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TODAY’S MAZE
Happy Tuesday! Google and Amazon just fired the next shots in the agentic-commerce race. Search and checkout are turning into conversations, while Amazon rewires ads so AI runs the funnel for you. Platforms are fighting to own intent, attention and the buy button across every surface. The result is clear: ecommerce is becoming a contest between machines, not marketers.
Maze Focus🌀
🛒 Amazon’s Retail Media Edge
🧩 The New Commerce Leaders
🤖 Amazon’s Ad Overhaul
🛍️ Google’s Shopping Leap
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Last week handpicked news you need to know
📣 Ecommerce Marketing
🛠️ Ecommerce Software & AI
LET’S ENTER THE MAZE!
- Artur Stańczuk, MarketMaze Founder
🌀 MAZE STORY
The Maze: Amazon rewired its ads stack around agentic AI that runs setup, targeting and creative from one place, not scattered tools. Sponsored Product videos get bigger real estate, Creative Agent makes fast video at scale and Ads and AMC Agents turn prompts into real campaigns and queries. Amazon wants advertisers living fully inside its unified console where speed, automation and spend all compound.
Sponsored Product videos expand shelf space starting November 2025 and lift clicks as Amazon tests shifting them into higher value placements that once belonged to brand formats.
Creative Agent pulls product data, builds multi scene videos in seconds and lowers creative friction for sellers who never had the tools or budgets for video.
Ads Agent and AMC Agent convert prompts into DSP setups and SQL free audiences which closes the skills gap and pushes more advertisers deeper into Amazon first strategies.
Why it matters: Amazon is moving from a marketplace with ads to an ad platform that powers ecommerce. Teams get speed and cheaper creative but the workflow becomes Amazon shaped. For brands the risk is dependence, for retailers the risk is irrelevance and for ecommerce the future looks more automated and more Amazon centric.
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🌀 MAZE STORY
The Maze: Google just turned Gemini into a buy-for-me shopping agent. AI Mode now answers product questions with visuals, comparisons and live inventory from billions of listings. Agentic checkout goes further by tracking prices and completing purchases for you, while a new AI even calls stores to confirm stock and deals. Google wants to own discovery, decision and checkout in one flow.
Google launched conversational shopping that taps into 50 billion product listings, refreshed billions of times each day, to return tailored suggestions and comparison tables.
Agentic checkout tracks prices and can auto buy items at retailers like Wayfair, Chewy and Quince using Google Pay after the shopper approves size, colour and final details.
The “Let Google Call” feature uses upgraded AI to phone local stores, check stock and promotions in real time and send back a clean summary for categories such as toys, electronics and beauty.
Why it matters: Google is rebuilding shopping around a single AI that handles intent, search and purchase. It keeps high value queries inside Google and pulls spend back from retailer apps and marketplaces. For ecommerce players the fight shifts from SEO battles to competing with an AI front door that shapes what shoppers see, choose and buy.
💎 DATA TREASURE
The Maze: Amazon keeps widening the gap. As retail media cools into low-teens growth, Amazon still pushes 15 percent plus year after year thanks to its fast growing DSP engine. Off site ads surge, on site ads plateau and brands shift spend toward flexible targeting that follows the shopper. The result is a market where Amazon grows while rivals stall.
By 2026 retail media slips toward single digit growth while Amazon keeps mid teens momentum driven by rising DSP share and off site formats.
More than 20 percent of Amazon ad spend already runs through its DSP, double the level two years earlier and expanding into publishers and connected TV in 2025.
Rival networks chase the model with new DSPs and partnerships as advertisers move budgets from static sponsored products to full funnel display and video.
Why it matters: Retail media is becoming a maturity story but Amazon turned it into a scale story. Its engine follows the shopper across the open web which pulls in brand budgets and deepens dependency. For ecommerce players this means higher customer acquisition costs and a world where growth depends on playing inside Amazon’s ecosystem or building serious alternatives.
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💎 DATA TREASURE
The Maze: Digital commerce just had a shake up. Shopify jumps ahead with big R&D bets and hundreds of new features, while others tread water. Challenger platforms move up as B2B and composable tech reshape what execution and vision mean. The field tightens and the bar rises.
Shopify invests 1.7 billion dollars a year in product and ships more than 300 features annually which lifts its execution and vision in 2025.
Shopware climbs as it focuses on SMB strengths while BigCommerce, VTEX and others gain ground with composable and headless capabilities.
Modern B2B commerce accelerates with top deals expected to shift online by 2028 as digital buying rooms replace legacy sales motions.
Why it matters: Digital commerce is no longer about storefronts. Platforms that automate workflows, support marketplaces and deliver native AI win the next decade. For ecommerce operators the choice of platform becomes a growth decision not a tech decision and the leaders in this quadrant will shape the next wave of online retail.
📰 Briefing
📣Last week in Ecommerce Marketing
🇺🇸 Meta adds social AI to Marketplace. Collaborative collections, better checkout and Meta AI on listings turn Marketplace into a more social, guided resale mall that aims to win back younger shoppers and keep secondhand spending inside Meta’s apps.
🇺🇸 Reddit plugs straight into WooCommerce. Merchants can sync products, fire the Reddit pixel and launch campaigns from WordPress, turning Reddit’s research heavy communities into an easier performance channel for millions of small stores.
🇪🇺 EU probes Google’s new anti spam rules. Regulators test whether crackdowns on site reputation abuse unfairly crush publisher traffic and ad revenues, with fines that could hit a double digit share of Alphabet’s global turnover.
🇺🇸 TikTok Shop faces AI powered fakes. Scammers use generated brands, videos and reviews to sell junk or nothing at all, forcing TikTok to roll out its own AI checks and tougher vetting just to stop trust from sliding backward.
🇺🇸 Google muddles brand control in Shopping. Brief sightings of brand inclusions in Standard Shopping spark excitement then confusion, showing how hungry advertisers are for tighter brand steering inside Google’s automated campaign systems.
🇪🇺 Meta called out on scam ad billions. Leaks suggest a big slice of Meta revenue may come from scams and illegal gambling ads, fuelling demands for strict liability, tougher verification and potentially multi billion penalties.
📰 Briefing
🛠️Last week in Ecommerce Software & AI
🇺🇸 Venmo rolls out Stash rewards. Debit users earn tiered cash back that flows straight into their Venmo balance, pushing the app from peer payments into everyday spending while giving Venmo richer data and more interchange revenue.
🇨🇦 PayPal brings Pay in 4 to Canada. Shoppers can split online buys into four zero interest payments, helping merchants lift basket sizes and repeat orders just as the holiday rush hits and putting more BNPL volume into PayPal’s wider commerce stack.
🇺🇸 firmly launches universal Buy Now layer. Its platform turns any mention of a product into a checkout ready moment, handling catalogs, tax and payments so brands and publishers can drop a single button wherever shoppers read, scroll or chat.
🇨🇳 Alibaba.com adds AI Mode for sourcing. Buyers describe needs in plain language and get shortlists of vetted suppliers with pricing, MOQs and logistics in seconds, cutting weeks from global sourcing work for small and mid sized importers.
🇨🇳 China clamps down on deepfake sellers. Regulators force platforms to label synthetic media, police fake influencer streams and clean up impersonation scams, signalling that the free ride for AI trickery in livestream commerce is ending.
🇺🇸 Moonshot AI funds self evolving sites. A fresh 10 million dollar round backs its no code engine that watches shopper behavior, spins up tests and ships winning layouts automatically so lean ecommerce teams can keep tweaking for higher conversion.
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