New Ecommerce Tools: May 20, 2026

This installment of our weekly rundown of new services for merchants includes rollouts for quick commerce, SMS marketing, search engine optimization, agentic storefronts, multichannel management, flexible payments, AI selling agents, and dynamic product ads.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email updates@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants

EZ Texting expands into Shopify App Store to automate SMS marketing. EZ Texting, an SMS marketing platform, has announced its availability in the Shopify App Store. Merchants can connect their stores to EZ Texting and leverage its platform, including contact management, text broadcasts, AI, and automated workflows, to drive revenue and foster customer loyalty.

EZ Texting

Studio 1119 and Moz expand partnership on AI-powered SEO. Studio 1119, an AI software publisher, and Moz, an SEO platform, have expanded their partnership, deepening the integration between Moz’s search intelligence platform and Studio 1119’s ecommerce optimization tool, CataSEO. Studio 1119 customers will receive enhanced monthly performance reporting, powered by Moz, covering key SEO metrics, competitive positioning, search performance trends, domain authority indicators, and opportunities to improve product discovery.

Amazon rolls out 30-minute delivery service, Now. Amazon has launched Now, a service delivering items in 30 minutes or less. Amazon Now is available in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia, and Seattle, with service also available and expansion underway in dozens more U.S. cities, including Austin, Houston, Minneapolis, Orlando, Phoenix, Denver, and Oklahoma City. Amazon Now uses a network of smaller locations for efficient order fulfillment, strategically placed close to where customers live and work.

Text launches AI selling agents. Text, the company behind LiveChat, ChatBot, and HelpDesk, has released Shopify-native AI selling agents to move customer service teams beyond answering questions to actively driving revenue. The features enable companies to sell in a live chat environment, combining automation and human involvement. Text’s AI selling agent is trainable on a company’s product catalog, brand voice, and business rules.

Text

SureDone launches Mobile, an app for Amazon, eBay, and Shopify listings. SureDone, a multichannel ecommerce listing, inventory, and order management platform, has launched Mobile, an iOS and Android app that brings product management and multichannel listing workflows for Amazon, eBay, and Shopify. The app extends SureDone’s multichannel commerce platform, giving sellers a mobile way to manage listing and product workflows.

Klarna’s flexible payments extend to Google Search and Gemini app. Klarna, a flexible payments provider, will bring its options to Google’s Gemini app and Search, including AI Mode, via Google Pay in the U.S. Google Pay users will see a Klarna button at checkout for access to flexible payment options, including four interest-free installments and longer terms for larger purchases. Universal Commerce Protocol powers Klarna’s integration.

Swap debuts AI-powered Storefront. Swap, an ecommerce operating system for direct-to-consumer brands, has unveiled Storefront, an AI-powered platform that guides shoppers from discovery to checkout through conversation. Swap is debuting Storefront through a Brand in Residency at Air Mail’s retail newsstands in London and New York. The residency turns Air Mail’s retail spaces into a Swap Storefront, featuring branded installations, editorial takeaways, curated merchandise, café moments, and a roster of branded events.

Swap Storefront

Stackable Labs launches AI experience layer for customer service messaging. Stackable Labs has launched a developer platform for building interactive experiences on top of Zendesk Messenger, extending customer service messaging beyond flat text exchanges. Stackable helps brands surface real-time data, bi-directional workflows, and actions alongside the Zendesk Messenger interface, transforming messaging from a basic support channel into an immersive customer service experience platform.

Cloudways centralizes WordPress management of multiple sites. Cloudways, part of DigitalOcean, has launched Site Manager, a WordPress management solution to help teams operate and scale large website portfolios more efficiently. Cloudways Site Manager centralizes key workflows into a unified, native platform. By consolidating site operations into a single interface, Cloudways says it helps agencies streamline day-to-day management, reduce operational overhead, and improve delivery speed across client portfolios.

Amazon introduces Alexa for Shopping, a personalized AI assistant. Amazon has introduced Alexa for Shopping, a personalized AI assistant available on the Amazon Shopping app and website, as well as on Echo Show devices. Combining Rufus’s product expertise and Amazon shopping history, Alexa for Shopping delivers a personal, helpful shopping experience, where consumers can browse and shop the full Amazon store using voice, touch, or both.

Stellagent launches Agentic Commerce Studio. Stellagent, an AI commerce infrastructure company, has launched Agentic Commerce Studio, a browser-based validation environment that helps merchants, payment service providers, and commerce platforms prepare for AI agent-led shopping experiences. The platform lets users experience an AI shopping session in a browser, from natural-language search to product recommendations, cart creation, shipping calculation, and checkout preparation. Teams can connect test environments and validate product feeds, inventory endpoints, shipping quote flows, checkout sessions, and webhooks.

Stellagent Agentic Commerce Studio

Meta launches Business AI on WhatsApp for small businesses in India. Meta has launched Business AI in India to provide small businesses with AI-powered customer support directly into the WhatsApp Business app. According to Meta, the feature enables eligible businesses to respond to customer queries 24/7, capture leads, and book appointments. Available in all native Indian languages, the feature requires no coding or third-party tools.

Instacart expands Ads Manager to retailers. Grocery technology company Instacart has announced that retailers can now activate ad campaigns directly within Instacart Ads Manager, extending its scaled, self-serve advertising platform to its retail partners. This expansion introduces tools for retailers, starting with self-serve promotions and off-platform capabilities. Retailers can create and manage basket-level offers, target high-intent consumer segments, and reach consumers who shop within a category but have not yet purchased.

Shoppable launches the universal checkout MCP server. Shoppable, a unified commerce infrastructure platform, has launched its Model Context Protocol server, a universal checkout integration for AI assistants. According to Shoppable, the server enables brands, retailers, and publishers to connect their product catalogs directly into AI conversations, allowing consumers to discover items, build multi-brand carts, and complete purchases with one click. The server can surface a single brand, a curated set of merchants, or the full Shoppable network.

Clinch announces enhanced creative for Snapchat Dynamic Product Ads. Clinch, an agentic AI platform for omnichannel content orchestration, has announced an AI-enabled automated workflow supporting Snapchat Dynamic Product Ads, product feed management, creative customization, and catalog enrichment. Advertisers can upload their product feed, schedule their desired refresh cadence, and then apply custom templates, adjust layouts, add pricing and promotional overlays, and publish an enriched catalog to Snapchat without rebuilding assets or switching tools.

Clinch

New Ecommerce Tools: May 12, 2026

Every week we hand-pick new services to highlight for ecommerce merchants. This installment includes updates on predictive AI, autonomous marketing, AI-powered website builders, omnichannel fulfillment, programmatic advertising, embedded payment solutions, and cross-border ecommerce.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email updates@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants

Shoplazza launches AI admin Athena for ecommerce merchants. Shoplazza, a commerce operating system, has launched Athena, an AI admin agent designed to help merchants manage back-office ecommerce workflows through natural language. Athena provides agentic execution for daily operations, including product page creation and editing, order inquiries, discount configuration, logistics information, data analysis, and platform knowledge support. Merchants can describe the need and let Athena prepare the task.

Shoplazza

GoDaddy releases Airo for WordPress. GoDaddy has launched Airo for WordPress, an AI-powered tool to help small businesses and web professionals build, manage, and grow websites. Airo customers can create and launch a WordPress site in minutes. Within the native WordPress dashboard, Airo combines AI-generated content and editing with full ecosystem support, managed infrastructure, agency-friendly workflows, and more.

Marqo launches Sibbi conversational agent for product discovery. Marqo, a product discovery platform, has launched Sibbi, a unified commerce agent that handles the entire shopper journey in a single conversation. According to Marqo, Sibbi lets shoppers describe in natural language what they want, upload a photo for visual search, obtain personalized recommendations, add an item to the cart, or start a return, all without being handed off to a support channel.

Preciso launches Ultima Ads app for Shopify. Preciso, an adtech company, has launched Ultima Ads for Advertisers, a demand-side platform integrated as an app in Shopify. Ultima Ads for Advertisers focuses on a merchant’s advertising goals. By syncing product feeds, purchase history, and browsing behavior with the Ultima app, merchants can create bespoke audience segments, retarget visitors who left the site without buying, and build lookalike audiences to find prospects who share the same characteristics as their best customers.

Preciso

Amazon launches Bedrock AgentCore payments. Amazon has introduced payments within Bedrock AgentCore, a platform for building, connecting, and optimizing agents at scale. The payment capabilities enable AI agents to access and pay for what they use, such as web content, APIs, MCP servers, and other agents. Amazon built the capabilities in partnership with Coinbase and Stripe, who are providing the wallet infrastructure and payment rails.

BigCommerce Payments by PayPal launches to U.S. merchants. Commerce has announced that BigCommerce Payments by PayPal is available to U.S. merchants. The embedded payments solution brings payments, balances, and payouts together, helping merchants operate and scale more efficiently. Built in partnership with PayPal, the solution integrates payment processing directly into the BigCommerce platform.

Creatable launches Predictive AI to help book creators for ecommerce. Creatable, a creator platform for ecommerce, has launched an on-site predictive search engine. According to Creatable, the engine sits on 12 years of proprietary ecommerce first-party creator engagement and conversion data, in addition to accessible social data. By combining social creator performance signals, deep product catalog data, and verified transaction-level sales info, Creatable says it trained the AI to predict precise conversion outcomes at the content level.

Creatable

Studio 1119 launches two AI-powered ecommerce applications. Studio 1119, a developer of AI applications for small-to-midsize businesses, has launched two products on the BigCommerce app marketplace. CataSEO, developed in partnership with Moz, helps ecommerce operators get discovered on Google and AI-driven platforms such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews. TruSync is a real-time order and inventory sync application connecting ecommerce stores to QuickBooks Online.

Nimble CRM adds Web Chat for real-time conversations with website visitors. Nimble, a CRM tool for SMBs, launched Web Chat, enabling real-time conversations with website visitors who then become CRM contacts. Included natively in Nimble, Web Chat includes AI Chat Helper, an automated conversation assistant that poses qualifying questions, captures contact information, and generates a session summary.

GetDandy launches autonomous AI workforce for local businesses. GetDandy, an automated growth platform, has launched its autonomous AI workforce, a system designed to handle every customer interaction for local businesses across phone, SMS, Google Business Profile, web chat, email, and social media. According to GetDandy, the goal is to ensure no customer inquiry goes unanswered.

GetDandy

Flowspace launches omnichannel fulfillment for brands. Flowspace has launched its B2B retail fulfillment service. Built for brands scaling across retail, wholesale, and direct-to-consumer channels simultaneously, the new service enables teams to allocate inventory, meet retailer compliance requirements, and maintain visibility. The solution spans B2B retail fulfillment, including electronic data interchange order management, advance ship notice processing, chargeback dispute management, freight management, and channel-level reporting.

Genesys to deliver customer engagement on WhatsApp. Genesys, a platform for AI-powered experience orchestration, has partnered with WhatsApp to deliver context-driven customer engagement. Genesys Cloud’s WhatsApp option combines messaging, calling, and outbound engagement, enabling organizations to manage conversations from initial contact through resolution. WhatsApp on Genesys Cloud expands how organizations engage customers through voice interactions supported by both virtual and human agents. Genesys Cloud also supports rich WhatsApp formats, including images, carousels, interactive lists, and call-to-action buttons.

Emberos launches Merchant, an AI optimization layer for commerce. Emberos, an AI visibility operating system, has launched Merchant, an agent that provides brands with SKU-level visibility and optimization inside genAI platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity. The module tracks the product recommendation rate and segments performance by prompt intent across major LLMs. When gaps are detected, Merchant deploys Fix Packs: automated optimization workflows that push recommended changes directly into HubSpot, Slack, and Jira, then re-measures to confirm lift.

Marketing platform Wunderkind integrates with Bloomreach for personalization. Wunderkind has integrated its autonomous marketing platform with Loomi AI, an agentic platform for intelligent personalization from Bloomreach. Wunderkind’s identity and behavioral data flows high-intent actions such as product views, cart additions, and purchases to Loomi AI in real-time, triggering existing journeys such as cart recovery, browse follow-ups, and catalog alerts. Loomi AI manages orchestration, messaging, consent, and reporting, while Wunderkind expands the pool of identifiable and addressable users.

Wunderkind

Goflow partners with Nocnoc to simplify expansion into Latin America. Goflow, a multichannel operating system, has partnered with Nocnoc, a cross-border marketplace enabler in Latin America. Through the integration, Goflow sellers can access 15 marketplaces across five markets. Nocnoc provides the marketplace access and localized infrastructure for payments, logistics, and returns, complementing Goflow’s centralized operational control.

Twilio releases capabilities for agentic conversations across multiple channels. Twilio, a customer engagement platform, has released new agentic capabilities. Conversation Memory delivers persistent memory across every interaction, maintaining customer history, preferences, behavior, and conversation state across channels. Conversation Orchestrator turns individual calls and messages into continuous conversations for multichannel, multi-agent engagement. Conversation Intelligence leverages generative AI language operators to turn live conversations into actionable, real-time intelligence that enhances human agents and triggers automated workflows across voice and messaging channels.

ZigZag partners with Trade Duty Refund on E.U. returns. ZigZag, a global returns and post-purchase network, has partnered with Trade Duty Refund to deliver an integrated duty drawback service for U.K. retailers selling into the E.U. The service combines ZigZag’s returns technology with Trade Duty Refund’s digital claims capabilities. Combined, ZigZag and Trade Duty Refund automate E.U. claim eligibility checks, assemble evidence packs, and manage filings through to refund approval, giving retailers a cross-border duty recovery solution.

Asendia and Singapore Post partner on APAC cross-border ecommerce gateway. Asendia, an international ecommerce delivery specialist, has partnered with Singapore Post, a postal and parcel logistics provider. The collaboration builds on Asendia’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region, including its recent establishment of a Singapore hub operation. International brands and global marketplace sellers will benefit from more streamlined parcel shipping to Singapore and the wider area, per Asendia.

Asendia

New Ecommerce Tools: May 6, 2026

This installment of our weekly rundown of new services for merchants includes updates on supply chain software, livestream shopping, personalization, conversational commerce, product pages, fraud prevention, cross-border shipping, and reputation management.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email updates@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants

Amazon launches Supply Chain Services to all businesses. Amazon has launched Supply Chain Services, extending the company’s freight, distribution, fulfillment, and parcel shipping solutions to all businesses. Any seller (on or off Amazon) can access a centralized console to sign up. Amazon’s transportation network includes 80,000 trailers, 24,000 containers, and 100 aircraft.

Amazon Supply Chain Services

Klaviyo brings custom AI skills to Customer Agent. Klaviyo, a B2C marketing platform, has launched Custom Skills for its Customer Agent. According to the company, the update enables brands to build unique customer experiences on the same foundation (i.e., Klaviyo) that powers their marketing. Brands can define their logic in plain language, build skills from scratch, edit existing ones, and connect skills to any system in their tech stack.

Amazon Business adds groceries to Same-Day Delivery. Amazon Business is bringing Same-Day Delivery of groceries to businesses. According to Amazon, groceries — including dairy, produce, baked goods, and frozen foods from national and local brands — are now available in 2,300 U.S. cities alongside items already available on Amazon Business. Amazon delivers the orders within set delivery hours and preferences. At checkout, customers can select delivery windows that align with their business operating hours.

Experian announces Agent Trust to power AI commerce. Credit-reporting agency Experian has launched Agent Trust, a secure, verifiable link between consumers and AI agents. Experian Agent Trust helps ensure that agent-initiated transactions are grounded in verified consumer identity. The framework resides within an ecosystem of agentic commerce contributors, including Visa, Cloudflare, and Skyfire.

Experian Agent Trust

MikMak updates its commerce and orchestration platform. MikMak, a commerce intelligence platform, has launched three new capabilities. “Aura” is a predictive engine that provides real-time market foresight for sales and media measurement, planning, and optimization. “Mak” is an AI assistant that analyzes and transforms data into strategy, including campaign design. “MCP” provides AI agents with visibility into real-time commerce data.

Skailed launches automated FAQ tool for ecommerce pages. Skailed, a programmatic ecommerce and search engine optimization platform, has launched an automated FAQ tool for product pages. Skailed FAQs create content automatically by analyzing product details and generating contextual questions and answers. Merchants can review and edit the material before publishing to product pages. The tool sits within the Skailed platform from the Australia-based marketing agency Impressive.

Livestream shopping platform Whatnot integrates with Shopify. Whatnot, a live stream shopping platform and marketplace, now integrates with Shopify. Merchants can sell products on Whatnot in live auctions or as Buy It Now listings. Orders flow into Shopify. Merchants on Shopify can add live commerce without duplicating their catalogs or manually reconciling inventory across platforms.

Whatnot

Personalization platform Bloomreach launches Loomi AI for Shopify. Bloomreach, a personalization provider, has launched Loomi AI for Shopify. The app connects merchants’ Shopify stores to Bloomreach’s marketing and search products, enabling personalized experiences by unifying customer, product, and commerce data. Merchants can (i) surface relevant results for each shopper in real-time, and (ii) personalize campaigns based on purchase history, browsing behavior, and loyalty status. Loomi AI deploys AI decisioning to identify which shoppers need an incentive to convert and targets them accordingly.

reAlpha announces AiChat integration with Shopify. reAlpha, a real estate technology company, announced that its subsidiary AiChat has launched conversational commerce and ticketing for ecommerce brands. The platform enables businesses to manage product discovery, customer interaction, transactions, and post-purchase support. Through integration with Shopify, AiChat connects directly to a merchant’s commerce engine, enabling real-time access to product, inventory, and order data within customer interactions.

Easyship launches global shipping MCP server as commerce goes agentic. Easyship, a multi-carrier ecommerce shipping software and API platform, has launched its MCP server for cross-border shipping. Merchants can compare rates across multiple carriers, generate shipping labels in natural language, track shipments, and pull analytics across courier services — all inside Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Gemini, or any other MCP-compatible platform.

Easyship

Commerce integrates PayPal’s Store Sync for BigCommerce merchants. Commerce, the parent company of BigCommerce, has announced the integration of PayPal’s Store Sync in the BigCommerce App Marketplace and Channel Manager, enabling merchants to connect their product catalogs, inventory, and order management to AI surfaces, including Microsoft Copilot, Meta, Perplexity, and more.

Amazon launches an AI feature for real-time answers on product pages. Amazon is launching “Join the chat,” an interactive component of its “Hear the highlights” feature that lets customers ask AI hosts questions via text or voice while listening to an audio summary of a product. The AI host incorporates a question into the conversation, delivers a tailored response grounded in product details, customer reviews, and other publicly available information.

Crosslist introduces platform to scale across multiple marketplaces. Crosslist, a product listing platform for merchants, has introduced its multi-marketplace listing and inventory synchronization system. According to Crosslist, the platform enables sellers to create a single product listing and distribute it across multiple marketplaces while maintaining synchronized inventory and pricing, reducing manual workload and minimizing listing errors.

Crosslist

AskNicely launches Reputation Manager to turn feedback into visibility. AskNicely, an AI-powered customer experience platform, has launched Reputation Manager to leverage fragmented customer feedback. Per AskNicely, Reputation Manager enables businesses (i) to increase review volume by prompting customers at the right moment, (ii) monitor and manage performance across hundreds of review platforms, (iii) respond quickly to customer feedback at scale, and (iv) connect survey insights with public reviews to identify trends and root causes.

PayPal brings an identity solution to advertising. PayPal has introduced Ads ID, an advertising identifier grounded in verified commerce relationships. Ads ID constructs aggregated, consented signals from browsing behavior across the PayPal and Venmo ecosystem. Technology testing partners (across commerce, open web, connected TV, and native environments) include Magnite, PubMatic, Rokt, and Taboola.

Adobe completes Semrush acquisition. Adobe has completed its acquisition of Semrush, the search engine optimization platform. Adobe is uniting its brand visibility and agentic web solutions (Experience Manager, LLM Optimizer, Commerce platform, and Brand Concierge) with Semrush’s discoverability intelligence.

Semrush

New Ecommerce Tools: April 28, 2026

This week’s rundown of new services for merchants includes updates on AI-powered advertising, video ad generators, shoppable videos, B2B commerce, fraud prevention, box-free returns, loyalty programs, digital assistants, agentic commerce, and AI-powered contact centers.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email updates@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants

OroCommerce and Blue Yonder partner to unify B2B commerce and fulfillment. OroCommerce, a B2B ecommerce platform, and Blue Yonder, a supply chain enabler, have partnered. According to the companies, the collaboration gives manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers accurate inventory availability, pricing, and delivery information before, during, and after purchase.

OroCommerce

Feedonomics unlocks agentic discovery with Catalog Exports. Commerce, parent company of BigCommerce and data feed platform Feedonomics, has announced Agentic Catalog Exports. The new service enables merchants to syndicate catalog data to agentic discovery channels, including OpenAI, Gemini, Copilot,  and Perplexity, according to Commerce.

AdRoll and PubMatic enable agent-powered troubleshooting. AdRoll, a multichannel advertising platform, has partnered with PubMatic, an ad performance company. AdRoll uses the Model Context Protocol to query PubMatic’s agentic diagnostics, driving real-time evaluation of campaign configuration and diagnostics. AdRoll’s agents can query PubMatic’s deal diagnostics to identify root causes of performance issues and recommend actions.

Google for WooCommerce connects a store to its YouTube channel. A new extension from WooCommerce lets merchants connect their store to a YouTube channel and tag products from their catalog in videos and shorts. Tagged items will appear as shoppable cards while viewers are watching, and also in the Channel Shopping tab. With Google for WooCommerce, product feeds sync automatically to the Merchant Center for real-time titles, descriptions, prices, and availability.

iDenfy provides fraud prevention solutions for WooCommerce merchants. iDenfy, an identity verification and fraud prevention provider, has launched an application for WooCommerce. The integration gives merchants a way to require identity verification for shoppers before purchase. The service combines biometric face recognition with 3,000 identity documents from 200 countries and territories.

iDenfy

Amazon Ads launches AI-powered video ad generator in Australia. Amazon Ads has expanded its AI-powered Video Generator to Australia. The tool generates six video options from a product image, existing video, or Amazon product detail page, with multi-scene storytelling, transitions, and background music. Video Generator is available via the Creative Studio in Ad Console at no additional cost for Sponsored Brands video.

ChannelSight launches AI platform for discoverability. ChannelSight has launched a platform to help brands optimize discovery across AI tools and large language models such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. According to the company, the platform monitors a brand’s products across AI systems, scores their discoverability, and recommends improvements, each tied to revenue impact.

UPS Happy Returns expands its box-free, label-free return network. UPS-owned Happy Returns has expanded its U.S. Return Bar network to 10,000 drop-off locations nationwide, primarily through partnerships with Annex Brands and PackageHub Business Centers. Happy Returns states that the expansion reinforces its position as a leading consolidated return network.

UPS Happy Returns

TransUnion’s Digital Business Profile helps small businesses. Credit reporting agency TransUnion has launched Digital Business Profile, helping small businesses ensure their information is represented accurately across the digital ecosystem. Digital Business Profile allows companies to manage essential details, such as business name and location, contact information, hours of operation, accepted payment methods, and service areas — all through a single TransUnion portal. Updates automatically distribute across more than 80 directories, maps, apps, and social platforms.

SumUp launches loyalty program for small businesses. SumUp, a global payment technology, has launched Loyalty, a digital rewards program that turns card payments into points and stamps. Available across the U.K., France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, and Italy, Loyalty requires no new hardware and works with merchants’ existing SumUp infrastructure. The program features push notifications, targeted promotions, and an autopilot feature that automatically identifies lapsed customers and sends personalized win-back offers.

Cognizant launches contact center platform. Cognizant, an AI technology provider, has launched Agentic Retail CX, a contact center platform combining Google’s Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience with Cognizant’s retail capabilities. According to Cognizant, the platform helps retail brands deliver personalized, omnichannel experiences while reducing operational costs.

Cognizant

Google launches the next evolution of reCAPTCHA. Google has launched Cloud Fraud Defense, an agentic web platform to verify the legitimacy of bots, humans, and AI agents. Fraud Defense’s policy engine allows website owners to allow or block agents and users based on risk scores, automation types, and agent identity. Fraud Defense is invisible for most people, replacing disruptive puzzles with silent background verification.

Zendrop launches AI Creatives for UGC video ads. Zendrop, a dropshipping platform, has announced the beta launch of AI Ad Generator, a tool integrated into the Zendrop platform that enables dropshippers to produce user-generated-style video ads. Every ad is optimized for TikTok, Meta’s Reels, and YouTube Shorts, and saved to a personal Video Library where sellers can deploy across ad channels.

Meta AI business assistant expands globally. Meta is expanding its AI business assistant to advertisers and agencies of all sizes across major global markets, with local-language support in the U.S., Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. Per Meta, the assistant lives within existing tools, including Ads Manager, Business Suite, and Business Support Home, and optimizes campaigns and guidance.

Meta’s ad portal.

New Ecommerce Tools: April 22, 2026

Every week we publish a list of new products and services for ecommerce merchants. This week’s rundown includes AI store builders, shipping labels, composable commerce, shoppable media, video avatars, marketing campaigns, and token-based checkout.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email updates@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants

Adobe introduces a brand visibility tool. Adobe has launched a tool for visibility on generative AI platforms. The company also announced an expansion of its Experience Manager with a contextual layer for AI agents, and the launch of  CX Enterprise, an agentic AI system to simplify how businesses manage the customer lifecycle, from acquiring prospects to driving conversions and loyalty.

Adobe for Business

Australia Post offers in-store label printing for eBay sellers. Australia Post has launched a “Print in Store” capability that allows eBay sellers to generate shipping labels at participating post offices by scanning a QR code (available on eBay). The service follows Australia Post’s new small parcel option for items under 250 grams (0.55 pounds), piloted in collaboration with eBay.

Kultura integrates conversational avatars into CMSs. Kaltura, a provider of agentic AI tools, has announced integrations for three content management systems: Adobe Experience Manager, WordPress, and Drupal. Organizations on those platforms can embed any Kaltura experience as a native component. Examples include agentic avatars that greet visitors, conversational search, and interactive videos.

Vaimo launches a smarter frontend for composable commerce. Vaimo, an ecommerce developer, has launched Nexus, a frontend orchestration platform for composable commerce. According to Vaimo, Nexus sits between frontend and backend systems, offering a composable architecture without large-scale rebuilds or prohibitive overhead. The platform includes an orchestration layer that aggregates data across systems, a performance-optimized frontend layer, and connectors for platforms such as Commercetools, Adobe Commerce, Contentful, and Sanity. Nexus is part of the Vaimo Accelerator program.

Vaimo

Klaviyo expands integration with Canva for marketing campaigns. Klaviyo, the email, text, and marketing platform, has announced an expanded integration with Canva. Marketers can bring their Canva designs into Klaviyo and then refine and personalize campaigns using segmentation, automation, and customer data.

Payabl. launches Click to Pay with Visa to help merchants reduce fraud. Financial technology provider Payabl. has launched Click to Pay with Visa, replacing manual card number entry with token-based checkouts. Customers can complete purchases in a few clicks once their card is enrolled. Visa Click to Pay is available through Payabl.checkout, enabling merchants to activate the service. The tool works across devices and supports existing security flows.

Shoplazza launches AI Store Builder. Shoplazza, a platform for direct-to-consumer brands, has launched AI Store Builder to simplify how merchants create, launch, and initiate operations. With Store Builder, merchants can generate a storefront by describing their products, brand positioning, and target markets through natural language. The system automatically builds key components, including home page layouts, product pages, collection structures, and policy content, reducing reliance on manual configuration and technical resources.

Shoplazza

SiteGround launches ecommerce platform for small businesses. SiteGround, a platform helping small businesses build, host, and grow online, has launched SiteGround Ecommerce for new sellers, providing tools for payments, shipping, taxes, orders, and inventory. Additional features, per SiteGround, include built-in marketing to help store owners get found and convert visitors.

BlueSwitch launches Unified Commerce Suite. BlueSwitch, a Shopify Platinum Partner, has launched Unified Commerce Suite, a curated collection of production-ready Shopify modules to solve operational challenges faced by B2B merchants. Unified Commerce Suite addresses gaps across pricing, ordering, onboarding, fulfillment, shipping, and account workflows, according to BlueSwitch.

Wayvia launches shoppable media platform. Wayvia, an omnicommerce platform, has launched Shoppable Next Generation, an AI update of its shoppable media tool. Next Generation enables brands to connect marketing touchpoints, including display ads, social media posts, and email campaigns. The update provides customizable landing-page templates for conversion, basket building, and awareness. Each maps to a campaign objective in Meta Ads Manager.

Wayvia

UPS launches RFID sensing technology to eliminate manual scanning. UPS is rolling out radio frequency identification sensing across its U.S. small package network. The technology is in all UPS package delivery vehicles and facilities, and on every package shipped through UPS stores. RFID sensing automatically confirms that packages are picked up and in UPS’s possession.

Parsnipp launches AI search and GEO platform. Parsnipp has launched a generative engine optimization platform. The tool helps brands understand how they appear in AI-driven discovery and search by identifying specific signals, misconfigurations, and content gaps. Features include brand analytics across LLMs, competitor tracking, GEO content, search personas, and AI readiness recommendations.

Introducing Stable Commerce, an AI-powered ecommerce platform. Stable Commerce, a new AI-powered ecommerce platform, enables merchants to create and manage online stores through a chat-based AI interface. Merchants describe in plain language what they want to sell. The AI agent then generates a storefront that includes page design, product pages with descriptions and images, checkout integration, and shipping setup. Merchants can use the same conversational interface to change layout, products, or content.

Gr4vy launches toolkit for ChatGPT payments. Gr4vy, a payment orchestration platform, now supports agentic transactions, allowing merchants to manage and process payments in AI-driven environments. Gr4vy is also launching its Agentic Development Kit to equip and guide merchants in building and launching AI-native storefronts on ChatGPT and other genAI platforms. According to Gr4vy, merchants can launch AI-native storefronts, orchestrate AI transactions in real time, and maintain control over performance, security, and the customer experience.

Gr4vy

New Ecommerce Tools: April 15, 2026

This week’s installment of new services for merchants includes updates on cross-channel marketing, B2B commerce, agentic marketing, shoppable media, payments, product descriptions, AI-powered ecommerce, and predictive behavioral intelligence.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email updates@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants

OS Group launches B2B commerce platform. OS Group, a wholesale fashion and footwear network, has launched its proprietary B2B ecommerce marketplace. According to the company, the platform provides qualified retailers and business buyers with centralized access to high-demand sneakers and streetwear available for immediate wholesale purchase and fulfillment. The marketplace enables businesses to source products of globally recognized brands, including Nike, Adidas, ASICS, and others.

OS Group

Ampd launches agentic shoppable media. Ampd, an agentic tool connecting brand media to commerce, has launched agentic shoppable media, connecting shoppers directly to their preferred retailer — fully logged in and ready for purchase. According to Ampd, brands can input and maintain fair-share gross-merchandise allocations across their retail partners (e.g., Amazon, Walmart, Target) while maximizing the likelihood that shoppers land in their preferred ecosystem. Brands only need to create a single link that serves all retailers.

Airship expands AI Agent Fleet for campaigns and cross-channel experiences. Airship, a mobile-first customer experience platform, has announced an expansion and enhancement to its AI Agent Fleet. The launch introduces conversational interfaces for Campaigns AI Agent (for automation and acceleration), Native Experience AI Agent (for building app and web experiences from text descriptions or image uploads), and Journeys AI Agent (for creating and refining complex, multichannel journeys).

Clarvos introduces agentic workflow to help SMBs launch campaigns. Clarvos, a marketing technology startup, has announced the launch of its agentic marketing workflow platform to help SMBs plan, create, and run marketing campaigns. The Clarvos Agentic Workflow coordinates campaign strategy, creative generation, and activation across Google, Meta, and TikTok, using AI to simulate customer response, compare campaign options, and guide setup.

Clarvos

Joybuy adopts Competera to automate European market operations. Competera, a retail pricing platform, is collaborating with Joybuy, the new retail destination from JD.com, to manage its footprint across Europe. The partnership implements a centralized system wherein Joybuy tracks competitive shifts in real time. Teams at Joybuy receive market insights every morning to identify price gaps and adjust their own points before the peak shopping hours begin.

DropsyneX debuts ecommerce system. DropsyneX, a B2B cross-border ecommerce platform integrating live commerce, merchant services, and global logistics, has launched its one-stop system, which includes a global warehouse network, smart inventory and warehouse management, and virtual livestream commerce. DropsyneX states that its AI-powered livestream commerce tool enables automated product promotion, increased conversion rates, and reduced operational dependency on manual teams.

Yobi partners with Microsoft for predictive behavioral intelligence. Yobi, a behavioral AI company, has partnered with Microsoft to unlock predictive consumer intelligence for enterprises. Built on the Microsoft Azure platform, Yobi’s consented consumer database helps organizations ethically access behavioral datasets for predictive AI models. Yobi’s model uses real-world data such as purchases, store visits, and marketing conversions to understand and predict consumer intent. Businesses can personalize outcome modeling around the metrics that matter the most to their priorities.

Yobi

Zendrop launches MCP server to connect AI assistants to live store data. Zendrop, a dropshipping and ecommerce fulfillment platform, has launched a Model Context Protocol server that gives AI assistants, such as Claude, ChatGPT, OpenClaw, and Gemini, access to a merchant’s store. Merchants choose what an assistant can read or write, from catalog browsing to order management, through a granular permissions system, with built-in rate limiting for high-volume stores. The server works with any AI assistant that supports MCP. The integration is available to all Zendrop merchants.

PayPal extends payment links to Canva creators. PayPal has announced that payment links are available directly in Canva to turn designs into a checkout experience. Canva users can create a payment link or QR code and add PayPal checkout (including PayPal, Venmo, and PayPal Pay Later) to digital or printed designs and accept payments across social platforms, email, messaging apps, and in person.

Ask Yuma to manage ecommerce customer support. Yuma AI, a platform for ecommerce customer support, has launched Ask Yuma, a conversational interface that lets merchants manage their support automation through natural language. Ask Yuma is built into every page of the Yuma dashboard and provides access to a merchant’s tickets, automations, knowledge base, performance metrics, integrations, and brand voice. Customer experience teams can build, investigate, and optimize their automation in real-time by asking Yuma.

Yuma AI

Katana introduces platform for brands selling across multiple channels. Katana, a cloud-based inventory management software, has launched as a unified platform for product brands selling across multiple channels. The announcement coincides with the launch of Katana’s native Amazon FBA integration, enabling daily or weekly sync between FBA stock and Katana inventory, multi-marketplace support, and a product mapping system. Katana also provides native connections to Shopify, WooCommerce, QuickBooks, and Xero.

Visa launches Intelligent Commerce Connect. Visa has unveiled Intelligent Commerce Connect for businesses to participate in AI-powered commerce. Through a single integration via the Visa Acceptance Platform, Intelligent Commerce Connect enables secure payment initiation, tokenization, spend controls, and authentication. The tool integrates Visa Intelligent Commerce APIs (to process agent purchases using Visa cards) and other networks’ APIs, allowing agents to pay with both Visa and non-Visa cards.

Blytz launches as a payments and collections platform. BlytzPay has introduced Blytz, an intelligent payments and collections platform that includes BlytzPay, BlytzCollect, and BlytzCash. BlytzPay powers text-first, bankless payments. BlytzCollect uses AI-driven voice and BlytzPay’s text payment links to automate outreach and improve on-time payments. BlytzCash expands payment options by enabling customers to pay in cash at a network of retailers.

Selro launches AI-powered product description generator. Selro, a multichannel ecommerce management platform, has launched an AI-powered product description generator. The feature integrates with the Selro platform, enabling users to generate product titles, descriptions, and summaries directly from existing product data, images, or title snippets — all across large catalogs and multiple sales channels.

Selro

New Ecommerce Tools: April 8, 2026

This week’s rundown of new services for ecommerce merchants includes updates on B2B tools, fulfillment, AI reporting, advertising platforms, agentic commerce, payments, affiliate marketing, and business formation services.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email updates@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants

Shopify extends native B2B features to all merchants. Merchants on Shopify can now manage wholesale and direct-to-consumer operations without plugins or patchwork. Shopify is extending its foundational B2B features to merchants on Basic, Grow, and Advanced plans, at no extra cost. Also, merchants on those plans can access native features, including company profiles for wholesale buyers, up to three custom catalogs with tailored pricing, volume discounts and quantity rules, vaulted credit cards, and payment terms.

Shopify: B2B and D2C management

ShipMonk opens fulfillment center designed for apparel brands. ShipMonk, a global fulfillment provider for ecommerce brands, has opened a center in Louisville, Kentucky. The facility has 406,000 square feet, 60 dock doors, and more than 300,000 storage locations. Per ShipMonk, the facility optimizes layouts for high-SKU density, dedicated rework stations, on-site embroidery services for premium customization, specialized workflows for wholesale complexity, and floor-ready presentation, as well as bespoke fulfillment services.

Swyft Filings launches an app to start an LLC inside ChatGPT. Swyft Filings, a provider of business formation services, has launched its OpenAI app, enabling entrepreneurs to form a business, start an LLC, register a corporation, and handle formation tasks. According to Swyft Filings, the app leverages generative AI for real-time guidance, faster filings, and more intuitive access to business formation services. The app is now available in the ChatGPT store.

Affiliate platform Levanta acquires Perch+ for Amazon sellers. Levanta, an affiliate and creator platform for ecommerce, has acquired Perch+, an affiliate network for Amazon sellers. According to Levanta, the move enables Perch+ brands to work directly with 60,000 partners in Levanta’s marketplace, with support for Amazon attribution and creator connections. Brands can run paid placement campaigns, automate product sampling, and surface who’s talking about their brand across social, per Levanta.

Miva releases 26 R1 with an embedded AI reporting assistant. Ecommerce platform Miva has released its 26 R1 update, with an embedded reporting assistant to help merchants make smarter, data-driven decisions. At the center of the release is AI Insights, an in-line reporting assistant. Merchants can use natural-language prompts to query store data, generate performance summaries, analyze conversion rates, and identify top-performing products by category or date range, all without exporting reports or building complex dashboards, according to Miva.

Miva

Commercetools partners with TradeCentric on B2B commerce. TradeCentric, a B2B e-procurement provider, has partnered with Commercetools, an ecommerce platform for global enterprises. Together, Commercetools and TradeCentric state that they enable seamless integration capabilities to eliminate manual order processing, reduce errors, and accelerate order-to-cash cycles. Commercetools customers gain access to these capabilities while integrating with major e-procurement systems, including the 220 procurement platforms supported by TradeCentric.

Bitly introduces AI-powered features for marketing analytics. Bitly, the URL shortener, has launched Assist and Weekly Insights for marketing. Bitly Assist is an AI-powered chat assistant built directly into the platform. It enables customers to ask questions conversationally about link and QR code performance. Weekly Insights highlights meaningful changes in link and QR code activity, identifying patterns across referrers, geographies, and devices.

Durable launches Discoverability for AI search. Durable, an AI business builder, has launched Discoverability, a feature that helps businesses get found on generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, and Perplexity. According to Durable, Discoverability provides (i) a single measure of how findable a business is across all online channels, (ii) guided suggestions to improve results over time, and (iii) rankings against competitors in genAI visibility.

Goflow introduces Order-Level P&L for real-time profit tracking. Goflow, a multichannel operating system for Amazon-first merchants, has launched Order-Level P&L for real-time profit tracking across orders, analytics, and reporting. The new feature estimates margins using inputs such as inventory batch costs and shipping rates. Each value is labeled by source, ensuring transparency between actual and estimated figures. By making profit and margin visible at the order, SKU, and channel level, sellers can identify issues quickly, per Goflow.

Goflow

BitRail launches merchant payment suite to help eliminate fees. Fintech company BitRail has announced an expanded suite of merchant payment services in partnership with Payment Lock, an enterprise security and payment processing platform. These tools build on BitRail’s core platform, which gives merchants branded checkout, branded digital wallets, and branded payment infrastructure. The features include compliant pricing for cash and credit, checkout and pay-now buttons, API integration, customer card vault, and reporting.

BQool brings Amazon AI advertising solutions to growing brands. BQool, a platform for Amazon sellers to automate operations, has announced the availability of its AI-powered advertising feature, designed to simplify campaign management and improve performance. The feature provides a one-click system that continuously analyzes large volumes of data, automates repetitive advertising tasks, and optimizes campaigns. The feature includes “auto-harvesting,” which identifies and adds high-performing keywords, and enables sellers to adopt intelligent automation while maintaining control and visibility, per BQool.

SDLC Corp launches free Odoo-WooCommerce connector. SDLC Corp, a technology integration provider, has launched a free connector that enables data synchronization between WooCommerce storefronts and Odoo back-office systems. According to SDLC Corp, the connector includes features to support day-to-day performance, including webhook-based event processing, scheduled jobs for inventory and catalog synchronization, configurable field mapping inside Odoo, and centralized logging with error-handling capabilities — all across single- and multi-store environments.

Criteo expands its Go self-service ad platforms to SMBs. Criteo, an advertising retargeting platform, has expanded its Go self-service ad tool with full access for small and midsize businesses. Criteo Go unifies display, video, native, and social within a single campaign environment. The platform optimizes spend, while built-in genAI creative tools produce and adapt ad formats, including video, to maintain consistent messaging across channels. Advertisers can create an account, enter billing details, and launch campaigns in as few as five clicks, according to Criteo.

Criteo Go

New Ecommerce Tools: April 1, 2026

Every week we publish a rundown of new services for ecommerce merchants. This installment includes updates on product images, syndicated reviews, box-free returns, installment payments, marketplace integrations, agentic commerce, shipping intelligence, cross-border ecommerce, and affiliate partnerships.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email updates@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants

Designkit launches platform to streamline product visuals. Designkit has launched its product image platform. The AI-powered tool enables sellers to generate a full listing image set from a single prompt, including white-background shots, lifestyle scenes, and in-use visuals. It supports high-volume batch processing and localization across five languages. The AI Photo Editor Suite delivers refinement through five core tools: Background Remover, Background Generation, Object Remover, Image Enhancer, and Text & Element Integration.

Designkit

Ordoro and SPS Commerce partner to support brands on Amazon and Walmart. Ordoro, an ecommerce operations platform, has partnered with SPS Commerce, an intelligent supply chain network, to support scaling brands across retail and marketplace channels, including Amazon and Walmart. SPS Commerce helps brands recover revenue tied to retailer deductions, compliance fines, and marketplace reimbursement opportunities. Ordoro equips brands with the tools to manage inventory, shipping, and order workflows. Combined, the companies state they provide guidance for brands transitioning from early traction to operational maturity.

Shopware and Balance partner on B2B payments. Shopware, an open-source ecommerce platform, and Balance, an AI-powered financial infrastructure for B2B brands, have partnered to bring advanced B2B payment options to merchants in the Shopware ecosystem. Through the partnership, Shopware merchants can integrate Balance into checkout and buyer portals to offer and manage their pay-by-invoice and buy-now-pay-later programs. Balance automates the invoice-to-cash lifecycle with built-in fraud detection, credit management, and collection and reconciliation.

VisiGEO launches to make brands visible to AI. Focus Technology Co. has launched VisiGEO, a generative engine optimization platform. VisiGEO’s AI Visibility Analysis details mentions of your brand and competitors, along with the sentiment. VisiGEO’s Website GEO Audit corrects technical barriers blocking AI crawlers, from robots.txt misconfigurations to missing Schema.org markup. VisiGEO helps brands generate content and then provides publishing guidance to maximize AI impact.

Jliveo introduces AI-driven platform for B2B cross-border ecommerce. Jliveo, a B2B ecommerce solutions provider, has launched its AI-driven platform to support global wholesale and cross-border operations. The platform integrates sourcing, dropshipping, and fulfillment management into a single system — both wholesale purchasing and on-demand order fulfillment. Jliveo also incorporates automated content workflows and multilingual communication.

Jliveo

Shopify introduces Tinker app for AI tools. Shopify has debuted Tinker, a free mobile app that combines 100 specialized AI tools for creating images, videos, logos, and more. Tinker organizes tools by outcome, such as product photography, logo creation, social media videos, 360-degree views, and more. Each tool shows examples of what it creates and how to use it. Tinker brings models from providers such as OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and others into a single app.

Amazon lets external websites offer Prime shipping without an Amazon login. Amazon is testing a program that lets shoppers access Prime shipping benefits on other websites without logging in to an Amazon account. The initiative includes a small group of test merchants who use Amazon’s multichannel fulfillment services to pick, pack, and deliver orders from their online store or other marketplaces and may have resisted deeper integration with Amazon’s ecosystem.

Bazaarvoice integrates with TikTok Shop to provide syndicated reviews. Bazaarvoice, a ratings, reviews, and user-generated content platform, has announced that participating brands can now syndicate their reviews and other UGC directly to products on TikTok Shop. The launch enables brands to port their trusted review content, including photos and videos, directly to TikTok Shop product pages.

Bazaarvoice.

FedEx Office joins Amazon’s return network. Over 1,500 FedEx Office locations across the U.S. now offer Amazon’s free, label-free, box-free return option for eligible items. Customers begin the return process in their Amazon account, choose a nearby drop-off location, and receive a QR code. They can then bring their unpackaged item and its QR code to the selected location, where it is scanned and prepared for shipping — no shipping box or label required.

Meta expands Facebook affiliate partnerships. Meta is expanding Facebook affiliate partnerships to more test partners, including Amazon, eBay, and Temu in the U.S., Mercado Libre in Latin America, and Shopee in Asia. With affiliate partnerships, creators tag products from merchants in their Facebook posts to help their communities find and buy. Merchant partners choose which products to feature and set the commission for sales. Meta says it also plans to test similar affiliate experiences on Instagram.

Firmly launches Connect agentic marketing tool. Firmly, an agentic commerce platform, has introduced Connect, a no-code onboarding tool that autonomously integrates with merchants’ websites and commerce infrastructure to sell through agentic marketing channels. Firmly Connect allows merchants to quickly activate agentic commerce by verifying their business credentials, selecting where they want to sell, and publishing their product catalog while maintaining full control over pricing, inventory, and distribution.

Firmly

ShipperHQ launches AI-powered shipping intelligence platform. ShipperHQ, a shipping and checkout experience platform, has launched ShipperHQ.ai, a feature to give ecommerce merchants full visibility into their shipping operations. ShipperHQ.ai introduces an intelligence layer that combines real-time analytics with AI agents that analyze, test, and optimize shipping and checkout performance. Built on shipping logic refined across merchants, carrier integrations, and rate calculations, ShipperHQ.ai connects directly to an ecommerce store’s live shipping configuration and checkout data.

Thryv launches AI-powered sales automation for small businesses. Thryv, a provider of small-business marketing and sales software, launched AI Lead Flow. According to Thryv, the new tool connects online visibility, intelligent lead management, and automated sales follow-ups into a single experience. AI Lead Flow combines Thryv’s Marketing Center’s online visibility tools with its Keap sales automation engine to create a continuous, automated pipeline from the first online impression to the closed deal, eliminating the most common lead management failures for small businesses.

Shopify merchant brands are now available in ChatGPT. Shopify merchants can now sell to ChatGPT users via Shopify’s Agentic Storefronts, which provide access to genAI platforms such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, AI Mode in Google Search, and the Gemini app — all managed centrally from the Shopify admin. Brands not using Shopify for ecommerce can add products to the Shopify Catalog to reach shoppers and sell across these same AI channels.

Shopify in ChatGPT

MCP Shifts AI from Chat to Work

Beehiiv, an emerging email newsletter platform, became this month the most recent ecommerce-adjacent software company to announce an MCP integration for artificial intelligence.

On its own, Beehiiv’s announcement might not seem significant. Yet the integration could point to a larger trend.

Increasingly, merchants’ software tools have direct, even native, AI connections. Examples include Shopify, WooCommerce, Yottaa, and Shippo.

What Is an MCP?

Anthropic, the company behind the popular Claude LLM, defined the Model Context Protocol in 2024. Releasing it as “a new standard for connecting AI assistants to the systems where data lives, including content repositories, business tools, and development environments. It aims to help frontier models produce better, more relevant responses.”

Essentially, the MCP (and competing protocols) ensure secure two-way connections between data sources and AI-powered tools or agents.

Connecting data sources and services with AI-enabled agents and tools, the MCP describes one way AI will integrate into business operations. Click image to enlarge.

Instead of building one-off integrations for every service via an API, a business can expose its entire tools and data to AI systems. An AI model can then query those systems and take action.

Business leaders can think of MCP as AI infrastructure. It sits between the AI and the systems that run the business. And when a software supports the MCP, the opportunity to integrate with AI for analysis, generation, and automation is relatively greater and easier.

Operational Shift

Many AI tools today summarize reports, draft emails, or answer questions. With MCP-style integrations, those tools can act. An AI assistant could check inventory, compare shipping rates, and evaluate campaign performance, before making adjustments, perhaps in real time.

Consider a simple case. An AI system detects rising delivery costs on a group of orders. With access to shipping tools, it compares carrier rates and selects a cheaper option. The same system updates the order and notifies the customer. This can happen even as someone in the warehouse is picking items.

That type of loop is what MCP and similar protocols are trying to enable.

Here are a few examples.

Shopify’s Hydrogen update introduced AI support for Storefront MCP.

The integration allows AI agents to browse products, manage carts, and assist with checkout. In effect, the storefront becomes a structured environment that an AI can navigate. An AI could have done this before, but the MCP provides rules that make it more successful.

Shopify is one example of an ecommerce-related MCP implementation.

Shippo’s MCP server exposes shipping workflows to AI systems. An AI assistant can create shipments, compare carrier rates, generate labels, track packages, and validate addresses. These are tasks that typically require manual steps or custom integrations.

An AI system identifies a cluster of delayed shipments. It checks alternative carriers, updates fulfillment rules, and flags affected customers. The shopper experience is better, and the agent acted without direct supervision, albeit within the set of guidelines.

Beehiiv’s MCP integration links newsletter accounts to AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude.

The current version focuses on analysis. AI can evaluate subject lines, subscriber growth, churn, and engagement trends. That insight can guide content and monetization decisions. It might even help close the loop, so to speak, on how email marketing contributes to ecommerce sales.

APIs Remain

MCP does not replace application programming interfaces; it complements them.

APIs are precise and stable. They are suited for core integrations such as order processing or payments. MCP is flexible. The protocol allows AI systems to move across tools without rigid workflows.

In practice, an ecommerce stack will likely combine APIs for reliability and MCP-style interfaces for adaptability.

Other Protocols

The MCP is part of a broader shift toward agentic applications and commerce. Other protocols are emerging.

OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol, for example, aims to enable product discovery and transactions within AI environments such as ChatGPT. Google is developing a similar approach for its AI interfaces.

These protocols define how shopping happens inside AI-driven surfaces. MCP focuses on how AI systems access business operations behind the scenes.

For merchants, the distinction matters. One set of standards governs how consumers find and buy products. Another governs how the business fulfills and manages those transactions. Each case illustrates the evolution of businesses and their software tools with AI.

Implementation

The most important takeaway may be that the MCP signals a shift from AI as a chat tool to an operator in a business.

Ecommerce leaders should focus less on the protocol itself and more on being ready to adapt to AI use and integration. Having clean, organized data and clear workflows is more important than being the first to adopt new tools.

Expect a stack where APIs offer reliability and MCP-like layers enable flexibility. And monitor where AI-driven shopping happens, as protocols from platforms such as OpenAI or Google may shape demand as much as backend operations.

New Ecommerce Tools: March 25, 2026

Our rundown this week of new services for ecommerce merchants includes updates on predictive intelligence, same-day shipping, automated marketing, agentic commerce, installment payments, product videos, and dropshipping.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email updates@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants

ShipStation leverages predictive intelligence on fulfillment, delivery, and returns. ShipStation, a shipping and logistics platform, has launched Intelligence, a predictive AI tool to help merchants reduce operational inefficiencies and expenses. According to ShipStation, Intelligence enables merchants to automatically select the best carrier and service level for every shipment, identify delivery risks and delays, automate fulfillment workflows, and optimize international shipping decisions, including customs and duty management.

ShipStation

FedEx to offer same-day delivery options. FedEx has announced the rollout of SameDay Local in collaboration with OneRail, a last-mile delivery company. SameDay Local lets shoppers choose two-hour or end-of-day delivery directly at checkout. The service will connect FedEx customers to a U.S. network of roughly 1,000 delivery providers, coordinated through intelligent orchestration that matches orders with vehicles and drivers, tracked with live updates from pickup to delivery.

Reddit introduces new tools for shopping. Reddit is launching shopping tools to enhance its Dynamic Product Ads experience. Collection Ads allow businesses to lead with a lifestyle hero image paired with shoppable product tiles in a single carousel. Community overlays indicate products that are resonating on Reddit, while Deal overlays automatically call out discounts and sale pricing. Also, Reddit says its new Shopify integration simplifies catalog and pixel setup, enabling frictionless onboarding for new advertisers.

Klaviyo expands autonomous marketing with Composer. Klaviyo, a marketing automation platform, has launched Composer, an agentic experience that generates, optimizes, and recommends marketing campaigns and flows from a single prompt. With Composer, marketers describe what they want in plain language, and Composer builds a launch-ready campaign, including audience segments and messaging optimized for each channel. Klaviyo has also released new retail tools for its Customer Agent, including order tracking, returns and exchanges, subscription editing, and loyalty lookup.

Klaviyo

Alibaba launches Accio Work AI agent for global merchants. Alibaba International has unveiled Accio Work, a plug-and-play enterprise AI agent. The platform requires no setup, per Alibaba International, and deploys specialized agents to execute complex, long-horizon operations. Accio Work enables businesses (online or physical) to manage real-time VAT filings, tax refunds, and customs documentation across more than 100 markets. Businesses can issue requests for quotation and conduct multi-round negotiations with suppliers through tools such as Telegram and WhatsApp.

Algolia enhances search for Shopify merchants. Algolia, an AI search and retrieval platform, has announced enhancements to its Shopify integration. The release introduces (i) Commerce Pipeline, an indexing foundation that improves speed and reliability, and (ii) Click-to-Activate Pixel Analytics, which captures shopper behavior. Algolia has expanded customization within Shopify App Blocks, and Algolia now indexes Shopify Metaobjects and Shopify’s Standard Product Taxonomy, enabling richer search content and more precise merchandising control.

Google enhances shopping for AI agents. Google has announced updates to the Universal Commerce Protocol for AI-driven commerce. UCP now offers an option that lets agents add multiple items to a shopping cart at once from a single store. UCP adopters can access a capability that lets agents retrieve real-time product details from a retailer’s catalog. UCP also supports identity linking, allowing shoppers on UCP-integrated platforms to receive loyalty or member benefits, such as pricing or free shipping.

Constructor unveils AI agent for product discovery. Constructor, an AI-powered search and discovery platform for ecommerce companies, has released Merchant Intelligence Agent, which brings conversational intelligence to merchandising teams to improve how shoppers discover products. Teams can ask the new AI agent natural-language questions, investigate campaign performance, request recommendations to accomplish merchandising goals, and more.

Constructor Merchant Intelligence Agent

Coveo launches search-native conversational AI for product discovery. Coveo, a platform for AI-powered relevance for digital experiences, has launched Conversational Product Discovery, a capability that allows shoppers to discover products through natural language conversations within the search experience. The discovery agent coordinates multiple AI functions to interpret shopper intent, retrieve relevant products from a retailer’s catalog, and assemble responses grounded in catalog data and merchandising rules. Users maintain control through defined layouts, content guardrails, and merchandising directives.

Splitit launches Go to extend installments for field sales. Splitit, an installment payments platform, has launched Go, a mobile tool that brings credit-card-linked installments into face-to-face environments. Splitit Go allows customers to use their existing credit cards, while merchants can generate installment offers from a smartphone, tablet, or laptop. Customers receive the offer via QR code, text, or email, review the terms on their own device, and complete the purchase using available credit on their card.

Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor can now take direct action on WordPress.com. WordPress.com has launched new write capabilities for its Model Context Protocol server. The update enables AI agents, including Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor, to create, edit, and manage content on WordPress.com sites directly through natural conversation. Users can instruct their AI agent to draft and publish blog posts and pages, edit and update existing content, and create new pages and manage site content — all through natural conversation.

WizCommerce launches AI Video Generator for brands. WizCommerce, an ecommerce platform, has launched its AI Video Generator, a module inside WizStudio that transforms a single product image into a publish-ready video in minutes. Lifestyle Product Videos places products in on-brand environments with cinematic motion, optimized for social media and storefronts. Product Closeups highlight materials, textures, and details. 360° Spin Videos allow shoppers to explore products from every angle.

WizCommerce

Shoplazza adopts agentic commerce architecture. Shoplazza, a D2C commerce platform, has launched an agentic commerce architecture, with AI agents to execute ecommerce operational tasks. According to Shoplazza, merchants can describe the business outcome, and the platform coordinates actions across operations, payments, marketing, and customer-management systems. The platform can automatically execute tasks such as creating campaigns, updating storefront merchandising, and monitoring performance.

Mliveo launches AI-powered livestream cross-border ecommerce solution. Mliveo, a provider of cross-border ecommerce tools, has launched its upgraded AI Livestream Commerce Suite. The new suite integrates AI hosts, intelligent product sourcing, and a global dropshipping network to provide a unified B2B growth for cross-border sellers and brands. With Mliveo, sellers need only to upload product SKUs and define their profit margins. The platform then automates product analysis, livestream distribution, and order conversion.

Zonos launches AI products for cross-border shipments. Zonos, a cross-border technology company, has launched AI-powered products that infer and validate customs data. Classify determines the correct commodity code. Country of Origin provides a ranked list of probable locales. Customs Value returns a recommended value alongside a range of prices. Customs Description transforms product names and retail descriptions into concise customs descriptions. Vision extracts item information from a photograph. Greenlight is an API for validating export compliance.

Netguru launches design system for marketplaces and commerce products. Netguru, an ecommerce consultancy, has launched Silk, a system to help product teams design and ship marketplaces and commerce applications. Silk provides a toolkit of reusable UI components, design tokens, and documented patterns that enable teams to build digital marketplaces, ecommerce platforms, and B2B commerce products without having to produce core interface elements from scratch. Silk is available as a free design system for Figma, including component libraries, documentation, and example product screens.

Netguru