Online Shopping | The Verge

Why your Amazon order confirmation emails have become so unhelpful

2026-08-11T09:27:20-04:00

Earlier this summer, Amazon customers began noticing that emails related to their online orders looked sparse: Order confirmation emails didn't name specific items anymore, and instead listed only item categories.

"Your Beauty item is confirmed!" an email about my retainer cleaning tablets read. Shoppers have posted other iterations of the redacted emails as well: "Ordered: 1 Hardware item," "Your Drugstore, Shoes, and other items are here!" and "1 Nutrition & Wellness, 1 Wireless Accessories," for example. The emails have clip art-style illustrations of general product categories, and a shopper has to exit their email and go to Amazon to …

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AliExpress fined almost $630 million over illegal product sales

2026-07-20T07:16:32-04:00

The fine is more than double the penalty that Temu was slapped with for similar DSA violations. | Illustration: The Verge

AliExpress has been hit with a €550 million (about $629 million) fine for violating Europe's Digital Services Act (DSA) rules by failing to prevent illegal, unsafe, or counterfeit products from being sold on the e-commerce platform. The European Commission ruled that AliExpress didn't take effective measures to reduce the dissemination of illegal products, noting the company "allocated insufficient staff" to verify products, and failed to remove unsafe toys and dangerous cosmetics for "multiple weeks" after they were detected.

"The spread of counterfeit clothing, unsafe toys, dangerous cosmetics and other illegal and harmful products is not …

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Amazon is launching AI-generated custom merch

2026-06-08T17:59:23-04:00

Amazon is expanding its print-on-demand features to AI-generated designs created using Alexa for Shopping for products like T-shirts, water bottles, and hoodies.

Shoppers can use text prompts to generate images that are then printed onto blanks for sale on Amazon. They can then share the link to the design so other people can buy the same custom item. Amazon offers family reunions and pet-themed designs as use case examples, but the feature also threatens an entire ecosystem of drop-shipped products - as well as other custom printing companies.

Amazon already had a Merch on Demand feature where shoppers could drop in images, text, and cli …

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MAHA wants to make cotton the new beef tallow

2026-06-05T10:26:21-04:00

In between beef tallow fries, raw milk, and vaccine denialism, Make America Healthy Again figureheads have set their sights on another slice of life: our clothing.

"The MAHA movement doesn't stop with what we EAT - It's also about what we WEAR," Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a post on X in late May. "For decades, America offshored textile jobs and allowed foreign synthetic, plastic-based materials to take over the clothing market." Rollins went on Fox News to promote a new Department of Agriculture campaign dubbed "the Great American Cotton Plan," an initiative that promises subsidies for American cotton farmers, revitaliz …

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Temu fined more than $230 million by EU over illegal product sales

2026-05-28T08:06:46-04:00

Temu has been fined €200 million (about $232 million) by the European Commission after it found that consumers are "very likely to encounter illegal items" on the popular Chinese e-commerce platform. According to the commission, Temu breached Digital Service Act (DSA) rules by failing to identify and assess the systemic risks of illegal products being offered on its platform and the resulting harmful impact on its customers.

The EU launched its formal DSA investigation against Temu in October 2024, and issued a preliminary ruling in July 2025 that found Temu isn't doing enough to keep illegal products off its ultra-cheap marketplace. As par …

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Would you let robots spend your money? Google is betting on it

2026-05-19T13:07:06-04:00

Google is going all in on AI-driven shopping even as some competitors back off.

At Google I/O, the company unveiled the latest iteration of its AI commerce tools: a "Universal Cart" that works across different retailers and Google products like Gemini - and eventually YouTube and Gmail, too. Users can add products to Google's universal cart as they browse Search and chat with Gemini and then check out through Google. The cart will also track prices, provide in-stock notifications, suggest potential discounts, and alert shoppers to potential issues with their selections.

Despite the transformative changes AI has brought to the workplace, …

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Alexa is moving into Amazon․com

2026-05-13T10:43:28-04:00

Alexa for Shopping is Amazon’s new AI-powered shopping assistant. | Image: Amazon

Amazon is bringing Alexa Plus to Amazon.com, integrating its LLM-powered AI assistant directly into the company's shopping experience.

Beginning today, when you type a query into Amazon, you'll be talking to Alexa for Shopping, the company's new shopping assistant, powered by Alexa Plus. So, while a search for "toilet paper" will still return the expected list of brands, typing "What's a good skincare routine for men" or "When did I last order AA batteries" will now trigger an answer from Alexa.

Alexa for Shopping is replacing Amazon's Rufus AI shopping assistant and, unlike Rufus, it will be front and center in the Amazon app and on the w …

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Here’s how Amazon’s price fixing allegedly drove up prices everywhere

2026-04-22T02:34:49-04:00

On Monday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta revealed the evidence of alleged price-fixing by Amazon. The state filed a request to the Supreme Court in February for a preliminary injunction to stop Amazon's behavior while the lawsuit it originally filed in 2022 proceeds, and is now making that 16-page document available, "largely unredacted." It lays out how Amazon allegedly schemed to raise other retailers' prices ahead of Prime Day, or worked with its vendors to make sure items available at a discount elsewhere were suddenly out of stock and unavailable for the lower price.

In response to a request for comment from The Verge, Amazon …

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Instagram and Facebook are about to be filled with affiliate content

2026-03-24T13:27:25-04:00

Instagram and Facebook content will soon have shopping links baked into posts, essentially cutting out third-party "link in bio"-style tools. Meta announced Tuesday that it's adding commerce features on the two platforms, though the functionality will be slightly different for each.

On Facebook, content creators will be able to link their affiliate accounts they have with brands and tag products in Reels and photos. Typically when an influencer wants to send audiences to their affiliate link, they have to comment on a post with a link to the product, or direct audiences toward an affiliate platform like ShopMy or LTK. Now, approved product …

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Every influencer eventually becomes a merch store

2026-03-10T11:29:26-04:00

Tucker Carlson’s “NY Commie” hat | Image: Tucker Carlson Network

Tucker Carlson's online store sells right-wing apparel and home goods, like hoodies in the Supreme streetwear style mocking Somali people or mugs with The Godfather puppetmaster iconography edited to feature AIPAC. But last week, a handful of other products caught the attention of those outside Carlson's typical audience: one is a red and yellow "NY Commie" baseball cap, with a hammer and sickle replacing the "C" (the icon is mirrored to work for the joke); another cap is emblazoned with "Neocons are gay for Israel"; and an "I HEART NICOTINE" mug.

The merch seems to have captured a subset of people whose politics are at odds with Carlson: …

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