Amazon Blocks Meta's AI Shopper, Sephora Joins TikTok Shop + 8 More Stories
4 min read · September 24, 2026 · Covering September 23 · 10 stories from 8 sources
Yesterday in ecommerce: Amazon drew a line against AI shopping agents, two new surveys show shoppers still won't let AI press the buy button, and Sephora finally opened a TikTok Shop. Ten stories, about four minutes.
01AI & Agents
Amazon blocks Meta's new AI shopping agent
Amazon has asked Meta to keep Muse, its new agent that buys products on behalf of users, off the Amazon store. Amazon says it got no advance notice and never authorized the access, adding that shopping agents “should operate openly.” Muse pays through Stripe's Link. It is not Amazon's first clash of this kind: its lawsuit against Perplexity's Comet agent is still pending.
For your store:AI buyers are arriving whether you invite them or not. Decide whether your store welcomes, limits or blocks them.
Shoppers want AI to find deals, not to press “buy”
An ACI Worldwide survey of more than 3,300 US and UK consumers found that 53% feel uncomfortable letting AI make purchases for them. Only 7% of fashion shoppers would let it buy without approval. What people do value: price drop alerts and price comparisons across retailers. Privacy is the main brake, with only two in five believing companies use their data responsibly.
For your store:Use AI to help shoppers choose, and keep the final click with them.
One in three shoppers regrets an AI-recommended purchase
A SmartCustomer survey of about 1,200 US consumers shows 76% used AI for a purchase in the past year, yet 89% don't fully trust its recommendations. A third bought something they later regretted, most often electronics (50%) and apparel (45%). And 53% suspect companies plant false information to steer AI answers in their favor.
For your store:Accurate, verifiable product data is becoming your best defense in AI search.
JD Sports lifts search revenue 22% with AI-native search
JD Sports, with more than 4,800 stores worldwide, has made Algolia the intelligence layer of its agentic commerce strategy. Replacing a highly manual search and merchandising process paid off fast: search revenue rose 22%, click-through on product listing pages jumped 73%, and dynamic re-ranking added 4% to conversion. The next step is letting AI shopping agents browse the catalog directly.
For your store:On-site search is often the cheapest conversion win. Check what shoppers see for your top ten queries.
Amazon's Seller Assistant now remembers each seller's business and can run routine tasks around the clock, with audit trails and guardrails the seller sets. A new plugin connects listings, inventory and sales data to Amazon Quick and, in beta, to Anthropic's Claude, where the assistant can act with approval. US stores come first. Amazon says over 90% of its selling partners already use Seller Assistant.
For your store:Marketplace sellers now get an AI co-pilot by default. Independent stores have to build their own edge.
Sephora launched on TikTok Shop with about 2,300 products from its own lines, kicking off with a livestream hosted by creator Mikayla Nogueira. Ulta joined in July. According to NielsenIQ, TikTok Shop is now the No. 4 health and beauty retailer in the US, with over $4.4 billion in beauty sales since 2023. The catch: platform coupons of 50 to 70% clash with premium pricing.
For your store:Social commerce is no longer a test channel in beauty. Protect your margins before you list.
Spot & Tango goes from $0 to $3.5M in brand marketing
Dog food brand Spot & Tango, at a $200 million annual revenue run rate and growing more than 70% a year, spent nothing on top-of-funnel marketing until this year. Now it is putting $3.5 million into subway ads, billboards, connected TV and events, with $5 to 7 million planned for next year. As co-founder Dylan Munro puts it, “performance marketing can only take you so far.”
For your store:When paid ads plateau, brand awareness is what makes every click cheaper.
Since September 23, Amazon.co.uk shoppers can split purchases of £50 or more with Affirm. Options include an interest-free Pay in 3 and longer plans of up to 48 months at a 22% representative APR, with no late fees. Gift cards, groceries and digital content are excluded, and the rollout is gradual.
For your store:When Amazon offers instalments from £50, shoppers start expecting them everywhere. Check your payment options.
Amazon's US pickup network has grown to almost 30,000 locations, more than 25,000 of them Amazon Lockers, including over 750 on college campuses. Shoppers are on track to collect more than 100 million packages this way in 2026, and most Americans now have a pickup point within five miles of home.
For your store:Pickup points and lockers at checkout are now a baseline expectation, not a perk.
Famme, co-created by entrepreneur Greg Taube, bundles an online store, payments via Adyen (including Vipps), shipping, point of sale and accounting into one platform built for Norway. The pitch: fewer third-party apps and features made for local rules, such as EHF e-invoicing. Its first customer is already live.
For your store:Local platforms are betting that localization beats a global app store. Worth watching in smaller European markets.
The Daily Checkout is a daily summary written by KonvertiQ. Every story links to its original source, where you will find full reporting and context. Covered today: About Amazon, ChannelX (Tamebay), Digital Commerce 360, Glossy, Internet Retailing, Modern Retail, Payments Dive, Retail Dive.