What is VTEX? Platform architecture, features & fit guide

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.

Takealot bets local scale can hold Amazon at bay

Takealot Group CEO Frederik Zietsman positioned the company's first full-year profit in 15 years as proof that its local ecosystem can withstand competition from Amazon, Shein, and Temu in South Africa. Group revenue rose 18% to R17.7-billion, crossing the US$1-billion mark, while adjusted operating profit swung from a R213.8-million loss to R171-million. Key growth drivers include the TakealotMore multi-retailer subscription programme (membership up 74%, member GMV up 193.5%), the Mr D delivery app, and Takealot Fulfilment Solutions (revenue up 93.5%). Despite the turnaround, parent company Naspers declined to reverse a R5.9-billion impairment, citing forecast uncertainty. Zietsman argued that local market knowledge, data advantages, and a broad ecosystem spanning 6.2 million active customers give Takealot a durable edge over global rivals.

Market-driven shipping now available in feature preview

Shopify is introducing market-driven shipping, a new model that moves merchant shipping configuration from delivery profiles into Markets. Merchants will attach shipping options directly to each market and vary rates by product and location within a single option. For app developers, this means the delivery profile API will no longer handle merchant shipping settings — those move to the Markets API. App-created delivery profiles retain their existing API but gain new capabilities, including the ability to target all products. Apps that read, create, or update merchant shipping settings via the delivery profile API must be updated before the rollout begins October 1, 2026, with full migration by July 1, 2027. A feature preview is available now via development stores.

AI shopping beat search on Prime Day, rattling Amazon

During Prime Day 2026, AI chatbot referrals outperformed all other traffic sources in purchase conversion rates for the first time, with AI-referred shoppers 40% more likely to buy than those from search, email, or social. Adobe Analytics data shows generative-AI traffic to US retail sites nearly doubled year-on-year on day one, and AI-referred traffic rose 393% in Q1. This shift threatens Amazon's core model, which depends on being the starting point for product discovery. If shoppers begin their journey with ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity, the discovery layer — and its ad revenue — moves to AI firms. Amazon is responding with Alexa+ and Rufus, but general-purpose chatbots are already handling top-of-funnel discovery. The piece also notes that most retail sites remain poorly machine-readable, and that OpenAI is entering the advertising business, potentially positioning chatbots as full marketplaces.

Prosus profit roughly doubles as its e-commerce bets and Tencent stake pay off

Prosus reported $7.3bn in revenue for the year ending March 2026, with headline earnings per share nearly doubling (91–100% growth) driven by stronger e-commerce performance and gains from its Tencent stake. Core EPS excluding Tencent rose 19–28%, signaling the underlying businesses — primarily iFood and OLX — are now generating real profit. CEO Fabricio Bloisi has pursued an aggressive acquisition strategy, including the €4.1bn purchase of Just Eat Takeaway and a €480m investment in French health insurer Alan, while framing AI-driven automation as a key driver of margin improvement. Prosus is positioning itself as a $100bn lifestyle e-commerce business spanning Latin America, Europe, and India, deliberately measured excluding its Tencent holding.

Merchant-owned delivery profile APIs are deprecated for market-driven shipping

Shopify is deprecating merchant-owned delivery profile APIs in the Admin GraphQL API as part of a shift to market-driven shipping. When a shop uses market-driven shipping, legacy delivery profile fields and mutations no longer reflect live shipping configuration — reads may return stale data and writes won't update live settings. App-owned delivery profiles are unaffected. Developers must follow the upgrade guide to detect affected shops, stop using legacy APIs, and migrate to Contextual Product Feeds, app-owned delivery profiles, or Markets APIs.

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.