Best Buy is joining the likes of Walmart and Amazon in launching a third-party marketplace, more than doubling the number of products available and adding entirely new brands, categories and products that can serve more customers’ needs than ever before. Best Buy Marketplace, powered by Mirakl, marks the largest expansion ever of Best Buy’s product assortment, while seamlessly integrating the new products from sellers across all digital experiences. Customers can now explore and shop from hundreds of new brands and added categories like seasonal décor, automotive tech, office and home, and movies and music. Best Buy will also soon introduce licensed sports merchandise to its product lineup. Best Buy Chief Customer, Product and Fulfillment Officer Jason Bonfig said the company had seen gaps in its product line up the marketplace can help close. For example, Best Buy can now do things like offer furniture to complement a new large-screen TV. He added that the marketplace can help smaller vendors sell their products even if they aren’t established enough to sell those items in stores. Alex Hase, general manager of the Americas at Mirakl, said that this model enhances the shopping experience while maintaining a curated selection that aligns with the retailer’s brand promise, and providing sellers with access to new channels and consumers.
Total Mortgage helps renters transition to first-time homeowners with Lease to Keys program offering up to $2,500 closing cost assistance and digital tools for mortgage affordability planning
Total Mortgage has officially launched its Lease to Keys program nationwide, offering qualifying first-time home buyers up to $2,500 in closing cost assistance. The company is helping renters nationwide overcome one of the hardest parts of buying a home: upfront costs. Eligible buyers can first secure a mortgage pre-approval and then present records of their current rent obligation. Once qualified, these applicants may receive a credit equal to one month’s rent, up to $2,500, applied directly to closing costs, cutting the cash required at the closing table. This support tackles one of the biggest financial hurdles, while Total Mortgage’s affordable homeownership options and competitive mortgage rates create a straightforward path from renting to owning. Available through a nationwide network of licensed loan officers, the program pairs local market knowledge with the resources of a nationally recognized lender. Customers can also access guidance on mortgage APR (annual percentage rate), which represents the total yearly cost of a mortgage, including the interest rate and additional fees such as loan origination charges, discount points, and certain closing costs. To further empower first-time buyers, Total Mortgage offers free interactive mortgage calculators on its website. These tools help prospective homeowners map out finances before applying for Lease to Keys, clarifying affordability and expected monthly costs to make homeownership transparent and manageable. The calculators let users compare loan scenarios side by side, factoring in down payments, interest rates, and terms to choose the best fit for their long-term goals.
FTC sues fitness chain for making gym memberships hard to cancel through restrictive processes, opaque policies, and rebilling tactics that violate consumer protection laws
The Federal Trade Commission sued the operators of LA Fitness and other gyms over allegations they make it exceedingly difficult for consumers to cancel their gym memberships and related services that continued indefinitely unless cancelled. The agency is seeking a court order prohibiting the allegedly unfair conduct and money back for consumers harmed by the difficulty in cancelling memberships. “The FTC’s complaint describes a scenario that too many Americans have experienced – a gym membership that seems impossible to cancel,” said Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Tens of thousands of LA Fitness customers reported difficulties – cancellation was often restricted to specific times or required speaking to specific managers who were often not present or available. The FTC will not hesitate to act on behalf of consumers when it believes companies are stifling consumers’ ability to choose which recurring charges they want to keep.” According to the Commission’s complaint, LA Fitness uses opaque and complicated methods to make it extremely difficult for consumers to cancel their memberships. In addition, LA Fitness has failed to clearly inform consumers that they can cancel add-on amenities and services individually, without affecting their gym membership, according to the complaint. For example, it failed to disclose that such services could be cancelled by virtually any gym employee. Finally, instead of simplifying the cancellation process in response to consumer complaints, LA Fitness has trained staff to reject escalated requests and to deny cancellations requested by phone or email, reiterating that all cancellations must be done in person with one specific employee or by mail. Consumers who try to cancel their memberships by stopping charges to their bank or credit card find they are rebilled, often under new account numbers. The FTC alleges such practices violate the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA).
Viant’s DSP offers advertisers real-time scene-level CTV targeting, measurement, and access to expanded premium inventory in US using IRIS_ID and Wurl BrandDiscovery signals
Viant Technologies announced a new integration with Wurl to become the first Demand-Side Platform (DSP) to deliver scene-level contextual intelligence across Connected Television (CTV). This advancement is powered by IRIS.TV’s IRIS_ID and enriched with Wurl BrandDiscovery’s unique streaming signals and proprietary scene identification. With this innovation, advertisers gain the power to align messaging with on-screen context in real time, driving stronger engagement and outcomes. This breakthrough is further enhanced by Viant’s new Open Real Time Bidding (oRTB) integration with Wurl, unlocking premium Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST) inventory from top publishers. This partnership marks the first time Wurl’s BrandDiscovery-enabled supply is available via direct oRTB in a DSP, aligning with Viant’s supply path optimization initiatives by streamlining access to premium inventory. By combining this supply with Viant’s Household ID and identity graph, which provides 95% of coverage of U.S. adults 18+, advertisers achieve greater reach, relevance, and efficiency in the fastest-growing digital advertising channel: CTV. Through its integration with IRIS.TV, Wurl’s proprietary BrandDiscovery segments, which classify each scene’s emotional tone and thematic context, are now assigned IRIS_IDs at the scene level. With every Wurl impression IRIS-enabled, advertisers gain a new level of precision, aligning creative with narrative moments that drive stronger engagement and results. These signals are fully actionable in the Viant DSP via the company’s newly launched IRIS-enabled™ Content Report and Pre-bid Targeting solution. Advertisers using the Viant DSP can now: Target and activate across scene-level emotional and contextual categories; Access Wurl’s premium FAST inventory programmatically via oRTB; Discover top-performing scenes through the IRIS-enabled™ Content Report; Measure and optimize performance with Viant’s Advanced Reporting tools
In tests, Perplexity’s Comet AI browser falls for phishing and fake shopping sites, auto-filling sensitive info and completing transactions without user approval; hence exposing key security gaps
A study looking into agentic AI browsers has found that these emerging tools are vulnerable to both new and old schemes that could make them interact with malicious pages and prompts. According to an examination focused primarily on Comet, these tools were released with inadequate security safeguards against known and novel attacks specifically crafted to target them. Tests from Guardio, a developer of browser extensions that protect against online threats (identity theft, phishing, malware), revealed that agentic AI browsers are vulnerable to phishing, prompt injection, and purchasing from fake shops. In one test, Guardio asked Comet to buy an Apple watch while on a fake Walmart site the researchers created using the Lovable service. Although in the experiment Comet was directed to the fake shop, in a real-life scenario an AI agent can end up in the same situation through SEO poisoning and malvertising. The model scanned the site without confirming its legitimacy, navigated to checkout, and autofilled the data for the credit card and address, completing the purchase without asking for human confirmation. In the second test, Guardio crafted a fake Wells Fargo email sent from a ProtonMail address, linking to a real, live phishing page. Comet treated the incoming communication as a genuine instruction from the bank, clicked the phishing link, loaded the fake Wells Fargo login page, and prompted the user to enter their credentials. Finally, Guardio tested a prompt injection scenario where they used a fake CAPTCHA page hiding instructions for the AI agent embedded in its source code. Comet interpreted the hidden instructions as valid commands and clicked the ‘CAPTCHA’ button, triggering a malicious file download. Guardio underlines that their tests barely scratch the surface of the security complexities that arise from the emergence of agentic AI browsers, as new threats are expected to replace the standard human-centric attack models.
GoDaddy launches embedded merchant cash advances up to $1 million in 24 hours for Payments users; offering instant sales-based underwriting and fixed‑percentage daily repayments, unifying collections, cash flow management, and capital on one platform.
GoDaddy introduced GoDaddy Capital 1, a merchant cash advance program that puts up to $1 million in the hands of small- and medium-sized businesses in as little as 24 hours. Available only to GoDaddy Payments users, the new offering lets small businesses pay down the advance through a fixed percentage of each day’s sales, giving them one streamlined platform to take payments, manage cash flow and secure working capital. Businesses can review several offers of $500 to $1 million based on their monthly sales, and decide which is best for their business goals. Once approved, business owners will get funded in as little as 24 hours.GoDaddy Capital empowers small businesses through: Built-in flexible payments help business owners easily balance budgets and grow manageably, which is especially important for seasonal businesses; Quickly getting funded can unlock businesses’ ability to buy more inventory or upgrade their equipment, broaden their market reach, drive operational success, or boost their cash flow to support long-term growth; Having access to capital within their GoDaddy dashboard saves businesses time by having one place to accomplish everything. Kasturi Mudulodu, president of Commerce at GoDaddy said “When a business needs a small, quick infusion of capital, banks call it ‘too small,’ drown owners in paperwork, and demand rigid payment terms. To make financing simple and intuitive for small businesses, we built GoDaddy Capital right into the GoDaddy dashboard. GoDaddy Capital provides quick, variable-size funding and gives businesses the ability to adjust payments on the cash advance based on their success.”
German retailer deploys Diebold AI computer‑vision shrink reduction at self‑checkout, nudging for missed scans, triggering staff only on repeat errors, and adding GDPR‑compliant, camera‑based age verification to cut friction
EDEKA Paschmann in Düsseldorf is the first supermarket in Germany to use Diebold Nixdorf’s (NYSE: DBD) Vynamic® Smart Vision I Shrink Reduction solution at its self-service checkouts. The AI-enabled technology addresses errors at the self-service checkout – both unintentional and deliberate – and offers retailers protection against the most common cause of loss in self-checkout. In addition, the systems are equipped with Diebold Nixdorf’s automatic, AI-powered age verification. Both solutions help EDEKA Paschmann reduce friction for shoppers and store staff alike, tackling the areas that cause the majority of interventions and checkout delays. Vynamic Smart Vision I Shrink Reduction uses cameras to analyze customer behavior and activities at the self-service checkout in real time. If the system detects a missed scan or incorrect operation, customers receive a nudge via a message on the checkout display informing that an item has not been scanned correctly. Once the shopper self-rectifies and scans the product which was missed, the transaction continues without major interruption to the checkout process. Employees are only informed if the system displays another error message, so they can provide support to complete the checkout process correctly. Short, real-time video sequences of the anomaly detected by the system help to better illustrate the process to customers and explain how certain operating errors can be avoided in future. With Vynamic® Smart Vision I Age Verification, EDEKA Paschmann is deploying another AI-enabled solution from Diebold Nixdorf. By using a consumer-facing camera and a sophisticated algorithm, shoppers can authorize the purchase of age-restricted goods like alcoholic beverages. This gives staff members time for more important tasks such as customer service or ensuring product availability, as they only need to assist shoppers who score below the age threshold or those who do not wish to opt in.
Fullpath integrates Fuse Dynamic Payments with its AI native customer data platform, unifying real‑time inventory and financing data to activate personalized deals across sales, finance, and parts marketing channels
Fullpath, the automotive industry’s AI-first Customer Data Platform (CDP), announced its strategic acquisition of Fuse Autotech’s Dynamic Payments solution. This integration offers dealerships a seamless way to ensure car shoppers are served real-time, relevant offers across the Fullpath ecosystem, enhancing the customer experience with frictionless, personalized engagements. Dynamic Payments seamlessly integrates with Fullpath’s CDP, pulling pricing and rebate data, dealership incentives, financing rates, OEM incentives, financing rates and more, in real time. This enables dealers to automatically generate tailored inventory offers for display across the Fullpath suite of AI activation solutions, creating a personalized, valuable shopping experience at every touchpoint. By integrating with the CDP, Dynamic Payments ensures every offer presented on the dealership website, marketing emails, SMS campaigns, and digital advertising campaigns is relevant and reflective of real-time inventory data. “The addition of Fuse Dynamic Payments to the Fullpath product ecosystem will enable us to better support every profit center at the dealership – from sales and finance, to service and parts – within all of our marketing activities,” says Fullpath CEO & Co-Founder, Aharon Horwitz.
Fullpath integrates Fuse Dynamic Payments with its AI native customer data platform, unifying real‑time inventory and financing data to activate personalized deals across sales, finance, and parts marketing channels
Fullpath, the automotive industry’s AI-first Customer Data Platform (CDP), announced its strategic acquisition of Fuse Autotech’s Dynamic Payments solution. This integration offers dealerships a seamless way to ensure car shoppers are served real-time, relevant offers across the Fullpath ecosystem, enhancing the customer experience with frictionless, personalized engagements. Dynamic Payments seamlessly integrates with Fullpath’s CDP, pulling pricing and rebate data, dealership incentives, financing rates, OEM incentives, financing rates and more, in real time. This enables dealers to automatically generate tailored inventory offers for display across the Fullpath suite of AI activation solutions, creating a personalized, valuable shopping experience at every touchpoint. By integrating with the CDP, Dynamic Payments ensures every offer presented on the dealership website, marketing emails, SMS campaigns, and digital advertising campaigns is relevant and reflective of real-time inventory data. “The addition of Fuse Dynamic Payments to the Fullpath product ecosystem will enable us to better support every profit center at the dealership – from sales and finance, to service and parts – within all of our marketing activities,” says Fullpath CEO & Co-Founder, Aharon Horwitz.
Wunderkind debuts AI Experiences: using identity graphs, behavioral signals, and agentic decisioning to pick best‑time, best‑channel messages across email/SMS and deliver affinity‑based product recommendations
Wunderkind, the AI decisioning platform announced the launch of Wunderkind AI Experiences: a breakthrough portfolio of agentic, personalized messaging strategies. AI Experiences offers a powerful and efficient solution. Unlike traditional tools built on static rules and manual logic, AI Experiences uses advanced identity resolution, real-time behavioral data, and agentic decisioning to deliver the highest performing messages. It determines the best timing and channel for each individual across email and SMS, as well as uses affinity modeling for personalized product recommendations. This drives higher conversions, expands reach and scales personalized experiences beyond what human teams can achieve. From re-engaging abandoners to recommending the next-best purchase, AI Experiences uses behavioral signals and identity resolution to unlock hyper-relevant touchpoints that drive conversions. By dynamically sequencing campaigns based on individual intent—not pre-set logic—Wunderkind enables marketers to maximize engagement, revenue, and brand loyalty at scale. Key Benefits of Wunderkind AI Experiences: Smarter Targeting: Identify and engage high-intent shoppers with precision, using first-party data and behavioral signals. Dynamic Sequencing: Automatically determine the next-best message and moment to send, improving engagement and efficiency. Cross-Channel Optimization: Coordinate outreach across email and text in a unified, adaptive flow. Effortless Execution: Eliminate complex build-outs and ongoing campaign maintenance with plug-and-play strategies that perform from the start.