Your bi-weekly roundup of ecommerce trends, retail shifts, and fulfillment innovation.
AI shopping is moving another step beyond product recommendations. Meta’s new Muse agent can perform shopping and payment tasks on a user’s behalf, while a new Mastercard report predicts more than 300 million online shoppers could routinely use AI agents to shop and pay by 2030.
Holiday logistics is also getting clearer, and potentially more expensive. Amazon Shipping has released its 2026 peak surcharge schedule, with its highest per-package fee landing during the core holiday period. FedEx, meanwhile, is trying to reduce uncertainty in international ecommerce by surfacing duties, taxes, product classifications, and customs requirements earlier in the purchase and shipping process.
Returns are getting another potential outlet, too. BuyWander raised $21 million to expand its marketplace for returned and overstocked products, giving retailers another path for inventory that can be costly to send back through traditional channels.
All of this is arriving ahead of a holiday season Deloitte expects will generate as much as $1.71 trillion in U.S. retail sales, with ecommerce once again growing faster than the market overall.
Check back every other week for the latest headlines influencing ecommerce and fulfillment.
Meta’s Muse brings shopping and payments into the AI agent race
Meta has launched Muse, a personal AI agent designed to carry out tasks across apps and the web rather than stop at answering questions. Those tasks include shopping and making payments, putting ecommerce directly into one of the biggest consumer AI launches yet. Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke was among the technology executives praising the product following its release.1
Muse can use a browser, work across connected services, and continue carrying out assigned tasks after the initial request. Meta is pitching Muse’s ability as a move beyond traditional chatbots, where the user still must act on whatever advice or recommendations the AI provides.
Ecommerce product discovery through AI is already familiar. An agent that can research a purchase and then complete parts of the transaction shortens the distance between recommendation and order.
It also introduces a new source of ecommerce traffic that may behave differently from a person browsing a storefront. Product information needs to be clear enough for an automated system to interpret, compare, and act on. As consumer AI agents become more capable, brands may find themselves merchandising for shoppers who never navigate a traditional category page.
Amazon Shipping sets three peak surcharge windows for 2026
Amazon Shipping has joined the growing list of parcel carriers announcing 2026 holiday surcharges. Its peak charges will run from October 25 through January 16, with three separate pricing periods and the highest per-package surcharge falling during the core holiday rush.2
The standard demand surcharge will be $0.50 per package from October 25 through November 21, rise to $0.75 from November 22 through December 26, and return to $0.50 from December 27 through January 16. Packages subject to special handling face much larger additions. During the core holiday period, Amazon lists an additional handling fee of $11.90, a large package fee of $117.50, and an extra heavy package fee increase of $590.
Amazon is keeping several other aspects of its pricing model unchanged through peak. The service does not add separate residential or weekend delivery fees, and seven-day delivery remains available where supported.
The announcement gives shippers another holiday cost schedule to factor into carrier allocation. The $0.75 standard peak charge is relatively straightforward, but brands shipping oversized or unusually heavy products face much greater exposure. Packaging decisions that attract special handling fees can become much more expensive during the busiest weeks of the year.
FedEx brings duties and customs requirements closer to checkout
FedEx is introducing Global Trade Navigator,3 a collection of digital tools designed to address international shipping requirements before they turn into customs delays or unexpected charges at delivery. The platform covers shipment planning, customs data, checkout costs, and clearance management.
One of the more direct ecommerce additions is a FedEx Duty and Tax app for Shopify. The tool will allow merchants to display guaranteed duty and tax amounts during checkout, giving international customers greater visibility into their total purchase cost before placing an order. A separate Trade Planner will provide estimated duties, taxes, fees, Harmonized System codes, and document recommendations before a shipping label is created.
FedEx says 68% of small and midsize businesses regularly encounter customers surprised by duties at delivery and 60% report losing revenue through refunds or abandoned purchases.
A successful international order depends on the promise made at checkout matching what happens when the package crosses a border. Moving more trade information upstream could help prevent a customer from discovering the true landed cost only after an order has already shipped.
BuyWander raises $21 million to expand returns resale network
Retailers dealing with returned and overstocked products are getting another potential secondary-market option. BuyWander has raised $21 million in Series A funding to expand its auction marketplace and warehouse network nationally. The round brings the company’s total funding to $28 million.4
BuyWander takes inventory from major retailers and sells it directly to consumers through seven-day auctions, with every item starting at $1. Customers collect purchases from local fulfillment centers rather than having them shipped. The company now operates eight locations and recently added facilities in Denver and Chicago. Its Seattle-area operation has moved into a 52,000-square-foot warehouse that can process three to five times more volume than its previous local facility.
The model tackles a difficult piece of retail returns economics. Sending merchandise back through a primary distribution network can consume enough transportation, inspection, and handling expense that some products are no longer worth recovering.
BuyWander instead keeps inventory closer to regional demand and moves it through a separate resale channel. The company says it sold nearly 500,000 unique items during the past month, with roughly 80% of incoming merchandise arriving in “appears new” condition.
Secondary markets will not eliminate reverse logistics, but their growth gives retailers another choice between restocking an item, liquidating it through traditional channels, or writing it off.
Deloitte expects ecommerce to outpace overall holiday sales growth
Deloitte expects U.S. holiday retail sales to reach between $1.70 trillion and $1.71 trillion during the November 2026 through January 2027 period,5 representing year-over-year growth of 4% to 4.8%. Last year’s holiday sales grew 4.1%.
Ecommerce is expected to grow considerably faster. Deloitte forecasts online holiday sales between $316.1 billion and $318.9 billion, up 7.5% to 8.4% from last season. Ecommerce generated an estimated $294 billion during the comparable 2025-2026 period.
The forecast points toward another growth year rather than a dramatic holiday spending surge. Deloitte expects consumers to continue looking for value, switching between brands and retailers, and using promotions to manage spending. In addition, projected growth in disposable personal income could support overall sales.
The gap between ecommerce and total retail growth is worth watching. Online shopping is expected to add sales at nearly twice the pace of the broader holiday market at the top end of Deloitte’s ranges.
That puts additional pressure on digital inventory planning and fulfillment capacity even if overall consumer spending remains relatively measured. A moderate retail season can still produce meaningful ecommerce volume growth when a larger share of purchases continues moving online.
Mastercard report sees more than 300 million shoppers using AI agents by 2030
More than one in 10 online shoppers could routinely use AI agents to shop and pay by 2030, according to predictions in a new Mastercard report.6 That would amount to more than 300 million consumers globally delegating at least some purchasing activity to AI.
Routine purchases are expected to move first. The report points to products such as groceries and recurring subscription purchases as natural candidates for agents because consumers already understand what they want and can give software relatively clear rules.
Younger consumers may accelerate the change. Mastercard surveyed 13,000 parent-and-teen pairs across 13 markets and found that 27% of teens would be likely to use a fully AI-run shopping assistant that could recommend products, choose among options, and make purchases according to rules they set. Among parents, 16% said the same. Nearly a third of teens said they would trust an AI product recommendation over one from a friend.
If those forecasts prove accurate, product pages will have two audiences: people and the software acting for them. An AI agent can compare claims and reviews faster than a human shopper, making structured product information particularly valuable.
Meta’s Muse makes that future feel less theoretical. The race is shifting from helping consumers decide what to buy to letting software complete the purchase as well.
References:
- https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/meta-muse-ai-launch-shopify-070951146.html
- https://shipping.amazon.com/insights-and-news/peak-surcharge-2026
- https://newsroom.fedex.com/newsroom/global-english/fedex-introduces-global-trade-navigator-to-simplify-international-shipping
- https://www.geekwire.com/2026/buywander-raises-21m-as-retail-returns-startup-expands-nationwide-from-new-seattle-hq/ (another option for brands for retail returns)
- https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/deloitte-forecasts-holiday-retail-sales-to-reach-1-70-trillion-to-1-71-trillion-302874356.html?_sp=d8d730d8-fad2-4adc-9cce-636ac0fb7929.1789475283799
- https://www.mastercard.com/news/europe/en/newsroom/press-releases/en/2026/mastercard-report-predicts-that-one-in-10-people-will-routinely-use-ai-agents-to-shop-and-pay-by-2030/
