This quarter, we’re focused on execution and control in the workflows teams rely on every day. For retailers, the updates center on shipping operations, including faster bulk label processing and smarter carrier selection during label creation. For brands, we’re deepening last-mile partner integrations so listings, inventory updates, and order management can be handled in Rithum. 

For retailers: shipping upgrades now  

These updates bring shipping logic and label workflows into the platform so teams can move faster with more confidence. 

Retailer Initiated Promotions (Commerce Solutions) — Available now 

This feature gives retailers the ability to lead promotional campaigns from start to finish. Instead of relying on suppliers to initiate offers, retailers can now create their own promotions like “Labor Day Sale” or “Back to School” and invite suppliers to opt in with eligible SKUs. 

• Drive higher GMV during key sales periods through coordinated, multi-supplier promotions 

• Boost supplier engagement by enabling opt-in participation of promotional campaigns 

• Stay in control of promotional planning to align with seasonal and strategic goals 

Shipping Optimization Control Center (Delivery Solutions) — Available now, only available in North America, powered by RithumIQ  

Previously, updating shipping rules meant downloading spreadsheets, editing them offline, and re-uploading them. Now, retailers can make those changes directly in the platform, with clearer visibility into how settings affect delivery outcomes.  

• Save time by editing shipping rules directly in the platform instead of downloading spreadsheets  

• Reduce errors by previewing how your settings will impact delivery outcomes before they go live  

• Stay organized by managing all shipping logic, rules, defaults, and preferences, in one place  

Shipping Label Workspace (Delivery Solutions) — Available now, only available in North America  

Managing shipping labels, especially in bulk, can be a slow, manual process. The new Shipping Label Workspace is a centralized view that lets teams review and process labels for multiple shipments at once, with built-in confidence levels for shipment weights and dimensions.  

• See every shipment in one view and filter predicted weights, dimensions, and confidence levels before printing  

• Batch high-confidence shipments for label printing in seconds and easily spot ones that need review  

• Optimize shipments with real-time rate shopping for the optimal carrier and service level 

Rate shop at label generation (Delivery Solutions) — Available now, only available in North America, powered by RithumIQ  

This feature gives retailers the ability to make smarter, more cost-effective shipping decisions at the exact moment a label is created. Instead of relying on static rules or default carrier selections, the system compares real package sizes and delivery timelines so every label reflects the best available option.  

Package Predictor auto-populates weight and dimension predictions to make bulk label printing easy, and warehouse operators can edit the number of shipments and input real weights and dimensions to account for any inaccuracies, missing data, or atypical circumstances. This allows us to calculate rates more accurately. And because it understands fulfillment timing, it can automatically upgrade late shipments or downgrade early ones, saving money while still meeting delivery expectations. 

• Reduces shipping costs by comparing rates across carriers and service levels at the time of label creation  

• Improves package-level accuracy by using real-time weights and dimensions to return the most precise options  

• Optimizes delivery by upgrading late shipments or downgrading early ones to meet promises and reduce costs 

For brands: centralize DoorDash selling in Rithum  

These updates make it easier to manage listings, inventory updates, and order workflows for last-mile partners without leaving Rithum. 

DoorDash listings, inventory updates, and order management — Available now  

Rithum is deepening our integration with some of the top last-mile delivery partners. This means you can manage more of your DoorDash workflow in Rithum, including listings and order management.  

• Create new listings directly from Rithum’s product catalog and keep product updates synced  

• Avoid manual order imports by managing order status and updates in Rithum  

• Maintain near real-time inventory for brick-and-mortar stores with hourly stock updates sent to DoorDash  

Want a closer look at how these updates work in the platform? Join us for Rithum Pulse: Q1 Product Showcase on Feb 18, 2026 at 1 PM EST / 10 AM PST for a walkthrough of the new capabilities and live Q&A with the team. 

Madison Jarvis is Senior Product Marketer, Retailers, at Rithum. Alessandra Magnini is Global Product Marketing Manager at Rithum. Micah McGuire is Senior Product Marketer, Brands, at Rithum. 

The post Q1 2026 product updates: shipping control at label creation and centralized last-mile selling appeared first on Rithum.

• Snapshot: eTail Insights surveyed marketplace and ecommerce leaders for Mastering the marketplace in retail and ecommerce to benchmark marketplace trends including what’s working, what’s breaking, and where budgets are going next. 
  Why it matters: These benchmarks show how marketplace teams describe their day-to-day reality right now. 

• Listing optimization no longer separates anyone. In the survey, every team rates its listing optimization capability as good or better, which tells you where the “easy wins” have already been harvested. 
  Why it matters: Listings may look “done,” but they stop being the lever that moves growth. 

• Retailer and brand teams lose time and margin on coordination. Inventory coordination across platforms ranks as the top challenge at 40%, followed by marketplace data integration at 33%. 
  Why it matters: When systems disagree, the fallout lands in fulfillment, customer service, and returns. 

• Leaders are budgeting for trust optimization above all else. Over the next 12 months, the top investment is customer service and review management systems at 51%, ahead of marketplace advertising and content expansion at 46%. This makes sense, as credibility optimization is key to meeting both customers’ and agentic shopping tools’ high standards. 
  Why it matters: Teams are funding the places where customers notice problems first and where reputations change fastest. 

• Profit pressure is shaping the stack. Competitive and dynamic pricing tools sit close behind at 41%, a signal that fees and price competition are forcing sharper math. 
  Why it matters: If teams can’t see the true cost per order, pricing tools can push them into underpricing. 

• Marketplaces are moving from “channel” to “center of gravity.” 81% expect marketplace sales to become more important to overall strategy, and 73% expect that shift within the next year. 
  Why it matters: Marketplace execution is becoming core operations, not an add-on project. 

A customer adds a refrigerator water filter to their cart. They’ve bought the brand before, and everything looks familiar. One click from paying, they pause. The model name is close, but not identical.  The customer taps the chat bubble in the corner of the screen to make sure they’re purchasing the right part.  

That bubble used to connect them to a live agent. Now it’s often an AI assistant, trained to answer product questions quickly, so the shopper doesn’t abandon checkout. 

“Is this the filter for model X?” 

The assistant replies instantly: “yes, it’s compatible.”  

But it’s not.  

The filter fits a similar model with a near-identical name. The product listing doesn’t clearly distinguish the two, so the AI fills in the gap with the most plausible-sounding answer. The customer buys anyway. The filter arrives, doesn’t fit, and gets returned. 

The return reason isn’t “wrong model.” It’s “defective.” The frustration isn’t just with the product. It’s with the guidance the shopper trusted. 

This is the kind of mistake customers try to avoid. When it happens anyway, they don’t blame the model, they blame the seller. Marketplaces penalize getting it “almost right” with returns, bad reviews, and support costs. The warning appears in performance long before you see it on a dashboard. 

The new marketplace problem: the storefront that moves faster than operations 

Most organizations aren’t dabbling in marketplaces anymore. Nearly everyone sells on Amazon. Most also sell on Walmart.com, according to eTail’s Mastering the marketplace in retail and ecommerce report. 

But while most respondents say their marketplaces strategy is at least somewhat effective for revenue, there is a deeper problem. Each marketplace comes with its own rules and requirements. Retailers and brands don’t describe their biggest marketplace challenges as “getting listed” (the industry has evolved past that point). They describe them as keeping platforms aligned. 

Inventory coordination across platforms ranks as the top challenge at 40%. Marketplace data integration follows at 33%. 

Those aren’t minor headaches. They sit underneath the moments customers remember: the delivery promise that never was, the unwelcomed out-of-stock surprise, the placement part that “should have worked,” or the one-star review that deters others from buying your product. 

Meanwhile, marketplace importance keeps rising. 81% say marketplaces will become more important to overall strategy, and 73% expect that shift to happen within twelve months. So, as opportunity grows, the friction grows along with it. 

Where marketplace execution starts to separate teams

Listing optimization is not the weak point: every respondent rates their listings as good or better. But when everyone feels strong in the same area, it is no longer a competitive advantage. Instead, the advantage shifts to what’s more difficult to keep consistent at scale, such as inventory accuracy, data consistency, review health, margin control, and service quality. 

It also moves to the places where organizations admit weakness. In this case, one-third rate “review and reputation management” as fair or poor. 

That gap matters because reviews aren’t just social proof. They shape ranking, conversion, and what shoppers learn before they buy. They also feed the summaries shoppers increasingly rely on, whether that’s a marketplace recap, a review highlight, or an AI-style shopping assistant answer. A shopper who doubts your listing doesn’t read your FAQ. They read your reviews. 

Marketplaces reward speed, but trust decides who keeps the sale 

Marketplaces raise expectations without lowering complexity. Shoppers expect quick answers, fast shipping, and painless resolution even when the catalog and fulfillment reality are messy.  

Trust decides whether a retailer or brand keeps the sale. On marketplaces, customers judge trust through what happens when something goes wrong and what other buyers say happened to them. That’s why the report’s investment priorities matter. Leaders are investing in customer service and review management systems at 51% over the next year, ahead of advertising and content expansion at 46%. 

Competitive and dynamic pricing tools follow close behind at 41%, underscoring how quickly the fees and shifting costs can erode margins. Teams don’t lead with service systems unless service continues to break. 

The catalog is the experience now 

The story of a mismatched water filter isn’t really about AI. It’s about what happens when product information fails under pressure and gets repeated across channels. 

Marketplaces have always punished unclear product information, but the old failure mode looked different. A customer read the listing, guessed, and learned the truth when the package arrived. 

Now the failure happens earlier. Customers ask questions mid-journey and even when the catalog is incomplete or inconsistent, the assistant still answers. When two SKUs look nearly identical, the assistant still picks one. When variation structure is messy, the assistant still tries to resolve it. If your product data leaves room for interpretation, the assistant will fill it, and you will own the consequences. 

What breaks first when teams scale marketplaces 

Most marketplace failures don’t start with a dramatic crash. Then one day, someone notices reviews shifting in tone. Support tickets spiking. Returns rising. A marketplace rep flags an issue. A finance team sees margin slip and can’t tie it to one decision. 

Coordination can be the biggest bottleneck. Inventory coordination and marketplace data integration top the list. If you can’t keep systems aligned, you can’t keep promises aligned. 

Three shifts that make marketplace growth easier to scale 

Most teams don’t need a radical reinvention. They need to tighten the parts that create expensive downstream effects. 

These three easy shifts  map directly to what leaders say is slowing them down. 

1) Treat inventory coordination like a revenue problem 

Inventory coordination across platforms ranks as the top marketplace challenge. This sits at the center of marketplace performance. 

When inventory is wrong, you don’t just lose a sale. You lose ranking and trust. You waste customer support time. You pay for returns. You create reviews that never should have existed. 

Start by making your inventory view boring and reliable. Establish one source of truth for what’s sellable. Push that truth to every platform on a cadence you can defend. 

That shift prevents the “invisible losses” teams learn to tolerate, including cancellations, refunds, angry reviews, and time spent explaining mistakes. 

2) Treat review management as a system, not a reaction 

One-third of survey respondents rate “review and reputation management” as fair or poor. That’s one-third of teams saying they still treat reviews reactively—and know that it’s hurting them. 

Reviews deserve a better approach because they aren’t random. They’re patterns. 

A shopper complains that the filter “didn’t work.” Another says the product “felt defective.” A third says the listing “misled them.” The issue is expectation. 

Route review themes back to the source. If customers keep confusing models, fix the variation structure. If customers misunderstand compatibility, tighten attributes. If customers misread product claims, update bullet copy. 

When review management becomes a loop instead of a fire drill, you stop treating bad reviews as a cost of doing business. 

3) Align marketplace data before you scale ads 

Marketplace data integration ranks as the second-biggest challenge at 33%, and it’s easy to underestimate how costly those integration speed bumps become once you push harder on growth levers. 

Incomplete integration creates quiet inconsistencies: price mismatches, delayed updates, missing attributes, inventory errors that propagate across systems. 

Then advertising scales and performance doesn’t follow. You spend more to acquire customers you can’t keep, and you blame the campaign when the problem lived upstream. 

Tighten the data path before you scale spend. Your future self will thank you in fewer support tickets and cleaner margin. 

Where AI fits without hijacking your strategy 

AI can help marketplace teams move faster. It can spot inconsistencies, flag missing fields, draft content variants, and speed up service workflows. 

It cannot rescue messy foundations. Give it incomplete data and it produces confident answers built on gaps. That’s why product truth has become a performance lever: AI increases the speed of both accuracy and error. 

What mastering the marketplace looks like in 2026 

Most teams feel good about listings. The report shows the friction elsewhere: inventory coordination, marketplace data integration, and review management. That’s why next year’s spend tilts toward customer service and review systems ahead of content and advertising. 

Marketplace growth requires consistency. Keep one version of the product true across platforms: what it is, whether it’s available, what it costs after fees, and what the customer should expect. The report shows why this is hard at scale. Inventory coordination ranks as the top challenge at 40%, followed by marketplace data integration at 33%. When those basics slip, the cost surfaces as returns, heavier support volume, and reviews that live on the listing. 

Micah McGuire is Senior Product Marketer, Brands, at Rithum. 

The post Mastering the marketplace: Build credibility with accurate inventory, data, and reviews appeared first on Rithum.

special guest post by Caitlyn Ford and Brittny Cantor, AI Commerce Innovation Leads at Accenture.

For years, your product detail page (PDP) was the critical bridge to turning browsers into buyers by giving them specs, visuals, and the confidence to click “add to cart.”  

Generative AI has changed the path to that click. Shoppers aren’t reading your PDP first; agentic AI is. These agents scan your descriptions to decide whether a product is worth a shopper’s time—and sometimes even handle the recommendation, summary, and transaction themselves. Agentic AI assistants, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, are now common starting points for product research, and Google’s AI summaries increasingly sit above the traditional blue links, often answering the query without a click. Analyses show that when an AI overview appears, the #1 organic result can lose roughly a third of its usual clicks, and more than half of Google searches already end without any website visit at all. 

That means your PDP now speaks to three audiences at once: the shopper, search algorithms, and the AI agents deciding what gets recommended. You’ve built for shoppers and search, but when agents answer a query, it gets more complicated. They synthesize data across multiple PDPs, reviews, listings, and brand content into one recommendation. To even be brought into their considering, your PDP must be accurate, consistent, structured, and easy for AI to parse. Because most AI summaries trigger on informational, top-of-funnel queries, discovery and education are increasingly happening inside AI layers, while the remaining clicks are skewing toward bottom-funnel, brand- and product-specific searches. That makes the quality of your PDPs even more important: when a shopper finally does click through, they’re usually closer to a decision than they used to be. 

This is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) for your product page: optimizing the content so AI agents see your product as consistent, credible, relevant, and complete. In GEO terms, you’re optimizing not just for rankings, but for how (and whether) AI systems mention and cite your products inside their answers—whether that’s a link in a Google AI Overview or a product shout-out in a ChatGPT or Perplexity response.

GEO doesn’t replace SEO—it sits beside it. The fundamentals still matter, and you can start with a few practical moves to make your PDPs GEO-ready without losing ground with direct shoppers or SEO. Traffic from LLMs convert 9x higher than traditional search.  

1. Build for questions, not keywords 

Traditional SEO was about ranking for keywords. GEO is about being the best answer. AI agents scan content to understand intent. This includes who the product is for, what problem it solves, and why it’s trustworthy. Under the hood, modern search engines break complex prompts into many related fan-out queries (such as budget, location, use case, constraints) and then recombine the best matches into one synthesized answer. If your PDP doesn’t clearly map to those real-world questions, it’s less likely to be pulled into that synthesis. 

Start by rewriting your PDPs to sound more conversational. Frame details around real-world questions: “Is it waterproof?” “How long does it last?” “Is it safe for sensitive skin?” Product FAQs and comparison callouts matter more than ever because they train AI models on context, which is the very thing that makes a product relevant in generative results. 

Pro tip: The more structured and direct your answers, the more easily AI can cite and summarize them. Think in use cases: 

• Instead of: “Premium leather tote with zip closure and inner pocket.” 

• Try: “Looking for a work tote that fits a laptop and zips closed for travel? This one holds up to 15 inches and has a reinforced base for durability.” 

The goal is to pre-answer what a shopper might ask, because AI is looking for the best source to do just that. When generative systems are doing the research legwork on behalf of the user, you want them to find crisp, unambiguous language they can safely reuse or summarize on your behalf. 

2. Standardize data across every channel 

Whether you sell through Amazon, Walmart, Target, Instacart, or your own DTC site, the same PDP likely shows up in multiple places. For AI, inconsistency kills trust, as agents compare listings across channels. If your dimensions differ on HomeDepot.com and your own brand site, the agent is less likely to choose either. 

This isn’t just a data hygiene issue; it directly affects how AI systems model your products. Large models build their understanding of brands from many sources—retail PDPs, comparison sites, reviews, blogs—so if product specs conflict across those surfaces, the safest move for the AI is to ignore you or recommend a competitor with cleaner signals.  

Pro tip: Use shared taxonomies, normalize specs, and keep your product attributes up-to-date everywhere. AI agents can’t make sense of your product if your systems don’t agree on what it is. 

• For brands: Build and maintain a “single source of truth” for product data—ideally housed in your PIM and pushed everywhere via API or feed. 

• For retailers: Set clear PDP templates and data ingestion rules for third-party sellers to reduce conflict and duplication. 

Think beyond your own site, too. If comparison or review sites are important for your category, make sure your specs, naming conventions, and positioning match what appears there. AI answers often lean heavily on third-party sources—reviews, forums, round-ups—rather than a single brand’s website. 

3. Focus on proof, not promotion 

Agentic AI is trained to be skeptical. They value facts, third-party validation, and consumer signals. That means your PDPs need more than adjectives—they need evidence. It’s up to you to provide it.  

For example: 

• Instead of “super comfortable,” include “Rated 4.7/5 by 2,100+ customers for comfort.” 

• If you claim sustainability, link to third-party certifications like USDA Organic or OEKO-TEX®. 

• If your laptop is rugged, cite test conditions: “Drop-tested from 1.2 meters to meet MIL-STD-810G standards.” 

AI is scanning your product page for trust markers. Verified reviews, return policies, sourcing info, and warranty terms matter. This is valuable for customers as a rule of thumb, but is even more important now for the bots deciding what gets recommended. In AI search, these proof points do double duty: they help the model decide whether to feature your product at all and, if it does, they provide quotable snippets (ratings, certifications, test results) that can be pulled directly into summaries or comparison tables.  

Remember that a lot of this “proof” now lives off-site as well. If your products are reviewed on blogs, YouTube, Reddit, or niche forums, those conversations shape how AI systems describe you. Investing in credible third-party coverage and cultivating high-quality reviews does more than build social proof. It feeds the training data that powers AI recommendations in the first place. 

4. Automate freshness to avoid invisibility 

PDPs that are out of date—on price, inventory, delivery estimates, or product specs—will get skipped. AI tools now favor real-time accuracy. So if your shampoo shows as “in stock” in one feed and “out of stock” on your brand site, that confusion may cost you visibility altogether. 

• For brands: Connect your PDP data to real-time inventory systems and marketplace feeds. Set up automated triggers to refresh PDP content when price or availability changes. 

• For retailers: Sync PDP fields with seller dashboards and flag stale listings via scoring models or AI-based health checks. 

Timeliness isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s how you stay visible. An outdated PDP isn’t just underperforming. It’s invisible to AI. And as AI layers absorb more top- and mid-funnel traffic, the remaining clicks from search are increasingly tied to bottom-funnel, transactional experiences. That makes it even riskier to let inventory, pricing, or availability drift out of sync across feeds, because those are exactly the signals AI systems rely on when deciding what to surface for high-intent shoppers. 

5. Optimize for a multi-agent future 

AI agents are already embedded across search engines, voice assistants, mobile devices, and retail platforms. And they’re only getting more proactive. Soon, they won’t just answer your questions—they’ll anticipate and fulfill them. 

Your PDPs need to be ready for that shift now. Start by: 

• Structuring your content with pre-defined templates.

• Getting insights into current benchmarks and unlock opportunitites/risk with visibility analysis

• Evaluating prompt coverage. Which products are showing up for common category queries? Which competitors are dominating agent responses? 

GEO is the framework that ties this together: it extends classic SEO into a world where AI assistants summarize, compare, and recommend before a shopper ever sees a SERP. In practice, that means designing your PDPs so they’re easy for AI to understand and safe to quote, then measuring success not just in rankings and sessions, but in how often you’re mentioned or cited inside AI answers.  

Early data suggests that even if total traffic drops, the visits you do get from AI-mediated journeys can convert disproportionately well. In one analysis, LLM-originated visits accounted for a tiny share of total clicks but a materially higher share of sign-ups—because those users arrived later in the decision process. That’s exactly the kind of high-intent traffic your GEO-ready PDPs should be engineered to convert. 

Whether you’re managing thousands of SKUs across marketplaces or a curated set of products on your DTC site, your PDPs now serve a dual audience: the buyer and the buyer’s agent. 

Search behavior is changing. Make sure your PDPs are ready. 

AI agents are now the first (and sometimes only) step in a shopping journey. If your PDPs aren’t ready, you won’t make the cart. 

The good news is that GEO isn’t a separate track. It builds on what good PDPs already do: clear writing, accurate data, consistent structure, and real value to the shopper. You’ve got this (and Rithum can help). 

Caitlyn Ford and Brittny Cantor are AI Commerce Innovation Leads at Accenture.

The post 5 Ways to Make Your PDPs GEO-Ready  appeared first on Rithum.

Many brands face the same issue as they grow their online business: campaign costs climb, but performance doesn’t rise enough to offset it. They’re left in limbo: more budget alone won’t solve the problem, but pulling back from digital channels isn’t the answer either.  

For Draper Tools and Moen, that challenge led them to Rithum. With Rithum handling the heavy lifting behind the scenes, both brands turned inefficient ad spend into stronger returns without stretching their teams. Here’s a closer look at how they optimized their digital marketing strategies with Rithum—and the results that followed. 

Draper Tools increases orders by 470% with 50% lower ACOS 

Draper Tools, a century-old U.K.-based supplier of hand and power tools, was investing heavily in online sales channels, but wasn’t seeing the results to justify the spend. Despite their reputation, Draper Tools found that the cost of acquiring customers was uncomfortably high. For their small team, manually managing bids and attempting to rebalance spend across a large number of SKUs grew time-consuming and increasingly ineffective. 

Draper Tools turned to Rithum to maximize their marketing investments. Rithum streamlined testing, monitoring, and ad spend rebalancing, resulting in a dramatic transformation of Draper Tools’ online business: advertising cost of sales (ACOS) dropped by 50%, and total orders surged by 470%. 

With better data and reporting from Rithum, Draper Tools spends less time on daily execution and more on long-term strategy, empowering them to make more informed decisions about where and when to invest their marketing dollars. 

Read the full case study. 

Moen grows retail media revenue by 194% with full-funnel campaigns 

Moen, a leading kitchen and bath fixtures brand, struggled to optimize its products’ presence on Amazon. Too often, shoppers were served competitors’ products—a consequence of Moen’s up-and-down keyword performance and a lack of reach through non-branded avenues. 

Moen partnered with Rithum to revamp its Amazon advertising strategy. Rithum bridged the gap between marketing teams at Moen and Amazon, allowing Moen to better leverage Amazon’s platform. The result was a full-funnel strategy that included sponsored video campaigns, bid timing adjustments, and expanded targeting to reach new audiences earlier in the buying journey (a departure from Moen’s traditional branded campaigns). 

The shift paid off. Within a year, Moen achieved a 194.5% increase in retail media revenue for its promoted products. Moen’s improved performance not only allows it to reach more shoppers but also increases ROI from its investment in Amazon. 

Read the full case study. 

Smarter spend, stronger results with Rithum 

Both Draper Tools and Moen faced a common challenge: spending more on ads without getting more in return. But by leveraging Rithum’s platform to optimize their digital marketing strategies, both companies unlocked meaningful, measurable gains. 
 
Rithum’s marketing solutions can help your business optimize campaign performance and maximize marketing investments.

The post How Moen and Draper Tools turned underperforming ads into measurable results  appeared first on Rithum.

We’ve analyzed trends that stood out from the five-day period between Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday and how these lessons can impact 2025 e-commerce trends for brands and retailers. Consumers spent more online than ever before, according to Adobe Analytics data. For Rithum clients, AI, social commerce and retail media strategy took center stage. Here’s what brands and retailers are investing in to reach more consumers in 2025.

1. Explosion of product categories for third-party (3P) marketplaces is reshaping e-commerce in 2025.

Brands and retailers will continue to use artificial intelligence (AI) to manage product inventory across multiple sales channels including marketplaces and direct-to-consumer websites. Retailers like Amazon and Walmart use AI for real-time inventory management.

“Walmart’s rapidly expanding assortment presents new challenges to suppliers. However, our latest Walmart Categorizer, now in Rithum’s AI Magic Mapper, ensured seamless migration for hundreds of clients managing millions of SKUs. This highlights Rithum’s leadership in scalable AI solutions,” said Sebastian Spiegler, Director of AI, Rithum.

Rithum is currently focusing on Profitability Benchmarking, which is the process of identifying top channels, pricing strategies and returns insights.

“Profitability Benchmarking at the SKU-level is the ‘holy grail’ for brands. This process is a key 2025 focus area for Rithum and is already being piloted with strategic clients,” Spiegler said.

2. TikTok Shop will continue to revolutionize discovery and influence.

In just one year, TikTok Shop has become one of Rithum’s top 10 sales channels since launching in December 2023. This includes merchant giants like Amazon, Walmart, Target+, eBay and Zalando.

“TikTok’s innovative platform connects content with commerce enabling intuitive product discovery through viral, low-effort videos created by thousands of creators. TikTok account users with only a thousand followers are now product curators, streamlining affiliate marketing and enabling effortless monetization directly in the app,” said Lou Camassa, Director of Product at Rithum.

Currently, Rithum supports TikTok Shop in the US and UK, with launches in Spain and Ireland planned for early 2025.

“This is an incredible proposition for EMEA sellers to tap into a growing and dynamic market,” Camassa said

3. Brands and retailers are being more strategic about retail media budgets.

Consumers continued to shop well before BFCM in October. As a result, Rithum retail media clients spread-out retail media budgets.

“Rithum retail media brands and retailers had to strategically pace their seasonal budgets for a longer peak season before and after BFCM. Specifically, during BCFM week, we advised clients not to over-invest and instead ride a continuous wave of peak seasonality wins while managing the budget thoughtfully. While budget increases only averaged 3%, we were still seeing wins. This included meeting their efficiency goals with an average of 1.7 advertising cost of sales (ACOS) as one example,” said Meghan Barden, director, global retail media, Rithum.

Going into 2025, Barden believes that the promotional holiday period will continue to extend into October and well through the end of December. Clients should be prepared to extend their seasonal budgets to accommodate this length of time. Also, brands and retailers should be open to peaks and valleys in their spend and return. Leveraging product data YoY, such as noting high performing SKUs, is a strategic way to map the seasonal timeframe approach in 2025.

Delve deeper into what’s trending in third-party (3P) commerce in 2025.

Read more about trends in AI, cross-border commerce, social commerce, retail media and supply chain in Rithum’s 2024 State of 3P Commerce Report.

The post 3 E-Commerce Trends from Cyber 5 to Carry Into 2025 appeared first on Rithum.

Understanding Amazon Prime Big Deal Days 2024

Prime Big Deal Days is Amazon’s exclusive event offering Prime members early access to deals across a variety of popular categories. This is an opportunity for sellers to appear before retail membership-paying consumers. According to eMarketer, 65% of US adults pay for Amazon Prime membership. Retailers with paid membership options such as Costco Wholesale, Walmart+, and others are also growing their membership numbers, according to eMarketer data.

This year, the event will take place in 19 countries, including the US, Canada, Germany, and the UK. Participating sellers are already preparing to ensure that inventory, listings and marketing strategies are ready for the influx of traffic.

With heightened demand, it’s helpful to automate key processes such as inventory management, promotion management, and marketing automation. Rithum’s integrated commerce solution allows sellers to synchronize and optimize operations to meet Amazon’s requirements for Big Deal Days. This helps sellers avoid costly stockouts, incorrect listings, and poor retail media ad performance.

How to avoid errors on marketplace listings

Big Deal Days is the unofficial kickoff to the peak holiday shopping season. High-traffic periods can be overwhelming when managing multiple selling channels. Rithum’s integrated commerce solution offers a suite of features that resolve specific common pain points for sellers.

Rithum’s centralized dashboard provides brands and retailers with a view of operations. This allows sellers to track and synchronize fulfillment, inventory, and orders across multiple channels.

• Repricer automation: Automatically adjusts prices based on inventory levels, competitor pricing, and market conditions. Watch this video detailing Rithum pricing functionality for retailers and brands selling on Amazon, eBay, and other channels here.
• Performance monitoring: Track real-time sales performance and identify issues during the sales event. This allows sellers rapid adjustments.
• Stock alerts: Receive low-stock alerts to enhance inventory management. Sellers can replenish inventory before stockouts occur, which would otherwise result in lost sales.
• Order routing and management: Seamlessly track and manage orders from Amazon and other platforms, reducing errors and improving efficiency.
• Shipping integration: Automatically update and track shipping information, providing transparency for both Amazon and your customers.
• Returns management: Streamline the returns process. Offer a hassle-free experience for customers while reducing your team’s workload.

How to leverage retail media ads during peak shopping events

Retail media advertising is increasingly important to brands and retailers with 81% of advertisers noting it is very important, according to a December 2023 Skai Path to Purchase Institute survey. Rithum’s platform helps sellers optimize their retail media advertising Amazon ad campaigns by dynamically adjusting bidding, targeting, and budgeting in real time. Sellers can fine-tune their retail media advertising performance during the sales event. This helps focus ad spend on the most profitable products.

Rithum Managed Services for Amazon advertising uses a data-driven approach to provide:

• Full-funnel monitoring: Track ad performance and customer behavior to dynamically adjust your campaigns to achieve the best results.
• Automated spend adjustments: Rithum automatically shifts advertising spend from products receiving high organic traffic to others that require promotion, maximizing ROI.
• Profitability insights: Real-time tracking of fees, shipping costs, and storage fees allows sellers to maintain profitable margins during the sales event.

How to apply lessons from Big Deal Days to prepare for the holiday season

After Big Deal Days, Rithum’s team advises sellers on how to gradually reduce retail media ad spend to continue momentum without overspending. This is achieved through incremental ad spending.

Rithum’s retail media team generates custom reports that provide data-driven insights. They use campaign monitoring data which contains thousands of campaigns, ensuring optimal performance and prevents incorrect bids or ad pauses. Holiday readiness reports help brands identify what worked and what needs improvement before the holiday rush. Rithum’s actionable insights show sellers what to consider when refining strategy for peak holiday shopping.

Learn how Rithum’s integrated commerce solution can help by scheduling a demo today.

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1. Understand and leverage retail media networks

• Choose the right global and regional retail media networks with a strong presence in your target markets such as: Amazon, Walmart, Target, and others.
• Use platform-specific tools. For example, sellers can use Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform) for precise programmatic advertising that targets consumers across different regions.

2. Use localized content and creative

• Ensure cultural and language adaptation. Ad content involves more than translation. It must also be localized to resonate with local consumers. You can achieve this by tailoring your messaging, imagery, and promotions to align with consumer behaviors in each market.
• Consider local trends and preferences. Campaigns should adapt to reflect local shopping trends, holidays, product seasonality and preferences. These include popular sales events such as Singles Day in China or Black Friday in the US.

3. Target advertising based on data

• Leverage first-party data. Use your (and the retailer’s) customer data to create highly targeted campaigns. Segment your audience by shopping behavior, location, and preferences to deliver personalized ads that resonate in each retailer market.
• Use retail media analytics. Monitor ad performance and refine your strategy in real –time using insights from Amazon Marketing Cloud, in-platform reporting, and other retailer-specific reporting capabilities. This data-driven approach ensures that your campaigns remain effective and relevant.

4. Focus on high-value placements

• Strategically place ads where they will have the greatest impact depending on your strategy and goals. Position your ads at the top of search results, on product pages, or within relevant categories. Securing high-value placements can boost visibility and drive conversion.
• Bid smart by implementing dynamic bidding strategies to secure premium ad placements during peak shopping times, such as major local holidays or sales events.

5. Optimize for local market compliance and logistics

• Ensure your ads comply with local regulations, consumer protection laws, and privacy regulations.
• Offer localized customer support in local languages to enhance customer trust.

“It’s critical to balance winning strategies from retail media giants such as Amazon and eBay, while also tapping into regional retailers that reach a niche audience for your brand.”

Meghan Barden, Director, Global Retail Media at Rithum

“As more retailers across the globe launch their retail media network offerings, it is critical to ensure you are balancing winning strategies from the retail media giants such as Amazon and eBay, while also dipping into regional retailers that may have a niche audience you would like to target,” said Meghan Barden, Director, Global Retail Media at Rithum.

Cross-border e-commerce retail media planning for the holiday season

Brands and retailers should plan early ahead of the peak holiday shopping season. 68% of global consumers said they intended to wait for annual promotional shopping events such as Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday and other annual sales before making expected purchases, according to the Dynata survey.

Rithum offers robust reporting which brands and retailers can use to analyze past holiday sales data trends in your target markets. Understand what products are in demand, local shipping behaviors, and key dates. Connect with your key retailers to understand their promotion plans, upcoming discounts and overall messaging during the peak season. There can be an opportunity to draft from the traffic they are driving and tap into unrealized opportunities with incremental shoppers.

Ensure you have a sufficient stock of best-selling products. Plan to secure high-visibility ad placements on key retail media platforms. Implement retargeting strategies to reach customers who have shown interest in your products but haven’t made a purchase. Offer incentives such as limited-time discounts to drive sales.

Rithum allows brands and retailers to monitor and adjust your retail media ad strategy in real-time. Keep a close eye on your campaign performance, sales data, and inventory levels throughout the holiday season. Be prepared to adjust your cross-border e-commerce strategy quickly based on what’s working and what’s not.

Use AI-driven insights to optimize retail ad campaigns in real time

Rithum provides direct insights into product attributes and data, like inventory, sales data, and labeling. Brands and retailers can use granular product data to support your strategy. Using AI-driven insights, Rithum’s retail media solution can help you allocate budget, optimize bids, spend strategically throughout the day, and adjust product placements in real-time.

After the peak holiday season, continue to advertise while measuring successes and learnings throughout the seasons. Gather feedback from your holiday campaigns to learn what worked and what didn’t. Use these insights to improve your cross-border e-commerce retail media ad strategy for next year.

Learn how to expose your products to more consumers by creating, monitoring, and managing all your marketplace and retail site advertising through Rithum. Schedule a demo here.

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To meet consumers where they are, brands are turning to third-party commerce (3P). 3P commerce allows brands to reach consumers directly through retailer marketplaces. However, managing multiple channels can be challenging.  By investing in a unified marketplace management solution, brands can streamline operations, saving time and resources.  

Here are four lessons for brands managing a multichannel selling strategy. 

Retail Media helps Weber stand out in a competitive market

Brands are under pressure to establish their online presence, said Marco Rocha, E-Commerce Channel Manager at Weber. Competing in a crowded market space and trying to prove authenticity to a new audience is challenging. By introducing a robust retail media advertising strategy through Rithum, Weber has increased sales conversions and improved its overall visibility in high-demand searches, he said. Rithum helped  Weber streamline its advertising process and automate bids, ensuring the business gets the best ROI on their ad spend.  

Brands need to adapt product selection to meet consumer demand

Azura Fashion Group connects fashion brands, suppliers and resellers with global customers through a network of marketplaces. It had to adapt its listing strategy to reflect the differences in customer preferences, said Sam Wood, CEO and co-founder.  

“People don’t stop buying items during economically challenging times, but what they do buy will change,” Wood said. He highlighted that major discounting and promotions wasn’t the best route for the retailer. Instead, adjusting its marketplace strategy and expanding into new markets has helped increase profitability by 20%.  

 Consumers are actively seeking the best value for money items and will shop around for the best price. Data from our 2023 Online Consumer Behavior Global Report conducted by Rithum and Dynata shows, 83% of consumers will visit at least 2 marketplaces before committing to a purchase. Diversifying sales channels can help get your products in front of new audiences and boost profits.  

“People are doing their research online. If they know an item is not available in their market, they will contact us and ask when it’s being launched on Amazon or eBay. We had to make sure we met that demand,” said Weber’s Rocha.  

Investing in marketplace management can simplify cross-border selling

Brands need to develop individual strategies for their marketplaces and move away from a one-size fits all approach, said Azura’s Wood.  “Listing products onto a marketplace and then sitting and waiting for sales to happen just doesn’t work anymore,” he said.  

Treating each marketplace like your own website and investing in aspects such as the user experience, shipping, and creative elements can help to engage consumers.  

Azura Fashion Group currently sells on 56 marketplaces across 28 countries. Partnering with Rithum has allowed the retailer to expand its reach globally and simplify the complexity of navigating new territories. 

The importance of building relationships with marketplaces

Relationship building with marketplaces can be a great way to develop an effective sales approach. “A marketplace is not a self-serve checkout, you need to build those relationships and work on a shared strategy,” said Dan Pittman, country manager at Zinus.  

Marketplaces have a depth of knowledge and insights on what resonates with their shoppers. Partnering with them and having regular conversations about goals and KPI’s can help you identify the best way to maximize sales and help you reach your targets.  

 Rithum’s network includes more than 400 channel integrations so you can find the marketplaces which best suit your business needs. To learn more about how Rithum can support your marketplace strategy, contact a member of our team. 

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Speedy Deliveries: A Competitive Edge

Nowadays, capturing consumer attention is no mean feat for sellers. Customers can venture online in search of a particular item, and be met with thousands of product options all vying for their attention. To set themselves apart and stand out amongst the competition, brands need to come up with ways to offer consumers speed, efficiency and convenience and all without slashing profit margins. Next day delivery options, click and collect and personalized shopping experiences can all help in establishing stronger relationships with consumers, and competing in a crowded marketplace. 

Building Asset Light Strategies

With the current economic climate, brands are looking to cut costs wherever they can. More and more sellers are looking to adopt asset light business models which involve swapping traditional warehousing processes with more economically viable solutions. Instead of owning and maintaining assets like factories or warehouses, asset-light businesses rely on outsourcing, renting, or collaborating with other organizations to access the necessary infrastructure, inventory and expertise. Dropship, private marketplaces and other fulfilment programs have become more popular in the last few years, allowing sellers to reduce the cost of sale and remain profitable.

Embracing AI: Pioneering the Future of E-commerce

As technology continues to advance, customer expectations are rising. Brands are being driven to develop more curated products, specific to what their consumers are looking for. AI can be a great tool in helping brands understand customer preferences and in helping craft ads that resonate with their audience. But that’s not all. AI is also being used to help sellers predict which sales channels are the most profitable and make smarter decisions when looking to expand, helping to minimize risk. 

Incorporating an intuitive e-commerce platform that uses algorithms, predictive intelligence and automation can be a surefire way for brands to scale their business, drive revenue and streamline existing operations. 

Listen to the full podcast episode here.

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If you’re a registered brand on Amazon, Amazon A+ Content provides a fantastic opportunity to present your brand and your products your way when selling on Amazon. 

Free and unlimited for both vendors and sellers, Amazon A+ Content is one of the most effective ways to increase traffic and sales — and to cross-promote your other products.

What Is A+ Content on Amazon

A+ Content is Amazon’s way of letting you enrich your product descriptions and page details with: 

• High definition videos 
• Enhanced images 
• Comparison charts
• Robust FAQs 
• And more 

These details allow you to showcase your brand and better convey the value of your products to help customers make informed buying decisions and give consumers a more sophisticated shopping experience.

According to Amazon, only vendors and/or sellers who are either approved through the Amazon Brand Registry program or a part of specific programs such as Amazon Launchpad and Amazon Exclusives can use A+ Content.

If this applies to you, you can add A+ Content to any product within your approved brand catalog. And you can get that enhanced content set up in as little as 15 minutes.

A note on Premium A+ Content: It’s important to note that Amazon’s free A+ Content is completely different from Premium A+ Content, also known as A++ Content. The latter is an invite-only option that involves following a criteria and gives brands access to even more modules, such as interactive images, slider galleries and video loops. While A++ Content can be a great option for very large brands and feature-heavy products, A+ Content works well for the majority of ASINs.

Benefits of A+ Content

When selling on Amazon, you have to compete and stand out among millions of sellers. Adding A+ Content can play a huge role in giving you that competitive advantage.

The main goal of A+ Content is to increase your conversion rate and boost product sales. It provides a better understanding of your product to help persuade customers to buy.

To capture the attention of potential buyers and drive sales, your products must be distinguished from related products sold by your competitors. Previously, differentiation was a big challenge for sellers due to the limited guidelines from Amazon. Before A+ Content, it was tough to grab a consumer’s attention and convince them to purchase with just a small paragraph. Formatting restrictions limited sellers from going above and beyond with their product presentation, a factor shoppers highly regard.

To help you further understand the importance of A+ Content, here are some additional benefits.The enriched elements of A+ Content can more effectively: 

1. Grab a shopper’s attention.

   Buyers are looking at hundreds of product pages. Amazon A+ Content can help your product stand out from the crowd with formatted text, large, high-definition images or a video explaining the product usage. Cluttered product pages deter consumer interest; optimized content and formatting entices it.

2. Visually pleasing for consumers to skim for key information.

   Chunks of paragraphs and text blocks are difficult to read. Amazon A+ uses unique images and text layouts, bulleted feature lists and product comparison charts allowing consumers to easily skim and more quickly get the information they need. With consumers visiting multiple touchpoints, providing information effectively is essential.

3. Bring your product into the spotlight.

   A+ Content gives you the opportunity to showcase specialty features in action, provide tips for getting more out of your product or tell the story behind your product. A more comprehensive look can give consumers the confidence and trust needed to ultimately make a purchase.  

4. Help boost conversions.

   Enticing images paired with quality content can encourage consumers to hit the Buy Box. And paired with an easy buying experience for consumers, the result can lead to an increase in return on advertising spend (ROAS) and reduced advertising cost of sale (ACoS).

5. Fight counterfeits.

   Using A+ Content will help shield your product from counterfeits. It will garner brand recognition and build reputation. Consumers will know your brand is the rightful owner of these types of products, and it will prevent others from counterfeiting.

6. Use proven marketing strategies.

   Do the aspects of the Amazon A+ Content remind you of a well-designed brochure? That’s not a fluke. Without the limitations of an ordinary product description page, A+ Content allows sellers to explore color schemes, different formats and other strategies marketers have utilized and found successful for decades.

7. Improve reviews and reduce return rates.

   Before purchasing products, consumers want as much information as possible. With A+ Content providing consumers with detailed information they need, you can expect fewer returns after the purchase. Fewer returns means more satisfied consumers. Satisfied consumers are likely to share positive reviews of your product and brand, which will then persuade future consumers during their own research.

How to Create A+ Content on Amazon

Start by manually selecting which products you want to enhance. While all ASINs can benefit from A+ Content,  laying solid groundwork boosts chances for success. You’ll want to be sure the time and resources you put into creating extra content are likely to result in higher sales and revenue. 

If you’re having a hard time choosing ASINs, start with your top sellers. Other excellent candidates for A+ Content include products that tell a strong brand story or tend to sell at premium prices, as well as the items you’re already driving traffic to through seasonal campaigns and promotions.

Brand-registered Amazon Sellers have access to an A+ Content Manager that provides recommendations on which SKUs to prioritize adding A+ Content. These are ranked in order of priority based on a variety of factors Amazon indicates may increase your sales and discoverability.  

You’ll have two options to choose from: Self-Service or the Amazon Builds for You module. When using the Self-Service option — Rithum recommends this option for most ASINs — you can use up to five different design modules per product page. There are 12 different basic modules to choose from, so play around with the different modules to figure out what will work best for the specific product.

Guidelines for A+ Content on Amazon

Amazon A+ Content does give you more creative freedom, but following guidelines can ensure your content gets approval. Here are a few to consider when creating A+ Content:

• Images: Be sure to use supported image file types such as JPG, BMP and PNG in the RGB colorspace. Avoid blurry and low quality images as these are not allowed for A+ Content.
• Text: Proofread all your text and avoid spelling mistakes and inconsistent punctuation. Use bold and italic formatting only for headings or a few select words.
• Claims and awards: There are quite a few requirements for including certifications and awards. We recommend researching the rules thoroughly before including them in your content. For example, certification claims and awards must be proven through text with certifying or awarding body, study, publication or other evidence. The year of the award or certification must also be specified. Environmental claims like “eco-friendly,” “biodegradable” and “compostable” are not allowed in text, images or symbols. Related claims, such as an assertion that a product is “recyclable,” must be proven in text with supporting information. Satisfaction claims are not allowed. 
• Content restrictions: Steer clear from referencing your company as a seller or distributor. Only use comparison charts when comparing against products of the same brand. Keep away from quotes or attributions made by individuals, customers or other private figures.

There are just a few of the guidelines set by Amazon. To read more about specific terms and policies, check out their A+ Content guidelines.

A+ Content Best Practices

When creating your A+ Content, we recommend:

• Making the content easy to scan. Use subheadings, short paragraphs, bolding and other formatting options that will make it easy for consumers to understand the biggest benefits of your product at a glance.
• Combining text and images. When describing a key feature or selling point, accompany that text with a related image — and vice versa.
• Using consumer feedback for inspiration. If your customers often compliment you on a particular product feature, highlight it in comparison charts or descriptions. 
• Avoiding content errors. This goes beyond typos. Tread carefully when using special characters and symbols (including trademarks) and links. Be certain to include the correct image sizes based on the selected module.

46% of online consumers stated they start their product searches on Amazon, so your key focus should be to optimize your product detail pages. 

Looking for more Amazon advice? Rely on the Amazon experts. 

Acting as an extension of your internal team, Rithum’s Managed Services team combines the strengths of our cutting-edge e-commerce technology with our unmatched industry expertise. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help manage your Amazon A+ Content.

Interested in learning more about how to optimize your Amazon A+ Content? download our eBook to see ideas and inspiration for product pages that increase traffic and boost sales.

Editor’s note: This blog post was originally published in January 2018 and was updated in December 2022 for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

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