FRIDAY · 6 NOVEMBER 2026
THE GROWTH BRIEF
News and lessons from every industry.
Welcome to The Growth Brief, the new name for The Commerce Brief. You'll still get the week's biggest eCommerce and retail news, now alongside the moves in AI, marketing and tech that shape how companies grow, and what each one means for you. Hit reply and tell me what you think of the new look!
Sue Azari
THIS WEEK’S TOP INDUSTRY UPDATES
👕 Marks and Spencer more than doubled its half-year profit to £403m, up from £184m during last year’s cyber attack. Clothing, home and beauty sales rose 17.5%, but are still 1.7% below two years ago. (source)
🎄 Disney is running its first TikTok Shop “Super Brand Day” until 10 November, with more than 20 brands including Old Navy, Crocs and ColourPop selling Disney collections, plus two items you can only buy on TikTok Shop for now. (source)
💄 Sephora cast Seth Rogen as an unexpected beauty shopper in its US and Canada holiday campaign, opening with a "Sethphora" store takeover in Los Angeles. (source)
📈 Zalando grew its sales from other businesses by almost 28% to €354m (about £310m) from July to September, with profit from its B2B side more than doubling to €42m. That covers the warehousing, delivery and software it sells to other retailers.(source)
BRAND MOVES
DOORDASH IS BUYING INSTACART FOR $17BN
DoorDash has agreed to buy Instacart for about $17bn (source).
Instacart works with more than 2,200 retail banners covering nearly 100,000 stores, and DoorDash says the deal would open up more than 50,000 extra stores to Instacart customers. The two plan to merge their DashPass and Instacart+ memberships into one fee, which they estimate would save customers $100m a year. The deal still needs shareholder and competition approval, and isn't expected to close until the end of 2027 or the first half of 2028.
AI UPDATES
01. Reddit will start asking visitors to log in to read most of the site, testing it outside the US first this quarter. Chief executive Steve Huffman blamed Google's AI Mode and AI Overviews, which answer questions on the search page itself, for search visits falling by more than 1 million a week on average in October. Reddit warned its 130.3 million daily users could fall by a low double-digit percentage next quarter if the trend continues. (source, figures)
What it means for you: if one of the sites Google relies on most is losing search visits to AI answers, brands that depend on search for traffic will need to lean harder on channels they own, like email and apps.
02. Google has started showing ads in AI Mode, its chatbot-style search, in 10 more countries including Australia, Canada and India, with the UK, Brazil and Mexico planned before the end of the year. It comes as Google's search revenue growth slowed to 12% ($63.25bn) in the third quarter, which it partly blamed on "lower monetization" in AI Mode. (source, results)
What it means for you: UK marketers will soon have a new place to spend search and shopping budgets, inside AI answers, possibly before Christmas.
03. Amazon has added more than 100 new actions to Alexa for Shopping, its AI assistant, from managing gift registries to pausing Subscribe & Save deliveries. More than 400 million customers used it in the past year, and chief executive Andy Jassy said US customers who use it spend 50% more per order. (source, Fortune)
What it means for you: brands selling on Amazon will need to watch how their products show up in its assistant's answers, as Amazon pushes shoppers to do more there.
04. Meta has quietly launched Style Sketch, an AI app that builds a virtual wardrobe from your Instagram photos, suggests outfits from clothes you already own and plans holiday outfits around the weather. It's live in Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, while Meta's shopping assistant Muse has been set up by more than 10 million people in the US and Canada, according to Mark Zuckerberg. (source, Muse figures)
What it means for you: fashion brands may find shoppers getting styling advice from Meta before they reach their websites. Amazon has blocked Muse from its store; Shopify, Walmart and Best Buy have welcomed it.
FOLLOW THE MONEY
THE NUMBER TO KNOW
$201.9BN
Amazon's sales from July to September, up 12% on last year. Its cloud business grew 39% to $46bn, advertising grew 12% excluding currency effects, and it expects $240bn to $247bn of sales over the Christmas quarter. (source)
CAREER MOVES
Hector Muelas joins Louis Vuitton as Chief Brand Creative Officer on 1 November, from Tiffany & Co., where he was global chief brand and creative officer. The role is new and brings the brand's campaigns, art buying and content production teams under one leader. (source)
Danone has made Francois Lacombe president of its US business, after he led a turnaround of its Spanish dairy and water operations. He takes over as demand for high-protein yoghurts surges alongside weight-loss drugs. (source)
Outside your lane
Alcohol brands are growing by selling non-alcoholic beverages
Carlsberg's alcohol-free brews grew 11% in the third quarter while its premium beers fell 3%, and its overall volumes rose just 0.3%. (source) The idea to borrow: stay on top of changing consumer behaviours and don’t be afraid to deviate from your core product to meet their needs.
PARTNER SPOTLIGHT · SPONSORED
Turn Black Friday followers into email subscribers
Omnisend has launched Social Capture, which turns Instagram followers into email subscribers automatically. It’s built for weeks like Black Friday, when attention is high and disappears fast.
Quick context if Omnisend’s new to you: they are an email and text message marketing platform built for eCommerce, used by 150,000+ brands. Campaigns, automated flows, segmentation and reporting all sit in one place.
Set a keyword, ask followers to comment or message it on your Black Friday posts, and Social Capture replies asking for their email. Once they answer, they’re on your list. Thinking of switching platforms before the rush? Omnisend moves paid accounts over for free, in 5 days.
Here’s why it’s worth a look. Automations are 2% of email volume but drive 37% of email sales, so every follower you capture this Black Friday can be reached by your automated emails for months.
Readers get 30% off paid plans for the first 3 months with code SUE30.
Thanks for reading!
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Sue Azari
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