Your bi-weekly roundup of ecommerce trends, retail shifts, and fulfillment innovation.
With Black Friday less than a month away, the price of winning and fulfilling an ecommerce order is getting more attention.
A new benchmark of DTC brands puts median Meta advertising costs at $13.52 per thousand impressions, while DHL’s latest Black Friday research finds the shipping options shown at checkout can be enough to lose a shopper even after a promotion gets them there.
Parcel pricing is changing too. USPS plans to introduce a weekly fuel surcharge in January, bringing its package pricing closer to the models already used by UPS and FedEx. Marketing technology presents a different contrast. In a recent poll, most retail media professionals are comfortable using AI to analyze performance, but relatively few will let it decide which products or ads shoppers see.
Check back every other week for the latest headlines influencing ecommerce and fulfillment.
New DTC benchmark puts median Meta ad ROAS at 2.96
A new advertising benchmark provides DTC brands with a useful, if limited, comparison point for Meta performance. Top Growth Marketing analyzed $2.46 million in Facebook and Instagram spend from 15 DTC ecommerce brands between July 2025 and June 2026. Median cost per thousand impressions came in at $13.52, while median cost per click was $0.57 and click-through rate reached 2.68%. Purchase return on ad spend was 2.96, meaning the median account attributed $2.96 in revenue to every advertising dollar spent.1
The ranges show why a single benchmark should not become a target for every brand. The middle half of advertisers recorded purchase ROAS between 2.50 and 5.30, while cost per purchase ranged from $6.63 to $195.17. The agency estimates the brands in the dataset had an implied average order value around $145.
The study also comes with an important caveat: all 15 advertisers were clients actively managed by the agency, so the findings should not be read as an industry-wide Meta average.
The more useful comparison for ecommerce brands may be less about whether ROAS hits 2.96 and more about whether higher media costs still make sense after product margin, fulfillment costs, returns, and promotional discounts are accounted for.
DHL finds delivery can make or break the Black Friday sale
Discounts may attract Black Friday shoppers, but new DHL research suggests fulfillment choices can determine whether they finish the purchase.
DHL surveyed 29,000 online shoppers and 5,800 ecommerce businesses2 across global markets for its 2026 research. One-third of Black Friday shoppers said they are most likely to abandon a purchase when they reach the shipping-options stage. Eighty-one percent would leave without their preferred delivery option, while 74% said the same about returns.
Trust matters too. Seventy-seven percent said they would not shop with a brand if they did not trust its delivery or returns provider. Those findings highlight a notable gap in Black Friday participation. DHL also found that 84% of ecommerce businesses run promotions for the event, but only 41% of online shoppers actually purchase during Black Friday. AI-assisted shoppers were more active than traditional deal seekers, with 50% purchasing during Black Friday compared with 42% of deal seekers.
That puts some of the pressure back on the experience surrounding the offer. A strong discount can still lose the order when shipping costs appear late or a shopper cannot get the delivery method they expected. This means that peak planning reaches all the way to checkout. Inventory availability matters, but so does whether the fulfillment network can support the promise displayed next to the buy button.
Teen spending rebounds as fashion moves beyond athletic brands
Teen spending has returned to growth despite continued economic uncertainty, but where those dollars are going is changing. Piper Sandler’s 26th Annual Teen Survey,3 4 which included nearly 9,000 teens, found greater interest in fashion-forward, nonathletic styles.
Specialty retailers gained 8 percentage points of share to reach 23%, while athletic brands fell to 29% from 32% last year and 44% three years ago. Nike, Adidas, and New Balance collectively lost 4 points of share, and lululemon declined for the fifth consecutive survey. Nike/Jordan also fell to No. 8 when upper-income male teens were asked which fashion trends are “in,” its lowest position in 13 years after 23 consecutive surveys at No. 1. On Running gained with male teens, while UGG and Birkenstock advanced among female shoppers.
Beauty provides another source of growth. Teen beauty spending rose 7%, and beauty reached a record 23% of girls’ spending. Haircare led with 10% growth, while cosmetics and skincare each increased 5%.
The results point to a teen consumer willing to spend but less concentrated around the athletic brands that dominated the category for years. That creates room for specialty retailers and emerging brands as younger shoppers spread their budgets across a wider mix of fashion and beauty.
USPS will add a weekly fuel surcharge in January
USPS is preparing to change how ecommerce brands calculate parcel costs in 2027. Beginning in January, the Postal Service will apply a fuel surcharge to USPS Ground Advantage, Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express, and Parcel Select shipments. The percentage will adjust weekly based on diesel and jet fuel prices published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.5 6
Unlike a flat per-package fee, the new surcharge will be calculated as a percentage of base postage. USPS says shippers will receive upcoming percentages electronically or through APIs, with the applicable rate published several days before it takes effect. Negotiated contracts may include customized fuel-surcharge terms.⁶
The structure brings USPS closer to UPS and FedEx, which already adjust fuel surcharges regularly. It follows an 8% temporary USPS package price increase introduced earlier this year as higher transportation costs pressured the agency.⁶
A shipping model built on static USPS rates will have another moving component beginning next year. That makes carrier-rate comparisons more dependent on timing. A service that looks less expensive under one fuel environment may narrow its advantage several weeks later, particularly when multiplied across high package volumes.
Retail media uses AI heavily for analysis but hesitates on decisions
Retail media may be embracing AI, but a new poll suggests many industry professionals still draw the line when the technology starts making decisions that affect spend or product visibility. At an IAB Europe retail media event, 88% of respondents said their companies use AI to analyze data or write reports. Only 16%, however, said AI chooses product or advertising rankings.7
Traditional targeting remains common. Half of respondents said they still use manual keywords or categories, while 54% rely on manually defined audience segments. Twenty-two percent use AI to predict relevance from live shopping signals.
The hesitation becomes clearer when money is involved. Eighty-three percent would delegate campaign reporting to AI now or within the next year, compared with 42% for bids and budgets and 41% for supplier-funded offers.
The gap is notable. Retailers appear comfortable asking AI to explain what happened before allowing it to determine what happens next. The results suggests that automation may advance unevenly for brands investing in retail media networks. Reporting can move quickly, while ranking products, allocating budgets, and deciding which offers shoppers see may continue to carry more human oversight.
Beauty shoppers put results ahead of hype
Beauty consumers are scrutinizing whether products deliver enough value to justify the price, according to new research from The Consumer Collective. Its Routine Shift: The State of Beauty in America 2026 study surveyed 750 U.S. adults and found that price and effectiveness dominate purchase decisions.8 Seventy-two percent cited price as an important factor when considering a new beauty product, followed by effectiveness at 55%. Just 2% named influencer recommendations, although influencers still play a role in product discovery.
Spending patterns are far from uniform. Thirty percent of consumers fall into an “Invested” group spending more on beauty, while 28% are pulling back, primarily because of cost-of-living pressure. Another 20% are keeping overall spending steady but moving dollars between categories.
The research also identifies pockets of particularly engaged demand. Women who receive aesthetic treatments are more than three times as likely to have spent at least $250 on beauty products during the previous three months compared with women who did not receive professional services. K-beauty also has room to expand: 44% of consumers remain unfamiliar with the category, even as 56% of women who already use it report buying more than two years ago.
The findings imply that beauty brands may have less room to rely on buzz alone. As shoppers weigh tighter budgets against desired results, clear product value and credible performance claims could carry more weight in winning the purchase.
References
- https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/946798105/top-growth-marketing-benchmark-puts-median-meta-ads-cpm-for-dtc-ecommerce-at-13-52-and-purchase-roas-at-2-96
- https://www.dhl.com/global-en/microsites/ec/ecommerce-insights/insights/reports/2026-black-friday-trends.html
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/pipersandler_findings-from-the-piper-sandler-26th-annual-activity-7515836859873128448-C0FR
- https://wwd.com/beauty-industry-news/beauty-features/piper-sandler-survey-beauty-findings-1239351894/
- https://postalpro.usps.com/fuel-surcharge-faqs
- https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/usps-to-debut-weekly-fuel-fee-in-2027-matching-fedex-ups-practices/872778/
- https://www.adweek.com/adweek-wire/retail-medias-ai-gap-88-use-ai-for-analysis-16-for-product-and-ad-ranking/
- https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/is-your-brand-really-worth-it-beauty-shoppers-want-proof-new-report-finds-302921803.html
