Mollie has completed its acquisition of GoCardless, creating a combined European payments and financial services group serving more than 350,000 businesses across over 30 markets.

The deal, originally announced in December 2025, brings together Mollie’s card payments, local payment methods, business accounts and financing capabilities with GoCardless’ expertise in Direct Debit, Pay by Bank and recurring bank payments.

Mollie CEO Koen Köppen will lead the combined group, while GoCardless will continue operating under the name “GoCardless, a Mollie company” and remain under the leadership of co-founder Hiroki Takeuchi. Mollie says maintaining the GoCardless brand reflects the strategic importance of both its existing customer base and its Pay by Bank technology.

Mollie CEO Koen Köppen will lead the combined group, while GoCardless will continue operating under the name “GoCardless, a Mollie company” and remain under the leadership of co-founder Hiroki Takeuchi. Mollie says maintaining the GoCardless brand reflects the strategic importance of both its existing customer base and its Pay by Bank technology.

The completion of the acquisition marks an important step in Mollie’s attempt to build a broader European financial platform capable of handling multiple payment methods, banking services and business financing through a single provider.

Mollie and GoCardless create a broader European payments platform

The strategic logic behind the acquisition is largely based on the complementary nature of the two companies.

Mollie has traditionally focused strongly on merchant acquiring, card payments and local European payment methods.

GoCardless, meanwhile, has built its business around bank-based payments, particularly Direct Debit and open banking-enabled Pay by Bank solutions.

Combining the two creates a platform capable of supporting:card payments,local European payment methods,Direct Debit,Pay by Bank,recurring payments,business accounts,and financing.

When the deal was first announced in December 2025, the companies said the objective was to create a single provider capable of reducing the fragmentation many businesses face when operating several payment and financial platforms simultaneously.

This fragmentation is particularly relevant for international e-commerce businesses.

A merchant expanding across Europe may use one provider for cards, another for local payment methods, another for bank transfers and a separate banking partner for accounts and financing.

Each additional provider can create more integrations, reconciliation work and operational complexity.

More than 350,000 businesses across 30+ markets

The combined group now serves more than 350,000 businesses across more than 30 markets.

That gives the new organisation significant scale across Europe while also expanding its reach internationally.

Mollie has built much of its business around a highly localised European strategy, supporting market-specific payment methods, onboarding requirements and merchant needs.

The post Mollie Completes GoCardless Acquisition, Creating European Payments Group Serving 350,000 Businesses appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

Amazon has officially brought its Prime Air drone delivery service to UK customers, marking the first time the company has expanded its drone-based last-mile network outside the United States.

The service is operating from Amazon’s 465,000-square-foot fulfillment center in Darlington, England, where eligible customers within a roughly 7.5-mile (12 km) radius can have selected products delivered by autonomous MK30 drones.

Amazon says orders can arrive in 60 minutes or less, with some deliveries potentially completed in around 30 minutes. Millions of products are eligible provided they meet the drone’s size and weight restrictions. The launch is a major milestone for Amazon’s long-running Prime Air project and comes as the company also dramatically accelerates the service in the United States.

Amazon now plans to make Prime Air available across nearly 500 US cities and towns by the end of 2026, transforming what was once a limited experimental program into a potentially significant component of its last-mile network.

Darlington becomes Amazon’s first Prime Air location outside the US

Amazon first announced plans to bring Prime Air to the UK in 2023. Darlington was subsequently selected as the company's first British location, with the fulfillment center confirmed as the proposed base in January 2025.

Drone flights began from the site in early 2026, and Amazon now confirms it is delivering parcels to customers from Darlington. According to Amazon, Darlington is the first Prime Air site anywhere outside the United States. The development therefore represents more than another regional delivery experiment.

It is the first international expansion of Amazon's drone logistics model. John Boumphrey, Amazon UK Country Manager, said the launch demonstrates how the company continues to develop new ways to make deliveries faster and more convenient.

Amazon's wider strategy increasingly revolves around shortening the physical distance between inventory and consumers. Prime Air provides an additional option at the extreme end of that strategy: moving lightweight orders directly from a fulfillment center to a customer's property by air.

How Amazon Prime Air works in the UK

Prime Air deliveries in Darlington use Amazon's latest MK30 drone. The aircraft stands about five feet tall, has a wingspan of about five and a half feet, and can carry packages weighing up to five pounds, or about 2.2 kg.

To qualify, a product must also be small enough to fit inside Prime Air's specially designed packaging, roughly the size of a large shoebox. Eligible customers can select drone delivery during the normal Amazon checkout process. Amazon then uses satellite imagery, mapping technology, and AI to identify suitable delivery areas around the customer's property.

Customers currently need access to an appropriate outdoor area such as a: garden, yard, or driveway.

The customer selects the proposed delivery zone digitally without requiring a physical property inspection beforehand. Once the order reaches the Darlington facility, Amazon's existing fulfillment robotics help move the product through the warehouse before it is packed for Prime Air.

An employee then performs a pre-flight inspection, installs a charged battery and loads the package onto the drone. The aircraft subsequently completes most of the delivery autonomously.

The MK30 is designed for autonomous last-mile delivery

The MK30 represents Amazon's latest generation of delivery drone. It uses onboard perception, navigation and detect-and-avoid technology to identify aircraft, obstacles, people and other hazards while flying.

Amazon says the system allows the drone to make safety decisions independently during a mission. The drones operate using Beyond Visual Line of Sight technology, or BVLOS.

This is particularly important because large-scale drone delivery would not be practical if an operator had to maintain direct visual contact with every aircraft throughout the entire route.

The Darlington operational model envisages drones traveling from Amazon's MME1 fulfillment center toward qualifying customers while generally remaining below 400 feet above ground level. Flight planning also accounts for designated no-fly areas and outdoor concentrations of people.

The UK rollout remains closely connected to CAA trials

Although customers are already receiving packages, Prime Air's UK expansion remains closely linked to the development of Britain's regulatory framework for commercial drones.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority has selected Amazon Prime Air as one of six projects participating in trials designed to develop safe Beyond Visual Line of Sight operations.

The regulator is gathering data on areas including: detect-and-avoid capabilities, electronic visibility, interaction with other aircraft, air traffic control integration, and safe operation in shared airspace. This distinction is important.

Prime Air is already delivering parcels to real customers, but the regulatory structure that would allow these operations to be scaled routinely across Britain is still evolving.

The CAA's longer-term objective is to enable routine BVLOS drone operations in UK airspace, with its roadmap targeting broader implementation from 2027.

Amazon has received approval to operate its drones

Amazon says the MK30 has received Civil Aviation Authority approval to conduct its current operations in Darlington. The wider program nevertheless operates within a tightly controlled aviation environment.

CAA documentation shows that Amazon has been working through the regulator's sandbox process to test how unmanned aircraft can eventually transition from segregated or specially managed airspace into normal shared airspace.

Amazon's proposed operational area also includes mechanisms allowing emergency aircraft to take priority. Prime Air operations are expected to stop when emergency-service aviation, such as police helicopters or helicopter emergency medical services, requires access to the relevant airspace.

This illustrates one of the central obstacles facing drone delivery at scale. The aircraft themselves may already be technically capable of autonomous operations. The harder problem is safely integrating potentially thousands of delivery drones into airspace already used by helicopters, aircraft, emergency services and other drones.

Amazon is rapidly scaling Prime Air in the United States

The UK launch comes alongside Amazon's most aggressive Prime Air expansion to date.

The company says it intends to serve nearly 500 cities and towns in the United States by the end of 2026, compared with a relatively small number of operating locations previously.

Prime Air is already operating around cities including:

Phoenix,
Tampa,
Kansas City,
Omaha,
Baton Rouge,
Detroit,
Houston,
San Antonio,
Dallas,
and Waco.

Amazon also plans to launch operations around Chicago, Syracuse, Cleveland, Atlanta and Boise. Each Prime Air location in the US can serve about 175 square miles, according to the company.

Reuters reported that Amazon expects the service to reach approximately 500 US locations by the end of the year, a major increase from the roughly 11 operational sites existing when the latest expansion was announced. This scale-up makes the Darlington operation particularly relevant.

Prime Air is no longer simply a technological demonstration. Amazon is attempting to turn drone delivery into a repeatable logistics model.

Hundreds of thousands of drone deliveries in 2026

Amazon says Prime Air has already delivered hundreds of thousands of packages during 2026, with individual sites now completing thousands of deliveries each day. That marks a significant shift from the program's early years.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos first publicly demonstrated the Prime Air concept in 2013. For much of the following decade, commercial drone delivery remained limited by aircraft technology, aviation regulation, operational complexity and local concerns. The latest expansion suggests Amazon believes several of those barriers are beginning to fall.

Why drone delivery matters for e-commerce

The core advantage of drone delivery is speed. Conventional last-mile logistics requires packages to be consolidated into vans, driven along delivery routes and delivered sequentially to dozens or hundreds of addresses.

A drone can potentially bypass much of that route structure. Once an order is processed, the aircraft can travel directly from the fulfillment facility to the customer. For lightweight, urgent items, the resulting delivery time can approach that of a trip to a local store.

That makes drone delivery particularly relevant for products such as: small electronics, household essentials, beauty products, office supplies, health-related items, and other lightweight goods.

Amazon says millions of products are already potentially eligible for Prime Air where the service operates.

Prime Air joins Amazon's wider ultrafast delivery strategy

Drone delivery is only one element of Amazon's increasingly complex last-mile infrastructure. In the UK, Amazon has also introduced Amazon Now, an ultra-fast service offering groceries and household essentials in approximately 30 minutes or less in parts of London.

The company plans to expand Amazon Now into Manchester and Birmingham. The two services solve slightly different logistics problems. Amazon Now relies on inventory positioned in smaller urban fulfillment locations close to consumers. Prime Air instead provides extremely fast transportation for lightweight goods from larger facilities within a defined flight radius.

Amazon could therefore increasingly combine multiple fulfillment models according to: product size, customer location, urgency,
inventory availability, and delivery economics.

The ultimate objective is not necessarily to replace vans with drones. Instead, Amazon is creating additional delivery layers that can handle different types of orders.

Drone delivery still faces practical limitations

Despite its technological appeal, Prime Air has significant limitations. The UK service currently requires customers to live within approximately 12 km of the Darlington facility. Properties must have appropriate outdoor delivery areas. Products must meet strict size and weight limits. Weather conditions can also affect drone operations.

This means Prime Air cannot currently replace conventional parcel delivery for most Amazon orders. Large electronics, furniture, bulk groceries and many other products will continue to require vans or other established transport networks. Amazon's drones are instead likely to complement existing last-mile infrastructure.

Noise, privacy and safety remain concerns

Community acceptance will also determine how quickly drone delivery can scale. Drone operations have faced criticism in some US communities over issues including noise, privacy and safety.

Reuters reported that residents near some planned Prime Air sites have compared the sound of operating drones to equipment such as leaf blowers. Amazon says the latest MK30 aircraft has been specifically designed to reduce noise.

Amazon describes the MK30 as significantly quieter than earlier designs and says its noise level is comparable with conventional delivery activity. But scaling from thousands to potentially millions of flights would inevitably create a different operating environment.

Regulators and local authorities will therefore need to determine acceptable noise, safety and flight-frequency limits as drone delivery becomes more common.

Drone delivery could change last-mile economics

The long-term business case will depend on whether drones can reduce the cost of selected deliveries. Last-mile delivery remains one of the most expensive parts of the e-commerce supply chain. Traditional delivery networks require: drivers, vehicles, fuel or electricity, route planning, local depots, and significant labor.

Autonomous drones potentially reduce some of those costs for lightweight packages. However, they introduce different expenses, including aircraft acquisition, maintenance, batteries, aviation compliance, flight infrastructure and specialist staff.

The most likely future is therefore not a completely drone-based delivery network. Instead, fulfillment platforms may increasingly use algorithms to determine the most efficient delivery method for each individual order. A parcel could be assigned to a van, bike courier, locker, autonomous vehicle or drone depending on its characteristics.

Darlington could become a blueprint for European expansion

Amazon has not yet announced a broad network of Prime Air sites across Europe. Nevertheless, Darlington represents an important test case. If Amazon can demonstrate reliable, safe, and economically viable operations in the UK, the model could potentially be replicated around other fulfillment centers.

Europe's regulatory environment, dense population centers and complex airspace could make expansion more difficult than in some US suburban markets. But the strategic opportunity is substantial.

Amazon already operates an extensive network of fulfillment centers across Europe. Adding drone infrastructure to selected facilities could create ultra-fast delivery zones around those locations without requiring an entirely separate logistics network.

The UK is actively preparing for wider commercial drone operations

The British government is also investing in the wider development of commercial drones. In May 2026, the government announced £46.5 million in support to accelerate drone and advanced-air-mobility regulation, infrastructure, and security systems.

The program includes measures designed to enable commercial drone delivery while also improving systems for identifying unauthorized aircraft. The government has explicitly cited Amazon's Darlington operations when discussing the UK's transition toward more routine commercial drone use. This makes Prime Air part of a broader transformation in British aviation rather than an isolated Amazon experiment.

The last mile is becoming increasingly autonomous

Amazon's UK Prime Air launch highlights a wider trend across logistics. Warehouses are already heavily automated. Robots move inventory through fulfillment centers. Artificial intelligence predicts demand and optimizes inventory positioning. Autonomous systems increasingly manage sorting and packaging. Drone delivery extends automation beyond the warehouse doors. The potential future e-commerce journey therefore becomes increasingly automated from beginning to end:

Order placed → inventory selected → robotic fulfilment → automated sorting → autonomous transportation → customer delivery

Human workers remain central to many parts of that system, but the number of steps that can be performed autonomously continues to increase.

Prime Air enters a new phase

Amazon has spent more than a decade trying to turn drone delivery from a futuristic concept into operational infrastructure. The Darlington launch marks an important milestone in that effort. For the first time, customers outside the United States are receiving real Amazon orders through Prime Air.

At the same time, the company is preparing to scale the service across hundreds of American communities. Substantial barriers remain, including regulation, weather, noise, property suitability, package size, and public acceptance. But Prime Air is moving beyond the experimental phase.

The bigger question is no longer simply whether Amazon can deliver packages by drone. It is whether drone delivery can become reliable, affordable, and scalable enough to earn a permanent place alongside vans, lockers, same-day couriers, and traditional parcel networks. Darlington will provide one of the first major tests of that question outside the United States.

The post Amazon Prime Air Launches Drone Deliveries in the UK as Global Expansion Accelerates appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

HELMOND, 26 August 2026 – Maxi-Cosi is taking the next step in how it connects with parents across Europe. On Thursday evening, 27 August, the brand will broadcast Parenthood Unfiltered, an interactive live parenting show broadcast across Maxi-Cosi’s own platforms in seven European countries, as well as via social channels.

To the best of our knowledge, this makes Maxi-Cosi one of the first brands in the European baby and juvenile products category to broadcast an interactive livestream at this scale across its own D2C platforms and social channels. The broadcast is part of a pilot series developed by Maxi-Cosi together with live commerce agency YSS – Your Shopping Stream.

Following an initial closed pilot earlier this summer, the second edition will be open to everyone and distributed more widely. At this stage, the focus is on testing and learning – including how the format can drive reach, engagement and interaction, and what role live commerce can play within the customer journey.

Entertainment, interaction and commerce

With Parenthood Unfiltered, Maxi-Cosi has created a ‘parentainment’ format that brings together honest conversations about parenthood, expert insights, entertainment and product integration. During Back to Reality, parents and experts discuss the transition from the summer holidays back to everyday family life.

Viewers can participate live through questions, polls, games and giveaways. Maxi-Cosi products are also integrated into the show, while viewers will receive access to an exclusive discount code during the broadcast. The result is an interactive live experience that brings together elements of television, social media and e-commerce.

From a Dutch case to European scale

For YSS, the collaboration with Maxi-Cosi follows an interactive livestream with Dutch celebrity chef Herman den Blijker earlier this year. With Maxi-Cosi, YSS is now scaling its live commerce model across seven European markets at once.

“The next evolution of live commerce lies, in my view, precisely in this scalability,” says Suzanne Pronk, founder of YSS. “It’s not about simply going live on social media, but about building formats where content, interaction and commerce come together.

Maxi-Cosi shows how one central production can reach audiences across multiple European markets, with owned platforms and social channels reinforcing each other.” The live production is delivered in collaboration with FabriQ Media Group, with the interactive technology powered by Livery Video.

The post Maxi-Cosi brings interactive live commerce to seven European markets appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

Stripe believes one of e-commerce's most familiar elements could eventually become obsolete. Will Gaybrick, Stripe’s President of Product and Business, has argued that the traditional checkout page could disappear as artificial intelligence, digital wallets, and agentic commerce increasingly collapse product discovery and payment into a single transaction.

Speaking on the A16z Show, Gaybrick said the checkout page could become unnecessary not only for AI agents, but eventually for human shoppers as well. His argument is straightforward: when payment credentials, identity and authorization are already securely available through tools such as Stripe Link, consumers should increasingly be able to purchase directly from the product or discovery interface rather than navigating several checkout screens.

The prediction offers a glimpse of how Stripe expects online commerce to change as AI agents become increasingly capable of finding products, evaluating options, and completing purchases on behalf of consumers.

From checkout page to instant transaction

The traditional e-commerce journey is familiar:

A customer discovers a product, visits a merchant website, adds it to a cart, proceeds to checkout, enters delivery information, chooses a payment method and confirms the order. Agentic commerce challenges almost every step of that model.

Stripe defines agentic commerce as online shopping in which AI agents can find, compare, and potentially purchase products on users' behalf. The shopper provides an objective — for example, finding a particular product under a certain price with delivery before a specified date — and the agent handles much of the searching and decision-making.

In this environment, the shopper may never need to navigate a conventional checkout page. Instead, product discovery, decision-making, authorization and payment could take place inside an AI assistant, search environment or other digital interface. Stripe explicitly notes that customers using an AI agent may not need to see a checkout page at all.

Why Stripe thinks checkout could disappear

Checkout disappearing doesn't mean the underlying processes vanish. Merchants would still need to calculate taxes, confirm inventory, determine shipping costs, process payments, prevent fraud, manage orders, and handle fulfillment. The difference is that those processes increasingly happen behind the interface.

Instead of presenting each step to a human shopper, commerce infrastructure could communicate directly with an AI agent. Gaybrick has pointed to systems such as Stripe Link and Shopify's Shop Pay as early examples of how stored payment credentials and accelerated checkout can already reduce the number of steps required to purchase online.

Agentic commerce takes that concept considerably further. Rather than simply speeding up a checkout page, AI could make the page unnecessary.

Stripe is already building infrastructure for agentic commerce

Stripe's prediction is closely connected to products the company has been developing over the past year. At Stripe Sessions 2026, the company expanded its Agentic Commerce Suite and announced additional partnerships with companies including Meta and Google. Stripe also introduced new ways for AI agents to pay using Link's agent wallet.

Stripe describes its Agentic Commerce Suite as infrastructure that connects businesses, agents, and buyers. Merchants can make their products available to AI agents while maintaining control over pricing, descriptions, fulfillment and the customer relationship. AI applications can then embed checkout directly inside their own interfaces.

This model represents a fundamental shift in the merchant website's role. Instead of every purchase requiring consumers to reach a retailer's checkout interface, transactions could increasingly be completed wherever the customer discovers the product.

AI agents need their own payment infrastructure

Giving an AI agent purchasing authority creates problems that conventional payment systems were never designed to solve.

An agent may need to:

• Identify the correct product;
• Confirm availability;
• Compare shipping options;
• Understand return policies;
• Operate within a spending limit;
• Prove that the consumer authorized the transaction;
• and complete payment without gaining unrestricted access to the customer's financial credentials.

Stripe has been developing infrastructure specifically for these scenarios.

Its Link wallet for agents can issue a one-time-use card or Shared Payment Token backed by payment methods already stored within Link. According to Stripe, the agent itself does not receive the user's underlying payment credentials. This allows agents to transact while preserving spending controls and payment security.

Stripe has also introduced Issuing for agents and other mechanisms designed to give autonomous software controlled purchasing power.

Machine Payments Protocol removes checkout entirely

The transformation becomes even clearer when commerce takes place between machines rather than between a human and a retailer. In March 2026, Stripe and Tempo introduced the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP), an open standard that lets AI agents transact directly with businesses and other services.

Traditional online payment flows assume that a human will visit a website, select a product, and complete a checkout form. MPP instead allows software agents to interact programmatically with paid services. Stripe says conventional financial infrastructure was built primarily for humans, meaning AI agents often struggle with tasks such as navigating pricing pages, selecting subscription tiers, creating accounts or entering payment details.

Machine-readable payment protocols are designed to remove those obstacles. If adoption grows, some forms of commerce may therefore never generate a visible checkout interface at all.

E-commerce UX could become commerce infrastructure

The implications for retailers could be substantial. For years, merchants have invested heavily in optimizing their checkout pages.

Businesses test:

• Button positioning
• Page layouts
• Payment methods
• Form length
• Guest checkout
• Upselling
• Cart recovery
• Conversion rates.

Agentic commerce could shift part of that optimization away from visible user interfaces and toward APIs, structured data, and machine-readable commercial rules. Stripe advises businesses preparing for agentic commerce to expose structured product information and build checkout flows that can function without a human directly interacting with them.

That means an AI agent needs reliable access to information including:

• Product availability
• Pricing
• Shipping times
• Returns policies
• Taxes
• Merchant identity
• Fulfillment guarantees.

In other words, the checkout experience increasingly becomes an infrastructure problem rather than purely a web-design problem.

Product discovery and checkout could merge

One of the biggest changes could be eliminating the boundary between discovering something and buying it. Today, discovery often happens outside the retailer's website.

Consumers may discover products through:

• Google
• Social media
• Marketplaces
• Influencers
• Comparison services
• Increasingly, AI assistants.

Historically, shoppers had to leave that environment and visit a merchant's checkout. Agentic commerce lets the transaction stay inside the discovery layer.

Stripe has already worked with OpenAI on the Agentic Commerce Protocol, designed to allow businesses to sell through AI interfaces while maintaining control over their transactions. Stripe said the protocol's first real-world implementation supported Instant Checkout inside ChatGPT.

The company is also working with AI and technology platforms including Microsoft Copilot, Anthropic, Perplexity, Vercel and others as it develops infrastructure for agent-driven commerce.

Merchants risk becoming invisible to AI agents

The change could also create a new form of competitive pressure. Traditional SEO focuses on ensuring that search engines can discover and understand a merchant. Agentic commerce introduces another audience: machines that are actively choosing which merchant should receive a transaction.

Stripe argues that businesses need structured product catalogs, clean APIs, transparent policies and real-time availability if they want AI agents to transact with them successfully. A retailer that is difficult for an AI agent to understand could theoretically become less competitive even if its consumer-facing website remains excellent.

The industry may therefore see the emergence of what could effectively become agent optimization alongside traditional SEO and conversion-rate optimization.

Trust remains the biggest challenge

Despite rapid technological development, agentic commerce still faces substantial barriers. Consumers must trust AI systems enough to allow them to spend money. Businesses must also distinguish legitimate AI agents from malicious automated systems.

Traditional fraud tools rely heavily on signals associated with human behavior, devices and payment credentials. Agent-initiated transactions can change those patterns. Stripe has acknowledged that agentic commerce challenges many assumptions built into existing permission and fraud systems.

Its Shared Payment Tokens, Link agent wallet and Stripe Radar infrastructure are designed partly to address this problem by attaching authorization and risk information to agent transactions. Human approval is also likely to remain important for many purchases, particularly expensive or sensitive transactions.

Agentic commerce therefore does not necessarily imply giving autonomous software unlimited purchasing authority. Instead, the emerging model relies on controlled delegation.

The checkout page may disappear, but checkout will not

Stripe's prediction should therefore be understood carefully. Commerce will still require authorization, payment processing, taxes, fraud prevention, shipping and fulfillment. What could disappear is the visible page where those processes traditionally come together.

For consumers, that could mean fewer forms, fewer redirects, and fewer abandoned carts. For merchants, however, it could require substantial behind-the-scenes changes. Retailers may increasingly need commerce systems that can communicate directly with AI agents while preserving pricing control, customer data, brand identity, payment security and fulfillment rules.

Stripe is betting that this transition will happen quickly. The company said during Stripe Sessions 2026 that it expects AI agents eventually to account for a significant share of online transactions and is positioning its payments infrastructure accordingly.

E-commerce is moving beyond the website

The broader significance of Gaybrick's comments is not simply that checkout pages may become shorter or more convenient.

They suggest that the website itself could gradually lose its position as the central interface of digital commerce.

In an agentic-commerce environment, consumers may increasingly interact with AI assistants rather than individual retailer websites. Those agents could search across merchants, evaluate products, negotiate constraints and complete transactions without reproducing the traditional browsing journey.

The merchant remains responsible for the product, pricing, payment and fulfillment. But the interface connecting the merchant to the consumer may belong to someone else. That makes Stripe's prediction about the death of the checkout page part of a much larger transformation. The next era of e-commerce may not be defined by better checkout pages. It may be defined by commerce that no longer needs them.

The post Stripe says traditional checkout pages could disappear in the Agentic Commerce Era appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

Walmart’s U.S. e-commerce business continued to outpace its traditional retail operations in the second quarter of fiscal 2027, with online sales increasing 24% year over year as the retailer leaned further into store-based fulfilment, marketplace expansion and faster delivery.

The performance reinforces Walmart’s transformation from a predominantly store-led retailer into a broader omnichannel commerce platform. While comparable U.S. sales increased at a much more modest pace during the quarter, digital channels remained one of the strongest areas of the business.

According to Walmart’s Q2 FY27 results, global e-commerce sales increased 23%, while Walmart U.S. e-commerce grew 24%. Online sales now account for approximately 23% of Walmart U.S. sales, illustrating how central digital commerce has become to the company’s overall retail model.

Fast delivery becomes central to Walmart’s e-commerce strategy

One of the key drivers of Walmart’s e-commerce growth is its growing use of physical stores as fulfillment hubs. Walmart said store-fulfilled delivery increased 40% during the quarter. Rather than depending exclusively on large regional fulfillment centers, the company is increasingly using inventory already located in its thousands of stores to fulfill online orders closer to the end customer.

The approach gives Walmart an important structural advantage in last-mile delivery. Stores historically designed primarily for in-person shopping can increasingly perform multiple roles simultaneously: retail location, pickup point, fulfillment node, and local delivery hub.

This distributed model can shorten the distance between inventory and consumers, allowing Walmart to expand same-day and rapid delivery services while making greater use of an existing physical network. Walmart described strong demand for convenient and fast delivery as one of the principal drivers of its global digital growth during the quarter.

Walmart's physical stores become e-commerce infrastructure

The growing importance of store fulfillment reflects a broader shift across retail logistics. Traditionally, large e-commerce operations concentrated inventory inside dedicated warehouses positioned strategically around a country or region. Walmart is increasingly combining this model with a vast network of stores already located close to population centers.

This creates a distributed fulfillment network. For customers, the visible result is faster delivery. Behind the scenes, however, the model requires much deeper integration between inventory management, order orchestration, store operations and last-mile logistics. Walmart needs to determine in real time whether an online order should be fulfilled from a store, distribution center or another part of its network while simultaneously preserving enough inventory for customers shopping physically.

Successfully coordinating these channels is becoming one of the defining logistical challenges of large-scale omnichannel retail.

Marketplace sales climb more than 50%

Walmart is also seeing strong momentum from its third-party marketplace. The company reported that Walmart U.S. marketplace net sales increased by more than 50% during Q2 FY27. Nearly half of Walmart's marketplace business globally now flows through the company's fulfillment services.

That combination is strategically important. A marketplace lets Walmart expand its product assortment without owning all the inventory being sold. Fulfillment services, meanwhile, enable the company to generate additional revenue by storing, processing and delivering products on behalf of third-party merchants.

The model increasingly resembles the ecosystem strategy that has helped Amazon expand beyond direct retail. Rather than generating revenue only from the final product sale, a marketplace operator can earn revenue across several layers of the transaction, including seller commissions, fulfillment, advertising and membership services.

E-commerce is becoming more important to Walmart's business model

Walmart's digital growth is increasingly connected to several of the company's other strategic priorities. Its Q2 results showed global advertising revenue increasing 38%, while Walmart Connect in the United States grew 43% excluding Vizio. The company has been expanding advertising alongside marketplace, membership and fulfillment services as it seeks to generate more revenue from each customer and merchant interaction.

These businesses are particularly important because many of them can carry higher margins than traditional retail. The result is a commerce ecosystem in which a marketplace transaction can potentially generate revenue from the seller, fulfillment, advertising, and the customer relationship, in addition to the underlying retail transaction.

Walmart highlighted marketplace, fulfillment services, membership, advertising, and other commerce solutions as businesses strengthening the company's economics.

Digital growth stands out amid slower comparable sales

The e-commerce performance was particularly notable because Walmart's broader U.S. retail growth was considerably slower. U.S. comparable sales excluding fuel increased 2.6% during the quarter. Reuters reported that this represented Walmart's slowest comparable-sales growth in approximately six years and fell below market expectations.

Walmart nevertheless raised its full-year sales and profit outlook. The contrasting results underline a key shift within the company: digital commerce is expanding much faster than the traditional store business.

Walmart U.S. e-commerce grew 24%, compared with 2.6% comparable sales growth, while Sam's Club U.S. e-commerce sales increased 26%. Walmart International e-commerce increased another 19%.

The divergence suggests that consumers are not necessarily abandoning Walmart's physical infrastructure. Instead, they are increasingly accessing the same inventory through digital channels.

Walmart continues closing the e-commerce gap with Amazon

Amazon remains the dominant e-commerce operator in the United States, but Walmart possesses an asset that is difficult for digital-native competitors to replicate: an enormous network of stores already positioned close to consumers. Walmart has increasingly treated those locations as logistics infrastructure.

That strategy changes the competitive equation around delivery. Instead of trying to reproduce Amazon's fulfillment network exactly, Walmart can combine dedicated e-commerce facilities with thousands of existing retail locations that can support pickup and local delivery.

The company is therefore competing not only through product pricing and assortment but increasingly through fulfillment speed and convenience. Its continued investment in automation, digital platforms and fulfillment technology is designed to make that network more productive while reducing the cost of serving increasingly demanding online customers.

The economics of rapid delivery remain the key challenge

Fast delivery can improve customer loyalty and conversion, but it also creates significant cost pressures. Picking individual orders from stores, coordinating delivery drivers, and transporting smaller baskets directly to homes can become expensive if order density is insufficient.

Scale is therefore crucial. The more orders Walmart can consolidate within the same geographic area, the easier it becomes to improve route density and spread delivery costs across more transactions. Marketplace growth can help by bringing more products and order volume into Walmart's logistics ecosystem.

Fulfillment services provide another layer of scale by encouraging marketplace sellers to place inventory within Walmart's distribution network. The objective is ultimately not simply to grow online sales, but to make those transactions increasingly profitable.

Walmart noted that its international operating-income growth benefited from improving e-commerce economics, particularly in China, India and Canada, suggesting that digital profitability remains a major focus across the group.

Omnichannel retail increasingly becomes a logistics competition

Walmart's results also illustrate a broader shift within global e-commerce. Competition between major retailers is increasingly determined by logistics capabilities rather than simply website traffic, product selection or pricing.

Consumers now expect accurate inventory visibility, multiple fulfillment options, convenient returns and increasingly rapid delivery. Meeting those expectations requires retailers to connect stores, warehouses, marketplaces and delivery networks into a single fulfillment system.

For retailers with large physical networks, this creates an opportunity. Stores can become strategic assets rather than liabilities in the age of e-commerce, provided their inventory and operations are integrated effectively with digital ordering systems. Walmart's 24% U.S. e-commerce growth suggests that this strategy is gaining momentum.

Walmart is building a broader commerce ecosystem

The longer-term significance of Walmart's digital growth extends beyond online retail sales. The company increasingly resembles a commerce infrastructure provider connecting consumers, merchants, advertisers and logistics services.

Its marketplace provides access to additional assortment. Walmart Fulfillment Services allows merchants to outsource logistics. Walmart Connect monetizes shopper traffic through advertising. Membership programs increase customer loyalty, while its store network provides local fulfillment capacity.

Together, these businesses create an increasingly interconnected commercial ecosystem. Amazon pioneered a similar model in which retail, marketplace services, fulfillment, advertising, and subscriptions reinforce each other. Walmart's advantage is that it can combine those digital capabilities with one of the world's largest physical retail networks.

What Walmart's 24% e-commerce growth means for retailers

Walmart's latest results reinforce one of the most important trends shaping modern retail: the distinction between physical commerce and e-commerce continues to disappear. The company's stores are increasingly becoming components of its digital fulfillment infrastructure, while its online marketplace feeds additional volume into logistics, advertising and fulfillment businesses.

For other retailers, the lesson may be less about matching Walmart's scale than about integrating channels more effectively. Inventory visibility, flexible fulfillment and delivery speed are becoming increasingly important competitive factors.

Walmart's Q2 FY27 results suggest that retailers that can turn physical locations into distributed e-commerce infrastructure may have a significant advantage as consumers increasingly prioritize convenience and faster delivery. For Walmart, the 24% increase in U.S. e-commerce sales is therefore more than another strong digital quarter.

It is further evidence that logistics and fulfillment are becoming central to the company's strategy for competing in the next phase of global e-commerce.

The post Walmart U.S. E-Commerce Sales Jump 24% as Fast Delivery Drives Growth appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

By DELIVER - DELIVER America, the leading invitation-only event for retail and supply chain leaders, has officially kicked off the countdown to its 2026 event by unveiling its first wave of high profile industry speakers.

The announcement sets the stage for the highly anticipated gathering on October 7+8 at Caesars Forum, Las Vegas, giving confirmed and prospective attendees an early look at the world-class content program before the event's signature 1-to-1 matchmaking platform officially opens later this summer.

This year's agenda features senior decision makers from some of the world's most influential retail and commerce brands alongside leading voices from across logistics, supply chain and technology.

Key speakers announced include Todd Soller, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Patagonia; Kirsten Hochberg, Board Director, Yogi Tea; Laurent Cohen, SVP Operations at Rockstar Original; and Gopalendu Pal, Director of Operations, Target. Bringing retailer-led insight to the forefront, these leaders will address the most pressing challenges and opportunities shaping the future of commerce - from artificial intelligence, automation and decision velocity to tariffs, trade shifts and practical sustainability strategies.

Stéphane Tomczak, Founder and Chairman of DELIVER, commented: “DELIVER America exists to connect the industry’s most influential decision makers in a highly focused and efficient way. Our upcoming 1-to-1 matchmaking phase will allow attendees to curate their own tailored schedules, ensuring meaningful, pre-qualified connections that drive real commercial outcomes. Combined with the incredible speaker lineup, this is where partnerships are built and business gets done.”

While the full matchmaking platform will launch closer to the event, qualified retailers and brands are encouraged to secure their invitations early - places are strictly limited to 100, and once they're gone, they're gone. Early applicants will receive priority access to the meeting selection process the moment it goes live. DELIVER's curated, pre-arranged 1-to-1 format remains the event's core differentiator, ensuring every interaction onsite is targeted, valuable, and commercially focused. 

Taking place in an exclusive, fully hosted environment, DELIVER America will bring together senior level retail and supply chain decision makers, including C- and Director level leaders, alongside innovative solution suppliers. Attendance is strictly limited to ensure quality connections, high level networking and a premium experience for all participants.

As anticipation builds throughout the summer, further speaker announcements and interactive session highlights will be revealed.

About DELIVER
DELIVER is the leading global event platform connecting supply chain, logistics and commerce decision-makers through curated B2B matchmaking experiences. Renowned for its disruptive event model built on ROI-driven matchmaking and strategic content, DELIVER operates across Europe, America, Asia and the Middle East. A mission-led, 100% carbon and profit neutral company, DELIVER places sustainability at the core of its business model.

For more information on attending, exhibiting, or sponsoring, please visit https://www.deliver.events/AMERICA

The post DELIVER America Unveils Stellar 2026 Speaker Lineup as Countdown to Las Vegas Begins appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

Data has always been one of the most valuable assets available to an e-commerce business. Yet having more data does not necessarily mean understanding customers better — and it certainly does not guarantee higher revenue.

For Daniele Rutigliano, e-commerce expert, the real opportunity lies in turning the information companies already possess into concrete decisions. From identifying friction in the customer journey to improving retention and personalising marketing, data becomes valuable only when businesses know what question they are trying to answer.

As artificial intelligence makes increasingly sophisticated analysis accessible to companies of every size, Rutigliano believes the competitive divide will not simply be between businesses with more or less data. It will be between those capable of transforming it into action and those that continue merely collecting it.

Having data is not the same as being data-driven

CBM: Companies have access to unprecedented amounts of customer information today. Are e-commerce businesses actually making good use of it?

Daniele Rutigliano: There are essentially two very different situations.

On one side, you have companies — particularly small and midsize businesses — that still don't have a genuinely data-driven culture. Some may not even have a CRM system in place.

On the other side, there are businesses collecting enormous amounts of information but struggling because that data is distributed across different platforms, databases and servers.

So simply having data isn't enough. Companies need accurate information, properly integrated systems and, most importantly, the expertise required to interpret what the data is telling them.

Artificial intelligence is making that process considerably easier because it can accelerate analysis, identify correlations and even allow people to interrogate complex datasets using natural language. But AI cannot compensate for incomplete or poor-quality information.

"The goal shouldn't be to collect as much information as possible. It should be to transform the right data into better decisions."

Which e-commerce metrics actually matter?

CBM: With so many metrics available, which KPIs should online retailers really be paying attention to?

Daniele Rutigliano: Understanding customers has always been fundamental to marketing. The better you understand their needs and behaviour, the better positioned you are to encourage repeat purchases, generate referrals and create relevant campaigns.

There are many metrics an e-commerce company can monitor, but some of the most important are Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Average Order Value (AOV), Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and Time Between Purchases (TBP).

Each tells you something different.

CAC tells you how much you're investing to acquire a customer. CLV helps you understand how valuable that customer could be throughout the relationship. AOV shows the average value of their transactions, while TBP tells you how frequently they're coming back.

Put those pieces together and you begin developing a much clearer picture of the customer.

We're still going to need segmentation and broader customer groups, but the direction is increasingly towards personalisation. E-commerce marketing is gradually moving closer to a one-to-one model.

Moving from dashboards to decisions

CBM: How does a company actually transform those metrics into higher revenue?

Daniele Rutigliano: Collecting information is only the beginning. There needs to be a process behind it.

You identify a problem or an opportunity, formulate a hypothesis, take a specific action and then measure what happens.

Imagine, for example, that your data shows an unusually high checkout abandonment rate in one particular country.

The number itself isn't the answer. It's the starting point.

You then need to understand why it's happening. Are shipping costs too high? Are delivery times too long? Are customers missing their preferred local payment method? Is there another source of friction?

Once you've developed a hypothesis, you implement a change and compare performance before and after that intervention.

That's when data becomes valuable. You're no longer simply observing a dashboard; you're using information to make a measurable business decision.

"The real value doesn't come from having more dashboards. It comes from using their information to make measurable improvements."

Creating a unified view of the customer

CBM: One of the challenges you mentioned is having information scattered across multiple systems. How can retailers build a clearer customer view?

Daniele Rutigliano: It depends on the maturity of the business and what it's trying to achieve.

Web analytics platforms can tell you how visitors arrive at your website and how they navigate it. Behavioural analytics tools such as Microsoft Clarity, Hotjar or Mouseflow can go further by using session recordings, heat maps and interaction data to identify friction in the customer journey.

More advanced businesses can introduce Customer Data Platforms, or CDPs, which combine information from different sources to create unified customer profiles.

Once you have that integrated view, the information can then be activated across different channels to create much more personalised customer communications.

Where does AI fit into the equation?

CBM: Artificial intelligence is changing virtually every aspect of e-commerce. What difference does it make when working with data?

Daniele Rutigliano: AI can dramatically accelerate the analytical process.

It can identify correlations across complex datasets and make information accessible to people who might previously have required specialist analytical knowledge. Natural-language interaction is particularly interesting because it reduces some of the barriers between decision-makers and the information contained within their systems.

But there's an important limitation.

AI cannot fix fundamentally bad data.

If your information is inaccurate, incomplete or poorly integrated, introducing AI isn't suddenly going to create a reliable business intelligence system. The foundations still matter.

Companies need to collect accurate information and connect their systems properly before they can expect AI to generate meaningful insights.

Data-driven e-commerce isn't only for large companies

CBM: Smaller e-commerce businesses may hear terms like CDPs, AI and advanced analytics and assume that becoming data-driven requires a major investment. Does it?

Daniele Rutigliano: Not necessarily.

Many SMEs already have a surprising amount of useful data. It might exist inside their e-commerce platform, analytics tools, advertising accounts, CRM or customer service software.

You don't need to begin with an enormous technological infrastructure.

Start with a business objective.

Identify the information that can help you understand that particular objective and then use the tools you already have available.

Platforms such as Google Analytics 4 and Microsoft Clarity, combined with advertising platform data and the reports generated by the e-commerce platform itself, can already reveal customer behaviours, weaknesses in the purchasing journey and potential opportunities for growth.

The important thing is not how sophisticated the technology is. It's whether you're using the information to answer a meaningful business question.

From insight to competitive advantage

For Rutigliano, becoming data-driven is ultimately less about accumulating technology and more about changing how companies make decisions.

A metric should lead to a question. The question should generate a hypothesis. The hypothesis should result in an action. And that action should produce something that can be measured.

That cycle turns information into commercial intelligence — and commercial intelligence into revenue.

It is also the approach Rutigliano will explore through practical examples during his workshop, “Data as a Revenue Driver: From Insight to Competitive Advantage,” at the EU Cross-Border E-commerce Forum 2026 in Liège on September 9 at 11:15 a.m.

For e-commerce businesses, his message is straightforward: competitive advantage will not come from simply possessing more information than everybody else. It will come from knowing which data matters, understanding what it means and, above all, acting on it.

The post Spotlight on Daniele Rutigliano: Turning E-commerce Data into Revenue and Competitive Advantage appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

Amazon has signed a global strategic supply agreement with warehouse automation specialist AutoStore, establishing a framework that could allow the e-commerce giant to deploy AutoStore technology across its international fulfillment network.

AutoStore announced the agreement on 13 August 2026 and set the commercial terms for Amazon to procure AutoStore products and automation solutions globally. However, AutoStore stressed that the agreement does not currently include any firm purchasing commitments.

The deal nevertheless represents a significant development for the warehouse automation sector, bringing together one of the world's largest e-commerce fulfillment operators and one of the most established providers of cube-based automated storage and retrieval technology.

A global framework for future Amazon automation

Under the agreement, AutoStore will have a framework through which Amazon can purchase its systems and solutions for facilities around the world.

The distinction between a supply agreement and an actual order is important. AutoStore has not disclosed any guaranteed volumes, deployment locations, investment values or implementation timetable.

Instead, the agreement effectively lays the commercial foundation for future procurement should Amazon decide to deploy AutoStore technology at additional fulfillment sites.

AutoStore described the agreement as a global framework covering its products and solutions, while confirming that no purchase commitments are included at this stage.

For Amazon, such an arrangement could provide another automation platform to support fulfillment operations as the company continues to invest heavily in warehouse robotics, artificial intelligence and automated inventory handling.

What is AutoStore?

Norway-founded AutoStore develops automated storage and retrieval systems designed around a dense cubic storage grid.

Rather than relying on conventional warehouse aisles and shelving, products are stored in bins stacked vertically inside a grid. Robots travel across the top of the structure, retrieving bins and delivering them to workstations where orders can be picked and processed.

The approach allows warehouses to store significantly more inventory within a smaller physical footprint while reducing the amount of manual movement required inside fulfillment centers.

AutoStore says it now has approximately 2,000 systems operating across 68 countries, serving retailers, logistics companies, industrial businesses and other fulfillment-intensive sectors.

The company increasingly positions its offering not simply as warehouse robotics, but as a broader fulfillment platform combining automation, software and AI.

Why Amazon's agreement with AutoStore matters

Amazon already operates one of the most technologically sophisticated logistics networks in the world.

Warehouse automation is central to that strategy.

The company has spent years developing and deploying its own robotic systems while also acquiring and working with external automation technologies. Robotics is increasingly used to move inventory, organize products, assist picking and packing processes, and reduce the amount of repetitive physical movement required from warehouse employees.

The AutoStore agreement suggests that Amazon is continuing to evaluate multiple technological approaches rather than relying exclusively on internally developed systems.

For AutoStore, securing a global procurement framework with a customer of Amazon's scale also provides significant strategic validation.

In its Q2 2026 report, AutoStore CEO Mats Hovland Vikse described the Amazon agreement as further validation of the company's strategic direction and of the relevance of its technology for major global customers.

E-commerce is accelerating warehouse automation

The agreement comes at a time when fulfillment automation is becoming increasingly important across the global e-commerce industry. Online retailers are under continuing pressure to process higher order volumes while simultaneously meeting increasingly demanding delivery expectations.

Customers now expect faster fulfillment, reliable inventory availability and greater visibility throughout the delivery process. At the same time, warehouse operators face rising labor costs and pressure to make better use of expensive logistics real estate.

AutoStore identifies continued e-commerce penetration, labor-cost inflation and increasing demand for operational efficiency as major structural drivers behind the long-term expansion of warehouse automation. Automated storage systems can potentially address several of those challenges simultaneously by increasing storage density, accelerating product retrieval and reducing repetitive warehouse movements.

AutoStore reports strong growth in 2026

The Amazon announcement coincided with AutoStore's second-quarter 2026 financial results. The company reported quarterly revenue of approximately $192 million, representing an increase of around 43% year on year. Order intake reached approximately $218 million, up around 45% compared with the same period in 2025. AutoStore's order backlog stood at approximately $596 million at the end of the quarter.

The company also reported a gross margin of around 72% and an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 45%. For the full 2026 financial year, AutoStore is currently targeting revenue of around $700 million. The company says it has also launched 14 new products and features during the past 12 months as it expands beyond its traditional core storage platform into additional warehouse automation applications.

Automation is becoming a competitive advantage in fulfillment

The wider significance of the agreement extends beyond Amazon and AutoStore. Fulfillment has increasingly become a competitive differentiator in e-commerce. Retailers are no longer competing only through product assortment and price. Delivery speed, order accuracy, inventory availability and returns processing can directly affect the customer experience.

That places growing pressure on warehouse infrastructure. Automation allows operators to increase throughput without necessarily increasing warehouse size or workforce at the same rate. For large international retailers and marketplaces, these efficiencies can become particularly important because improvements made across dozens or hundreds of fulfillment centers can translate into substantial operational savings.

The Amazon-AutoStore agreement therefore highlights the increasing strategic importance of warehouse technology within the global e-commerce ecosystem.

No confirmed Amazon deployment yet

Despite the potential scale of the partnership, the announcement should not be interpreted as confirmation of a major Amazon AutoStore rollout. Neither company has announced how many systems Amazon may acquire, which fulfillment centers could receive the technology, or how much Amazon could ultimately spend under the agreement.

AutoStore has explicitly stated that the framework does not contain purchasing commitments. Any future procurement would therefore represent a separate commercial decision. The agreement nevertheless removes part of the contractual groundwork that would otherwise be required for future deployments, potentially making it easier for Amazon to procure AutoStore technology across multiple markets.

What this could mean for global e-commerce fulfillment

Amazon's logistics operations have often influenced wider industry investment trends. Technologies deployed successfully at Amazon's enormous fulfillment scale can attract greater attention from retailers, marketplaces and third-party logistics providers seeking similar efficiency improvements. AutoStore says the majority of warehouses globally remain unautomated, suggesting significant potential for further expansion of automated fulfillment technology.

As e-commerce businesses look to shorten delivery times while controlling fulfillment costs, warehouse density and automation are likely to become increasingly important components of logistics strategy. For AutoStore, the new Amazon agreement provides access to potentially one of the largest automation customers in the world. For Amazon, it adds another proven technology platform to an increasingly sophisticated fulfillment ecosystem.

The immediate financial impact remains uncertain because no orders have yet been committed. But strategically, the agreement illustrates how quickly automation is becoming embedded in the infrastructure supporting global e-commerce.

The post Amazon signs global warehouse automation agreement with AutoStore appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

CEVA Logistics has completed the acquisition of Paack Iberia and Paack France through its B2C delivery subsidiary, Colis Privé, extending its last-mile delivery operations into Spain and Portugal while reinforcing its position in France.

Paack confirmed that the transaction had closed and that its Iberian and French businesses had joined the CMA CGM Group, the parent company of CEVA Logistics. The completion follows the exclusive negotiations announced by CEVA on 30 June 2026.

The acquisition represents another step towards CEVA’s ambition of creating a stronger pan-European last-mile delivery platform capable of serving e-commerce retailers across multiple domestic markets.

CEVA enters the Spanish and Portuguese last-mile markets

The transaction covers two independently operated businesses: Paack Iberia, which serves Spain and Portugal, and Paack France. Through the acquisition, Colis Privé gains an established presence in the Iberian Peninsula rather than having to build a delivery network from the ground up. It also increases the company’s scale in France, where Colis Privé already operates a substantial B2C parcel network.

CEVA originally described the transaction as a way to strengthen Colis Privé’s domestic position in France while accelerating its expansion into Spain and Portugal.

Colis Privé previously concentrated its activities primarily in France, Belgium and Luxembourg. The addition of Paack therefore transforms it into a broader Southern and Western European last-mile operator. For e-commerce retailers, the enlarged network could offer more consistent delivery services across several important European markets under the same logistics group.

What CEVA is acquiring from Paack

Founded in Barcelona in 2015, Paack built its business around technology-supported delivery services for e-commerce companies and omnichannel retailers. Its platform manages several stages of the last-mile process, including delivery scheduling, parcel tracking, performance reporting, and returns management.

Paack has also differentiated itself through scheduled and time-slot delivery options. These services allow consumers to receive orders during more specific delivery windows, addressing one of the most common sources of dissatisfaction in online shopping: uncertainty over when a parcel will arrive.

The company combines its proprietary technology with a network of logistics hubs, delivery partners and local operations. Paack Iberia generated revenue of approximately €125 million in Spain and Portugal during 2025, representing reported year-on-year growth of 25%. It completed around 36 million deliveries during the year, 20% more than in the previous period.

Paack France generated approximately €49 million in revenue, an increase of 7.8%, and completed around 10.4 million deliveries. Both the Iberian and French businesses reported positive EBITDA. Combined, the two acquired operations generated approximately €174 million in annual revenue.

A last-mile business exceeding €550 million in revenue

CEVA previously estimated that the combination of Colis Privé and the acquired Paack businesses would create a last-mile organization generating more than €550 million in annual revenue. The enlarged operation will bring together Colis Privé’s existing delivery network and Paack’s infrastructure, technology and customer relationships.

Paack employed approximately 490 people across its French and Iberian businesses when the transaction was announced. Colis Privé, meanwhile, works with around 5,000 delivery drivers across its existing markets. The deal gives CEVA access to additional delivery capacity, local knowledge and operational infrastructure in three of Europe’s largest e-commerce markets.

However, the strategic value of the acquisition goes beyond parcel volumes. Paack’s proprietary technology could potentially be deployed across other parts of Colis Privé’s network, improving delivery visibility, route management and the consumer experience.

Why last-mile logistics is consolidating

Europe’s parcel-delivery market remains highly fragmented, with national postal operators, international carriers, regional specialists, locker networks and technology-led delivery companies competing for retailers and parcel volumes. At the same time, e-commerce businesses increasingly want logistics partners capable of supporting several markets through a single relationship.

Retailers selling across Europe must often integrate with different delivery providers in every country. This creates additional technical work, fragmented tracking data and inconsistent customer experiences.

A larger Colis Privé network could help CEVA offer retailers a more unified proposition covering fulfillment, transportation and final-mile delivery. The acquisition also reflects the growing importance of scale in parcel logistics. Last-mile operators must invest heavily in sorting facilities, delivery capacity, technology and consumer-facing services while operating in a market where delivery prices remain highly competitive.

Consolidation allows logistics groups to spread those investments across greater parcel volumes and a wider geographical network.

CEVA strengthens CMA CGM’s e-commerce logistics strategy

CEVA Logistics is part of the CMA CGM Group, which has steadily expanded beyond maritime transport into contract logistics, air freight, fulfillment and last-mile delivery.

CMA CGM acquired CEVA in 2019. CEVA subsequently completed the acquisition of Colis Privé in 2022, strengthening its e-commerce and final-mile capabilities in France. The Paack acquisition expands that strategy further by connecting CEVA’s global logistics capabilities with a wider European delivery network.

For CMA CGM, building an end-to-end logistics platform creates opportunities to manage more stages of the e-commerce supply chain. These can range from international transportation and customs clearance to warehousing, order fulfillment, returns and delivery to the consumer.

The group has also continued expanding through other major logistics transactions, including the acquisition of Bolloré Logistics and an agreement to acquire FedEx Supply Chain. Paack therefore becomes part of a much larger logistics ecosystem rather than operating solely as an independent last-mile specialist.

What the acquisition means for e-commerce retailers

The immediate impact for Paack customers is expected to be continuity rather than a sudden change in delivery operations.

Nevertheless, integration with CEVA and Colis Privé could gradually provide retailers with access to a broader geographical network and additional logistics services.

Potential advantages include:

• A larger last-mile network covering France, Spain and Portugal
• Greater capacity during peak e-commerce periods
• Access to CEVA’s international logistics and fulfillment services
• More consistent technology and delivery data across markets
• Expanded scheduled-delivery and returns capabilities

For international retailers, the most important benefit may be the ability to combine cross-border transportation, fulfillment and domestic delivery through fewer logistics providers. This model could be particularly attractive to retailers entering Southern European markets without their own local logistics infrastructure.

Integration will determine the deal’s success

Although the acquisition provides CEVA with immediate scale, its long-term success will depend on how effectively the companies integrate their networks, technology and commercial operations.

Last-mile delivery remains a complex and margin-sensitive business. Different countries have distinct labor models, delivery preferences, urban infrastructure and consumer expectations.

Spain and Portugal also differ from France in terms of geography, population density and delivery economics. CEVA will therefore need to preserve Paack’s local market knowledge while identifying areas where the businesses can share technology, capacity and operational processes.

Maintaining service quality during the integration will be especially important. Retailers and consumers are unlikely to judge the deal by the size of the combined network; they will judge it by delivery reliability, flexibility and visibility.

A step towards a pan-European delivery platform

The completion of the CEVA Paack acquisition demonstrates how Europe’s last-mile market is gradually moving towards larger, cross-border delivery networks.

By adding Paack’s operations in Spain, Portugal and France, Colis Privé gains both geographical reach and technology developed specifically for e-commerce delivery.

The deal also gives CEVA a stronger position in the final stage of the e-commerce supply chain, complementing its existing freight, contract-logistics and fulfillment operations.

The result is not yet a fully pan-European parcel network. However, it gives CEVA a considerably stronger platform from which to pursue that ambition.

As retailers look for simpler logistics relationships and more consistent cross-border delivery experiences, the ability to connect international supply chains with local last-mile operations could become one of CEVA’s most important competitive advantages.

The post CEVA completes Paack acquisition to expand its European last-mile network appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

A new phase of the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act has begun, bringing important transparency obligations into effect for companies using chatbots, generative AI and synthetic content.

From 2 August 2026, Article 50 of the EU AI Act applies across the European Union. The rules are designed to ensure that consumers understand when they are interacting with an AI system and when apparently authentic content has been artificially generated or manipulated.

For e-commerce companies, the changes may affect customer-service bots, virtual shopping assistants, AI-generated advertising, product imagery, synthetic influencers and automated editorial content.

However, the regulation does not require retailers to label every product description or marketing image created with AI. The obligations depend on the type of system, the nature of the content and whether the company is acting as an AI provider or simply using a third-party tool.

E-commerce chatbots must identify themselves as AI

One of the clearest requirements concerns AI systems that interact directly with consumers.

Providers of these systems must ensure that users are informed that they are communicating with AI, unless this is already obvious to a reasonably informed person.

For online retailers, this can include:

• Customer-service chatbots
• Virtual shopping assistants
• Automated returns agents
• Conversational recommendation tools
• AI-powered order-tracking systems
• Voice-based shopping assistants

The disclosure should appear no later than the first interaction. A message such as “Hello, I’m an AI-powered shopping assistant” or a persistent “AI Assistant” label within the interface may satisfy the requirement.

Retailers should not assume that a robot icon, unusual bot name or automated writing style makes the artificial nature of the system sufficiently clear.

Although the legal design obligation falls primarily on the system provider, e-commerce companies should verify that the disclosure is displayed properly across their websites, applications and customer-service channels.

Vendor contracts should also clarify who is responsible for implementing, testing and maintaining the notice.

Not all AI-generated content needs a visible label

Article 50 also covers AI-generated and manipulated audio, images, video and text.

Providers of generative AI systems must ensure that covered outputs can be identified in a machine-readable format. This may involve metadata, watermarking, content credentials or another technical method.

This technical marking requirement does not mean that every retailer must place a visible “AI-generated” label on every piece of AI-assisted content.

The visible disclosure duties placed on businesses using the content are narrower. They primarily concern:

• Deepfakes
• Certain AI-generated texts dealing with matters of public interest
• Emotion-recognition and biometric-categorization systems

A standard product description, category page or promotional email does not automatically need a visible AI label simply because generative AI helped produce it.

What this means for product descriptions

Retailers increasingly use AI to create:

• Product titles and descriptions
• Marketplace listings
• Category pages
• Buying guides
• Marketing emails
• Translations
• Frequently asked questions

Most ordinary commercial copy will not require a visible AI-generated label.

The specific disclosure obligation for AI-generated text applies when the material is published to inform the public about a matter of public interest.

This may become relevant when an e-commerce company publishes AI-generated content involving:

• Product safety
• Public health
• Environmental claims
• Sustainability
• Financial services
• Consumer rights
• Legal or regulatory developments

For example, a simple description of a product’s dimensions is unlikely to trigger the rule. An AI-written article claiming that the product provides medical benefits or complies with environmental regulations may require closer scrutiny.

Human editorial review remains important

Even when AI-generated text addresses a matter of public interest, a visible label may not be required if the content has undergone meaningful human review and a person or company assumes editorial responsibility.

The review must be more than a basic spelling or grammar check.

A qualified editor should assess the substance of the content, verify its sources, correct inaccurate claims, and have the authority to approve or reject the final version.

Retailers should document:

• Who reviewed the material
• Which claims were checked
• What sources were used
• Who approved publication
• Who assumes editorial responsibility

This is particularly relevant for company blogs, sustainability reports, regulatory explainers and product-safety content.

When AI-generated images may need disclosure

AI-generated advertising and product imagery do not automatically require a visible label.

The main visible-disclosure obligation applies when the content qualifies as a deepfake.

Under the AI Act, a deepfake is an AI-generated or manipulated image, audio or video content that resembles a real person, object, place, organization or event and could falsely appear authentic.

In e-commerce, this could include:

• A synthetic celebrity endorsement
• An artificial customer testimonial
• A fake video of a real person using a product
• A fabricated representation of a warehouse or factory
• A manipulated demonstration that exaggerates product performance
• A realistic virtual influencer presented as a genuine person

When content qualifies as a deepfake, its artificial nature must be disclosed clearly when the viewer first encounters it.

Machine-readable metadata alone is not enough. Consumers must be able to understand that the material is artificial without using specialized software.

Virtual models and synthetic influencers

Not every virtual model will necessarily qualify as a deepfake.

A clearly fictional animated character or obvious digital mascot is less likely to mislead consumers than a photorealistic virtual influencer presented as a real customer.

Retailers should consider:

• How realistic the content appears
• Whether it resembles a real person
• Whether viewers are likely to believe it is authentic
• Whether it imitates a testimonial or endorsement
• Whether the artificial nature is clear from the context

Even when the AI Act does not require a label, EU advertising and consumer-protection rules may still apply.

Companies should not create the false impression that a genuine customer used, reviewed or recommended a product when the person is entirely synthetic.

AI editing of product photography

Routine image editing does not automatically trigger the AI Act’s transparency requirements.

Basic adjustments such as resizing, color correction, sharpening and noise removal are less likely to be treated as synthetic-content generation.

The risk increases when AI is used to make substantial changes, including:

• Altering the size or proportions of a product
• Simulating features the product does not have
• Changing materials or colors inaccurately
• Adding accessories that are not included
• Manipulating how clothing fits a model
• Creating fabricated before-and-after results

These practices may violate consumer-protection rules even when they fall outside the strict deepfake definition.

AI-generated reviews remain a major risk

The new transparency rules should not be interpreted as permission to create fake customer reviews.

Publishing fabricated reviews, endorsements or testimonials can already breach EU consumer-protection law.

An AI-generated testimonial may also qualify as a deepfake when it depicts a realistic person describing an experience that never occurred.

Retailers should clearly distinguish between:

• A genuine customer review
• A paid endorsement
• A fictional demonstration
• A virtual spokesperson
• A simulated use case

The safest policy is to prohibit synthetic customer reviews altogether.

Marketplaces face additional challenges

Online marketplaces may need to manage AI-generated content produced by thousands of third-party sellers.

They should review whether their systems:

• Preserve machine-readable AI markings
• Allow sellers to disclose deepfakes
• Prohibit synthetic reviews
• Prevent misleading AI-generated product demonstrations
• Offer reporting tools for deceptive content
• Retain disclosures when listings are reformatted or syndicated

Marketplaces that provide their own AI listing generators should also assess whether they are acting only as deployers or may assume additional responsibilities as providers.

A practical compliance checklist

E-commerce companies should now take several immediate steps.

Audit customer-facing AI

Identify every chatbot, shopping assistant, voice agent and automated support tool that interacts with customers.

Confirm that each system clearly identifies itself as AI.

Define legal responsibilities

Establish whether the company is acting as a provider, deployer, distributor or importer for each AI system.

Do not rely only on the terminology used by the vendor.

Review synthetic media

Identify where AI is used to generate or substantially alter images, audio or video.

Assess whether any material could qualify as a deepfake.

Protect technical markings

Check whether website optimization, image compression, marketplace uploads or content-management systems remove metadata or watermarks added by the AI provider.

Introduce editorial controls

Create a documented human-review process for AI-generated content involving safety, health, sustainability, regulation or other public-interest topics.

Update supplier contracts

Require AI vendors to explain:

• How chatbot disclosures are implemented
• How synthetic content is marked
• Whether the marking survives export and compression
• What compliance documentation is available
• How future regulatory changes will be communicated

Train relevant teams

Marketing, legal, customer service, e-commerce, content and technology teams should all understand the transparency requirements.

Compliance is not solely an IT responsibility.

Penalties and commercial risk

Breaches of the relevant EU AI Act obligations can result in fines of up to €15 million or 3% of the company’s worldwide annual turnover, whichever is higher.

Authorities must consider proportionality, including the size of the business and the seriousness of the infringement.

However, financial penalties are not the only concern.

Misleading AI-generated content may also lead to:

• Consumer complaints
• Advertising investigations
• Platform sanctions
• Product-information disputes
• Reputational damage
• Loss of customer trust

Transparency as part of the customer experience

The EU AI Act does not prevent retailers from using chatbots or generative AI.

Its central principle is that consumers should not be misled about whether they are interacting with a person or viewing content that appears authentic but is artificially generated.

A clearly labeled chatbot can still provide fast and effective service. AI-assisted content can still improve productivity when its claims are properly reviewed. Virtual models and synthetic media can still be used when their presentation is transparent and not deceptive.

For e-commerce businesses, the priority should be to identify where AI interacts directly with consumers, where synthetic content could be mistaken for reality, and where human editorial responsibility is required.

As AI becomes more deeply integrated into online retail, transparency will become both a legal obligation and a competitive trust signal.

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