TikTok Shop could soon outrank Walmart as a top global retailer

Move over, big box stores, the algorithm is coming for your shelf space.

The digital warehouse era: TikTok Shop is projected to command 15% of global marketplace share by 2030, enough to push Walmart out of the top four.

That translates to $1T in sales, enough to slot ByteDance in just behind Amazon and Pinduoduo.

By 2030, Walmart is projected to slip to fifth place, the only top-five player still running mostly on physical stores. Wild.

TikTok’s Chinese counterpart Douyin surpassed $500B in gross merchandise value in 2024, essentially previewing what TikTok Shop could replicate at a global scale.

The platform has already crossed $15B in US sales this year and continues expanding across its 17-country footprint.

TikTok Shop is still early-stage, which means ad costs are lower and audience attention is less fragmented. These advantages erode as the platform matures.

Beauty leads adoption, but health, home goods, and apparel are accelerating. If your clients operate in any of those categories, the entry window is still open… but not for long.

Meta wants you to get to know its AI tools, X wants transparency, and Instagram wants your Reels

Meta’s running a training camp for independent agencies.

But not showing up for training has consequences: The Agency Growth Collective is a new resource for independent agencies that brings in rotating industry experts, hands-on training, and real performance coaching.

It’s focused on getting the most out of Advantage+ and Manus-AI ad automation.

The idea is to deepen your platform adoption, and Meta will deepen its support for you. But participation is actively monitored. Disengage, and you’re removed from the pilot entirely.

Meta is moving fast on AI automation. If you don’t keep up, you risk losing relevance as the platform rewards fluency over familiarity.

X is tired of playing “spot the bot:” The platform is building a toggle that would require you to label posts whenever the content was made with AI.

It’s a response to a growing flood of AI-generated material that’s eroding audience trust across the board.

X’s head of product has flagged this as a significant concern, and platform-wide labeling standards are clearly on the horizon.

If you’re using AI content, get ahead of disclosure now, before it becomes enforced.

Instagram’s skipping the small talk: A new experimental layout would bypass the usual home screen and drop you straight into Reels.

Plus, a new Your Feeds hub brings your Following, Friends, Latest, and Saved streams together in one spot.

This redesign isn’t a pivot. Reels already dominate how people use the platform, so the layout is just catching up to behavior.

How to use exclamation points in your emails

Being excited is great!! But when is it too much??! And slightly scary!!?!?

If you’ve ever worried that an exclamation point makes you look like you’ve had too many energy drinks, this study from Science Says might help you out.

Over 2,000 participants suggest you should probably stop overthinking and start clicking.

The warmth factor: If you want to be perceived as friendlier and more enthusiastic, the exclamation point can make you seem less like a robot.

The data shows that using them can make you look up to 21% warmer and 14% more positive when requesting a meeting.

However, there’s a trade-off: While you gain points in likability, you might see a 12% dip in how analytical or powerful you appear.

We naturally associate high emotion with lower assertiveness. If you’re trying to keep your data deep dive authoritative, you might want to keep your punctuation under tighter control.

Read the room first: Context is everything when it comes to enthusiasm. Use exclamation points for friendly calls, but keep them far away from deadlines or analytical reports.

Nobody wants to see “You missed the deadline!” In those high-stakes moments, being perceived as warm is probably not a priority.

The double standard: The study found that gender influences the internal pressure to perform.

Women felt a nearly 10% stronger expectation to use exclamation points, while men felt a 17% stronger pressure to avoid them entirely.

However, the data suggests the actual effects on perception work pretty much the same for everyone, regardless of gender.

There’s no need to turn every email into a pep rally.

But the data is clear: Being perceived as warm is usually worth the slight dip in “analytical power.”

We will be adding a few more bangs to our internal memos… mostly just to see if anyone notices we are being 21% nicer.

What’s the general opinion on AI tools?

It might’ve been a science fiction curiosity a few years ago.

But by now, most people have started viewing AI as the Robin to their Batman.

AI is in its sidekick era, where 39% of users see it as such. This also suggests that it’s used to augment daily tasks rather than replace them.

Then we have 26% who already see AI as a new kind of search engine, which is a significant jump for a technology that only went mainstream a few years ago.

Interestingly, only 11% use it as a source of advice or a creative partner, showing that while we trust AI to find things, we’re still a bit picky about its “opinions”.

We’re definitely in the middle of a massive rebranding of Search. If your marketing doesn’t provide “answers” that a sidekick can easily pass along, they’re missing the caped crusader entirely.

Shift your SEO focus from keywords to conversational answers. Structure your data so that an AI “assistant” can easily summarize your value proposition in a single sentence.

By the way, search is being rewritten by AI in real-time.

Pro subscribers get weekly breakdowns of shifts like this—plus tactical playbooks on how to adapt your strategy now. $349/year for up to 10 teammates.