Marketplace Talk: July's ecommerce news 2025

🏷️Prime Day 2025: Record-breaking sales, but Walmart steals the momentum

Amazon marked 10 years of Prime Day with its longest event yet, running four full days (July 8–11) and racking up record-breaking numbers. Final figures from Adobe show $24.1 billion in online spend across U.S. retailers during this period, up 30% year-over-year, with Amazon’s own sales growing 4.9% compared to last year’s two-day event.

Yet this longer window also gave shoppers more time to compare deals, and Walmart seized the opportunity. Running its six-day Walmart Deals event in parallel (July 8–13), Walmart captured a significant share of consumer spend. According to Bloomberg Second Measure, spending on Walmart.com during its deal period grew 24% year-over-year, six times faster than Amazon’s Prime Day growth, while web traffic rose 14% and app usage jumped 22%. Eight percent of Prime Day shoppers also placed orders on Walmart.com, up from 5% in 2024.

While Walmart does not release official sales figures for Deals Week, many third-party data points make one thing clear: Walmart rode on Prime Day’s coattails to fuel both online and in-store growth, with curbside pickup driving midweek traffic.

"Prime Day might start the spending frenzy, but it no longer ends there. For instance, brands that shut off ads after July 11 missed out on the post-Prime sales wave across Walmart and other marketplaces, while those that kept their campaigns and inventory active across multiple channels captured a full week of shopper attention. The clear pattern this year is that success comes from planning for the whole week across platforms, not just betting on a single event."

Mitchell Dröge,
Global Manager Channel Partnerships

Prime Day was just the beginning. Discover how you can consistently optimize your marketplace performance.

🛒 Summer discounts reach “two-Black-Fridays” scale

According to Adobe, online summer sales around Prime Day were expected to reach $23.8 billion this year, representing a 28.4% increase compared to 2024 and equivalent to two Black Fridays. The expansion of Prime Day to four days, and Walmart and Target’s matching extended events, has driven this surge.

Apparel stood out with discounts averaging 24%, while Amazon’s new “Today’s Big Deals” refreshed every five minutes to keep shoppers engaged. Price-sensitive shoppers leaned on BNPL, which made up 8% of online spend.

This discount-driven environment underscores an important insight: as long as economic pressures persist, price sensitivity will dominate online shopping behavior, and extended deal calendars are proving highly effective for retailers.

“Retailers — especially marketplace sellers — need to be transparent and agile in their pricing. With consumers more price-sensitive than ever, adjusting assortment, messaging, and margin strategies will be key to retention and profitability.”

Twan Rutten,
Strategic Business Growth Lead

💲Tariffs shake fast fashion: Can Amazon capitalize?

U.S. tariffs and changes to import rules are reshaping fast fashion. Shein and Temu, long known for ultra-low prices, have seen spending drops of over 10% and 20% since April 2025.

Amazon has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of this shift, with women’s clothing sales on its platform growing over 26% in the last six months. Third-party sellers, especially China-based brands using Amazon’s fulfillment network, dominate the category. Prime Day’s extension to four days could also be part of Amazon’s push to leverage this advantage.

While Shein and Temu regroup, other players are quickly stepping in to fill the gap. Established retailers like Zara and ASOS, as well as off-price chains such as Nordstrom, are capturing more share from consumers looking for alternatives. This changing landscape is opening up new opportunities on platforms like Amazon for brands that can act fast and differentiate through reliable fulfillment and customer experience.

Read more about how you can mitigate tariffs as a marketplace seller.

“For marketplace managers, this is a reminder to move fast: when the market shifts, strong fulfillment and customer trust create an opening for rapid growth. Having the right marketplace integrator by your side makes it much easier to pivot quickly and capture those opportunities."

Jordi Vermeer,
VP Revenue North America

🇫🇷 Temu climbs into France’s top 15 fashion retailers

Temu has made its debut among the top 15 fashion retailers in France, jumping from 24th place earlier this year to 15th, just behind Zara, according to the French Fashion Institute. Together, Amazon, Shein, and Temu now account for 23% of all online fashion sales in France, or 7% of the country’s total apparel consumption.

The report also highlights a growing trend in recommerce. Second-hand sales now make up 11.8% of the market, with younger consumers (18–34) dedicating 17.5% of their fashion spend to used goods. This shift points to a structurally changing French fashion market driven by sustainability, sharp pricing, and evolving consumer preferences.

As the French government prepares anti-fast fashion regulations, the market is becoming more complex. Growth is being driven at both ends of the spectrum: value-focused marketplaces like Temu are expanding rapidly, while recommerce continues to gain ground with younger shoppers

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“The surge of platforms like Temu, combined with the boom in second-hand fashion, is transforming how French consumers shop. To succeed, brands must rethink their channel mix, balancing price-driven marketplaces with premium and recommerce platforms, and ensure they can pivot fast when new regulations or shifts in demand come into play."

Hugo Denoyelle,
Responsable Commercial France

🚚 AliExpress launches hourly delivery in the UK

AliExpress has launched hourly same-day delivery in London for food, drinks, and household products. This expansion builds on its Local+ fulfillment strategy announced last month, backed by new warehouses in the UK, Spain, and Germany.

UK-based sellers can now join the platform directly, gaining access to AliExpress’s customer base and logistics capabilities. Beyond groceries, locally shipped items like furniture and home accessories are promised within three days.

This move signals a push by AliExpress to combine fast service with a broader marketplace offering - a model that could attract new sellers looking for marketplace diversification in a crowded landscape.

📱Social commerce grows: 60% of German retailers now advertise on social platforms

A new Bitkom survey shows that 59% of German retailers are now using social networks to promote their offerings, with 31% running ads and 13% partnering with influencers. Facebook and Instagram remain the top channels, but TikTok is rapidly growing thanks to TikTok Shop’s launch earlier this year.

Nearly half of retailers say social media lets them reach customers they couldn’t access before, and 37% say social trends influence their product assortment.

"Social commerce is transforming the path to purchase. Even if sales still happen on websites or marketplaces, the conversation and discovery now begin on social platforms. For brands, building a strong presence on these channels has become essential."

Caroline Chergui,
Sales Team Lead Europe  

🤖Shopify joins ChatGPT shopping search

OpenAI has quietly added Shopify as a data partner for its ChatGPT shopping search features, alongside Bing. This integration means ChatGPT’s shopping results now include products from Shopify merchants, expanding its coverage of ecommerce stores.

The new search experience surfaces rich product listings with images, reviews, and prices, generated using structured data from third-party platforms. Early tests show that search results include products from Shopify stores as well as other ecommerce platforms such as Turbify and Amazon.

“With ChatGPT's move into shopping search, we’re seeing the early stages of agentic commerce, where AI tools guide shoppers from discovery to decision. For brands, this can become a valuable customer discovery tool, especially in an effort to reduce CAC as AI-driven shopping evolves. And the good news is that stores not on Shopify can also apply to be indexed."

Damian Speck,
Channel Partnerships Mgr, North America