Latest Ecommerce Innovations: January 16, 2025

Each week, we showcase the latest products from companies catering to ecommerce merchants. This week’s highlights include advancements in cross-border selling, online advertising, generative AI, post-purchase tools, and B2B and B2C platforms.

Have a new ecommerce product to share? Email us at releases@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Ecommerce Merchants

Passport acquires Brand Access to enhance localized cross-border selling. Passport, a global ecommerce solutions provider, has acquired Brand Access, a leading player in localized cross-border selling for direct-to-consumer brands. This acquisition aims to help merchants tap into their international potential by integrating locally managed services like in-country logistics and marketplace management in key regions such as Canada, the U.K., and the E.U.

Amazon introduces Retail Ad Service. Amazon Ads has rolled out Retail Ad Service, enabling online retailers to display product ads on their search, browse, and product pages. These ads include availability, pricing, and contextual information based on shoppers’ search queries and browsing activity. Retailers have control over ad formats, placement, and frequency, as well as the post-click experience for visitors.

Microsoft Advertising unveils tools for retailers. Microsoft Advertising has launched two tools for retailers: “Curate for Commerce” and “Sponsored Promotions by Brands.” Curate for Commerce allows retailers to leverage first-party data to boost revenue for their commerce media programs and deliver targeted ads from partners to shoppers. Sponsored Promotions by Brands helps companies engage shoppers across Microsoft Edge, Bing, and retail partners’ websites with personalized, data-driven experiences.

BigCommerce enhances Catalyst for one-click storefront setup. BigCommerce has updated its Catalyst storefront technology, allowing marketers to launch and customize a store with just one click from the control panel. Catalyst comes pre-optimized with core BigCommerce features, including customizable checkouts, APIs, inventory management, multi-storefront capabilities, and B2B functionalities.

Salesforce introduces AI solutions for retail. Salesforce has rolled out two AI-powered services for retailers: “Agentforce for Retail” and “Retail Cloud with Modern POS.” Agentforce for Retail offers a library of pre-built skills for creating AI agents that automate tasks like order management and appointment scheduling, and enable personalized shopping experiences at scale. Retail Cloud with Modern POS integrates online and offline shopping data on a unified platform.

Algolia launches Shopping Guides, a generative AI tool. Algolia, an AI search and discovery platform, has introduced Shopping Guides, a generative AI tool that creates informative and comparison-based articles to assist shoppers on B2C and B2B ecommerce websites throughout their shopping journey.

Commercetools debuts InStore for unified omnichannel commerce. Commercetools, known for its composable commerce applications, has launched Commercetools InStore, enabling enterprise retailers to deliver seamless shopping experiences across online and offline channels. InStore streamlines pricing, promotions, products, carts, and orders management, eliminating redundant integrations for real-time inventory updates, cross-channel workflows, and personalized in-store experiences.

ParcelLab introduces post-purchase Copilot and AI Email Editor. ParcelLab has unveiled Copilot and AI Email Editor to enhance and personalize post-purchase journeys. Copilot acts as an AI assistant, optimizing customer communications, operational efficiency, and providing real-time insights. The AI Email Editor automates and personalizes email communications in over 160 languages.

eBay to acquire Caramel for online automotive transactions. eBay has agreed to acquire Caramel, an online automotive transaction platform that offers a secure digital experience for vehicle sales, including paperwork, ownership transfer, financing, and transportation through various channels.

Genesy AI secures €5 million for AI-powered B2B sales agents. Genesy, a platform of AI-driven sales agents for B2B customer engagement, has closed a €5 million seed round led by Samaipata. Genesy aims to revolutionize B2B sales processes using AI agents and plans to expand its operations in key markets such as the U.S., the U.K., and several European countries.

Amazon Ads introduces generative AI for Marketing Cloud. Amazon Ads has launched a structured-query-language (SQL) generator for Marketing Cloud, empowering advertisers to derive insights from Marketing Cloud signals using generative AI. This feature offers a user-friendly interface for generating SQL queries to create custom audiences for Amazon Ads campaigns across various marketing channels.