The Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest
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The Watson Weekly - Your Essential eCommerce Digest
Stop reading the headlines and start understanding the frameworks. The Watson Weekly is the premier resource for eCommerce executives, delivering sharp, independent strategy on the industry's most critical developments. Join 20-year veteran Rick Watson as he cuts through the noise to help you under...
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The Bold and the Cold of 2026 So Far
Half of 2026 is behind us. We went back through the first six months and split the big commerce and AI stories into two groups, the bold moves and the...
The Big Green Bag Of Promise: Unified Commerce Is a Data Strategy First
Unified commerce is a data strategy first and a Shopify decision second. Rick Watson tests that idea with two operators who have lived it. In episode...
June 29th, 2026: Papa John's and Instacart, Amazon Prime Day, FedEx Earnings, and Agentic Cannes
This week on the Watson Weekly, four stories about who controls what you see and what you buy.
Papa John's wanted to reach you the moment your f...
Shopify Points Its Catalog at Amazon (and ChatGPT Sells Ads)
Tourists flew in for the World Cup and went viral filming trips to Buc-ee's and Waffle House. Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky unpack what that attenti...
The Real Enterprise Shopify Math Isn't Cost. It's Opportunity Cost
Most brands still evaluate enterprise Shopify on license cost. The operators in this conversation evaluate it on opportunity cost, and that reframe ch...
June 22nd, 2026: Shopify Editions: Spring 2026, Kimberly-Clark Supply Chain, Amazon's DeSantis at VivaTech, and Air Freight: 41% Up on 4% Demand
Shopify wants to be the checkout layer under every AI agent, and its Spring 2026 edition shipped 150-plus updates to prove it. Meanwhile air freight s...
Three Big Numbers, One That's Real - TikTok Shop, Saks Global, and CaaStle
TikTok Shop moved $4.4 billion in beauty and wellness. Saks wants $9 billion by 2030. Castle claimed $1.4 billion and was worth $16 million. This week...
Agentforce Commerce: New Architecture or New Logo?
Salesforce renamed Commerce Cloud to Agentforce Commerce and calls this its biggest release in years. Rebrand, or substance? Nitin Mangtani makes the...
June 15th, 2026: Walmart Delivers Subway, CaaStle Fraud, Apple and Siri AI, and Shopify and AI
She told investors $440M. The real number was $15.7M. This week: the CaaStle fraud, Walmart's Subway play, and Shopify's $5B bet.
In this episod...
Shopify's Buyback, Apple's Borrowed Brain, Anthropic's Three Futures
This week on the Watson Weekly weekend edition, Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky discuss: Shopify pushes its buyback to $5 billion while every other te...
The Highest-Converting Shopper on the Internet Isn't Human with Stripe's Danny Smith
Software agents are now the highest-converting shoppers on the web, and most stores are built to lock them out. Rick Watson sit down with Stripe's Dan...
June 8th, 2026: Amazon Prime Day, FedEx Freight, Anthropic Files, and ShipStation Global
It's June 8th, 2026, and Rick Watson breaks down the week's e-commerce news with his usual habit: put the press release down and look at the calendar....
IPOs, Last-Mile Deals, and Acquisitions: Anthropic, USPS–DHL, Salesforce
Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky sit down to unpack a busy stretch across tech, shipping, and commerce. They open with Anthropic's confidential IPO fil...
AI Replaces Average Design, Not Designers
Christina Hagopian has spent 24 years running her own brand strategy and creative practice. In this episode she joins Rick Watson to explain why a bra...
June 1st, 2026: Walmart Earnings, ABG Leadership Change, Google I/O, and Kroger News
Rick Watson runs through a busy week in retail. Walmart posted a $177.8 billion quarter, with revenue up 7.3%, U.S. comps up 4.1%, and global e-commer...
Walmart's Quarter, Google's Agentic Cart, and the K-Shaped Economy
Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky break down Walmart's Q1 numbers and what they say about where retail is heading. Revenue was up 7.3%, U.S. comps rose...
Storefront Next: Inside Salesforce's New Commerce Architecture with Lennart Stevens
In this Watson Weekly interview episode, Rick Watson is joined by Lennart Stevens, VP of Product Management for Agentforce Commerce at Salesforce, who...
May 25th, 2026: Home Depot and Target Earnings, Google and Blackstone Partner, and Publicis buys LiveRamp
Two big retail earnings reports, two very different stories. Home Depot grew total sales 4.8% to $41.77 billion, but comparable sales barely moved (up...
Treading Water at Home Depot, Selling Out at Everlane
Home Depot just told the market it's treading water, and Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky dig into why the remodeling boom never showed up. People are...
May 18th, 2026: Amazon Now Goes Live, eBay Says No to GameStop, and OpenAI Bets $14B on Enterprise
The Watson Weekly for May 18, 2026. Amazon launched a 30-minute delivery to take on DoorDash. eBay shuts down GameStop's bid. OpenAI puts $14 billion...
Rufus Is Gone, eBay Said No, Lulu Picked Nike
Three retail moves worth talking about this week.
Amazon is retiring the Rufus name. The shopping chatbot has hit roughly 300M users since its 2...
Omar Qari on Why Logicbroker Revived Connected Commerce In 2026
Logicbroker brought back Connected Commerce this year, set up outside Central Park, because the conversations the team has been having with customers...
Townchest, Mirakl, Avalara: How a Marketplace Actually Works Behind the Scenes
Rick Watson talks with Alan Gaffney (CEO, Townchest), Nick Boetcher (Avalara), and Justin Samakow (Mirakl) about what breaks when a marketplace scales...
May 11th, 2026: Shopify, Alphabet, and Amazon Earnings and GameStop's Bid for eBay
Shopify posted its strongest quarter in four years and the stock fell 7%. Rick walks through why Wall Street wasn't impressed, what the LVMH signing a...
Saks Comeback Plan, Victoria's Secret Boardroom Fight, AI Earnings Reality
Three stories on the table this week, and none of them small.
Saks Global plans to exit Chapter 11 on June 22nd carrying $1.2 billion in debt, w...
The 2001 Acquisition That Quietly Won Home Depot the Internet
Rick Watson sits down with Mike Hogenmiller, who has spent more than forty years inside home improvement retail and watched the consumer reinvent them...
H&M, Bridal Waivers, and the Org of the Future
H&M just listed on a US online marketplace for the first time, and they picked Nordstrom. Rick Watson and Nick Kaplan break down what that signals abo...
When Your Customer Is on a Roof: B2B UX in the Real World
What does B2B digital transformation look like when your end user is an HVAC contractor standing on a rooftop in 95-degree heat? In this episode of Th...
April 27th, 2026: The Cook Era Ends, Anthropic's $100B AWS Deal, and QXO's Building Products Play
This week on the Watson Weekly, Rick Watson breaks down the biggest stories shaping commerce, technology, and AI infrastructure.
Tim Cook is ste...
Ternus Takes Apple, Anthropic Commits $100B to AWS, and Home Depot Buys a Robot Startup
On this weekend edition of The Watson Weekly, Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky break down the biggest stories shaping tech, retail, and AI.
Amazo...
How Lo & Sons Cut Product Development From 2 Years to 9 Months
When Helen Lo founded Lo & Sons at 65, she was solving her own travel problem. Fifteen years later, her family-run DTC brand is navigating one of the...
Remembering Jon Panella: The Connector Who Made Commerce Human
In this memorial episode of the Watson Weekly, host Rick Watson is joined by Kelly Goetsch, President, Pipe17 Jeff Oh, Growth Leader, Commerce, Public...
April 20th, 2026: Google's Compute Moat, Amazon Grocery, Vinted Finances, and Apple Smart Glasses
Today on the Watson Weekly: Google treats compute like a moat, Amazon finally figures out groceries, Vinted runs the Amazon playbook in Europe, Apple...
Ozempic Economy, Nike's Reset & the AI Compute Crunch
Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky break down three stories reshaping the consumer and tech landscape. First, why GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and M...
Ads in ChatGPT? AI Agents Buying for You? Three Retail Leaders Debate Agentic Commerce
The Agentic Debate Series Lunch @ Shoptalk Las Vegas 2026, Presented by Logicbroker. Recorded live in Las Vegas on March 24, 2026. Rick Watson hosts a...
April 13th, 2026: Amazon USPS Deal, New BNPL Data, Eko Product Catalog Data & Revolve Returns
Amazon cuts USPS volume, BNPL shapes where Gen Z gets their teeth cleaned, and why your product data is now an AI infrastructure problem.
This W...
What Does a $99 Lowe's Subscription, 60% Returns, and Gen Z's Dentist Have in Common?
Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky break down three retail stories that challenge conventional wisdom this week.
Revolve runs a 60% return rate — t...
April 6th, 2026: Shopify's Partner Town Hall, Lowe’s HomeCare+, USPS and Amazon Fees, and Allbirds is Done
Rick Watson breaks down four stories shaping e-commerce and retail this week:
Shopify's partner town hall reveals a company that treats API cha...
Apple at 50, Amazon's Robot Bet, and How Allbirds Burned $4B
Apple just turned 50. Amazon quietly acquired two robotics companies. And Allbirds — once valued at $4B— sold for $39M. Rick Watson and Nick Kaplan wo...
I Read Rick Watson's Research Prompts and Used Them Against Him | Kaplan Wednesday
Rick Watson is out. Nick Kaplan is in — and he's not giving the mic back.
In this special Kaplan Wednesday episode, Nick takes the research prom...