Global Scans · Shopping · Weekly Summary

• [New] Many brands in the U.S. are struggling with tariffs, which could explain why prices are higher on TikTok Shop if companies are passing along costs to consumers. Digiday
• [New] Visa says it remains on track to deliver secure, personalized AI-enabled commerce to consumers by early 2026, marking a sea-change in how customer shop online. FinExtra
• [New] Super Saturday shoppers are expected to embrace multiple channels in 2025, with nearly half, or 71.6 million, planning to shop both in-store and online, up from 69.5 million in 2024. Midland Paper
• [New] As consumers grow more comfortable with using AI, retail industry leaders see 2026 as a pivotal year in shaping how the emerging technology disrupts the way people shop. eMarketer
• By 2025, everyone, from healthcare professionals to the neighborhood coffee shop, will be leveraging audio content to tell their tales. gotcha! Mobile Solutions
• Super Saturday shoppers are expected to use multiple channels in 2025, with 45% planning to shop in-store and online. Arkansas Online
• In the U.S., social commerce is on track to exceed $100 billion in annual sales by the mid-2020s, fueled heavily by TikTok Shop, Instagram Shopping, Facebook / Meta platforms and retail media tie-ups. The AI Innovator
• The airline industry is fast heading for a future where AI agents, not humans, decide which brands get booked - and carriers that fail to adapt are at risk of quietly disappearing from the digital shop window. The Register
• By day 29 of the window for Americans to shop for Affordable Care Act plans in 2025, nearly 5.8 million people had picked one. WJXT News4JAX
• Walmart has announced a new partnership with OpenAI that will start with allowing customers and members to soon shop with the US retail giant through ChatGPT using Instant Checkout. Retail Technology Innovation Hub
• Amazon claims Perplexity's covert AI agents are in violation of computer fraud and abuse statutes, adding it may be putting the security of customer data at risk, does not allow users to shop for the best prices and allegedly misappropriated Prime membership benefits to users. Retail Dive
• Rolls-Royce IntelligentEngine and Pratt & Whitney EngineWise Intelligence consume rich telemetry and maintenance histories, then forecast health, flag anomalies, and optimise shop visits (Rolls-Royce; Pratt & Whitney). FliegerFaust
• Rolls-Royce's IntelligentEngine strategy links digital twins to live engine data so operators can predict health, protect time-on-wing, and plan shop visits around evidence rather than estimates (Rolls-Royce). FliegerFaust
• Marshalls, Home Goods Opening New Stores Nationwide Soon - Bargain hunters will have new places to shop thanks to a rapid expansion by the discount retailers. Cheapism
• Gen Z and millennials plan to shop with tighter budgets, shorter gift lists, and more creative cost-saving measures. CNBC
• Virtually all online Canadians will look to ecommerce for gifts and holiday essentials in 2025, and 85% will 'shop Canadian'. Online Business Canada
• 186.9 million people in the U.S. will shop at one point or another during the Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday period, which is 3.5 million more than last year. WWD
• 45% of consumers now plan to shop before November, signaling a collective shift toward more deliberate purchasing. Forbes
• 50% of British shoppers believe that environmental issues are a critical threat to humanity, with the potential to shape the way they shop. Yahoo Finance
• Accenture's annual Holiday Shopping Survey of more than 7,500 shoppers in 10 countries, conducted online between August and September in 2025, indicated that 77% will shop on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. WWD
• Consider that 81% of Americans now shop online, and the number of online shoppers is expected to reach 333.5 million by 2029. Burst Commerce

Last updated: 29 December 2025