The e-commerce news of the week not to be missed! Trends, events & tools, all in under 5 minutes 🛒
👋 This Week's Editorial
This week, I feel like I'm witnessing two clashes of the titans in parallel. On one side, Amazon bringing out the legal artillery against Perplexity's AI. On the other, the French government attempting to block Shein. At the same time, holiday season forecasts are dropping: the American NRF aims for a historic record of $1 trillion, while the French, more cautious, are reducing their budget. A pivotal week for the period of October 31 to November 6, 2025.
📢 E-commerce & Shopping
⚠️ The French government initiates a suspension procedure against Shein The French government has initiated a procedure to suspend the Shein platform following the discovery of illegal products (child-like sex dolls and weapons). The courts have been involved to request the blocking of the site, while the DGCCRF (French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control) gave Shein 48 hours to remove the content, an announcement occurring on the very day its store opened at BHV Marais.
🚛 At the same time, 200,000 Shein parcels inspected by French customs French customs carried out an inspection of 200,000 Shein parcels that arrived at Roissy airport. This operation aims to support the three procedures initiated by the Prime Minister against the platform to verify product compliance and customs declarations.
💔 And finally, Galeries Lafayette breaks with its partner SGM The Galeries Lafayette group announced the end of its partnership with SGM following the controversy over the implementation of Shein stores. Seven stores (Angers, Dijon, Grenoble, Le Mans, Limoges, Orléans, Reims) will leave the Galeries Lafayette brand as a consequence of this strategic disagreement.
🇪🇺 Europe intensifies its regulatory pressure on Temu The European Commission concluded in its preliminary findings that Temu is violating the Digital Services Act (DSA) by failing to protect consumers against illegal products. A "mystery shopping" operation revealed a high probability of finding non-compliant products, exposing Temu to fines that could reach 6% of its global revenue. 📈 The NRF predicts a record holiday season at $1 trillion in the United States The National Retail Federation anticipates that end-of-year spending (Nov-Dec) in the United States will reach $1.01-$1.02 trillion (+3.7-4.2%). Notably: seasonal hiring (265k-365k) is sharply down compared to 2024 (442k), reflecting a tighter labor market.
🎄 On our side, the French are reducing their gift budget by 7%. A study reveals that the French are planning a gift budget of 243.60 euros for Christmas, a 7% decrease compared to 2024. Faced with inflation, consumers favor e-commerce, anticipating purchases, and are even using AI to optimize their spending.
🛍️ But before Christmas, 61% of French people say they are concerned by Black Friday An OpinionWay barometer indicates that 61% of French people will participate in Black Friday 2025 (scheduled for November 28), with a peak of 79% among 18-24 year olds. The event is becoming established as the real kick-off for Christmas shopping for all income categories. 🛒 Moreover, 57% of end-of-year purchases will be made online in France. An Equativ study reveals that 70% of French people are maintaining their holiday budget. 57% of gift purchases are expected to be made online, with physical stores retaining 43% of sales. 37% of French people are waiting for Black Friday for their purchases.
♻️ ThredUp launches its P2P marketplace after 15 years of consignment The resale platform ThredUp unveiled its peer-to-peer marketplace in closed beta. This announcement coincides with record Q3 results ($82.2M in revenue, +34% YoY). The platform targets "occasional sellers" frustrated by Poshmark by offering zero listing fees and AI tools, such as product photography on AI-generated models.
🇨🇳 China breaks records for "Double 11" with a more rational approach The Double 11 festival started with 80 brands surpassing $14 million in GMV. However, the event now spans weeks and consumers prioritize direct discounts over complex coupons. AI optimizes logistics, with JD.com claiming to deliver 90-95% of first-party orders within 24 hours. 📊 eBay and Wayfair exceed expectations in Q3 eBay reported Q3 revenue up 9.5% ($2.82B) and GMV up 10% ($20.11B). For its part, Wayfair announced revenue of $3.1B (+8.1%) and adjusted EBITDA of $208M (+70%), exceeding expectations, with growth in new orders for the second consecutive quarter.
👠 Zalando sees strong Q3 growth thanks to the integration of About You Zalando announced a 26.5% increase in its Q3 revenue (€3B), largely driven by the acquisition of About You finalized in July. The integration brings the active customer base to 61.4 million in Europe. The retailer also announced a strategic 5-year partnership with the German Football Federation (DFB).
🤖 AI & Tech
Amazon sues Perplexity and declares war on AI shopping agents. Amazon has filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI, accusing the startup's Comet AI agent of illegally accessing customer accounts and disguising automated purchases as human activity. The case will determine whether AI agents can shop on behalf of users without platform approval.
💳 PayPal positions itself as the infrastructure for agentic commerce. PayPal launched its "Agentic Commerce Services," introducing "Agent Ready" and "Store Sync" payments to connect merchants to AI platforms like Perplexity and ChatGPT. Wix, BigCommerce, and Shopware are among the first partners.
🏭 Intershop deploys autonomous AI agents for B2B. The German platform Intershop launched its "Fall 2025 Release," introducing autonomous AI agents designed for B2B e-commerce. The suite includes a localization agent (25 languages) and a "Copilot for Merchants" (beta) allowing agents to be orchestrated using natural language. 🔎 Shopify opens its "Shop App" to Google and Bing indexing. Shopify announced that its "Shop" application now runs on the unified catalog and that its storefronts can be indexed by Google and Bing. This strategic change could put Shop app listings in direct competition with merchant product pages in search results (SEO).
🤝 Klarna and Google Cloud announce a strategic AI partnership. Klarna and Google Cloud unveiled an alliance focused on AI to accelerate product development. Klarna will use Google's generative models (Veo 2, Gemini 2.5) to create digital "lookbooks," with pilots showing a 15% increase in time spent in the app and 50% more orders.
🗣️ Amazon's Rufus AI assistant would increase conversions by 60%. Amazon revealed that customers who interact with Rufus, its AI shopping assistant, are 60% more likely to finalize a purchase than those who do not use it. This figure confirms the substantial impact of AI-powered conversational assistants on conversion rates. 🛒 A-commerce (augmented commerce) emerges as the new revolution. An opinion piece highlights the emergence of a-commerce, noting that 73% of global shoppers already use AI in their journey. This trend is reinforced by the launch of features like OpenAI's "Instant Checkout," designed to integrate e-commerce systems directly into AIs.
🚀 Retail tech: Bpifrance notes the acceleration of digitalization. More than 80% of French brands have initiated a project to digitize their customer journey since the pandemic, according to Bpifrance. The French ecosystem includes more than 400 retail tech startups developing solutions for smart commerce, supply chain, and customer experience.
📣 Marketing & Ads
Meta deploys carousel and Advantage+ formats on Threads Meta has expanded its advertising capabilities on Threads to capture end-of-year budgets. The platform (400M active users) now supports carousel ads, Advantage+ catalog ads, and 4:5 videos. Meta also allows brands without a Threads profile to run ads via their Instagram or Facebook accounts.
🗓️ The E-commerce Agenda
Nov 15-16: La Grande Exposition du Fabriqué en France (Paris) - (More info: www.entreprises.gouv.fr)
Nov 19: Retail Go! (Lille) - (More info: www.euratechnologies.com)
Nov 24-25: Tech For Retail (Paris Expo Porte de Versailles) - (More info: www.techforretail.com)
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