The V Spot May 29
Nearly eComm News
Greetings from the V Spot Desk: Jeff Bezos went on CNBC this week to calm everyone down about the AI bubble. His argument: even if it IS a bubble, the bubble is paying for everything so really, the bubble is a gift.
He also clarified AI won’t cause mass layoffs. It’ll cause a labour shortage. And that in two-income households, one of you will probably drop out of the workforce.
He didn’t say which one. Couples across America are doing the maths.
That set the tone for a week where everyone in retail decided the answer was a chatbot.
→ Lululemon ended six months of proxy warfare with its founder by donating to a beach. Kitsilano, Vancouver. Earmarked for “athletics, art, and landscaping.” Stock’s down 40% this year; the peace treaty is shrubbery.
→ Amazon took Rufus, the $12bn shopping bot, and started renting it to other retailers via AWS. The AWS playbook, run again: sell the shovels, race the miners, bill both. First customer is Kate Spade, now offering an “AI Gift Concierge,” because affection is apparently a SaaS feature now.
→ Walmart credited a chunk of its fifth straight 20%+ online quarter to its AI agent. It’s called “Sparky.” Two senior execs left the same week the CEO called it a “pivotal moment.” Sparky outlasted the C-suite.
→ Target responded to all this by announcing $6bn for AI. To catch up. Nothing says strategic calm like dropping six billion on the table next to a rival whose robot is named Sparky.
→ And the tariffs the Supreme Court killed in February? They came back as a refund scramble. Tariff lifts the price, price kills demand, court kills tariff, refund funds the discount. The mole now files for a refund and the hammer’s on backorder.
Meanwhile the actual merchant, the one who has to ship a parcel by Tuesday, is standing in the middle of the arms race wondering if any of this helps.
Six minutes. Six stories. Zero of them about you.
Sponsored by Sumoblue and Omnisend — two companies still willing to be seen with us.
#ecommerce #retail #agenticcommerce #AI #retailtech