New Ecommerce Tools: September 16, 2026

This week’s rundown of new products and services for merchants includes updates on international shipping, cross-border payments, AI-powered logistics, conversational ad campaigns, social commerce, dropshipping, and reputation management.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email updates@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants

FedEx introduces Global Trade Navigator. FedEx Corp. has introduced a suite of digital tools for international shipping called Global Trade Navigator. Trade Planner provides self-service guidance on FedEx.com without requiring a login. The Duty and Tax app on Shopify lets merchants display a duty and tax guarantee at checkout. Global Trade APIs enable integration of product classifications, estimated duties and taxes, and regulatory information. Ship Manager lets customers review product Harmonized System code classifications, customs values, and country-of-manufacture details.

FedEx Global Trade Navigator

DHL and Alibaba.com partner on AI-powered logistics. DHL Group and Alibaba.com have partnered to use AI to improve logistics for small and medium-sized enterprises engaged in international trade. The companies will explore integrating DHL Global Forwarding’s logistics services into Alibaba.com‘s agentic AI platform, Accio. As the first planned feature, Accio will connect to DHL Global Forwarding’s quotation and booking capabilities, letting businesses obtain real-time freight forwarding quotes, evaluate shipping options, and book shipments.

Ant International is partnering with Visa and Mastercard to develop AI payments. Ant International, a payment and financial technology company headquartered in Singapore that runs the Alipay+ wallet gateway, has partnered with Visa and Mastercard to collaborate on a new payments standard via AI agents. According to Ant International, the collaboration will focus on how payment companies can “know your agent,” including building common standards that link each agent to a valid entity, and assess and monitor each agent’s behavior.

M11 Labs launches agentic trust platform and marketplace. M11 Labs, an agentic commerce company, has unveiled a platform that helps brands maintain agent accuracy and detect threats from competitors. M11 Labs has also launched OpenMarket, its agentic marketplace and research engine, running on the Universal Commerce Protocol. Shoppers say what they want, brand agents compete for the recommendation, and M11 Labs checks every claim an agent makes in real time. The scans that let agents compete also feed M11 Labs’ research.

Amazon partners with OpenAI to pilot ad services in ChatGPT. Amazon Ads has partnered with OpenAI to support advertising in ChatGPT. The partnership enables advertisers to expand their Amazon Ads campaigns with a conversational experience on ChatGPT. Through the integration, Amazon Ads will enable advertisers to engage with customers as they explore options, compare choices, and make decisions on ChatGPT. Select U.S. advertisers are currently testing ChatGPT Ads as part of a pilot.

Amazon Ads

Instacart introduces Clementine, an AI-powered grocery shopping assistant. Instacart, a grocery technology company, has introduced Clementine, an AI-powered grocery shopping assistant, now available to shoppers across North America on the Instacart Marketplace. The company also announced new grocery partners now live on Cart Assistant, Instacart’s white-label AI shopping tool, giving retailers a branded shopping experience powered by their own catalog and customer data, and made smarter by the same technology and intelligence behind Clementine.

Mastercard introduces Agent Connect to scale AI shopping. Mastercard is introducing Agent Connect and expanding Agent Suite for Merchants. Agent Connect helps merchants, AI agents, digital platforms, and payment providers connect and transact through a single integration. Merchants can decide where and how they participate. They can choose which AI experiences to connect with while maintaining control over pricing, fulfillment, customer relationships, brand experiences, and business rules.

Lightsage raises $4 million to build a growth stack for AI agents. Lightsage (formerly Sapient), an agent-led growth platform for software companies, has raised $4 million in funding, led by Nexus Venture Partners, to build the infrastructure for what it calls agent-led growth. The company’s platform runs large-scale simulations across answer engines and coding agents, measuring where a company appears against competitors and what happens next. Lightsage also provides analytics on real agent traffic. Lightsage will use the funding to deepen its agent evaluation, analytics, attribution, and optimization capabilities.

Mntn and Klaviyo integrate Performance TV with CRM. Mntn, a connected TV ad company, and Klaviyo, an email marketing and B2C CRM platform, have announced an integration that brings Mntn Performance TV into email and text marketing workflows. According to Mntn, marketers can leverage Klaviyo audiences on Mntn Performance TV and also use the ad exposure to trigger automated email and SMS journeys in Klaviyo.

Klaviyo

Xflow enables global businesses to collect payments from India. Xflow, a cross-border payments platform backed by Stripe, PayPal Ventures, and General Catalyst, has launched India collections for global businesses. The service lets businesses worldwide get paid by India-based customers easily. Businesses can accept cards, bank transfers, and UPI payments, and have funds settled in their own currency without establishing an entity or taking on regulatory obligations in India.

Mastercard and Flowcart partner on social commerce payments in East Africa. Mastercard has partnered with Flowcart, an ecommerce platform for WhatsApp, to embed secure, seamless card payments directly within social and conversational commerce journeys. The initiative lets consumers discover products, place orders, and complete payments in a single chat-based journey, eliminating the need to redirect users to external websites or apps. Initially launching in Kenya, the collaboration will expand across East Africa and into key markets including South Africa, Nigeria, and Côte d’Ivoire.

Telesign and B2Metric partner on conversational commerce. Telesign, a digital identity platform, has partnered with B2Metric, a customer data and analytics company. Combining B2Metric’s predictive analytics with Telesign’s secure messaging API for WhatsApp and email, the partnership enables brands to identify key shopping moments and engage shoppers through the channels they already use. According to the companies, the goal is to make conversational commerce smarter, more secure, and more scalable.

Jungle Scout launches AI Solutions for Amazon merchants. Jungle Scout, a research and insights tool for Amazon sellers, has launched AI Solutions, featuring two products. Ask Cobalt is a question-and-answer interface that lets shoppers ask about a brand’s performance, category trends, or competitive position. The Jungle Scout MCP brings that same data into the AI tools teams already use, including Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini Enterprise, and Microsoft Copilot.

Jungle Scout

Shipt launches an AI shopping assistant. Shipt, a same-day delivery platform for grocery stores and major retailers, has launched its AI shopping assistant, Ask Shipt. Available in the Shipt app and on Shipt.com, shoppers can describe what they’re looking for, upload a recipe, or even share a photo. After selecting a preferred retailer from Shipt’s Marketplace, shoppers access Ask Shipt beneath the search bar.

Dropshipping platform TopDawg integrates with Temu. TopDawg, a dropshipping platform and wholesale supplier network, has announced a live Temu integration for retailers. The integration lets eligible retailers with a Temu seller account connect the marketplace to TopDawg and expand their selling strategy with products supplied and fulfilled by U.S.-based suppliers. Eligible retailers can use TopDawg to identify products, prepare listings, maintain inventory visibility, and support order fulfillment through participating suppliers.

RankRabbit AI launches tool to automate reputation management. RankRabbit AI, a technology company focused on reputation tools, has launched Reputation AI to monitor and manage a business’s online reputation across multiple platforms. The tool monitors reviews in real time, applies sentiment analysis to flag negative trends, and generates draft responses to review and publish. The release is the fourth product in the brand visibility suite, following Search AI, Listing AI, and Social AI.

SurveyMonkey launches AI Analysis Suite and design tools. SurveyMonkey has released AI Analysis Suite. According to the company, users can (i) interact with survey and form results in conversational language and (ii) automatically identify and categorize open-ended text responses into key themes. The launch also includes a new toolkit for creating surveys and forms, transforming survey questions and automatically creating branded themes, per SurveyMonkey.

SurveyMonkey