Hello friends! I have an important update regarding the Watson Weekend. To make it easy for you to keep up with everything happening in commerce, we're consolidating our shows. We're officially moving the Watson Weekend into the Watson Weekly podcast feed. This completes our new lineup. Mondays, we contain your essential eCommerce digest. On Wednesdays, it will be deep dive interviews with industry leaders. And Fridays, the Watson Weekend show with Rick and Jess - you already know and love. So please, head over to your podcast at search bar type in The Watson Weekly and subscribe to that feed today. The link is also right here in the show notes. Thanks for listening and catch you this Friday on the Watson Weekly.

Watson Weekly – Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-watson-weekly-your-essential-ecommerce-digest/id1577388393

Watson Weekly – Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3oJL7jnlDFwJdqQPYD1oS5

The first episode of the new Watson Weekly Friday edition, featuring Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky, debuts a new format focused on news and commentary related to e-commerce and retail. The new format includes three stories in the "Headline Hangover" section and one main story.

In this episode:

Amazon’s Luxury Nightmare: Why a $475M investment in Saks Global went to zero and why Amazon is calling it "financial malpractice."

Gap’s Hollywood Move: Gap hires a Paramount heavy hitter as its first Chief Entertainment Officer. Is brand-as-media the future of fashion?

The $63 Billion Ad Leak: New data reveals massive levels of invalid bot traffic across TikTok and LinkedIn.

OpenAI’s Ad Pivot: The "ChatGPT Go" plan is here. Rick and Jess discuss why OpenAI is finally embracing ads to combat their $12B burn rate and what this means for the future of Google Search.

Format Update: Guest interviews are moving to Wednesdays, and our hard-news deep dives will drop every Friday.

The Watson Weekly Friday Edition is sponsored by Mirakl.

Chapters:

0:00 – Introducing: A New Format for the Watson Weekly

1:15 – Headline Hangover: Amazon’s Luxury Disaster

3:42 – Why Amazon is Calling Saks "Worthless"

5:50 – Gap Hires a Chief Entertainment Officer: Genius or Gimmick?

8:15 – The $63 Billion Ad Fraud Problem (TikTok vs. Meta)

11:30 – Main Story: OpenAI Officially Launches Ads

14:05 – ChatGPT Go & The New Sponsored Search

17:20 – OpenAI’s $12B Burn Rate vs. Revenue

20:10 – The Future of AI Search: Will it Kill Google?

22:45 – Closing Thoughts & New Show Schedule

#watsonweekly #openai #advertisingfraud #amazon #saksglobalchapter11 #googlesearch

The first Watson Weekend show of 2026 serves as a post-mortem for the NRF conference, where Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky recap the live event held at the Asylum in New York City and share "Nostradamus-style" predictions for 2026.

The overarching theme for the coming year is "be bold," urging businesses to move past the economic hesitations of 2025.

The show highlights three major industry shifts:

The AI Wars: The hosts predict that Google’s Gemini will maintain its adoption momentum over OpenAI due to Google's vast data ecosystem, its integration into Android and Samsung devices, and its move to become the "default layer of intelligence" for the internet via the UCP protocol.

Nike’s Innovation Deficit: Despite a leadership change, Nike is criticized for losing its "cool" and "shelf dominance" by over-prioritizing Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) strategies at the expense of wholesale and its core running category. The hosts note that Nike’s margins are significantly lagging those of competitors like On.

Shopify’s Evolution: Shopify is seen as transitioning from a "storefront company" to an AI and payments powerhouse. With heavy investments in "agentic commerce," 2026 is expected to be the year these AI announcements deliver tangible results.

The episode concludes with a critique of the NRF conference itself, noting that while the industry is hopeful, many vendors are still failing to articulate the actual impact and data behind their AI products.

Housekeeping: Rick Watson is reorganizing the content for Watson Weekly and Watson Weekend, with an increased focus on the newsletter. There will be weekly interviews on Wednesdays, and the Watson Weekly remaining on Mondays. The Watson Weekend will move under the Watson Weekly banner as the weekend edition.

#watsonweekly #shopify #nike #shopify