Hacker News with Generative AI: E-commerce

Are Levi's from Amazon different from Levi's from Levi's? (nymag.com)
Banned Books: Analysis of Censorship on Amazon.com (2024) (citizenlab.ca)
The rise in online shopping has led to more global reach into markets that may otherwise be inaccessible for companies through traditional retail channels. This increased reach brings new opportunities but also has its own challenges for global e-commerce retailers. One such challenge is in dealing with different, more restrictive regulatory environments worldwide.
eBay backs WunderGraph to build open source GraphQL federation (techcrunch.com)
A fledgling open source startup that’s setting out to tackle API sprawl in the GraphQL ecosystem has secured the backing of e-commerce giant eBay.
Show HN: I indexed 25,000 Shopify stores to build an embedded shopping API (searchagora.com)
"My wife asked me for a pair of red shoes for Christmas. I quickly typed it into Google and found a combination of ads from large retailers and links to a 1948 movie called 'Red Shoes'. I decided to build Agora to solve my own problem (and stay happily married)."
Is Product Search Broken? Why Are We Still Stuck with Ads and Fake Reviews? (ycombinator.com)
I’ve been thinking a lot about how broken product search is today. You type in a query, and the first page is just ads, SEO-optimized blogs, or fake reviews. It feels like the system is designed to waste our time rather than help us.
Show HN: Fashion Shopping with Nearest Neighbors (vibewall.shop)
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Thirty years ago, on March first, 1995, Craig Newmark sent a simple email (gardinercolin.com)
Amazon Surpasses Walmart, Prosus Buys Just Eat Takeaway.com, Booking.com hits $165.6B GBV, David's Bridal to Build a Marketplace and Much More!
Go European: Discover European products and services (goeuropean.org)
How the Internet Made In-Store Shopping Miserable (wsj.com)
E-commerce didn’t kill bricks-and-mortar stores, but it made them worse. Much worse.
When They Stop Selling Your Favorite Thing (nytimes.com)
Shoppers are going online to pay dearly for discontinued items, from the perfect lip pencil to Tab.
Show HN: I built a Free price comparison tool for Amazon, eBay, and AliExpress (oneclickcompare.com)
Shop Hot Deals at AliExpress!
Chinese Temu sellers use fake U.S. postage labels to boost their profits (restofworld.org)
Some Chinese Temu merchants are padding their profits by using counterfeit postage labels to trick the U.S. Postal Service into delivering packages for free.
Show HN: Dealswiki is a deals sharing platform you can earn money posting deals (deals.wiki)
Earn now, get 50% of the affiliate commission when you post deals on deals.wiki!
Show HN: Built A Better Shopify (that's not a rip off) (gitpage.site)
Save 360+ Hours of Development Time
Platform for supporting local sellers and buyers (blunum.com)
Show HN: I indexed 10M Shopify products to build an API (searchagora.com)
"My wife asked me for a pair of red shoes for Christmas. I quickly typed it into Google and found a combination of ads from large retailers and links to a 1948 movie called 'Red Shoes'. I decided to build Agora to solve my own problem (and stay happily married)."
A loophole used by Shein/Temu to ship packages to US tax-free (2024) (businessinsider.com)
As Shein and Temu grow their foothold in the US, analysts and lawmakers are paying close attention to both companies' use of a special tax rule that some say should be eliminated completely.
Temu, Shein and Amazon to be liable in EU for 'unsafe' or 'illegal' goods (ft.com)
Show HN: I made a price aggregator to find the best PC parts deals across eBay (pcprice.watch)
Bookshop.org is launching an eBook store to take on Amazon (theverge.com)
Local bookstores should benefit from ebooks, too, Bookshop.org thinks. Making that happen at scale will take a fight.
Oops Our Bug Created a Stampede of Price Watches (camelcamelcamel.com)
If you noticed some strange behavior in your price watches recently, like duplicate alerts popping up out of nowhere, you’re not losing it. That’s on us. We had a little hiccup (okay, a big hiccup) with our system, and here’s the story.
Coping with dumb LLMs using classic ML (softwaredoug.com)
In previous posts I use a local LLM to choose which two products were more relevant for a search query (see this github repo). Using human labels in an open e-commerce search dataset as a baseline (WANDS from Wayfair), I measure the LLM’s preference for a product, seeing if it matches human raters. If I can do this, then I can use my laptop as the search relevance judge.
American Sellers Lost Amazon to China (marketplacepulse.com)
In 2024, China-based sellers increased their market share to more than 50% on Amazon.
eBay acquires Caramel to reduce risk and complexity of online car sales (techcrunch.com)
E-commerce giant eBay has announced plans to acquire Caramel, a startup that helps car sellers and buyers complete the final steps of the transaction — including verification, financing, paperwork, ownership transfer, insurance, and more.
A free and complete E-commerce Store Builder powered by AI (storelauncher.app)
Show HN: Pixie – A tool to shop for clothes using pictures (ShopWithPixie.com)
Lawsuit:PayPal Accused of Poaching Commissions Via Its 'Honey' Browser Extension (law.com)
Fintech giant PayPal was hit with a proposed class action on Sunday for allegedly pocketing sales commissions belonging to YouTube influencers for promoting products and services in their content.
The Nintendo Switch EShop Is a Bigger Slop Factory Than (kotaku.com)
If you’ve recently loaded up the Nintendo Switch’s eShop to buy something or search for a specific game, you’ve likely noticed that the digital store is filled with a lot of garbage that was likely made quickly and is only there to cash in on a trend or holiday.
Show HN: Open-source and transparent alternative to Honey (github.com/Abdallah-Alwarawreh)
Syrup is an open-source browser extension designed to help users discover and apply the best coupons effortlessly.
Honey's deal-hunting browser extension is accused of ripping off YouTubers (theverge.com)
The PayPal Honey browser extension is, in theory, a handy way to find better deals on products while you’re shopping online. But in a video published this weekend, YouTuber MegaLag claims the extension is a “scam” and that Honey has been “stealing money from influencers, including the very ones they paid to promote their product.”