Phoebe Gates’ AI shopping app Phia reportedly claimed unearned affiliate sales through fake clicks Gates, who is Bill Gates’ daughter, founded the app alongside Sophia Kianni. By Cheyenne MacDonald July 11, 2026 Kimberly White/Getty Images According to multiple reports, the AI-powered shopping plugin Phia used a tactic known as cookie stuffing to attach its affiliate … Continue reading Phoebe Gates’ AI shopping app Phia reportedly claimed unearned affiliate sales through fake clicks
Google is giving retailers new AI visibility metrics in Merchant Center, offering a closer look at how products surface in conversational shopping results. By Constantine von Hoffman Published on May 29, 2026 Google is adding new AI performance insights to Merchant Center, giving retailers a clearer view of how their products appear across … Continue reading Google adds AI shopping insights to Merchant Center
Most consumers use AI to research products, but hesitation around payments shows a clear ceiling on how far AI commerce can go. By Constantine von Hoffman Published on May 1, 2026 AI is becoming a standard part of how people shop, but there is a clear limit to how far consumers are willing … Continue reading AI shopping hits a trust ceiling even as AI adoption rises
Meta is letting creators fill their Reels with shopping links Creators can tag up to 30 products per video. By Karissa Bell March 24, 2026 Meta It’s about to get a lot easier for creators on Facebook and Instagram to push products to their followers. Meta will now allow creators to include clickable shopping links … Continue reading Meta is letting creators fill their Reels with shopping links
Google’s new commerce framework cranks up the heat on ‘agentic shopping’ The Universal Commerce Protocol introduces three new major AI features meant to reduce friction when online shopping. Jackson Chen Mon, January 12, 2026 Google To further push the limits of consumerism, Google has launched a new open standard for agentic commerce that’s called … Continue reading Google’s new commerce framework cranks up the heat on ‘agentic shopping’
Stable prices have consumers moving back toward quality and trust after several years of embracing less-expensive store brands. By Constantine von Hoffman January 9, 2026 As prices climb, shoppers aren’t just spending less—they’re spending differently. Nearly half are buying smaller quantities or trading down to lower-cost options, such as canned fruit instead … Continue reading How inflation reshapes shopping habits and trust in private labels
How Internet’s Underbelly Connects AI Shopping Shift by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, December 23, 2025 AI agents can scour the web one thousand times faster than a human to find information on products and services. This is prompting brands and retailers to make a fundamental ecommerce shift. “It’s painful to watch an agent try … Continue reading Internet’s Underbelly Connects AI Shopping Shift
December 15, 2025 How Trump’s tariffs are impacting prices and purchases this holiday shopping season
OpenAI Adds Shopping Research For Product Discovery by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, November 26, 2025 OpenAI has been pushing further into ecommerce in recent months. Now, days before the Thanksgiving holiday, it introduced and has begun rolling out a way to research shopping — a new experience in ChatGPT that does the research to … Continue reading OpenAI Adds Shopping Research For Product Discovery
Stuck targeting just Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Your customers aren’t. Gen Z starts shopping in June. Mike Pastore on August 29, 2025 MarTechCharts regularly highlights data of interest to marketers and marketing operations professionals. Source: Klaviyo’s “2025 Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) Forecast.” AI is becoming central to how people shop, and the … Continue reading Holiday shopping is starting earlier in the year
