Your bi-weekly roundup of ecommerce trends, retail shifts, and fulfillment innovation.
October is looking less like the warm-up to peak season and more like peak season itself. Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days helped generate nearly $10 billion in online spending across U.S. retailers, with competing promotions pulling holiday demand forward. Lowe’s is taking that extended calendar even further, starting Black Friday deals on October 29 and running different promotions through Christmas Eve.
Consumers are also changing how they find products and value. ChatGPT has added virtual try-on for apparel and accessories, while a Bread Financial survey found strong interest in using AI to compare prices and find deals this holiday. ICSC’s latest research shows shoppers still plan to preserve holiday traditions despite financial pressure, although many expect to switch brands, compare prices, or borrow to cover some purchases.
Beyond holiday news, eBay’s latest recommerce data shows secondhand purchasing becoming a regular habit rather than an occasional bargain hunt. Kickstarter is also pushing into fashion, creating an advisory board to support independent designers building brands outside traditional industry pathways.
Check back every other week for the latest headlines influencing ecommerce and fulfillment.
Prime Big Deal Days turns October into a major holiday demand event
Amazon’s October Prime Big Deal Days helped drive $9.86 billion in online spending across U.S. retailers during October 6 and 7, up 8.5% from last year, according to Adobe data cited by Retail Dive and Modern Retail. Mobile accounted for $5.1 billion, or 52% of sales during the two-day period.1 2
Consumers were shopping more than just Amazon. Competing promotions across retailers turned the event into a wider ecommerce moment as half of Prime Big Deal Days shoppers compared prices elsewhere, according to Numerator data cited by Retail Dive. Discounts also pushed shoppers toward higher-priced products, with the share of premium goods purchased up 21% versus average year-to-date levels.
Individual sellers saw the value sensitivity firsthand. Hat brand Ponyflo reported sales 40% above its goal, while Foreo said its Prime event sales increased 16% year over year. Gemi generated more than three times its typical daily Amazon sales on opening day, with bundled products driving much of the volume.
The bigger story is timing. More than a third of shoppers had already completed at least half of their holiday shopping during the event, making October one of peak season’s first major fulfillment tests.
ChatGPT brings virtual try-on directly into product discovery
ChatGPT has added virtual try-on for clothing and accessories,3 bringing another part of the ecommerce shopping experience into AI-assisted product discovery. When an eligible product appears in ChatGPT, shoppers can select a “Try on” option and provide a selfie to generate an image showing how the item could look on them.
The feature is available across mobile and web. Users can also save products to Favorites or organize them into folders, allowing more of the research and consideration process to happen without moving immediately to a retailer’s website.
Virtual try-on itself is not new. Fashion retailers and technology companies have spent years experimenting with ways to help shoppers visualize apparel online. What changes here is where the experience appears. Instead of requiring shoppers to begin on a specific brand or retail site, try-on can now happen within a product search conversation.
That gives retailers another reason to consider how their product information appears outside their storefront. If consumers start comparing products, saving options, and visualizing purchases in AI interfaces, the traditional ecommerce site may get a shopper much later in the decision process.
The eventual operational question is whether better visualization also improves purchase confidence enough to affect return behavior, particularly in apparel categories where fit and appearance remain major reasons products come back.
Holiday shoppers plan to protect traditions despite tighter budgets
Financial pressure does not appear to be stopping holiday spending, but it is changing how consumers plan to make those purchases. ICSC forecasts holiday retail sales will grow between 4.3% and 4.9%, topping $1.7 trillion. Its Holiday Intentions Survey found that 88% of U.S. adults plan to buy holiday gifts or related items, and 78% expect to spend at least as much as last year.4
That spending comes with clear tradeoffs. Nearly half of respondents worry about affording gifts, and 49% expect to borrow money for purchases they can’t pay in full right away. Almost one-quarter expect to still be paying for 2026 holiday purchases next year.
Brand loyalty may also weaken as shoppers search for value. Fifty-eight percent expect to try a new brand, while 52% plan to shop with a retailer they have not used before. Even among higher-spending consumers, over four in 10 expect to buy fewer items, choose cheaper products, or purchase secondhand.
Physical retail remains important alongside that price sensitivity. Ninety-three percent expect to visit a store to buy something or collect an online order, including 97% of Gen Z respondents. The holiday consumer appears willing to spend, but retailers may have to work harder for each purchase.
Shoppers want AI to find holiday deals while keeping the final decision
AI may have a substantial role in holiday shopping this year, but consumers are drawing a line between assistance and autonomy.
Bread Financial found that 69% of holiday shoppers are likely to use an AI agent or tool to compare prices or find deals. Interest extends across age groups and reaches about half of baby boomers, even though adoption is strongest among younger shoppers.5
The enthusiasm becomes more cautious closer to checkout. Bread found shoppers are most comfortable with AI during pre-purchase activities and place considerable importance on retaining oversight of final decisions and protecting personal information.
The findings help clarify what agentic commerce may look like during its early consumer adoption phase. Much of the near-term use could happen before a transaction: narrowing a large product set, checking prices, finding promotions, and helping a shopper decide where to buy. Fully handing purchasing authority to an agent may develop more slowly.
This makes brand discoverability within AI shopping tools critical, relevant even before autonomous purchasing reaches meaningful scale. A shopper using an agent to compare several similar products could arrive at a retailer already familiar with its price and key product details.
This holiday season will likely provide one of the first tests of AI-assisted shopping behavior without requiring consumers to surrender control of the purchase itself.
Kickstarter gives independent fashion brands another path to launch
Kickstarter is making a larger push into independent fashion with a new Fashion Advisory Board that brings together designers and industry voices, including Hillary Taymour of Collina Strada, Raul Lopez of Luar, Brandon Blackwood, Recho Omondi, and stylist Milton Dixon III.6
The board will provide guidance and visibility to independent creators through the end of 2026 while helping designers connect with Kickstarter’s broader Culture Fund. That $1 million program launched in August and provides direct funding to live campaigns across fashion and other creative categories.
Crowdfunding offers creators an alternative to financing inventory before they know whether a market exists. Kickstarter’s fashion initiative adds another layer by pairing that funding model with people who have experience building independent brands.
For emerging fashion labels, that support can help shorten the distance between an idea and a commercially viable product. Successful campaigns also provide an early demand signal before a designer commits to larger production quantities.
The next challenge begins once that demand materializes. A creator who moves quickly from a limited campaign to a functioning ecommerce brand must manage production, inventory, shipping, and returns at a very different scale. Kickstarter focuses primarily on funding and launching independent ideas, but stronger launch pathways could also create a new crop of young brands that reach meaningful order volume earlier.
Recommerce becomes a regular shopping habit for more consumers
Secondhand shopping is moving deeper into everyday consumer behavior, according to eBay’s 2026 Recommerce Report.7 Forty-seven percent of surveyed consumers said they now buy secondhand goods at least monthly, up from 35% last year. Seventy-six percent had purchased something secondhand within the previous year, while 89% expect to spend the same amount or more on used goods in 2027.
The trend is particularly strong among younger shoppers. In the U.S., 60% of consumers ages 18 to 29 plan to increase secondhand purchases next year, compared with 41% of U.S. respondents overall. Globally, younger shoppers also purchase across a wider range of secondhand categories rather than treating resale primarily as a fashion channel.
Value remains the biggest driver. Eighty-four percent ranked saving money among their top reasons for buying secondhand, while 70% said recommerce helps them manage household budgets. Trust remains one of the biggest barriers, particularly around product condition and listing accuracy.
The scale is making it difficult for traditional brands to treat resale as a side market. Pre-owned and refurbished products have represented more than 40% of eBay’s gross merchandise volume since 2024.
As resale matures, product durability and reverse logistics become part of the broader commerce lifecycle. A product’s second transaction may be becoming nearly as relevant as its first.
Lowe’s stretches Black Friday from October through Christmas Eve
The traditional five-day Thanksgiving shopping window continues to lose its grip on peak season. Lowe’s will begin four weeks of Black Friday deals on October 29, nearly a month before Black Friday itself, followed by 12 Days of Deals beginning November 16 and additional promotions through Thanksgiving week. December Deal Drops will then run from December 3 through Christmas Eve.8
The retailer is also giving loyalty members early access to certain Black Friday doorbusters and free same-day delivery on eligible purchases throughout the season. Stores will remain closed on Thanksgiving, while online promotions continue.
The schedule captures how far holiday retail has moved from a single peak surrounding Thanksgiving. Amazon’s October event already created a major early demand spike this year. Lowe’s will effectively transition from late-October promotions into November offers and then another set of December deals.
That changes the fulfillment cadence behind holiday retail. Instead of building toward five extremely busy shopping days and tapering afterward, inventory may need to support repeated promotional surges over eight or more weeks.
The longer season can spread some demand, but it also extends the period when warehouses need peak staffing and replenishment capacity. Brands may have fewer opportunities to reset inventory between promotional events, making forecasts by week and SKU more useful than treating “holiday” as one large volume forecast.
References:
- https://www.retaildive.com/news/amazon-prime-big-deal-days-online-spend-nears-ten-billion/832604/
- https://www.modernretail.co/marketing/how-amazon-fall-prime-day-went-for-sellers/
- https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6825453-chatgpt-release-notes?_sp=d8d730d8-fad2-4adc-9cce-636ac0fb7929.1791997132143
- https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261006538037/en/ICSCs-2026-Holiday-Intentions-Survey-Finds-Consumers-Prioritize-Holiday-Traditions-Over-Financial-Pressures
- https://newsroom.breadfinancial.com/quicktake-holiday-AI-agent-use
- https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kickstarter-taps-leaders-behind-collina-strada-luar-brandon-blackwood-the-cutting-room-floor-and-milton-dixon-iii-for-fashion-advisory-board-302907913.html
- https://www.ebayinc.com/recommerce-report/
- https://corporate.lowes.com/newsroom/press-releases/lowes-unveils-holiday-2026-lineup-new-gifts-and-decor-mylowes-rewards-perks-and-weeks-of-black-friday-savings?_sp=d8d730d8-fad2-4adc-9cce-636ac0fb7929.1791997037503
