InternetRetailing View RSS

portal and research source for European ecommerce and multichannel retail
Hide details



Wolt’s five-way partnership sees offsite ads linked to in-app purchases 19 Oct 10:46 PM (2 hours ago)

Community based food and grocery delivery company Wolt is to offer its merchants, brands and agencies the ability to link offsite interactions directly to in-app purchases by teaming up with leading ad-tech players Koddi, Magnite, Skai and StackAdapt.

Helsinki-based Wolt operates a “local commerce” platform that connects people looking to order food, groceries and other goods with people interested in selling and delivering them. It operates in more than 40 countries and, through Wolt Ads, runs an ever-expanding retail media operation.

This latest five-way collaboration now makes it possible for advertisers to broaden their campaigns across social platforms, search engines and the other offsite spaces consumers use regularly, maximising visibility and driving measurable results even when an ad on one offsite platform leads to a sale on another.

Businesses including smaller brands can now also create and launch video ads for streaming services and connected TV in minutes, reaching audiences wherever they are watching – at home or out and about.

Alongside this, Wolt Ads is extending its offline capabilities with a growing fleet of electric vehicles to offer brands a scalable, out-of-home platform. Developed by The Better Cities Company as a flexible alternative to traditional offline advertising, they allow for hyperlocal, sustainable campaigns in city-centres, as consumers commute and socialise.

“Retail media is no longer confined to a single channel, it’s an ecosystem. By combining our strong in-app presence with opportunities beyond the app, and by adding sustainable offline solutions like Electric Vehicle Ads, we’re giving brands the power to meet their audiences everywhere – with measurable impact at every touchpoint,” says Catalina Salazar, Global Senior Director of Wolt Ads.

“With these new solutions, Wolt Ads is uniquely positioned to connect digital and offline experiences, giving brands a one-stop shop to drive awareness, consideration, and measurable sales.”

The announcements follow the acquisition earlier this year by Wolt’s parent company DoorDash of Symbiosys, a retail media platform which enables brands and retailers to collaborate on offsite search, social and video campaigns that drive customers directly to retailer product pages, maximising impact across every stage of the shopper journey.

Wolt’s latest partners at a glance

The partnerships bring a range of solutions to Wolt Ads, these include:

The post Wolt’s five-way partnership sees offsite ads linked to in-app purchases appeared first on InternetRetailing.

Add post to Blinklist Add post to Blogmarks Add post to del.icio.us Digg this! Add post to My Web 2.0 Add post to Newsvine Add post to Reddit Add post to Simpy Who's linking to this post?

Why checkout is the hidden conversion killer in ecommerce 17 Oct 9:18 AM (2 days ago)

A staggering 50% of shoppers will abandon their online purchase if the checkout process isn’t quick and clear. This headline stat from the latest RetailX EU1000 report, Checkout as the Universal Touchpoint, highlights a critical, yet often overlooked, stage in the customer journey: the checkout. A long or disruptive checkout can prove to be a hidden conversion killer – but the good news for retailers is that it can also be an opportunity to build customer loyalty and help win future sales.

Evolving process

In an era where marginal gains can make or break ecommerce success, the checkout has evolved from a transactional endpoint to a strategic touchpoint. The report reveals that checkout complexity and friction are responsible for up to 68% of abandonment, with consumers increasingly intolerant of unclear shipping costs, limited payment options, and tedious requirements such as account registration.

As Maxim Uvarov, head of marketing at checkout-as-a-service (CaaS) provider Simpler, explains, retailers who overlook this crucial stage in the customer journey are missing a trick. “Checkout may seem like a small part of the customer journey – something that appears only after the buying decision has already been made, and therefore seems to have little impact,” he says. “In reality, it’s quite the opposite: checkout is responsible for up to 50% of customer drop-off.

“At Simpler, we believe it’s essential to isolate the checkout stage and talk specifically about why it fails, and how to fix it,” he adds. “This analysis is valuable for virtually any online retailer: in an era of marginal gains, checkout remains a major opportunity.”

The rise of CaaS

As the report outlines, checkout-as-a-service (CaaS) is emerging as a transformative solution that’s already seeing widespread adoption across fast-moving sectors including beauty and fashion. By replacing fragmented systems with a unified, agile platform, retailers can offer faster, more secure, and personalised experiences. As features like one-click checkout, real-time inventory, and third-party payment integration (preferred by 74% of shoppers) are now an expectation, not a nice-to-have, CaaS ensures that the checkout experience delivers for customers while offering peace of mind for retailers, who don’t need to worry about product or security upgrades, shipping methods or UX enhancements.

Retailers adopting CaaS see measurable improvements: reduced cart abandonment, higher average order values, and increased customer loyalty. The report features case studies from brands like Miin Cosmetics and Funky Buddha that show how streamlining checkout can lead to record-breaking product launches and mobile conversion boosts.

As the report states: “ultimately, checkout-as-a-service frees up merchants to invest in growth and customer relationships, safe in the knowledge that the most critical part of their online store is always ahead of the curve.” Retailers who optimise this stage not only improve conversion rates but also build trust and long-term relationships with their customers.

Interested in more detailed insight?

You can download the RetailX EU1000 report Checkout as the Universal Touchpoint here.

Stay informed

Our editor carefully curates two newsletters a week filled with up-to-date news, analysis and research. Click here to subscribe to the FREE newsletter sent straight to your inbox. Why not follow us on LinkedIn to receive the latest updates on our research and analysis?

The post Why checkout is the hidden conversion killer in ecommerce appeared first on InternetRetailing.

Add post to Blinklist Add post to Blogmarks Add post to del.icio.us Digg this! Add post to My Web 2.0 Add post to Newsvine Add post to Reddit Add post to Simpy Who's linking to this post?

Global ad market prospects upgraded with social, search and retail media leading the way 17 Oct 7:33 AM (2 days ago)

Nine in ten dollars entering the global ad market goes to online only channels, with social media the largest single advertising medium, but with retail media well and truly in the running – and growing.

The latest figures from WARC show that 90% of incremental ad dollars this year are paid to advertise on online-only platforms, meaning that legacy media owners – even those with online properties in their portfolios – are competing over the course of the year for the equivalent of what Facebook makes in an average month.

Of all new ad dollars entering the market this year, two in five are going to a social media platform, one in five is going towards search advertising, and one in five is being paid to retail media platforms.

The owners of the largest platforms in these sectors – Meta, Alphabet and Amazon– now attract over half (55.8%) of total advertising spend outside of China, a share which is on track to top 60% by 2030.

Social advertising gets the likes

Social media ad spend is projected to rise 14.9% this year to a total of $306.4bn, equivalent to over a quarter (26.2%) of all advertising spend in 2025. Further growth, of 12.8% and 11.9%, is forecast next year and into 2027, by when the social market is expected to be worth $386.9bn – equal to 28.5% of all ad spend. 

Within this, Meta is expected to record growth of 14.8% this year, with a total of $184.1bn accounting for 60.1% of all social media spend and 15.7% of all ad spend worldwide. Meta’s share of the social market is expected to dip to 59.3% by 2027, owing to continuing growth of TikTok over the forecast period 2025-2027, though its share of total ad spend will still rise to 16.9%.

Instagram is still growing at a faster pace than the core Facebook platform, with growth averaging 16.4% over the forecast period compared to an average rise of 10.4% for Facebook.

TikTok continues to outpace both platforms, however, gaining market share in the process. Ad spend on TikTok is expected to average 21.6% over the forecast period, drawing 11.7% of all social media spend in 2027 (up from a share of 10.3% this year). 

Search and retail media catching up

Search advertising spend is set to rise by an anticipated 10.0% this year to $253.2bn – equivalent to a fifth (21.6%) of all advertising spend. Google is the dominant player, with anticipated ad revenue of $217.8bn equal to 86% of the search market in 2025. This growth comes as the company faces a US antitrust hearing this week over a potential monopoly of the online ad market.

Advertising spend on retail media platforms is set to grow at an average rate of 12.6% over the forecast period, though this is a marked slowdown from previous years. Retail media ad spend is on course to rise 13.7% this year to a total of $175.0bn – a 14.9% share of global spend.

At an anticipated $62.0bn in 2025 (up 18.7% year-on-year), Amazon accounts for over a third (35.4%) of the retail media market and 5.3% of all ad spend, though its share of both is rising. 

Retail the biggest user

New monitoring from WARC and Nielsen sheds fresh light on spend within the social media sector. The newly developed dataset shows that a windfall in spend among retailers buoyed social media growth in the second quarter during the lead up to the introduction of new US trade tariffs on so called Freedom Day.

The enhanced monitoring shows that retail is the largest category on both Instagram and TikTok, with shares of approximately a quarter and a fifth, respectively. Retailers were seen to have increased spend on Instagram (+18.8%) and TikTok (+56.8%) at a much faster rate than on Facebook (+3.6%) during the second quarter, perhaps indicative of a wider strategic shift.

Looking at the delta – the absolute difference in spend between Q2 2024 and Q2 2025 – retailers increased Instagram spend by $651m – more than any other product category. The retail sector also recorded the highest delta on TikTok in Q2 2025, as spend rose by $661m. Remarkably, retailers accounted for a quarter (24.8%) of TikTok’s growth during the second quarter of 2025.

Elsewhere, the technology & electronics sector increased spend on Facebook most during the second quarter, with a rise of 59.1% equivalent to an additional $1.0bn. Tech brands also lifted spend markedly on Instagram (+$501m) and TikTok (+$484m) at this time, pushing their share of spend on these platforms to 7.6% and 15.8%, respectively. In both cases, this makes the tech category the second-largest on TikTok and Instagram, behind retail. 

The second quarter windfall across the social media sector is the primary cause for our upgraded global ad forecast this year, the first upgrade to our outlook in more than 12 months.

The post Global ad market prospects upgraded with social, search and retail media leading the way appeared first on InternetRetailing.

Add post to Blinklist Add post to Blogmarks Add post to del.icio.us Digg this! Add post to My Web 2.0 Add post to Newsvine Add post to Reddit Add post to Simpy Who's linking to this post?

China’s biggest shopping event starts five weeks early, as experts warn UK holiday sales likely to remain sluggish 17 Oct 2:22 AM (2 days ago)

China’s biggest online shopping event, Singles’ Day, has kicked off a record five weeks early this year, as retailers scramble to revive consumer spending in a slowing economy. Originally invented as a one-day shopping festival by Chinese retail giant Alibaba, similar to Amazon Prime Day or Black Friday but held on 11 November, the event now spans from early October through mid-November, with platforms like Alibaba, JD.com, and Douyin launching campaigns immediately after Golden Week (the Chinese festival beginning 1 October which commemorates the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949). Alibaba alone has pledged ¥50 billion (£247 million) in subsidies and rolled out AI-powered recommendation tools to drive engagement.

The extended window reflects mounting pressure on Chinese retailers amid weak consumption, a property market slump, fierce domestic competition, and tariff uncertainty. By spreading promotions over several weeks, companies aim to smooth logistics, reduce delivery bottlenecks, and sustain momentum across categories from electronics to fashion. Analysts say this shift turns Singles’ Day into a season rather than a day, mirroring how Black Friday has evolved in Western markets.

While China is stretching its peak season to stimulate demand, UK retailers are bracing for a sluggish holiday season. Economic uncertainty, squeezed margins, and cautious consumers have dampened confidence ahead of the crucial ‘golden quarter’ – with holiday sales expected to grow just 2.5% year-on-year, according to new analysis from Bain & Company. Their 2025 European Holiday Shopping Outlook shows a modest improvement from 1.2% growth in 2024, but this still trails the 10-year UK average of 3.1%, with most of the uptick driven by inflation rather than stronger demand. Bain forecasts that sales volumes will fall, as shoppers rein in spending amid a weak jobs market and uncertainty surrounding the Autumn Budget.

Peak season dynamics are flattening

UK retailers are expected to react to this with a longer holiday sales period – not only mirroring China, but also reflecting a wider trend of flattening sales peaks. A six-year analysis of shipment volumes across Europe reveals a significant flattening of the traditional November–December spike, with the relative uplift versus the rest of the year dropping by 92 percentage points between 2018 and 2024. This trend is reshaping retailer strategies: instead of concentrating discounts around Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM), brands are starting promotions earlier and extending them longer.

Indeed, 63% of UK retailers extended Black Friday campaigns in 2024, while 48% started earlier, adding an average of six extra days to campaign length. byrd’s data shows the share of BFCM orders relative to total Q4 volumes has fallen by 23% over the past four years, underscoring the dilution of the traditional peak. Meanwhile, nearly one in five UK shoppers now begin festive planning before July, according to Forbes, prompting retailers to rethink Q4 tactics

What it means for UK retailers

For UK retailers, the challenge is twofold: navigating economic headwinds while adapting to a longer, flatter promotional curve. Early campaigns can ease operational strain and help avoid costly peak surcharges, as Petra Dobrocka of byrd notes: “Fewer extreme peaks and more predictable Q4 curves are good news for brands and shoppers: steadier fulfillment, fewer bottlenecks, and a better post‑purchase experience.” The flipside of this is the need for sharper pricing strategies and sustained engagement over several weeks.

With China turning its biggest shopping event into a five-week marathon and UK retailers embracing “Black November,” the global retail calendar is being rewritten. For brands, the winners will be those that plan early, spread promotions smartly, and deliver value consistently – because the era of one-day shopping frenzies is fading fast.

Stay informed

Our editor carefully curates two newsletters a week filled with up-to-date news, analysis and research. Click here to subscribe to the FREE newsletter sent straight to your inbox. Why not follow us on LinkedIn to receive the latest updates on our research and analysis?

The post China’s biggest shopping event starts five weeks early, as experts warn UK holiday sales likely to remain sluggish appeared first on InternetRetailing.

Add post to Blinklist Add post to Blogmarks Add post to del.icio.us Digg this! Add post to My Web 2.0 Add post to Newsvine Add post to Reddit Add post to Simpy Who's linking to this post?

Particular Audience unveils open source developer suite to “break down Retail Media barriers” 17 Oct 1:13 AM (3 days ago)

Taking self-serve to a whole new level, AI-powered retail media platform Particular Audience has launched a Open Source Suite on GitHub that brings together three developer tools for free for those looking to create their own retail media offering.

With this release, Particular Audience becomes the first major retail media vendor to open source a collection of supporting developer tools for reporting, integration, and Agentic-AI enablement. These tools are complementary to Particular Audience’s core AIaaS platform, DiscoveryOS, a managed enterprise solution powering Retail Media, personalisation, and search for leading global retailers and brands.

The Suite Includes:

Retail Media has traditionally required costly integrations, closed systems and heavy manual configuration. By open sourcing developer utilities around DiscoveryOS, Particular Audience is making Retail Media infrastructure more transparent, interoperable and accessible, while compounding the enterprise-grade SaaS platform that powers global retail customer experiences.

“Retail media will only reach its full potential when it is open, extensible and accessible,” explains James Taylor, Founder & CEO of Particular Audience. “By sharing these supporting tools openly, we’re lowering barriers for developers, retailers and brands to adopt advanced AI-driven discovery and reporting. Our managed SaaS platform remains the backbone of DiscoveryOS – these open tools make connecting to it faster, easier, and more cost-effective.”

Together, the suite addresses the $300 billion e-commerce search and retail media problem: making campaigns easier to run, performance easier to measure, and customer discovery more intelligent and profitable.

The Particular Audience Open Source Suite is available today under the MIT Licence:

The post Particular Audience unveils open source developer suite to “break down Retail Media barriers” appeared first on InternetRetailing.

Add post to Blinklist Add post to Blogmarks Add post to del.icio.us Digg this! Add post to My Web 2.0 Add post to Newsvine Add post to Reddit Add post to Simpy Who's linking to this post?

Walmart becomes first major retailer to embed ChatGPT for end-to-end shopping 16 Oct 2:59 AM (3 days ago)

US retail giant Walmart has become the first major retailer to embed ChatGPT into its ecommerce experience, enabling customers to browse, select, and purchase products entirely through conversational AI. The partnership with OpenAI introduces a new Instant Checkout feature, allowing shoppers to complete transactions without leaving the chat interface.

Under the integration, customers can ask ChatGPT for curated recommendations – such as “ingredients for lasagne” or “purple party dress for under £50” – and receive personalised product lists with seamless checkout. Walmart describes the integration in a statement on its corporate website as “ushering in the next generation of retail.”

Doug McMillon, President and CEO, Walmart Inc, said: “For many years now, eCommerce shopping experiences have consisted of a search bar and a long list of item responses. That is about to change. There is a native AI experience coming that is multi-media, personalised and contextual. We are running towards that more enjoyable and convenient future with Sparky and through partnerships including this important step with OpenAI.”

The shift to intent-based commerce

This move positions Walmart at the forefront of AI-driven retail and signals a fundamental shift from search-based shopping to intent-based commerce. For anyone operating in the retail space, this shows a clear direction of travel in which traditional strategies for customer engagement – such as SEO or investing in branded experiences – may soon play second fiddle to data fluency and algorithmic visibility, as generative AI becomes the new gateway to consumer intent.

The challenge for retailers who’ve worked hard to get close to their customers is that this process completely upends the customer journey. “Commerce has entered the age of cognition,” said Mariano Gomide de Faria, Co-CEO and Founder of VTEX, commenting on the Walmart/ChatGPT integration. “The advantage no longer belongs to whoever owns the shelf or the site, but to whoever owns the reasoning. ChatGPT has turned language into the new checkout line, and Walmart has stepped directly into it.”

Although Gomide de Faria warns that Walmart is trading “control for convenience” and “renting visibility inside an ecosystem they cannot govern”, it’s clear that the genie is already out of the bottle and agentic shopping is not something retailers can afford to ignore – and there’s an opportunity here, too. The winners, Gomide de Faria believes, “will not be the loudest brands but the ones the algorithm understands.”

What’s next for the sector?

Analysts expect competitors – from Amazon to major grocery chains – to accelerate their own AI strategies. Retailers will need to rethink how they get close to customers when discovery, evaluation, and transaction happen in a single conversational flow. This could mean investing in generative AI partnerships, building proprietary conversational platforms, or re-engineering product data to ensure relevance in algorithm-driven environments.

For now, Walmart’s move as the first major retailer to embed ChatGPT is a bold first step into a future where language becomes the new checkout line – and where the rules of retail are rewritten by code.

Stay informed

Our editor carefully curates two newsletters a week filled with up-to-date news, analysis and research. Click here to subscribe to the FREE newsletter sent straight to your inbox. Why not follow us on LinkedIn to receive the latest updates on our research and analysis?

The post Walmart becomes first major retailer to embed ChatGPT for end-to-end shopping appeared first on InternetRetailing.

Add post to Blinklist Add post to Blogmarks Add post to del.icio.us Digg this! Add post to My Web 2.0 Add post to Newsvine Add post to Reddit Add post to Simpy Who's linking to this post?

INTERVIEW How Algolia is helping retailers adapt to AI-driven shopping 16 Oct 12:00 AM (4 days ago)

Algolia’s chief ecosystems officer Piyush Patel sat down with InternetRetailing to discuss the evolving role of search in online retail – and how Algolia is helping its clients adapt to AI-driven shopping.

It goes without saying that AI is proving transformational in grocery retail. Recent research from Algolia found that almost four in ten shoppers said they would switch from their usual online supermarket to a third-party AI-powered shopping application such as ChatGPT. The UK online grocery market was worth £23.4 billion in 2024, and if retailers fail to keep up with this shift, they risk losing £500 million every week to AI-driven alternatives.

But this is also an opportunity. Algolia’s research also found that 42% per cent of shoppers said they would choose to shop with a supermarket offering AI-powered features such as recipe ingredient finders or cheaper product swaps, while 44% said they would value conversational search, such as, “show me healthy snacks for toddlers”, to make their online shop easier.

This is something Algolia – the world’s leading AI search engine, renowned for its user-friendly API – is already doing. Algolia has been operating for more than a decade, working with over 18,000 customers worldwide, from small businesses to major grocery retailers such as Asda, Iceland Foods, Aldi, and Co-op across Europe, as well as several US brands. In that time, the role of retail has evolved significantly. “The changes have been rapid – first mobile, then the impact of COVID, and now AI,” says Piyush Patel, Algolia’s chief ecosystems officer.

The changing role of search in retail

Algolia is currently focused on helping its retail clients give customers what they’re looking for in this fast-changing landscape. “Traditionally, search was about finding a specific product – like ‘organic 2% milk’,” explains Patel. “But now, there’s a shift toward what people call ‘long-tail search.’ It’s about simulating the experience of having an assistant in the store. For example, if you’re making spaghetti and want to know which sauce goes best with chicken, you’d ask a store assistant. We’re working to bring that kind of conversational, helpful experience online, so customers can get guidance and recommendations even when shopping digitally.”

Algolia’s innovations in this field have already delivered measurable results for retailers. “One example is the recipe helper feature we launched with some clients,” Patel says. “If a customer wants to make a special dinner, the system can suggest recipes and automatically add all the necessary ingredients to their basket. This not only improves conversion but also increases basket size by making it easy to buy everything needed for a meal. It’s about expanding the transaction beyond just the initial product search.”

The rise of instant checkout features, such as those recently announced by ChatGPT, is something the company has been watching closely. “We’ve been preparing for this for about nine months,” Patel says. “While ChatGPT and others have announced instant checkout, there are challenges. For example, Instant Checkout doesn’t necessarily check inventory, which can cause problems for the retailer. We’re working with our clients to enable real-time catalogue updates, so when a customer interacts with a GPT or AI agent, it can check current stock and pricing before presenting options. This way, the experience is accurate and up-to-date, whether the customer is on the retailer’s site or using an AI assistant.”

Algolia is also addressing regional complexity for retailers. “We already provide store-specific, inventory-aware search for many clients,” Patel says. “If you’re near a particular Sainsbury’s, for example, we show you what’s available there first. We also handle different catalogues and pricing for various regions, which is something brands expect now.”

Controlling the customer journey

Many retailers are concerned that the rise of agentic shopping will result in them losing control over the customer journey. “That’s a key reason brands choose Algolia,” Patel notes. “We ensure the right products show up based on what the consumer is looking for, using signals like purchase history. But brands also need control – for example, if they have too much inventory of a certain product, they can prioritise it in search results. We also help with recommendations, like suggesting cereal when someone buys milk. Our technology allows brands to balance consumer needs, brand priorities, and cross-selling opportunities, even in agent-based interactions.”

Retail media is also becoming increasingly important, particularly as AI agents enter the picture. “It gets complex, especially with AI agents,” Patel says. “Most companies treat retail media as a separate layer, inserting ads after search results are generated. With Algolia, we integrate retail media insertions directly into the search results, so everything appears seamless to the consumer. This makes it easier for agents to include sponsored products in a natural way.”

Looking ahead, Patel believes agent-based shopping will become more common – with, potentially, the agent buying items from multiple retailers and combining them into one shop. “I think this is likely, especially as delivery services like DoorDash or Uber partner with AI platforms,” he says. “They could pick up items from several stores and deliver them together. The cost of that convenience is still high, but over time, it could become the norm.”

As AI reshapes the way consumers shop, the stakes for retailers have never been higher. With billions of pounds in potential revenue at risk and younger shoppers driving rapid adoption of AI-powered tools, Patel believes the winners will be those who act now. “Personalisation is finally becoming a reality,” he says. “With AI, we can understand exactly what a customer wants in the moment, not just rely on past purchases or general trends. The ability to deliver true, context-aware personalisation is what’s most exciting going forward.”

Stay informed

Our editor carefully curates two newsletters a week filled with up-to-date news, analysis and research. Click here to subscribe to the FREE newsletter sent straight to your inbox. Why not follow us on LinkedIn to receive the latest updates on our research and analysis?

The post INTERVIEW How Algolia is helping retailers adapt to AI-driven shopping appeared first on InternetRetailing.

Add post to Blinklist Add post to Blogmarks Add post to del.icio.us Digg this! Add post to My Web 2.0 Add post to Newsvine Add post to Reddit Add post to Simpy Who's linking to this post?

European retail faces historic distress as Budget tax fears deepen uncertainty in UK 15 Oct 3:26 AM (4 days ago)

The UK retail sector is entering its peak trading season under a cloud of uncertainty, as new data shows distress levels surpassing those seen during the 2009 financial crisis. According to the latest Weil European Distress Index (WEDI), Retail and Consumer Goods remains Europe’s most distressed sector, driven by weak demand, fragile confidence and rising costs. The UK ranks as the third most distressed market in Europe, behind Germany and France, despite a slight quarterly easing.

For UK retailers and consumers, the late Autumn Budget – scheduled for 26 November – is a significant cause for ongoing economic uncertainty. Despite Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ tight fiscal rules, based on Labour’s manifesto pledge to avoid hikes in income tax, VAT and employee National Insurance, speculation over tax rises is mounting – particularly after the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) revealed a fiscal gap estimated at up to £50 billion to Reeves earlier this month. Economists warn that closing the gap will require a mix of spending cuts and tax increases. Options reportedly under review include extending income tax threshold freezes, reforming inheritance tax, and introducing new property levies.

Business rates reform

Retailers fear the fallout. Business rates reform is expected to feature in the Budget, with proposals for new surtaxes on large stores sparking warnings of job losses and store closures. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) says uncertainty is already hitting consumer behaviour: retail sales growth slowed to 2.3% in September, down from 3.1% in August, as shoppers cut discretionary spending ahead of Christmas. Nearly half (44%) of consumers surveyed by Barclays in its latest Consumer Report said they were changing spending habits in anticipation of the Budget.

Confidence among retailers is equally fragile. Rising borrowing costs, squeezed margins and the prospect of further tax burdens have left many businesses delaying investment and hiring decisions. Analysts warn that any additional fiscal pressure could accelerate distress in a sector already grappling with inflation and tariff disruption. BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson claimed that last year’s Budget curtailed the retail sector by adding £5 billion in employment costs for the retail industry, in addition to a new packaging tax, and called for the Chancellor to “deliver the Labour manifesto commitment of a meaningful reduction in business rates for the industry.”

What’s next?

With retail distress at historic highs and the UK economy facing its toughest fiscal test in over a decade, November’s Budget could prove pivotal. For retailers, clarity on tax and business rates will be critical to restoring confidence before – and even during – the all-important “golden quarter.” Until then, caution looks set to define both boardroom strategies and consumer spending.

Stay informed

Our editor carefully curates two newsletters a week filled with up-to-date news, analysis and research. Click here to subscribe to the FREE newsletter sent straight to your inbox. Why not follow us on LinkedIn to receive the latest updates on our research and analysis?

The post European retail faces historic distress as Budget tax fears deepen uncertainty in UK appeared first on InternetRetailing.

Add post to Blinklist Add post to Blogmarks Add post to del.icio.us Digg this! Add post to My Web 2.0 Add post to Newsvine Add post to Reddit Add post to Simpy Who's linking to this post?

Temu doubles EU profits to $120m with just eight staff – but UK scrutiny looms 15 Oct 12:00 AM (5 days ago)

Chinese ecommerce giant Temu has more than doubled its EU pre-tax profits to nearly $120 million (£90m) in 2024, despite employing just eight staff at its Ireland-based headquarters, the latest accounts show. The company’s rapid growth – fuelled by ultra-low prices, gamified sales tactics and aggressive social media marketing – has raised eyebrows across Europe, especially as it paid just $18 million in corporation tax, including a mandatory $3 million top-up under the EU’s global minimum tax rules.

Temu’s EU parent, Whaleco Technology, reported revenues of $1.7 billion, up from $758 million the previous year. However, critics – including Paul Monaghan, the chief executive of the Fair Tax Foundation – argue this figure only reflects commission and fees, not the full consumer sales volume, which is estimated to be closer to $10 billion.

Skeleton staff, massive scale

How does Temu scale so fast with so few employees? The answer lies in its asset-light model. Temu operates as a marketplace, connecting manufacturers directly with consumers. Most goods are shipped from China, bypassing traditional retail infrastructure. This model allows Temu to avoid the overheads of warehousing, staffing, and local logistics – at least for now.

But this approach is under increasing scrutiny. The EU is preparing to abolish the €150 de minimis exemption (already abolished in the US), which currently allows low-value parcels to enter the domain duty-free. A €2 per parcel tax is also being proposed to curb the flood of cheap imports. The European Conservative reports that last year 4.6 billion small packages entered the EU – 91% of which came from China.

UK moves to level the playing field

In the UK, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced a review of the £135 de minimis threshold, which similarly allows duty-free imports. British retailers argue this gives China-founded platforms like Temu and Shein an unfair advantage, allowing them to undercut domestic sellers who must pay VAT and customs duties, and meet employment regulations. Currently, items valued at £39 or less also do not attract import VAT.

Reeves’ review aims to level the playing field, especially as Temu’s UK operations continue to grow. The platform now boasts over 12 million UK users, and is actively recruiting British sellers to diversify its product range and reduce reliance on Chinese imports.

Temu’s push to onboard UK sellers – particularly for bulky items like furniture and appliances – suggests a strategic pivot. With tax reforms looming, the company may be preparing for a future where local fulfilment becomes essential to maintain competitiveness.

A spokesperson for Temu stated that the company “categorically rejects any suggestion that our structure or operations are designed to avoid taxes or minimise our economic footprint in Europe.”

“Billions of euros in taxes”

The spokesperson continued: “Despite being a young and fast-growing company still in the investment phase, we have already paid billions of euros in taxes across European jurisdictions, and that figure will continue to rise as our operations mature. The tax figure cited refers only to the tax paid by a single legal entity and does not include customs duties, VAT, and other taxes. Taken together, we believe our total tax contributions already exceed those of many more established peers in the industry.

“Our entities in Ireland are real operating companies employing real people and supporting our wider European operations. Our platform has also helped create thousands of indirect jobs across logistics, warehousing, and related industries. As a global company active in more than 90 markets, Temu employs staff around the world, including across Europe. The number of employees in any single corporate entity does not reflect the full scale of our operational presence, investment, or economic impact in the region. Moreover, the figure cited is outdated and does not accurately represent our current staffing levels.

“Temu entered the European market just two years ago and has invested heavily in building its platform to connect sellers and consumers more efficiently, passing those efficiencies back to consumers in the form of lower prices on quality goods. At the same time, we have been creating new growth opportunities for local sellers across Europe – including in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and other markets – by helping them reach more customers both within their countries and abroad.

“Our focus is on the long term: building a sustainable, compliant, and trusted platform that helps consumers access quality products at affordable prices while enabling local sellers across Europe to grow their businesses and reach new markets.”

As Temu’s footprint expands across Europe and the UK, its disruptive model is forcing regulators and retailers to reassess the rules of engagement in cross-border ecommerce. Whether the company can sustain its rapid growth while adapting to a more regulated landscape remains to be seen — but its rise is already prompting a broader rethink of how global ecommerce platforms operate in Europe.

Stay informed

Our editor carefully curates two newsletters a week filled with up-to-date news, analysis and research. Click here to subscribe to the FREE newsletter sent straight to your inbox. Why not follow us on LinkedIn to receive the latest updates on our research and analysis?

The post Temu doubles EU profits to $120m with just eight staff – but UK scrutiny looms appeared first on InternetRetailing.

Add post to Blinklist Add post to Blogmarks Add post to del.icio.us Digg this! Add post to My Web 2.0 Add post to Newsvine Add post to Reddit Add post to Simpy Who's linking to this post?

ANALYSIS The Trade Desk brings together onsite with offsite advertising, working with Koddi and Gopuff 14 Oct 11:13 AM (5 days ago)

Advertisers will soon be able to programmatically buy sponsored product ads on delivery app Gopuff through The Trade Desk, thanks to its integration with Koddi.

This new deal between The Trade Desk and commerce AdTech company Koddi means that sponsored product inventory from Gopuff, the food delivery app operating in more than 500 US cities, suburbs and towns, will now be available on The Trade Desk platform.

This is the first time The Trade Desk is selling this kind of retail media ad inventory directly through its platform. Matthew Fantazier, VP of retail data partnerships at The Trade Desk, said: “Retail media represents one of the fastest-growing areas of digital advertising, but access to onsite advertising placements has been limited and fragmented. By working with Koddi, advertisers can now run full-funnel campaigns on The Trade Desk platform, breaking down silos for retailers and advertisers and unlocking new opportunities for performance and measurement.”

What are The Trade Desk trying to do? According to Fantazier, their goal is “to make it as easy and intuitive as possible for media buyers to connect with Gopuff’s unique audience”. He also mentioned on social media that The Trade Desk sees this partnership with Koddi as a critical step in addressing the adoption challenges of retail media.

Why is this interesting?

Previously, The Trade Desk had only sold offsite placements that used retail data to target ads across the open web. This consolidation of onsite and offsite inventory under The Trade Desk is the first of its kind.

Having onsite and offsite inventory accessed through different consoles and with different technologies is a real challenge for brands and agencies. They have to learn different interfaces and integrate various advertising offerings into a cohesive plan.

Media buyers and brand advertisers who aren’t involved in retail media daily may not know who the retailers are or who their audiences are. They are buying from a brief, and like any normal human being, they tend to buy things they know. Indeed, in many cases, they are incentivized to allocate spending to their agency’s existing media channel relationships, not new ones.

From a neutral observer’s stance, it is also interesting to see The Trade Desk ink this deal, as they have been quite specific in talking about the disadvantages of walled gardens.

The Analyst’s perspective: realising the full commerce media opportunity

Conor McKenna of Luma Partners had an interesting take on the announcement: “We’re finally seeing a deeper merger of Commerce Media and Programmatic as The Trade Desk begins to buy on-site Retail Media on Gopuff with Koddi. This is a trend we’ve been expecting for some time as the natural next step for Commerce Media and programmatic.”

McKenna continued: “As the traditional ‘Open web’ comes under pressure, it’s only natural that the programmatic ecosystem will move more aggressively into the growing set of new supply coming from the ‘Everything is an Ad Network’ trend. The permissions structures for who can build an ad business have completely changed, and it’s time that the programmatic ecosystem starts getting involved with on-site, not just the off-site audiences.”

Ultimately, McKenna believes these sorts of distribution deals will deepen relationships, setting up a better opportunity to connect on-site and off-site, all of which will realise the full Commerce Media opportunity.

What do Koddi and Gopuff say about the deal?

Nicholas Ward, president and co-founder of Koddi, says that the integration “significantly boosts demand for our retail partners while simplifying fragmented buying experiences”.

Michael Peroutka, Head of Gopuff Ads, believes that the partnership is “a momentous step forward in bringing this vision to life’ by giving brands the ability to ‘plan, implement, and optimize their media investments in unison.”

My take 

When brand advertisers or agencies complain about the number of retail media networks (RMNs) or talk about how difficult it is to compare apples to apples, what they really mean is that the tools and channels they use already do this, so why can’t retail media?

Wider distribution is key to the success of any business, and retail media is no different. But there is a tension because RMNs want to control their own destiny—and they own inventory and pricing—rather than let someone else dictate this.

This tension between better distribution and control will be resolved by one simple question: Do the retailers want growth? Making things hard to buy would hinder growth in any industry, but it is really holding back retail media. Bespoke media platforms are not optimised for scale or growth.

RMNs must have their ad inventory appear on a media plan to access brand budgets. That’s where the largest budgets are, and that is how brand advertisers buy their media—through their partner media agencies.

Whether RMNs choose The Trade Desk or some other form of distribution is secondary to the decision to be where the brand budgets are. This deal between The Trade Desk, Koddi, and Gopuff is one of many of these types of deals that we will see in the next few years.

The post ANALYSIS The Trade Desk brings together onsite with offsite advertising, working with Koddi and Gopuff appeared first on InternetRetailing.

Add post to Blinklist Add post to Blogmarks Add post to del.icio.us Digg this! Add post to My Web 2.0 Add post to Newsvine Add post to Reddit Add post to Simpy Who's linking to this post?