultaneously and earn on both clicks and sales.

Meta is planning to debut a standalone AI app during the next few months, according to CNBC sources, as well as test a paid subscription service for Meta AI that would offer advanced features and access to the company's latest LLMs. The Meta AI chatbot originally launched in September 2023, and in April 2024, the company made it front and center in its apps by replacing the search feature for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger with the AI chatbot. Now Meta plans to offer its AI chatbot as a standalone app, in hopes that new and existing users interact more deeply with it. Shortly after this story about a standalone Meta AI app was published, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in an X post, “ok fine maybe we’ll do a social app.”

TikTok unveiled a new web-based experience that features: 1) Modular Design – featuring a repositioned navigation bar and a more immersive viewing experience that expands to fill the height of your browser. 2) LIVE Game Streaming – available in portrait or landscape mode, allowing desktop users to view a full-screen horizontal view. 3) Floating Video Player – a flexible floating window that keeps TikTok visible above other windows, available exclusively on desktop via Google Chrome. 4) New Collections Feature – allows users to organize their favorite videos into custom categories so that it's easier to find and revisit saved content later (similar to YouTube Playlists).

TikTok is sunsetting Creator Marketplace, its platform that connects brands with content creators for paid collaborations and sponsored content that it launched in 2019, on April 1st, to be replaced with its new TikTok One platform. TikTok One will offer brands the same ability to connect with creators, as well as provide new tools to help creators find inspiration, research trends, and connect with other experts for help with “native-looking” TikTok videos for their ad campaigns. The platform includes a trend tracker as well as tools for discovering top user-generated content, creators, hashtags, and songs, alongside tips on how to use TikTok creative tools, ad products, and business accounts.

BigCommerce is doubling down on its B2B e-commerce strategy, according to its CEO Travis Hess, who has led the company since October 2024, after previously having served as President since May that year. Hess claims that BigCommerce now has 12,000 B2B accounts, making it “one of the largest, if not the largest B2B SaaS player in market,” and that half of the company's net new bookings in 2024 came from B2B. He also shared that BigCommerce has integrated its operations and restructured into three clear offering groups: B2C, B2B, and Small Business.

Meta launched a $50M Creator Fund for developers building games for its online virtual space Horizon Worlds. The company says it will make payouts each month to developers based on factors like engagement, retention, and in-world purchases. The company also noted that Meta Horizon Creator Program members can increase earnings through in-world purchases, which will expand to 18 more countries. As part of the initiative, Meta introduced its first creator competition of the year — offering a $1M mobile-focused contest. Starting on March 11th, the “Mobile Genre Showdown” themed contest will reward 30 creators for building innovative mobile experiences in Horizon Worlds.

Nearly 400 tech leaders?signed an open letter?condemning?Shopify?for cutting its diversity programs and urging Canada's tech ecosystem to protect equity, inclusion, and diversity efforts. The?letter?warns against the growing influencer of unelected and unaccountable business leaders who “prioritize profit over people,” and calls on Canadians to uphold the values of inclusion that are being challenged in the US. Last week, Shopify removed the web pages of several diversity and social programs from its site — Build Native, Build Black, Social Impact and Empowered by Shopify — and many employees formerly connected to those divisions no longer work at the company, according to their LinkedIn.?

Shopify?listed a US address?alongside its Canadian headquarters for the first time in an annual regulatory SEC filing, naming both its Lafayette Street hub in New York and its O'Connor Street site in Ottawa as “principal executive offices” in the filing. Annual filings made with the SEC dating back to 2017 have only listed the Ottawa location and were typically made under the foreign issuer 40-F designation rather than the domestic issuer 10-K that Shopify used this month. TD Cowen analyst Peter Haynes predicts that the move was meant to help Shopify gain membership to certain US indexes, but Shopify spokesperson Alex Lyons instead positioned it as a voluntary way to align the company's disclosures with its software peers.

eBay?updated its platform?to make it easier to identify items with fast delivery via search item cards that display delivery range estimates for all fast shipping items. It also added a “shipping and pickup” filter that allows customers to find items available for local pickup. Congrats eBay on releasing two features that could've and should've existed a decade ago!

commercetools?laid off?10% of its workforce, or around 68 workers, after failing to meet its sales growth targets. The company is also making executive changes including parting ways with its chief revenue officer and CFO and reassigning the roles previously held by its chief information security and compliance officer.

Google?is also?making more cuts, this time to its “People Operations” (the dumb name for its HR division) and cloud organizations, as part of internal reorganizations. The company is offering a voluntary exit program to US-based, full-time employees in the division, starting in early March.

Flipkart?shut down?ANS Commerce, an e-commerce platform that it acquired in 2022 to boost its D2C operations, effective Mar 31, 2025. The company did not provide specific reasons for shutting down ANS Commerce, but industry insiders point to cost-cutting measures as Flipkart prepares for a potential IPO in the next 12-18 months. What's the deal with e-commerce marketplaces buying and subsequently shutting down e-commerce platforms? Remember Selz?

YouTube?is?preparing to launch?a major redesign of its TV app that will integrate paid subscription services from Primetime Channels directly into the front page, making them more visible alongside free content. This move aims to resolve past integration issues that stalled its streaming hub ambitions, helping YouTube compete more effectively with Amazon while expanding its subscription revenue. Additionally, with the refresh, YouTube Creators will be able to organize their video libraries into show pages with episodes and seasons for the first time, with YouTube adding previews of shows that play automatically, similar to Netflix.?

Salesforce?does not plan on hiring engineers?this year because of the success of AI agents, according to the company's CEO Marc Benioff, who said last week, “My message to CEOs right now is that we are the last generation to manage only humans.” Benioff added that Salesforce's mission is to become “the No 1 digital labor provider, period” to other companies.

Amazon Web Services?revealed?Ocelot, its first-generation quantum computing chip, officially entering the race against other tech companies in harnessing the experimental technology. The company claims that the new chip can reduce the cost of implementing quantum error correction by up to 90%. The news comes just a few days after Microsoft unveiled its own quantum chip that it said could transform everything from fighting pollution to developing new medicines.

Meta?fired roughly 20 employees?who leaked confidential information outside the company, with the expectation of more terminations in the near future. Meta said, “We tell employees when they join the company, and we offer periodic reminders, that it is against our policies to leak internal information, no matter the intent.” The news follows a staunch warning from the company a few weeks ago, after a meeting where it was ironically leaked that Mark Zuckerberg said, “We try to be really open and then everything I say leaks. It sucks.” However it's unclear if the impacted employees were let go for leaking information before or after that meeting.?

Flexport?is?rolling out?a suite of AI products and features, which the company says will be the first in a series of semi-annual announcements of this kind. So like, Flexport Winter '25 Edition? Among the new products is Flexport Intelligence, which lets businesses get information about their shipments using natural language prompts, and Control Tower, which gives customers real-time visibility over their logistics network, even on freight not managed by Flexport.?

DoorDash?agreed to pay $16.75M?to more than 60,000 Dashers who were supposed to receive that money in the form of tips during May 2017 to September 2019, but instead the company used it to cover base pay and pocketed the rest. If a driver was guaranteed $10 on a delivery, for example, DoorDash would pay a minimum of $1 of that, but the rest would scale based on how much the customer tipped. The only way a Dasher would see more than $10 in that scenario is if the customer tipped more than that. Meanwhile, DoorDash displayed a message to customers saying that “Dashers will always receive 100 percent of the tip” — without disclosing that it would take away from their base pay.?

Temu?partnered with?Nuvei, a Canadian fintech that provides online and in-store payment processing solutions, to provide customers with greater access to local payment methods. Via the integration, Temu customers can pay using local payment methods in Japan, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Portugal, with plans to expand to Colombia, Chile, and Canada later this year.

Bad news for idiots…?The Securities and Exchange Commission?said on Thursday?that memecoins are not subject to regulatory oversight because they are not considered securities. The policy is consistent with the light regulatory approach that President Trump, who recently launched his own memecoin, promised during his campaign. The SEC did, however, say that fraudulent conduct related to the offer and sale of memecoins are still subject to enforcement and prosecution.?

Microsoft?is?testing a free, ad-supported desktop version?of Office, which includes limited functionality of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. In exchange for the free tools, the software displays a large advertisement banner on the right side of the window and plays a muted 15-second video every few hours. Similar to its web version, the Office apps only allow users to save files to OneDrive, although they can then be downloaded to local storage. Microsoft says it's just a test and there are no definitive plans to launch it to the masses.?

The Delhi High Court of India?ordered?Amazon?to?pay $39M in damages?for infringing on the Beverly Hills Polo Club trademark, ruling that the company was using the Polo club's horse rider logo on knockoff garments sold on its website. The company sued Amazon in 2020, alleging that the platform sold apparel with a nearly identical logo, under the brand name Symbol, infringing on the trademark. Justice Prathiba M Singh called Amazon’s actions “deliberate and willful infringement.”

Meta's Oversight Board, the independent group created to help with sensitive policy decisions, is?examining the company's recent content moderation changes?regarding ending fact checking and rolling back hate speech rules. The board's authority remains limited since its policy recommendations are non-binding, raising questions about its influence and purpose. Pretty soon we might just see the Oversight Board go the way of DEI.?

Amazon?is?cracking down?on the use of AI tools in job interviews including code assistants and teleprompter apps that feed interviewees live answers. The company recently shared guidelines with internal recruiters indicating that job applicants can be disqualified from the hiring process if they are found to be using these tools during the interviews, which Amazon feels gives candidates an unfair advantage and prevents it from evaluating their “authentic” skills. So Amazon can use AI to evaluate resumes and job candidates, but they can't use AI to excel at those evaluations? Feels hypocritical.?

Meta?says it?fixed an error?that caused some users to see content in their Instagram Reels feed “that should not have been recommended,” including violent and sexual imagery. Users claimed they saw content including “videos depicting dismemberment, visible innards or charred bodies,” as well as “sadistic remarks towards imagery depicting the suffering of humans and animals,” even with Instagram's “Sensitive Content Control” enabled to its highest moderation setting. Meta previously said that its systems were demoting too much content based on predictions that it “might” violate community standards, but it sounds like they turned the dial too much in the other direction.?

Ekō, a global digital rights organization dedicated to curbing corporate power and advocating for consumer rights,?filed complaints?with data protection watchdogs in Norway, Germany, and Spain over Meta's targeted advertising practices after collecting evidence that Meta disregarded user requests to opt out of data collection and targeted advertising. Ekō aims to prompt regulatory actions through its complaint filings. This follows increasing scrutiny of Meta’s data practices, including a recent lawsuit alleging racial discrimination in ad targeting and a European court ruling that limits Meta’s use of personal data for behavioral advertising.?

Meta?must face a lawsuit?claiming that the company prefers to hire foreign workers because it can pay them less than American workers, determined by a federal judge last week. Three US citizens are accusing Meta of refusing to hire them, even though they were qualified, because of Meta's “systematic preference” for visa holders, which could turn into a class-action suit. The judge in the case cited statistics that 15% of Meta's US workforce holds H-1B visas, compared to 0.5% of the overall workforce.

The Chinese government?implemented a new policy?in January 2024 that allows companies to register data as assets on their balance sheets, paving the way for data to be traded in a marketplace and boost company valuations. However adoption of the policy has been slow, with only a small percentage of companies doing so a year later. By late 2024, only 55 listed and 228 non-listed companies in China out of nearly 60M registered companies had recorded data assets on their balance sheets. Despite the slow start, Beijing remains intent on pushing its vision for data monetization to revitalize a slowing economy.

Amazon?restricted vaginal health products?for being “potentially embarrassing,” according to screenshots viewed by WIRED. The startup VuVatech, which sells products designed to soothe pelvic and vaginal pain and discomfort, said it has repeatedly had its product listings shut down for violating “adult' content rules and flagged in the system as items that are “potentially embarrassing or offensive.” An Amazon spokesperson said that the company understands the importance of sexual health and wellness products and has thousands of merchants offering them, later adding, “eww vaginas, icky!”

Mozilla?deleted a promise?from its Terms of Use to never sell its users' personal data, but claims that it removed the blanket promise because some legal jurisdictions define “sale” in a very broad way. The company says that because it shares anonymous data with partners, it can't claim to never “sell” data. I don't know, Mozilla — it feels pretty cut and dry to me. Mozilla later?published a blog post?explaining how they “sell” your data, but don't “sell” your data. LOL.?

Hackers?stole $1.5B worth of cryptocurrency?from?Bybit, a Dubai-based crypto exchange, in what's thought to be the biggest single digital theft in history. The exchange said that an attacker gained control of a wallet of Ethereum and transferred the contents to an unknown address. Bybit's CEO said that the company would refund everyone affected, even if the hacked currency was not returned. It is also offering a 10% reward for recovering the funds. Then again, there's technically a 100% reward for recovering the funds it you didn't return them to Bybit.

Plus 17 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest including Shop Circle, a London-based company that develops and acquires Shopify apps, raising $60M in a Series B round led by Nextalia Ventures, and the anonymous owner of AI-com listing his domain for sale for a whopping $100M!

I hope you found this recap helpful.

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See you next week!

Paul Drecksler