Meta's Muse Hits 10 Million Users With Shopping a Top Activity, Adidas Posts a Record Quarter Against Nike
4 min read · October 22, 2026 · Covering October 21 · 9 stories from 6 sources
Yesterday in ecommerce: Meta's Muse AI app passed 10 million users with shopping a top activity, Adidas posted a record quarter while pulling share from Nike, and Visa cut card fees for small merchants in Canada. 9 stories, about 4 minutes.
01AI & Agents
Meta's Muse passes 10 million users, with shopping a top activity
Meta said on its Q3 earnings call that its AI app, Muse, has surpassed 10 million users. About 25% of people who set it up use it daily. More than a quarter of engaged shoppers who bought something through the agent spent over $200 on average, using Plaid's connector to complete purchases. Meta expects a "10x" efficiency gain within a year that would make Muse profitable at scale.
For your store:Muse runs on Plaid's agentic checkout layer, not a direct storefront integration. If your payment stack doesn't yet support agentic purchases, more AI-app traffic like this could arrive before you're ready.
Adidas posts a record quarter, taking real share from Nike
Adidas's preliminary Q3 revenue hit a record 7.3 billion euros, about $8.1 billion, up 9% year over year, with operating income up 37% to a record 1 billion euros. Tariff refunds added about 200 million euros to profit. Adidas raised its full-year profit outlook to 2.5 billion euros. Analysts at Telsey Advisory Group said Adidas is gaining "significant" share from Nike, whose own revenue fell 4% in its latest quarter.
For your store:If you sell athletic or athleisure product, Adidas's full-price strength this year is a signal shoppers will pay for product they actually want, not just the deepest discount.
Starting October 24, Visa is extending its lower interchange rate to Canadian merchants with up to CA$750,000 in annual Visa sales, up from CA$300,000, targeting an average rate of 95 basis points. Visa will also add a 1.8 cent processor fee on domestic transactions starting April 2027, typically passed to merchants. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business called the interchange cut "a big win" for small businesses.
For your store:If you sell into Canada, check your statement after October 24 to confirm the lower rate applied, and ask about the new fee arriving next spring.
Kohl's clarifies pricing and bundles gifts for the holidays
Kohl's is marking discounts more clearly in stores and online, and setting $5, $10, $15 and $20 price tiers across categories. It's offering over 400 gift sets, including 40 exclusive to Sephora at Kohl's, plus Advent calendars. Kohl's already delivers via Instacart and DoorDash and adds Uber Eats in November; about 80% of those same-day customers are new to Kohl's.
For your store:Bundling and clear price tiers lower the thinking shoppers do under time pressure. If checkout friction or confusing discounts cost you sales, simplify before the holiday rush, not during it.
Nearly half of young UK shoppers are rarely home for deliveries
New InPost UK research finds 49% of 18 to 30 year olds are away from home during standard delivery hours at least four days a week, mostly for work, errands or socializing. 41% missed a parcel in the past year, and 31% rearranged plans around one. At one retailer, Superdry, locker delivery lifted InPost's checkout share to 49% and cut delivery costs up to 19%.
For your store:If missed deliveries or returns are a recurring complaint, a locker or 24/7 pickup option, not just faster shipping, is what younger shoppers want.
Teen spending rebounds 6% as sneakers lose ground to fashion
Piper Sandler's latest Teen Survey of about 9,000 US teens found overall spending up 6% this fall, rebounding from a 6% decline a year ago, with higher-income teens up 11%. Apparel spending rose 7%, but athletic brands' share of teen fashion mindshare fell to 29% from 32% last year. Specialty retailers like American Eagle, H&M and Hollister gained 8 points of mindshare instead.
For your store:Teens are still spending, just shifting away from pure athletic branding toward fashion-forward basics. If you sell apparel, lean into style over logo in holiday marketing to this group.
Ikea invests £31.5 million to speed up UK online fulfillment
Ikea is putting £31.5 million into four UK distribution centers to handle online orders faster and with less waste, as digital sales reach 43.3% of its UK total. New packing technology at its Peterborough site cuts material use by up to 30%, and automated processing there should rise from 47% to 75% of parcels by 2027. Fulfillment for northern England and Scotland has also shifted to a larger center in Doncaster.
For your store:If nearly half your sales are now online like Ikea's, your warehouse and packing setup, not just your website, is probably due for an upgrade too.
Fiserv's CEO calls AI a general-purpose shift for payments
At the Money20/20 conference, Fiserv CEO Takis Georgakopoulos called AI "a general-purpose technology" touching every part of commerce, and said checkout remains the hardest part for AI shopping agents to get right. Fiserv's e-commerce lead, Adit Gadgil, said today's AI agents are "essentially another channel" since humans still approve purchases, but fully autonomous agents will need two separate receipts: one proving a person authorized the purchase, and one for the payment itself.
For your store:Agentic checkout is still mostly human-approved today, so there's time to prepare, but ask your payment provider now whether it's building for autonomous agent purchases.
Target turns its 2026 holiday ads into a fictional gift academy
Target's 2026 holiday campaign, the "Academy of Giftology," casts actor D'Arcy Carden as a "Chief Giftologist" guiding shoppers through fictional departments like a toy-focused "Kidology Lab." The campaign runs across broadcast, streaming and social starting in early November, with a heavier push on TikTok and YouTube creators than in past years through its Club Target program. Target Circle members get up to 25% off popular toys.
For your store:You don't need a celebrity campaign to borrow the idea. A simple, consistent gift-guide theme across your site, emails and social makes holiday shopping easier to follow.
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: ChannelX (Tamebay), Internet Retailing, Modern Retail, Payments Dive, Retail Dive, TechCrunch.