The V Spot : the eComm Nearly News

Week 18 EP12 — MAY 1, 2026

Welcome to the V Spot. Your home for the eComm Nearly News.

It’s May Day. International Workers’ Day. Across the world the working class is meant to rise up and demand fair wages, dignified labour, and an end to exploitation. eBay celebrated by going completely offline. I spent the week in Belfast at the heart of Irish and UK ecommerce. We learned that the Mack in Noel Mack is short because, he didn’t eat his greens. No, in fact, like a famous Wrexham owner, his name is Irish - McElhinney. He wowed our audience by Sesame Streeting us - with some carefully placed swear words and the numbers - the standout one being $1BN - their turnover. He also shared some photos of a Young Ben Francis but colour me skeptical.. It seems young Ben has been aged somewhere between 21 and 24 for almost a decade now. What age are you Ben?

Right. Let’s do the news.

eBay Goes Dark Right Before It Has To Speak To Investors

eBay’s marketplace fell over on Sunday and stayed over, intermittently, for the better part of 48 hours. A hacktivist crew calling itself 313 Team claimed responsibility for a DDoS attack. eBay refused to confirm anything. Buyers couldn’t search. Sellers couldn’t list. Auctions ended in a state of metaphysical uncertainty.

eBay turns over about $230 million in gross merchandise volume per day. That’s somewhere between zero and Iceland’s GDP gone, depending on which hour you ask. The bit that’s almost too perfect, earnings call was Wednesday. So executives spent the weekend rehearsing the line that says “we are investing heavily in platform reliability.”

And remember, this is the same eBay that recently announced it was passing on agentic shopping. Won’t let the AI agents in. Couldn’t let the humans in either, as it turned out.

Walmart Wishes You A Pivotal Moment

Walmart published its annual report. John Furner’s first one as CEO. The headline numbers are strong — $715.9 billion in revenue, global ecommerce up 24% to $150.4 billion. Furner’s shareholder letter said, and I quote: “We are at a pivotal moment.”

We are always at a pivotal moment. Every annual report ever written has been published from inside a pivotal moment. If we were not at a pivotal moment, the annual report would say “nothing is happening, please continue buying cheese.”

But what was interesting,cheese aside, was Sparky, Walmart’s AI shopping agent, is driving baskets 35% higher than the non-AI experience. So if you’re still wondering whether agentic commerce is a fad, Walmart’s basket size has answered.

Amazon Quietly Reroutes Its Sellers’ Cash Flow

Amazon’s overhauling how seller ad fees are paid. The new policy (yes another one): ad costs deducted automatically from your sales proceeds. No more credit cards. No more floating the spend to next month. Sellers complained loudly enough that Amazon pushed the deadline back to August 1st. But the direction is set in concrete.

In plain English, Amazon’s millions of SMBs just lost two things they’d built their cash flow around. Float. And credit card rewards. For a third-party seller, those points weren’t points. They were the difference between making payroll and not. And now they’re going to a payment rail Amazon controls end to end.

If you’re a small Amazon seller and you’re not yet in your feelings about this, give it 90 days. You will be.

Spotify Buys A Bicycle

Spotify announced a global partnership with Peloton on Monday. 1,400 on-demand workout classes integrated into Spotify Premium — yoga, pilates, strength, the lot. Dyslexic Shopify shareholders briefly thought Tobi had bought a stationary bike company. He had not.

What this actually is, Peloton finally admitting their hardware-first model has plateaued, and Spotify finally admitting that music alone doesn’t justify the subscription anymore. Two companies in their thirties, both very gym, both very content-tired, decided to start a wellness journey together. May they grow stronger. May we never have to install an app called Strava-but-Spotify. May Daniel Ek find his core.

BigCommerce Turns Into A PayPal Tracksuit

BigCommerce announced Wednesday that it’s plugging PayPal’s Store Sync into its app marketplace. The pitch: BigCommerce merchants can now connect their catalog directly to — quote — “AI surfaces.”

AI surfaces. That’s the new word for “places where commerce happens that aren’t your website.” Sharon Gee, BigCommerce’s SVP of AI, said merchants need to “meet shoppers in those moments.”

And for a change, If you’re Irish or European watching this from across the water — this applies to you too. Just in three more languages and with a GDPR notice taped to the front of it.

Domino’s CEO Predicts Misery, Generously, On Behalf Of His Peers

Final story. Domino’s stock dropped Monday on weak Q1 results. Same-store sales soft. The CEO went on the call and said paraphrasing only slightly more chains will follow.

Generous of him. Big “the iceberg got us, but don’t worry, it’s coming for the rest of you” energy. Domino’s, to be fair, sells pizza in a tariff economy where every box, every bit of cheese, every tin of sauce costs more than it did last year. And the consumer — sitting on a $1,300 hidden tariff tax and a delivery surcharge is not springing for extra pepperoni.

So when the Domino’s CEO says the rest of you are next, believe him. He’s not threatening you. He’s hugging you.

We somehow continue to be sponsored by SumoBlue We say “somehow” because, frankly, the longer this goes on, the more concerned we get for their judgment. SumoBlue are an Irish Marketing agency who clearly have given up and let me sing for their supper. Tell them the lad with the accent sent you.

That’s the 6 minutes you won’t get back this week.

Some Other Stories Catching our eyes

UBS: Tariffs and Immigration Policies Could Drive More Retail Closures in 2026 URL: https://www.retaildive.com/topic/e-commerce/ Subject: Retail Macro / Tariffs Region: US Summary: UBS analysts published research arguing that the combination of sustained tariff pressure and immigration enforcement is weighing on the industry and likely to accelerate the pace of store closures across the year. Specialty retail flagged as the most exposed. POV: “Tariffs already had the kitchen on fire. UBS just noted that immigration enforcement is now also locking the back door.”

eBay Marketplace Goes Dark Following Suspected DDoS Attack URL: https://www.retaildive.com/news/ebay-scrambles-fix-outages-marketplace-down/818601/ Subject: Marketplace / Cyber Region: US (global impact) Summary: eBay’s marketplace site experienced widespread outages from Sunday afternoon into Monday and Tuesday, with API and search failures affecting buyers and sellers globally. Hacktivist group 313 Team claimed responsibility for a denial-of-service attack. eBay declined to confirm the cause. The platform turns over $230M in GMV per day. POV: “The company that wouldn’t let AI agents into its checkout couldn’t keep humans in either.”

Walmart Releases 2026 Annual Report — $715.9B Revenue, 24% Global Ecommerce Growth URL: https://www.retaildive.com/news/walmarts-annual-report-ecommerce-store-investments-AI/818542/ Subject: Earnings / AI / Retail Strategy Region: US Summary: Walmart’s first annual report under CEO John Furner shows total revenue up 5.1% to $715.9B, with global ecommerce up 24% to $150.4B. Sparky, Walmart’s AI shopping agent, is driving 35% higher basket sizes vs the non-AI experience. Capital allocation to new stores up 212% YoY. POV: “Walmart’s annual report is at a pivotal moment. So is every other annual report. Has been since 1962.”

Spotify Launches Fitness Hub With 1,400+ Peloton Classes for Premium Subscribers URL: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/27/spotify-peloton-fitness-content-hub.html Subject: Subscriptions / Wellness / Content Region: ROW (US, UK, EU, Australia, Mexico, Canada) Summary: Spotify and Peloton announced a global partnership making 1,400+ on-demand classes (yoga, pilates, strength, meditation, outdoor) available within Spotify Premium. Marks Spotify’s first major fitness category and Peloton’s furthest move yet from the hardware-first model.

Domino’s CEO Warns More Restaurant Chains Will Follow As Q1 Sales Slip URL: https://www.cnbc.com/retail/ Subject: Retail / Macro / Consumer Region: US Summary: Domino’s reported weak Q1 same-store sales, and the CEO said on the earnings call that other chains would likely report similar pressure as the quarter unfolds. Stock fell on the day.

BigCommerce Integrates PayPal Store Sync, Targets “AI Surfaces” URL: https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2026/bigcommerce-bets-on-agentic-commerce-with-expanded-paypal-pact/ Subject: Agentic Commerce / Payments Region: US (global rollout) Summary: BigCommerce announced an integration with PayPal’s Store Sync product, allowing merchants to syndicate catalog and inventory data into AI shopping channels. Positions BigCommerce alongside Shopify (Agentic Storefronts) and against eBay (which refused agent checkout) in the agentic commerce platform divide.

eBay Q1 2026 Earnings (delivered amid the outage tail) URL: https://www.valueaddedresource.net/ebay-server-errors-search-descriptions/ Subject: Earnings Region: US Summary: eBay reported Q1 2026 earnings two days after a major site outage. GMV trends and ad revenue both under analyst scrutiny.

Caterpillar Q1 Earnings Beat — But Tariffs Cost $710M in Quarter URL: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/30/caterpillar-cat-q1-earnings.html Subject: Industrial / Tariffs Region: US Summary: Caterpillar Q1 EPS came in at $5.54, 30% YoY, beating consensus by 20%. Manufacturing costs related to tariffs hit $710M in the quarter. Backlog of $62.7B provides visibility, but tariff drag is now a permanent line in the model.

Amazon Tightens Grip on Seller Cash With Card Payment Overhaul URL: https://www.pymnts.com/amazon/2026/amazon-tightens-grip-on-seller-cash-with-card-payment-overhaul/ Subject: Marketplaces / Seller Operations Region: US Summary: Amazon’s overhaul of seller ad-fee billing — moving from card-based payment to automatic deduction from sales proceeds — has been delayed from April 15 to August 1 after seller pushback. The directional shift removes float and credit card rewards from millions of SMB sellers.

Woolworths (Australia) Freezes Prices on 300 Own-Brand Products for 3 Months URL:

Retail Around The World: 30 April 2026

Subject: Grocery / Pricing / Macro Region: ROW (Australia) Summary: Woolworths Group will freeze shelf prices on 300 own-brand or exclusive products from May 1 for three months, absorbing supplier cost increases on fuel, fertiliser and packaging. Group ecommerce sales rose 20.2% to AUD 2.7B in the prior period.