Chipotle Mexican Grill is launching a new online-only menu option offering intended to feed groups of four to six people. Starting Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, Chipotle will offer “Build-Your-Own Chipotle,” a shareable, customizable spread that can be ready for online pickup in as little as 15 minutes. “Build-Your-Own Chipotle” is served with large family-style portions of each ingredient, enabling groups of four to six to create any bowl, salad, or soft taco to their liking and dietary preferences. “For the first time ever, customers can use our digital ordering channels, the Chipotle app and Chipotle.com, to bring a personalized Chipotle makeline to their kitchen with just a few taps,” said Curt Garner, president, chief strategy and technology officer, Chipotle. “This is an innovation that brings people together around the food they love.” Chipotle will offer $10 off “Build-Your-Own Chipotle” orders placed through the Chipotle app and Chipotle.com with a special code from Tuesday, Aug. 26 through Tuesday, Oct. 21 or until 500,000 total redemptions, whichever comes first. In addition to “Build-Your-Own Chipotle,” Chipotle offers a group order feature on its app which allows customers to create a shareable link for friends and family to add their meal and submit as one all-inclusive pick-up or delivery order. ‘Build-Your-Own Chipotle’ makes it easier than ever for parents, coaches and hosts to serve food they can feel good about at a great value,” said Chris Brandt, president, chief brand officer, Chipotle. “We want to make it even easier to Groupotle and are offering guests $10 off to try it.”
ALDI’s invite‑only “Quarter Club” rewards 25 superfans with merch and a chance to be featured on the ALDI social media channels nodding to its quarter‑for‑cart savings system and price leadership
Loyalty for ALDI runs deep. To celebrate and thank its most loyal customers, ALDI U.S. is in search of its biggest fans to induct into the first-ever ALDI Quarter Club: an exclusive group of 25 super-fans. Starting Aug. 25 through Aug. 29 at 11:59 p.m. ET at ALDIQuarterClub.com, ALDI fans are invited for a chance to join the Quarter Club by answering: “What is the boldest move you’ve made in the name of ALDI that sets you apart as a Super Fan?” Entries must be 200 words or fewer and include up to two photos to help bring the fandom to life. Once inducted, ALDI Quarter Club members will receive such prizes as: One year’s worth of free groceries for an individual; An exclusive invitation to a members-only event in the grocer’s hometown; A custom varsity-style Quarter Club jacket, among other merch; A chance to be featured on the ALDI social media channels. This exclusive club is a nod to the iconic quarter that unlocks every ALDI cart. That same cart system is one of the many ways the low-price grocer helps shoppers save money year-round – up to 36% on an average grocery trip, according to its “Price Leadership Report.”
AI driven zero-click search drives 15–25% decline in website traffic as 80% of consumers rely on AI answers, forcing businesses to optimize structured data for visibility and conversions
Zero click results in a domino effect that could substantially suppress sales because shoppers don’t see the tools used by businesses to bring them back. About 80% of consumers rely on zero-click results in at least 40% of their searches, according to a recent report from Bain & Co. This reduces organic traffic to their websites by 15% to 25%. With fewer actual visits to their websites, companies — especially SMBs — lose access to customer data and engagement opportunities. Brand visibility increasingly depends on being included in AI‑generated answers, rather than ranking well in search listings. Intuit Mailchimp offsets the drop in online traffic by updating its sites to better serve web crawlers. These are bots that “read” websites to see if they can answer queries users ask the AI. What Mailchimp also discovered: For AI chatbots, the speed at which the pages load and the code used to track user activity are more important for AI-driven searches than traditional search engines. AI chatbots have been optimized for machines than human readers, Mailchimp told. Companies, especially SMBs, should shift focus from clicks to visibility, authority and conversions. That involves structured data like FAQs or “How‑To” schemas, concise answer formats, and monitoring impressions and brand mentions as key metrics. Techniques include improving AI-readability — such as short paragraphs, clear headings and tables lists — and diversifying presence across platforms where AI sources draw from. There’s a silver lining. Zero‑click doesn’t have to mean vanish. Cited content still builds awareness, and AI recommendations can drive intent, even without click‑through.
Grocers can replace hi-lo pricing/promotions with stable everyday fair price by keeping base prices close to competitors and reserving promotions for traffic drivers like meat
Hi-lo isn’t the answer for grocers, and neither is EDLP. We recommend an alternative model in which everyday prices are close enough to competitors and promotions are focused on specific goals — like driving traffic or increasing trial of private brand — rather than offered indiscriminately as a mechanism to paper over unreasonable everyday prices. We call this “everyday fair price.” Under the old model, insights about how well different promotions actually performed — How many of these items are contributing to full shops? How often are these items included in baskets with a desirable margin? How much did this promotion cannibalize sales of the private brand? — were largely irrelevant because running them came with compensation other than sales. In a modern model, every promotion has a purpose. Grocers that take a traditional approach to promotional calendars are likely promoting too many products, too frequently, at discounts that are too steep. How responsive shoppers are to a given promotion varies dramatically based on the category and the item. For example, meat promotions often drive trips; promotions of canned vegetables rarely do. It follows that canned-vegetable promotions should be infrequent, fully funded and low-discount, whereas meat should be promoted on the cover, at aggressive price points, for all occasions. The opportunity to focus less on promotions and more on everyday prices will be especially important in markets heavily penetrated by discounters, but even in other markets, most grocers will find their price perception needs retooling. Our research shows that overall “value for the money” perception generally comes down to everyday prices rather than promotions, so more focus needs to go to the former than the latter.
Byrna’s proprietary AI advertising process produces compelling ads faster, test and optimize these ads more effectively; delivering 66 million views (50% rise in avg daily web visits), 31% sales gain with 43% cost savings
Byrna Technologies announced that its new proprietary AI-driven advertising process has delivered a substantial increase in consumer engagement and web traffic. For the first eight months of fiscal 2025, spanning December 1 through July 31, Byrna averaged approximately 33,400 daily web sessions. Since introducing its proprietary creative content development process that draws upon a number of new AI-based tools, Byrna’s “We Don’t Sell Bananas” advertising campaign which debuted in early August, drove an increase in average daily sessions on Byrna.com of 50% to more than 50,000 web sessions per day – the highest level in the Company’s history. Amazon web sessions have also seen strong growth, rising 75% compared to their 2025 average during the first 21 days of August. Byrna’s “We Don’t Sell Bananas” commercial, the first campaign produced under this new ad creation process, has been viewed more than 66 million times. More importantly, it has proven highly cost-effective, driving website traffic at a cost of $0.53 per visitor compared to $0.94 for Byrna’s iconic “How It Works” campaign, a 43% savings. By leveraging available AI tools with proprietary technical and creative processes, Byrna can generate professional-quality commercials in days rather than weeks, continuously refresh content, and A/B test multiple variations at scale. This process has also enabled the Company to adapt its creative content more quickly to the requirements of the cable networks where the content is running, resulting in broader distribution opportunities and lower customer acquisition costs. Increased web traffic is already beginning to translate into higher sales. For the first 21 days of August, Byrna.com sales rose 31% compared to the prior 21-day period. Because new customers typically require multiple visits before making a purchase, the Company expects the full benefit of this surge in traffic to be realized over time as conversion rates revert to their 1.0% mean. “Our new AI-powered proprietary approach to content creation is proving to be a powerful tool for scaling Byrna’s brand awareness effectively,” said Bryan Ganz, CEO of Byrna. “It enables us to produce compelling ads faster, test and optimize these ads more effectively, and expand our reach across cable networks at a significantly lower cost than traditional methods.”
Marketers can elevate popups as a core marketing lever- operationalizing popup insights across email, SMS, push, and ads with automated journeys and predictive segmentation; tracking impressions, opt‑ins, engagement, and revenue lift end‑to‑end
In a digital world rapidly moving toward privacy-first practices and the deprecation of third-party cookies, the data marketers collect through popups has never been more important or valuable. Data collected through popups shouldn’t live in a silo, it should power the entire customer experience. Intuit Mailchimp’s research found that nearly 90% of top-performing marketers who are revenue leaders automate their customer journeys, leveraging customer data platforms at nearly twice the rate of baseline marketers. Here are a few high-impact ways to put that data to work: Segmentation: Craft targeted campaigns based on customer-stated preferences. Marketers who use AI-powered features to segment smarter, deliver more impactful, personalized campaigns. Product Recommendations: Use declared interests to surface relevant products. Retargeting: Apply intent signals (“interested in men’s skincare”) to paid social and display audiences. Cross-Channel Personalization: Feed insights into email and SMS, WhatsApp messages, push notifications, and in-app experiences. When integrated across platforms, popup data becomes the connective tissue for a consistent, high-performing marketing ecosystem. To measure success, track key metrics like impressions, conversions, and your opt-in rate. While email and SMS signups should remain your primary KPIs, they shouldn’t be the only ones. Engagement signals, segmentation insights, and downstream revenue impact all contribute to a more holistic view of performance.
Pop Mart’s Labubu engineered scarcity via blind‑box collectibles and controlled supply is powering a speculative resale economy, rentals, accessories and meme coins— but critics warn Beanie‑Baby‑like durability risk
Labubus are more than plush toys — they’ve become a vast global marketplace and for some, a hot investment. Collectors from the US to Pop Mart’s home market in China are betting the small, toothy dolls will skyrocket in value on the resale market, where people hawk them at a markup, propelled by successes such as an ultra-rare edition fetching $150,000 at a Beijing auction. A booming Labubu ecosystem is spawning everything from bespoke doll clothing to meme coins. People worldwide are finding creative ways to profit beyond reselling, including renting out their dolls by the day or being paid to hunt for new drops. The dolls have become a global craze thanks to their mystery blind box packaging — which encourages repeat purchases. “There is a secondhand market that facilitates all this trading,” said Mandy Hu, an associate marketing professor and director at the Centre for Consumer Insights at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “People even as young as teenagers, they trade Labubus as an investment and they think that they can make money off of collecting those dolls.” But is Pop Mart China’s answer to intellectual property giants like Walt Disney Co., or a passing fad? Some analysts see echoes of 1990s Beanie Babies mania, when the plush toys fetched huge sums before their market collapsed. “I think it’s very likely to go the same way as the Beanie Babies, but maybe faster, because of course with the Internet information flows faster,” said Christophe Spaenjers, a finance professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. “There’s probably going to be a handful that are going to hold some value, but most of them are worthless in terms of market value, resale value.” Others highlight Pop Mart’s weak narrative depth. Unlike Disney or Japanese franchise Pokémon, Labubu lacks a rich backstory or media extensions. “Pokémon has television shows, movies, it has stores, it’s got soft toys, it’s got a whole variety of different things,” said Gemma Dale, Head of Investor Behavior for National Australia Bank Ltd.’s online investing platform nabtrade, “all feeding the hype over time. To extend Labubu to that is going to be incredibly challenging.” Analysts say Pop Mart amplifies scarcity, driving collectors to resellers by limiting how many toys are released — a centuries-old tactic used to sell everything from diamonds to airline tickets. They use the strategy “to keep up the price and make people feel like it’s so precious, and they want to have it and must have it.”
Walmart’s seller tech stack adds AI listing, automated delivery promises and next‑day WFS coverage in top metros to improve speed and conversion
Walmart is offering faster delivery times for marketplace orders in its continuing eCommerce battle with Amazon. WFS, its fulfillment service, which provides storage and shipping services for its third-party marketplace vendors, will now begin offering next-day delivery in a number of major U.S. cities, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Atlanta among them. Walmart’s aim is “to deliver the speed that customers expect,” Manish Joneja, senior vice president of Walmart US marketplace and fulfillment services, said. The service will cover some of the website’s most popular items, with Walmart planning to continue expanding next-day deliveries to additional areas, he added. The new shipping offering is part of a broad range of offerings announced by Walmart’s “Let’s Grow! Walmart Marketplace Seller Summit” designed to promote seller growth. For example, the company is debuting seller incentives to help merchants compete during the peak shopping season and land more business. These incentives include a 0% referral fee on all qualifying toys, a 50% referral fee reduction on qualifying pet supplies, and referral fee reductions of up to 100% qualifying top-selling items across categories. Walmart also announced two new artificial intelligence-powered tools: a listing tool designed to reduce time to market and increase conversion rates, and a Smart Assistant that offers sellers real-time assistance around the clock. Other new offerings announced at the event include a Seller Advisors Program that enables sellers to provide feedback to Walmart leaders, a tool that automates delivery promises for sellers who self-fulfill, and a brand portal meant to ensure product authenticity. In its new Cypress, Texas, location, Walmart added a Marketplace aisle that allows customers to see select items on display and order them through the Walmart app.
Browser‑native Anthropic Claude agent launches in Chrome research preview for 1,000 Max users, enabling contextual chat and task execution with granular site limits and consent gates for publishing or purchases
Anthropic is launching a research preview of a browser-based AI agent powered by its Claude AI models. The agent, Claude for Chrome, is rolling out to a group of 1,000 subscribers on Anthropic’s Max plan, which costs between $100 and $200 per month. By adding an extension to Chrome, select users can now chat with Claude in a sidecar window that maintains context of everything happening in their browser. Users can also give the Claude agent permission to take actions in their browser and complete some tasks on their behalf. Anthropic says users can limit Claude’s browser agent from accessing certain sites in the app’s settings, and the company has, by default, blocked Claude from accessing websites that offer financial services, adult content, and pirated content. The company also says that Claude’s browser agent will ask for user permission before “taking high-risk actions like publishing, purchasing, or sharing personal data.”
Anthropic tests AI that can see pages, click, and fill forms in Chrome via a plugin, with guardrails to cut prompt‑injection risk from 23.6% to 11.2%
Anthropic PBC, the startup developing the Claude Gen AI model family, announced the pilot of a browser extension on Tuesday that lets its AI model take control of users’ Google Chrome. The experimental browser-using capability, called Claude for Chrome, will be available for 1,000 users subscribed to the company’s Max plan for $100 or $200 per month. The company announced the extension as a controlled pilot for a small number of users so Anthropic can develop better security practices for this emerging technology. “We view browser-using AI as inevitable: so much work happens in browsers that giving Claude the ability to see what you’re looking at, click buttons, and fill forms will make it substantially more useful,” Anthropic said. The company said that early versions of Claude for Chrome showed promise in managing calendars, scheduling meetings, drafting email responses and testing website features. However, the feature is still experimental and represents a major new security concern, which is why it is not being released widely. Allowing AI models direct control of browsers means that they will encounter a higher chance of malicious instructions in the wild that could be executed on users’ computers, allowing attackers to manipulate the AI model. In experiments, Anthropic said prompt injection tests evaluated 123 attacks representing 29 different scenarios. Out of those, AI-controlled browser use without safety mitigation had a 23.6% success rate for deliberate attacks. “When we added safety mitigations to autonomous mode, we reduced the attack success rate of 23.6% to 11.2%, which represents a meaningful improvement over our existing Computer Use capability,” Anthropic said. Anthropic said for the pilot, users will be blocked from sites it considers “high-risk categories,” such as financial services, adult content and pirated content. The Anthropic team added that it will use insights from the pilot users to refine how prompt injection classifiers operate and how the security mechanisms work to protect users. By building an understanding of user behavior, especially unsafe behavior, and uncovering new attack patterns, the company said it hopes to develop more sophisticated controls for this type of safety-critical application.