A growing share of shoppers are not human. They are AI agents researching, comparing, and increasingly purchasing on behalf of consumers. Recently, OpenAI has pushed ChatGPT deeper into product discovery and merchant apps; Google has launched a universal commerce protocol (UCP) to let AI agents transact across retailers; and Amazon has released tools that let its agents shop other retailers' sites on customers' behalf.
SAVE $50: As of May 12, the Shark TurboBlade bladeless tower fan is on sale for $199.99 at Amazon. That's a 20 percent drop from its usual $249.99, marking a new record-low sale price.
Amazon Now soft-launched in Seattle and Philadelphia at the end of 2025, before landing across the pond in London at the start of this year. Amazon says the service is also now widely available in Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth, and will "rapidly expand" into Austin, Houston, Minneapolis, Orlando, Phoenix, Denver, Oklahoma City and more throughout the rest of 2026.
TikTok announced on Tuesday that it's launching TikTok GO, a way for users to discover and book hotels, attractions, and experiences directly within its app. The new offering is launching in the U.S. and is available to users 18 years and older.
For the 14th year in a row, Consumer Reports has named Abt Electronics the best place to buy large kitchen appliances, giving it an overall satisfaction score of 91. Survey respondents praised the retailer's selection of appliances and gave it high marks for customer care, home delivery and installation services, and in-store atmosphere. It was also one of the few appliance stores to receive a good score on its prices.
In my years of writing about home storage tricks, I've found that the best organizers are the simplest ones that have several uses. And they don't have to break the bank! I like to keep an eye out for smart, budget-friendly ways to organize my space, and discount stores are always my first stop.
Uber, DoorDash, and Instacart largely beat quarterly expectations this week and saw their stocks lift. Despite rising gas prices and consumers trimming their budgets, many people are still spending on ride-hailing and food delivery, according to companies' latest earnings results. "We're definitely seeing that not all consumers are under pressure," said Brian Mulberry, chief market strategist at Zacks Investment Management. "Some are still very high earners and doing very well."
The conversation I keep having with UK publishers starts in the same place: traffic is down, audiences are fragmenting, and impressions are declining. The Q1 2026 data does not dismiss that concern. But it does show something equally important: eCPM is up year on year. Slightly, but up. In a quarter where volume fell sharply, the price per impression held. That is not the behaviour of a broken market.
The latest 2026 P&P Wave I Data Deck: The Financial States of America from Northwestern Mutual finds that 49% of Gen Z plan to use Buy Now Pay Later for large purchases in 2026, and 36% plan to use it for daily essentials like groceries and gas.
"The higher the fee, the more benefits you tend to have. It's a dangerous proposition: you'd better start using those benefits, or it's going to be really hard to justify the fee."
