Author: Dailyusastory

The aim of the 1930 U.S. Tariff Act was to eliminate low-cost imports from customs and duty processing, thereby saving money. Initially pegged at $1 per package, the so-called “de minimis” threshold gradually increased to $800. The exemption became crucial for cross-border dropshippers, fast-fashion brands, and other ecommerce sellers. President Trump eliminated the de minimis exemption effective August 29, 2025. Most U.S.-bound shipments valued at $800 or less will incur applicable duties, taxes, fees, and other charges, although the change affected packages from China and Hong Kong as of May. And the U.S. Postal Service, in collaboration with other domestic…

This week’s rundown of new products and services from vendors of ecommerce merchants includes AI-generated product images, fulfillment, social commerce, digital advertising, affiliate marketing, less-than-truckload shipping, autonomous ground deliveries, and more. Got an ecommerce product release? Email releases@practicalecommerce.com. New Tools for Merchants Google Ads launches Asset Studio beta. Google Ads has released, in beta, Asset Studio, a built-in creative hub streamlining how advertisers produce and scale ad assets with AI. Asset Studio appears in Google Ads under “Tools” and provides native creative features directly in the Ads interface. Advertisers can use it to generate images with text prompts, create lifestyle…

Merchandising is an ongoing process of presenting products to boost sales. Every ecommerce site merchandises its products either consciously or by default. Nike features in-season sports and products on its home page. Amazon reminds shoppers of their recent searches. Wayfair bundles and cross-sells complementary items. Many ecommerce platforms have basic merchandising built in directly or in popular themes. These built-ins make merchandising easy, but not necessarily optimized. Nike’s home page hero slide is seasonal. It features spots or products, such as this example of inspiring shoppers to dress like tennis star Carlos Alcaraz. Strategy Merchandising techniques vary. Some focus on…

We’ve all heard the buzz surrounding agentic AI agents. What’s missing for many of us is how they can help our business. What is an AI agent? Can it really perform tasks and get things done? I asked those questions and more to Anthony DelPizzo. He’s with Triple Whale, the Shopify-backed ecommerce analytics platform that has launched its own AI agent called Moby. It responds to ChatGPT-like prompts, suggests marketing channels, and even composes emails. The entire audio of our conversation is embedded below. The transcript is condensed and edited for clarity. Eric Bandholz: Who are you, and what do…

A team of engineers has developed a multi-robot system that enables machines to operate with a “collective brain,” coordinating tasks, navigating complex environments, and avoiding obstacles autonomously. Unlike conventional robots that work in isolation, this system allows robots to function as a cohesive unit, executing complex operations more efficiently and safely. The concept of a collective brain allows robots to share information about their environment, positions, and assigned tasks. This real-time exchange enables them to adapt to changing conditions or unexpected obstacles, much like social insects such as ants, which achieve remarkable results through collective behavior. In robotics, however, this…

The end of summer signals the beginning of fall and peak season planning for merchants. From entrepreneurial inspiration to employee motivation, these recent titles can help start the process. Catching Cheats: Everyday Forensics to Unmask Business Fraud Catching Cheats by Erik Lie Lie is a finance professor whose research exposing manipulation of stock options by inside executives led to a series by The Wall Street Journal, earning a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2007. His forthcoming book uses the stories of fraudsters such as Bernie Madoff to show how data analysis can identify financial cheating. Reviewers call it “real-world…

In this year’s “Ecommerce Conversations,” I’ve occasionally shared my experiences owning and operating Beardbrand, the direct-to-consumer brand I launched a decade ago. To date, I’ve addressed hiring, branding, profit-building, priority-setting, exiting, and overcoming a million-dollar loss. In this installment, I share what I believe is the best bootstrapped ecommerce model and why others should consider it. My entire audio dialog is embedded below. The transcript is condensed and edited for clarity. Building a D2C brand is hard. Developing and selling products is a grind. A better path is a bootstrapped, sustainable business where you spend less than you make and…

Medical imaging plays a vital role in diagnosing diseases, planning treatments, and monitoring patient health. However, training computer programs to analyze these images accurately usually requires thousands of expertly labeled examples, a process that is slow, expensive, and often limited by privacy concerns. GenSeg is a new generative AI framework that is transforming this landscape by drastically reducing the amount of expert-labeled data needed to build effective medical image analysis tools. It can create high-quality, realistic synthetic medical images along with precise labels, allowing doctors and researchers to develop powerful models even when data is scarce. This approach aligns with…

This week’s rundown of new products and services from vendors to ecommerce merchants includes tools for automation, personalized marketing, localized payments, AI-powered search, logistics, agentic commerce, generative AI, and omnichannel distribution. Got an ecommerce product release? Email releases@practicalecommerce.com. New Tools for Merchants Wunderkind marketing platform launches on Shopify. Wunderkind, a performance marketing platform, has launched on the Shopify App Store. The app gives Shopify brands the ability to connect with Wunderkind’s Autonomous Marketing platform to unlock personalized, omnichannel marketing. Merchants gain access to Wunderkind’s suite of capabilities, including a proprietary identity network to recognize anonymous visitors, hyper-personalized omnichannel messaging, and…

America’s new stablecoin law could lead to billions of dollars in annual savings for enterprise retailers that issue their own digital money. When President Trump signed the bipartisan Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act into law in July 2025, America became the first nation to provide a regulatory framework for the issuance and oversight of secure, fiat-backed digital currencies. “This bill will cement U.S. dollar dominance, protect customers, increase demand for U.S. treasuries, and ensure that innovation in the digital asset space is in the hands of the United States of America, not our adversaries,” said…