Every big commerce name put up growth in the first half of 2026. Rick&#x27;s question is what it cost them.<br>Shopify had its best quarter in years and passed $100 billion in GMV, though loan losses at Shopify Capital crept up over the same stretch. Amazon beat estimates and then turned around and spent $44.2 billion in three months on AI infrastructure. UPS is doing something stranger. It&#x27;s shrinking revenue on purpose, walking away from Amazon volume and booking about $1.2 billion in separation costs to chase higher-margin work. Walmart&#x27;s real growth engine now looks like advertising. FedEx spun off its freight business and is trying to pull a billion dollars of cost out of the network. And PayPal keeps moving more money while the profitable part of the business sits nearly flat.<br>The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Avalara. It works with platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce, helping teams manage compliance faster and scale with confidence. Learn more at avalara.watsonweekly.com.<br>None of that shows up in a headline growth number. Rick&#x27;s case is that the cash flow does, and that it separates the companies actually getting healthier from the ones renting the look of it.<br>#watsonweekly #shopify #amazon #ups #walmart #fedex #paypal

July 6th, 2026: Shopify, Amazon, UPS, Walmart, FedEx and PayPal

The Watson Weekly: eCommerce Strategy & News

The Watson Weekly Podcast is sponsored by Avalara. For eCommerce brands, tax compliance gets more complicated with every new channel, state, product and market. Avalara agentic tax and compliance helps automate the work behind the scenes so merchants can deliver a smoother customer experience with accurate tax calculation at checkout, clear visibility into tariffs and duties, and fewer surprises for customers when their order arrives. Avalara works with eCommerce platforms such as Shopify,

BigCommerce, WooCommerce and more, helping teams manage compliance faster and scale with more confidence. To learn more about Avalara's eCommerce compliance solutions, go to avalara.watsonweekly.com for more details. It's July 6th, 2026 and this is the Watson Weekly, your essential eCommerce digest. This week we have six companies, one half of the year done and in the record books.

That's the show. We're at the midpoint of 2026, so today we stop and look back. Shopify, Amazon, UPS, Walmart, FedEx and PayPal. Three minutes each and the question I'm carrying into all six is whether the growth is real or whether somebody's paying for it in place the headline doesn't show you.

For Shopify, company is still looking for its next act. To catch you up, Shopify just put up its strongest quarter in years, more than $100 billion of GMV in a single quarter, its first time ever over that line. Revenue up 34% to roughly $3.2 billion. Nearly 90% of that revenue came from merchants who's been on the platform more than a year.

So the story is really starting with Shopify actually won because it's the thread that runs through the whole show today, the checkout button. ShopPay is the branded checkout that worked, growing more than 60% a year and now running close to 40% of eligible checkout on the platform.

July 6th, 2026: Shopify, Amazon, UPS, Walmart, FedEx and PayPal

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

July 6th, 2026: Shopify, Amazon, UPS, Walmart, FedEx and PayPal

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.