Uber has rolled out a series of products designed to help customers save money. Among the new offerings is Route Share, which offers pickups every 20 minutes along busy corridors during weekday commute hours with up to two co-riders, with fares up to 50% cheaper than the cost of an UberX. There are also Ride Passes, which let riders pay $2.99 per month to lock in a price for a set route and save up to $50 a month, or pay upfront for five, 10, 15 or 20 rides on regular routes to access even larger discounts. Meanwhile, the company is also introducing a product for Uber Eats called “Savings Slider,” which lets shoppers compare prices for items on their grocery list within stores, or even get recommendations for nearby stores offering better deals. The new offering comes amid signs that Americans are feeling increasing financial pressures. “We’re hearing it more and more these days — life just feels like a lot. Too complicated. Too uncertain. And above all, too expensive,” the tech giant said in announcement. “That’s why at Uber we’re building practical products to make life a little more affordable — and a lot easier.”
ShopRite stores deploy VoCoVo’s all-in-one wireless headsets for associates; with full-duplex audio, team members can talk and listen at the same time through an environment noise-canceling (ENC) microphone that’s purpose-built for noisy retail settings
Thirty ShopRite stores in the metro New York area have rolled out VoCoVo Series 5 Pro Headsets. VoCoVo’s all-in-one wireless headsets aim to help retail teams communicate more easily and naturally with co-workers and customers across the store. According to VoCoVo, its Series 5 Pro Headset is a fully integrated communication solution that seamlessly connects retail team members, enhances customer interactions and syncs with other connected store technology. Among its key features are telephony integration, enabling associates to make, receive and transfer customer calls directly from their headsets, and connectivity with curbside pickup services, self-checkout systems and more. These integrations convert real-time notifications into instant voice alerts, ensuring quick and efficient responses from store teams. The wireless headsets provide retail associates, both in-store and beyond, with seamless, secure communication via DECT, a technology for high-quality, scalable voice connectivity. Thanks to full-duplex audio, team members can talk and listen at the same time through an environment noise-canceling (ENC) microphone that’s purpose-built for noisy retail settings. Designed for durability, the waterproof, dustproof and impact-resistant headsets can withstand extreme temperatures while delivering up to 40 hours of standby time per charge.
Sam’s Club to deliver pizzas for online orders with an option to combine them with other items that are eligible for <3 hours express delivery
Warehouse club retailer Sam’s Club, a division of Walmart, is now delivering hot Member’s Mark baked pizzas for online orders at most stores across the U.S. and will have the offering available from all stores by the end of May 2025. The pizzas cost $8.98 and come in pepperoni, cheese and four-meat flavors. Online pizza orders can be combined with other items and are eligible for express delivery, arriving less than three hours after an order is placed. Pizzas are also still available for in-store or curbside orders. According to Sam’s Club, the launch of pizza delivery is the latest step in a bigger shift to providing shoppers digital ease in ways that save time, add value and deepen customer connections, such as its new digital-first store format. “When we talk about innovation, it’s not just about what’s new — it’s about what makes life easier for our members,” said Kurt Hess, group director, operations and implementation at Sam’s Club. “Pizza delivery is a perfect example.”
NielsenIQ report shows 59% of U.S. consumers open to buying more private label products if a larger variety were available while 72% think private labels are good alternatives to name-brand products
New data from NielsenIQ reveals that consumers are open to increasing their spending on store brand products if more items were available. In NIQ’s report, 59% of U.S. consumers say they would buy more private label products if a larger variety were available. The report also found that 72% of consumers said private labels are good alternatives to name-brand products, with 75% saying store brands are a good value for the money. At retail, consumers said they are most likely to purchase private label products at supermarket/grocery stores, dollar stores, discount retailers, and pharmacy/drug stores. Additionally, 59% of consumers said they trust store brands since they are endorsed by the retailer. That level of trust is consistent across four key demographic groups, with 58% of Baby Boomers, 55% of Gen X, 63% of Millennials, and 62% of Gen Z saying they trust private label brands. With annual sales of private label products up 4.1%, according to NIQ, nearly half of consumers (49%) said they’re likely buying more private label products than ever. The rate of sales growth for private label is outpacing the Top 100+ national brands (+2.4% annual sales growth), the Top 11-100 national brands (+2.3%), and the Top 10 national brands (+1.7%). The Nielsen report also highlighted the price differences between private label and national brands across several key categories. As a whole, branded products on average are sold at prices that are 19% higher than store brands.
Korl hyper-customize customer messaging by orchestrating an “ensemble of models” across OpenAI, Gemini and Anthropic
Startup Korl’s platform works across multiple systems to help create highly customized communications. The multi-agent, multimodal tool uses a mix of models from OpenAI, Gemini, and Anthropic to source and contextualize data. Korl’s AI agents aggregate information from across different systems — such as engineering documentation from Jira, outlines from Google Docs, designs from Figma, and project data from Salesforce — to build a multi-source view. The platform then automatically generates personalized quarterly business reviews (QBRs), renewal pitches, tailored presentations and other materials for use in important customer milestones. The company’s core differentiator is its ability to deliver “polished, customer-ready materials” such as slides, narratives and emails, “rather than merely analytics or raw insights.” Korl orchestrates an “ensemble of models” across OpenAI, Gemini and Anthropic, selecting the best model for the job at the time based on speed, accuracy and cost. The company has implemented “sophisticated fallback mechanisms” to mitigate failures. “Rather than just semantic or field-name matching, our approach evaluates additional factors like data sparsity to score and predict field matches,” said Berit Hoffmann, CEO and co-founder of Korl. To speed the process, Korl combines low-latency, high-throughput models (such as GPT-4o for rapid, context-building responses) with deeper analytical models (Claude 3.7 for more complex, customer-facing communications). “This ensures that we optimize for the best end user experience, making context-driven tradeoffs between immediacy and accuracy,” Hoffmann explained. Early indications suggest Korl can unlock at least a 1-point improvement in net revenue retention (NRR) for mid-market software companies because it uncovers previously unrealized product value and makes it easy to communicate that to customers before they churn or make renewal or expansion decisions. The platform also improves efficiency, reducing deck preparation time for each customer call from “multiple hours to minutes,” according to Hoffman.
New survey says 52% of Americans are BNPL for everyday purchases; electronics, furniture and home goods are the most popular items purchased through BNPL with an average minimum price of $250
According to a survey by PartnerCentric.com, 52% of Americans now rely on installment-based payment services to cover everyday purchases, including groceries. The most popular items purchased through BNPL include medium to large products like electronics, furniture and home goods, with an average minimum price of $250. But 31% of consumers also reported using those programs for essentials like groceries, highlighting the financial strain many households are facing. BNPL programs are especially popular among younger Americans, with 59 percent of Gen Z and 58 percent of millennials opting for flexible payment methods. The survey also found that 35 percent of consumers plan to use BNPL more frequently in 2025, a figure that jumps to 65 percent among Gen Z. Popular BNPL providers like Afterpay, Affirm, PayPal Pay in 4 and Klarna have become critical financial tools for many Americans, offering flexible installment plans with no interest, helping consumers manage their rising expenses. These options won’t affect credit scores if payments are made on time. Economic uncertainty appears to be adding to the trend. Fifteen percent of survey participants said they tried BNPL in 2025 due to the increased cost of living.
Expedia adds APIs to B2B platform to help build travel packages- Car API, Activities API, Insurance API, and Air APIs
xpedia Group enhanced its B2B segment, Private Label Solutions, by adding APIs that help its partners build travel packages. The new offerings will provide access to rental cars, bookable experiences, trip protection insurance and air travel. Car API will offer access to cars from 110 brands in 190 countries and territories, Activities API will provide 170,000 bookable experiences worldwide, Insurance API will allow partners to offer trip protection during booking, and Air API will integrate air travel with lodging and car rentals to enable an all-in-one booking experience. “We’ve built the largest connected B2B travel network in the world, and it’s the strength of those connections that drive real results,” Alfonso Paredes, president of Private Label Solutions at Expedia Group, said. “Our newly announced APIs take that even further, making it easier for partners to access more supply and leverage our intelligence.” Expedia Group also announced that it added a new Reservation Management API that helps hoteliers with their bookings, management, data recovery, payments and traveler experience. The company also unveiled Expedia Trip Matching, which will launch in early June on Instagram and enable travelers to share a travel-related Reel with Expedia and receive customized itineraries, destination ideas and travel tips based on that Reel. In addition, Expedia Group Advertising introduced tools that help travel advertisers co-create shoppable travel content and use the company’s first-party data to target high-intent audiences.
New Generation’s AI-powered shopping page offers instant visual answers through natural language interaction that dynamically shape around a shopper’s intent
To power the future of AI-native shopping and digital retail, New Generation (New Gen), a technology company redefining commerce for the AI internet, launches publicly with $4.5M in seed funding. The startup is reimagining how brands engage with both consumers and AI-powered shopping agents by giving every brand its own AI-powered shopping page that creates a custom experience for each visitor. Customers experience instant visual answers through natural language interaction, while AI agents gain direct, structured access through a dedicated address at the AI-specific subdomain (e.g., ai.yourbrand.com). This subdomain acts as a specialized entry point optimized for human shoppers and AI-driven traffic, ensuring brands can transition to AI-native commerce without overhauling their existing websites or technology stacks. Shoppers arriving through AI channels land deeper in the sales funnel, prepared to spend more than those engaging with traditional retail experiences. New Gen ensures brands capitalize on this shift by dynamically tailoring each visitor’s experience based on their unique intent, converting AI-driven traffic directly into sales. These “visual answer engines” dynamically shape themselves around a shopper’s intent, immediately offering relevant results, insights or products, rather than forcing them through rigid navigation or filters.
Tesco’s VAR-style tech at self-checkout tills uses camera that records customers’ actions and detects when items may not have been properly scanned to combat shoplifting
Tesco has introduced VAR-style replay technology at its self-checkout tills to combat shoplifting. The technology uses artificial intelligence to detect when items may not have been properly scanned. If a shopper fails to scan the items correctly, they are warned to remove from the bagging area and try again. Retail experts believe this visual evidence makes shoplifters more likely to pay for items rather than risk being caught. The technology could lead to the removal of security measures from everyday products. Shoplifting has reached record levels in the UK, costing retailers £2bn annually, and staff facing increasing violence and abuse.
OpenAI’s Shopify partnership to make online shopping a more personalized experience direct integration of product details, pricing and ‘Buy Now’ button into the UI
OpenAI’s integration with Shopify is expected to revolutionize online shopping, transforming the internet into a more personalized experience. The integration will allow digital personal shoppers to know customers’ size, style, and preferences, allowing them to make more informed decisions about their purchases. This could lead to a shift from traditional storefronts to full-service consultants and lifestyle experts. The adoption of Gen AI will result in lower return rates, reduced bounce rates, and a rise in’shopper loyalty’ as consumers build an affinity with stores that make their lives easier and feel special. To optimize the integration, brands should focus on user-generated content, build a real community, and train their assistants cleverly. The partnership between OpenAI and Shopify could mark an unprecedented step forward in using Gen AI as a shopping tool. By integrating product details, pricing, reviews, and even a ‘Buy Now’ button directly into the UI, the future of online shopping will be significantly changed. The winners will be those that think beyond the transaction and create experiences that feel truly personal.