E-Commerce & Retail Tech

Munich – November 10, 2026 -- A retailer starting with a 2.5% EBIT margin slides into losses in its fourth year without countermeasures, according to a model calculation by consultancy Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) on German online retail.

Costs grow 2.2 percentage points faster than the German e-commerce market

A&M puts annual cost growth in German e-commerce at 6.1%, against market growth of 3.9%. The gap has widened continuously since 2023, according to the analysis. Higher logistics, personnel and IT costs weigh on profitability, as does the expense of winning new customers.

Customer acquisition costs climb about 9% a year

Under A&M's underlying assumptions, customer acquisition costs (CAC) rise by roughly 9% annually, making each additional sale more expensive to generate. Customer service, logistics, personnel and IT spending add to the cost base.

Vancouver – November 08, 2026 -- GreenCore Solutions Corp. is rebranding as WeFetch.ai, an AI software maker for AI shopping, with 84 million barcodes across 70 countries now live for AI agent purchases by consumers, retailers and brands.

WeFetch.ai answers for 84 million products and 3.5 million points of sale

The flagship record, gtinfetch.ai, keys each product to its Global Trade Item Number (GTIN). According to the company, it answers only when sources agree and returns "unknown" instead of guessing. It carries 3.5 million points of sale on its own record, and every answer is signed.

Hallandale Beach – November 06, 2026 -- NextPlat Corp (NASDAQ: NXPL) will release its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2026, on November 12, 2026, and host an investor conference call at 8:30 a.m. Eastern the same day.

Three executives will lead the November 12 earnings call

David Phipps, who holds the titles of CEO, President and CEO of Global Operations, will host the call with Chief Financial Officer Amanda Ferrio and Vice President of Healthcare Operations Birute Norkute. They will discuss third-quarter results and other recent developments.

Investors must submit questions for the Q&A portion by email before November 10, 2026. Dial-in participants are asked to call 5-10 minutes before the start time, when an operator will register their name and organization.

Berlin – November 06, 2026 -- Gero Furchheim has been unanimously re-elected president of the German E-Commerce and Mail Order Association (bevh), with bureaucratic overload for small and mid-sized companies named as the top priority of his new term.

Members vote in Brussels at ordinary general meeting

The vote took place at an ordinary members' meeting in Brussels. Furchheim has led bevh as an honorary president since 2014. He has also headed the European umbrella body Ecommerce Europe since January 2025, giving online retailers a voice at EU level.

Deputy Dieter Junghans and four board members confirmed

Dieter Junghans of Pro-Idee was re-elected as one of Furchheim's deputies. The board also confirmed Ulrich Betzold (Arnulf Betzold), Joachim Fauth (Reader's Digest Deutschland / Verlag Das Beste), René Otto (ROCKnSHOP) and Lars Schade.

Austin – November 05, 2026 -- Thryfter, a livestream commerce platform built for the thrift, vintage and resale industry, will present its technology to Goodwill member organizations at the Goodwill CONNECT Conference in Houston, Texas, on November 9-10.

Thryfter targets donated merchandise as a new sales channel

The presentation will show how livestream shopping can complement brick-and-mortar retail, extend customer engagement beyond store locations and create new ways to monetize donated goods. Thryfter combines live video, real-time customer interaction and competitive bidding. It positions this format against conventional e-commerce platforms.

Five commercial benefits are on the agenda for Goodwill operators

Thryfter will tell Goodwill organizations the platform can:

Taipei – November 05, 2026 -- Taiwantrade, the B2B sourcing platform operated by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), has launched ASTRA, an AI assistant that matches international buyers with Taiwanese suppliers from plain-language requests.

Buyers no longer need exact keywords or manual comparison of product listings. They can describe a sourcing need, including a long or complex business request. ASTRA interprets the requirements, recommends matching products and suppliers, and moves the buyer from inquiry to discovery.

ASTRA offers three functions covering search, recommendation and quotation

Semantic Search reads natural-language requests, including product specifications and applications, and returns recommendations with the rationale for each match.

Smart Recommendation runs multi-round conversations in which buyers clarify requirements, explore sourcing options and identify suitable products and suppliers.

Lititz, Pa. – September 18, 2026 -- Listrak has launched Listrak Studio, a Figma plugin that converts email designs directly into ready-to-send, cross-client-tested campaigns, cutting production time and potentially saving retailers over 250 hours a year in email build work.

Listrak Studio removes the manual handoff between design and deployment

The plugin allows marketing teams to design emails in Figma and transfer them directly into Listrak's platform, eliminating the need to rebuild HTML from scratch or wait on developer translation. Designs are converted into responsive emails validated across major clients including Outlook and Gmail, then saved directly into Listrak accounts ready to attach to campaigns.

Stockholm – September 18, 2026 -- Only 43% of shoppers believe AI will make their holiday shopping easier this year, down from 48% in 2025, according to new research from Sinch AB (publ) covering 2,501 consumers across eight markets ahead of Black Friday and the holiday season.

Confidence hinges on specific tasks, not AI broadly

While overall optimism about AI declined, confidence surges when AI is assigned a concrete function. 81% of shoppers trust an AI assistant to handle order tracking and shipping updates, and 74% trust it for pre-purchase questions. That confidence drops to 66% for account changes and 62% for payment or billing changes.

Singapore – September 18, 2026 -- UROVO has introduced UPad, a commercial tablet designed to consolidate payment processing, barcode scanning, RFID tracking, and enterprise mobility into a single device for frontline business operations.

UPad replaces multiple disconnected hardware units with one integrated platform

The device targets retail, restaurant, hospitality, and warehousing operators seeking to cut hardware investment while gaining real-time operational visibility. UROVO CTO Zhang Bo said frontline operations now require more than standalone devices, positioning UPad as a unified answer to payment, data capture, mobility, and business applications.

Paris – September 18, 2026 -- Allied Telesis will present its Unified Management Platform at NRF Europe 2026, targeting a retail sector where point-of-sale downtime costs the average merchant $4,700 per minute.

Network failures drive 53% of retail POS outages, according to industry data cited by Allied Telesis

The company said network infrastructure failures are the root cause of 53 percent of all point-of-sale system downtime. On Black Friday, that outage cost climbs to $9,000 per minute, raising the stakes for retailers running AI-powered fitting rooms, cloud applications and connected in-store devices.