🏷️ Amazon Prime Day 2025 officially announced – and it's bigger than ever
Prime Day is back—and this year, it's set to run for four full days from July 8 to 11. Millions of eager shoppers will head to Amazon for limited-time deals, making it one of the most powerful sales moments of the year for brands and sellers. With longer duration and rising competition, the brands that prepare early will be the ones that stand out.
To help you stay ahead, we’ve compiled a practical Prime Day 2025 Guide, packed with expert tips and automation strategies to help you prep, optimize, and win.
Don’t leave Prime Day to chance. Start planning now.
Niels Floors,
🛍️ Walmart Deals Returns: Bigger, Better, and Back-to-School Ready
Walmart’s summer savings event is back from July 8–13, offering six full days of major online and in-store discounts on tech, toys, home, fashion, and more. This year, it’s easier than ever to shop, with upgraded delivery options, an AI-powered app, and exclusive early access for Walmart+ members.
Highlights include deep price drops on brands like Samsung, Dyson, and Vizio, plus early back-to-school deals on essentials like crayons, markers, and first-day outfits. With new features like Express Delivery and smarter search tools, Walmart is making shopping simple—and stretching budgets further just in time for peak summer and school prep season.
Jordi Vermeer,📣 EAA legislation: accessibility rules coming June 28, 2025
Starting June 28, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) goes into effect—requiring that digital products and services (including ecommerce websites, electronics, and content) be accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities.
For bol. sellers, this means clear, screen-reader-friendly product descriptions, accessible media formats, and proper disclosures on assistive device compatibility. While existing products have a 5-year transition period, any new products launched after June 28 must be compliant from day one.
Dex van Hofwegen,🚚 Big Shift: Walmart Now Supports Amazon’s MCF for Order Fulfillment
In a major move for multichannel sellers, Walmart now officially supports fulfillment through Amazon’s MCF (Multi-Channel Fulfillment). That means sellers already using FBA can now fulfill Walmart orders using their existing inventory—no need for separate warehouses or third-party logistics.
The catch? Sellers must opt for unbranded packaging and ensure MCF settings align with Walmart’s shipping SLAs. But the payoff is huge: simplified operations, faster launches, and centralized inventory across two retail giants. For brands already live on Amazon, this could be the lowest-effort way to unlock Walmart’s audience and boost marketplace revenue without reinventing your logistics stack.
Damian Speck,📈 Online Consumer Electronics Surges to €112B in Europe
The European online consumer electronics market hit €112B in 2024—up 24% year-over-year and already ahead of projections for 2025. The category now represents 13% of total online retail sales, just behind fashion (15.5%).
Cross-border ecommerce plays a big role, with the top 100 international sellers accounting for €47B of total market size. That share is expected to climb to 47% by 2026.
Niels Rengelink,🛋️ Dutch online product spending rises 8%, driven by Home & Living
Dutch consumers spent over €9B online in Q1 2025, up 4% from the previous year. Most of that growth came from product sales, which rose 8%—a strong comeback after years of decline.
The Home & Living category in particular surged by 46%, with cookware and kitchen appliances seeing major gains. Meanwhile, online service spending declined by 2%.
Online’s share of total retail spending has risen to 33%, and cross-border shopping is also up, though fewer consumers are choosing US-based stores.
Daan van der Linden,🎥 TikTok Live dominates live shopping, but trust remains a hurdle
Live shopping is booming, especially among younger audiences, with TikTok Live emerging as the top platform for consumer engagement in the US—outpacing even QVC and HSN. Yet, despite strong viewership (60% of U.S. adults watch), only 33% are actually making purchases.
What’s holding them back? A lack of trust. Most consumers still view hosts as more entertaining than reliable and worry that the format encourages impulse buying.
To unlock the full potential of this format, platforms and sellers alike need to invest in better product validation, smoother checkout, and exclusive offers.
🤖 Amazon’s AI-powered video tool makes high-quality content a breeze
Amazon Ads has launched a game-changer: a free AI-powered video generator for Sponsored Brands campaigns. Aimed at sellers with limited time or resources, this new tool helps create photorealistic video ads in under five minutes—bringing product stories to life using Amazon’s own retail insights.
Currently available to vendors and sellers in the US, it’s a sign of where advertising is heading: fast, accessible, and driven by AI.
🚚 DHL to invest over $545 million in Gulf logistics by 2030
DHL Group is investing over €500M ($545M USD) in the Gulf region by 2030, with a strong focus on the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The move positions the region as a core engine of global trade — not just a waypoint — and reinforces its strategic importance in connecting Asia, Europe, and Africa.
The investment spans all four DHL business units and includes expanded freight and air networks, new warehousing capacity, last-mile upgrades, and low-emission technologies.
With ecommerce in Dubai expected to grow to nearly $14B by 2029, this logistics overhaul aligns with local government-led initiatives like Business Dubai and EZDubai, which simplify digital business operations and improve delivery infrastructure. DHL’s commitment to supply chain resilience, automation, and sustainability will make the region even more attractive to cross-border sellers.
Olu-muyiwa Olufuwa,🤖 Walmart’s new AI assistant Sparky enters the shopping chat
Walmart just launched “Sparky” a new retail-focused AI assistant now available across its U.S. app. Sparky helps shoppers search for products, compare options, and sift through reviews — all through a new “Ask Sparky” button. While it currently supports basic queries and recommendations, Walmart plans to evolve Sparky into a true agentic AI that can reorder essentials, suggest gifts, and even plan meals.
The assistant builds on retail-specific large language models and integrates seamlessly with Walmart’s existing tools. Future updates will include multimodal input (voice, images, video), making the experience feel more natural and intelligent.
💸 Survey: U.S. shoppers are already feeling the effects of tariffs
New data from Digital Commerce 360 and Bizrate Insights shows U.S. consumers are increasingly adjusting their behavior due to tariffs. Over 77% say prices have gone up — and 35.8% of shoppers call those increases “significant.” Many are switching to cheaper alternatives, buying less, or reducing frequency of purchases.
Surprisingly, 56.5% of consumers think retailers should absorb the extra cost of tariffs — despite the reality that most are already passing those increases on. Fed data confirms that 75–77% of service and manufacturing firms are raising prices in response to tariffs.
Twan Rutten,
