VTEX vs commercetools vs Spryker: B2B commerce compared

Final step in the Learn Rails tutorial series: Product Reviews

The Rails Foundation has completed its Learn Rails tutorial series with the final installment: Product Reviews. The series, created in partnership with Chris Oliver, guides beginners through building a real-world e-commerce application step by step. The four tutorials cover creating a store, user authentication and settings, wishlists, and now product reviews. The series aims to teach practical, production-style Rails features to new developers.

Building a Secure Customer Identity Strategy for Modern eCommerce

Chiến lược nhận dạng khách hàng trong thương mại điện tử hiện đại không chỉ dừng lại ở ô đăng nhập đơn giản mà còn ảnh hưởng đến thu hút khách, cá nhân hóa, chống gian lận, và giữ chân khách hàng. Một chiến lược nhận dạng vững chắc cần thống nhất hồ sơ khách hàng trên nhiều nền tảng, triển khai xác thực thích ứng, và hỗ trợ đăng nhập không mật khẩu hoặc qua mạng xã hội. Bài viết cũng đề cập đến luồng nhận dạng trong thanh toán, tầm quan trọng của "identity hygiene" đối với cá nhân hóa, và hệ quả tiêu cực của mô hình nhận dạng yếu. Cuối cùng, tác giả đưa ra lộ trình 4 bước để xây dựng chiến lược nhận dạng hiệu quả.

Lập trình viên nên đọc bài này để hiểu cách xây dựng cơ sở hạ tầng xác thực khách hàng an toàn và hiệu quả, từ đó tối ưu hóa quy trình checkout, giảm thiểu rủi ro bảo mật và cải thiện trải nghiệm người dùng trong hệ thống eCommerce của bạn.

Meet Penny, Pick n Pay’s new AI shopping companion

Pick n Pay is launching Penny, an AI shopping assistant built on Google's Gemini models, within its asap! delivery app. Penny lets customers build grocery baskets via text, voice, or photo — for example, asking for a recipe and getting ingredient options added to the cart. It supports multilingual input, can reference order history and Smart Shopper points via APIs, and is billed as South Africa's first conversational grocery shopping experience. Penny assembles baskets but does not yet place orders autonomously. The feature rolls out from 6 July. Pick n Pay also noted a retail-media layer is coming, allowing manufacturers to bid on conversational search terms. Rival Checkers Sixty60 launched a similar AI assistant called Pixie in April, though with a different philosophy focused on predictive replenishment rather than open conversation.

[DRAFT] Markets APIs now support MarketRegionSubdivision

Shopify's Admin GraphQL API 2026-07 release candidate introduces support for MarketRegionSubdivision, enabling Markets to be configured with country-subdivision regions like states and provinces. This is part of market-driven shipping support. Developers should use the new stable country-subdivision region type and avoid the deprecated market.regions field for sub-region membership. Currently, only shipping is supported; other configurations like Discounts, Catalogs, and Theme contextualization are not yet available and will return validation errors if attempted.

How to Build an AJAX Cart Drawer in Shopify (the 2026 Way)

A step-by-step guide to building an AJAX cart drawer in Shopify without page reloads, using the Shopify Ajax API and Section Rendering API. The approach treats the server as the single source of truth: after every cart mutation (add, update, remove, clear), the drawer re-reads /cart.js and re-renders from the response rather than maintaining local state. Key patterns covered include event delegation for quantity controls, bundled section rendering to keep markup in one Liquid file, and the new 2026 standard storefront events and actions (shopify: namespace) that let apps and AI shopping agents interact with any theme through a stable contract. The guide also covers overriding Shopify.actions.updateCart and openCart so third-party app calls route through the custom drawer instead of triggering a page reload.

PIM integration with VTEX: architecture guide for engineers

A technical architecture guide for integrating a Product Information Management (PIM) system with VTEX's Catalog API. Covers the required entity creation order (Category → Brand → Product → SKU → Specification Group → Specification Values), middleware deployment options (VTEX IO app vs. external service), rate limit handling (15,000 req/min per endpoint with token-bucket throttling and exponential backoff), idempotency strategies using SKU Reference IDs, and batch vs. real-time sync decisions based on catalog size. Includes per-platform notes for Akeneo, Pimcore, inRiver, Salsify, and Ergonode, with concrete Node.js code examples and practical lessons from real bulk load engagements.

China rewrites e-commerce law to regulate and shield platforms

China has released draft amendments to its e-commerce law, proposing 20 provisions that expand regulatory oversight from platforms and merchants to all participants in the 'platform economy,' including AI shopping agents, logistics providers, and payment processors. The amendments also introduce 'countermeasures' to protect Chinese companies like Temu and Shein facing tariffs and fines in the US and EU. Domestically, the changes align with China's 15th Five-Year Plan and follow a 3.6 billion yuan fine against major tech firms. Internationally, the provisions signal Beijing's intent to use legal tools to support its platforms' overseas expansion and potentially shape global e-commerce norms. The draft is open for public consultation until August 4.