I am playing around with ChatGPT Atlas and have done a few trial searches from an ecommerce perspective. Here are a few initial takeaways.

1. Results may vary across ChatGPT Atlas and ChatGPT

2. Big stores dominate the results

3. Price tracking for the consumer, but only sometimes.

4. How Google and ChatGPT Atlas compared

If you want your products to show up in ChatGPT’s shopping and discovery experiences, you’ll need to set up a product feed that matches OpenAI’s official spec. Don’t worry — while the spec looks technical, once you break it down, it’s not too different from filling in a structured spreadsheet about your products.

Gmail is shaking up the inbox again. With a new Purchases view and Promotions tab sorted by “most relevant,” email marketers will need to rethink how they drive visibility and engagement. Here’s what to know.

Learn how to adjust your welcome series, product abandonment, and cart abandonment email automations for Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) to maximize urgency, engagement, and holiday sales.

Agentic AI is starting to make purchases on behalf of consumers, raising a new question for e-commerce: who is the real customer—the shopper or the AI? Traditional tactics like emotional branding and retargeting may not work the same way. Brands that adapt early by optimizing product data and strengthening identity will be best positioned for this shift.

Agentic AI is no longer just a concept — it’s becoming an ecosystem. From Amazon and Walmart to Mastercard and Google, major players are racing to build AI-driven shopping environments that can search, compare, and even purchase on behalf of consumers. But with that convenience comes big questions: Who will control these ecosystems? What does it mean for smaller brands? And how will retailers adapt loyalty strategies when the “customer” might actually be an AI agent?

Ryan Trahan’s whirlwind “50 States in 50 Days” series wasn’t just about quirky Airbnbs or a $1M fundraiser for St. Jude — it doubled as a live experiment in marketing. From $5,000 donor shoutouts to $100K corporate sponsorships, everyone from families to major brands took part. But here’s the real question: did these donations actually deliver lasting value, or were they just entertaining moments in a viral summer spectacle?

Here are the ecommerce, retail, social media, and other industry articles that caught my attention this week.

Here are the ecommerce, retail, social media, and other industry articles that caught my attention this week.

Here are 5 ecommerce, retail, social media, and other industry articles that caught my attention this week.