“THE BRIEFING”
GameStop just made a $56B unsolicited offer for eBay and would combine eBay's marketplace with 1,600 physical storefronts for authentication, intake, and fulfillment, with Cohen pitching it as the ultimate collectibles and trading cards empire; eBay's board said it would review.
Agentic commerce in the U.S. D2C retail market may reach $1 trillion in revenue by 2030, according to a report by McKinsey & Company. Sixty-eight percent of consumers used at least one AI tool in the past three months as part of their shopping experience.
Amazon launched "Join the Chat," an AI feature that answers product questions via conversational audio in real time. It pulls together specs, reviews, and customer feedback—so shoppers can ask things like "is this coffee maker good for beginners?" without scrolling through a wall of text.
“THE SPOTLIGHT”
Google Ad
Stripe’s 200+ new launches to help E-commerce brands
At the Stripe summit last week the company launched over 200 new products to help e-commerce and online brands facilitate their businesses. It’s a huge amount of launches in just one conference, so here are our takeaways from the announcement.
The announcements once again point to agentic commerce and the huge rise of e-commerce shopping done through AI agents previously reported in this newsletter
Checkout Studio
A checkout optimisation tool with AI assistance, live transaction replay, A/B testing, and personalized recommendations built in.Meta Checkout
Checkout embedded natively inside Facebook ads, collapsing discovery and purchase into one step.Agentic Commerce Suite
Sellers can upload product catalogues and control agent access from the dashboard; platforms can make connected accounts agent-ready through a single integration.Google Partnership
Purchases via AI Mode and the Gemini app coming soon…Bot Abuse Prevention
A layer designed to separate legitimate AI agents from fraudulent ones.Stripe Reader T600
A countertop terminal with an 8-inch display capable of running custom loyalty and upsell applications.
“THE SET”
Behind The Scenes This Week
We've been in the studio this week filming something we're genuinely excited about. It's built around human brilliance—the kind of thinking, experience, and execution that no prompt can replicate. Can't say much yet, but it's the clearest expression of what The Starters is becoming. The content drops soon, and trust us, you'll want to be here for it.
“THE OPS”
Each week we feature recent hires, showcasing top brands partnering with human brilliance to build their brand. This week’s hires include:
Designer
A vitamin e-commerce brand has hired a graphic designer to help with campaigns and product packaging.
$1,350 per weekEmail Marketer
A home appliance brand has hired an email copywriting expert to help with their email marketing.
$2,000 flat feeCreative Strategist
A wellness brand has hired a paid social strategist to assist in growing its paid campaigns.
$2,500 flat fee