Re:Tech Innovation Hub

Congratulations to Shopeaks on winning the Best Shopper Journey & Experience Award at the 14th GO eCommerce Tech Competition! 🏆

A huge achievement for founders Nave Geri, Daniel Abitbul and Shay Amir, alongside a team that continues to push the boundaries of social commerce innovation. What makes this recognition especially meaningful is that it came in a room filled with the brands, clients, and partners Shopeaks works with every day.

As an official Shopify Partner, Shopeaks is transforming the way brands connect content and commerce.
☑️ Their AI-powered platform turns social media engagement into seamless shopping experiences by identifying products within video content, delivering personalized recommendations, and enabling direct paths from discovery to purchase.
☑️ The result? Brands have reported up to 5x higher conversion rates and more than 30% increases in average order value.

We're excited to see the continued impact Shopeaks is making as they help shape the future of social commerce and the next generation of shopper experiences.

Father’s day (June 21) spending Is set to hit a record $27.9 billion according to . What should retail tech leaders be paying attention to? 🚨

A key point that stands out is that 44% of shoppers say it's important to find something unique or different, while 34% prioritize creating a special memory. That's a reminder that isn't just about transactions but it's increasingly about helping retailers deliver relevance, personalization, and meaningful customer experiences at scale.

So, despite ongoing economic pressures, consumers aren't pulling back on Father's Day; according to , they're prioritizing it.

📈 Total Father's Day spending expected to reach a record $27.9 billion (up from $24 billion last year)
📈 Average planned spend per consumer: $226.58 (vs. $199.38 in 2025), and 77% of consumers plan to celebrate
📈 Online remains the Number 1 shopping destination (38%), narrowly ahead of department stores (37%), which is key for ecommerce focused companies
📈 Discount store shopping continues to rise, reaching 26% (up from 23% last year)
📈 Electronics and personal care products are seeing the largest spending gains
📈 31% plan to give experiences, while 45% are interested in subscription-based gifts

What does this mean for retail tech companies?

✅ Consumers are still spending, but they're becoming more intentional about where and how they spend.
✅ Value messaging, promotions, and pricing intelligence remain critical as shoppers balance celebration with budget constraints.
✅ Rising demand for electronics, subscriptions, and experiential gifts creates opportunities for personalization engines, recommendation platforms, and loyalty programs.
✅ The continued dominance of online shopping reinforces the importance of seamless omnichannel experiences and high converting digital journeys.
✅ Discount channel growth highlights the need for retailers to optimize inventory, pricing, and merchandising decisions in real time.

🔗 Read more on NRF: link in comments. 👇

What if one of Israel's fastest growing tech sectors isn't cyber, fintech, or AI infrastructure? It's retail tech. 📈

While much of the startup ecosystem spent 2025 navigating a slower funding environment, retail tech funding grew 136% year over year, outpacing every major Israeli tech vertical tracked in our research.

A few findings from the 2025 Israeli Retail & Commerce Tech Report:

📈 Retail tech funding increased 136% YoY
🏆 Retail & Commerce Tech now represents 7.05% of all active Israeli startups, making it one of the country's largest innovation sectors
🚀 Retail tech accounted for 11.9% of Israeli tech exit activity in 2025
🌍 More than 450 active retail tech companies are building solutions for retailers and brands around the world

The strongest momentum of this growth is coming from technologies tied directly to business outcomes. As retailers become more selective with technology investments, startups focused on efficiency, automation, and measurable ROI are attracting increasing attention from both customers and investors.

The result is an ecosystem that has emerged from the market correction leaner, stronger, and more focused on solving real retail challenges.

📥 Download the full 2025 Israeli Retail & Commerce Tech Report. Link in comments. 👇

Everyone talks about AI helping retailers see what's happening in stores. But the real value? Helping them decide what to do next.

In this guest post by Maria Kushnir, Algorithm Team Lead at Trax Retail by FORM, explores why the next phase of retail AI isn't better shelf visibility, it's turning shelf data into prioritized, actionable ex*****on.

A few key takeaways:

🔹 AI powered image recognition is giving retailers and brands real time visibility into shelf conditions across large store networks.
🔹 Field teams often face dozens of issues during a store visit, making prioritization critical for effective ex*****on.
🔹 Contextual factors such as sales performance, product velocity, margin, and store specific conditions help determine which actions create the greatest impact.
🔹 AI driven recommendations can help store associates and field representatives focus their limited time on the highest value tasks.
🔹 Faster, more consistent ex*****on improves shelf availability, promotional compliance, and the flow of information between stores and headquarters.

Trax Retail by FORM was also recognized as one of the Top 100 Companies in our Israeli Retail & Commerce Tech Report 2025/2026.

🔗 Read more on our blog: link in comments 👇

0.12% of the world's population. Up to 2.8% of global retail tech funding 📈

For years, Israeli retail tech has been working above its weight, and it is interesting to see how. Israeli startups consistently capture a larger share of global retail tech funding than their share of global deal activity. At the same time, median deal sizes continue to significantly outperform the global average. In 2025:

📈 Israeli retail tech companies captured 1.68% of global deal volume
💰 Yet attracted 2.83% of global retail tech funding
🚀 Median deal size reached $15M, compared to $3.6M globally

This is about building companies that attract larger investments, scale internationally, and solve real operational challenges for retailers and brands.

Some of the key findings from our 2025 Israeli Retail & Commerce Tech Report:
✅ Funding increased 136% year over year
✅ More than 450 active retail tech companies across the ecosystem
✅ Larger, healthier funding rounds despite a more selective market
✅ Strong momentum across ecommerce enablement, AI, payments, infrastructure, analytics, and retail operations

For retailers, brands, and investors looking to understand where commerce innovation is heading next, the data tells a compelling story.

🔗 Download the full report, link in comments. 👇

This month, Shopify just turned ChatGPT and Claude into ecommerce operating systems. How so?

Retailers can now:
☑️ Update product pricing
☑️ Run reports
☑️ Manage collections
☑️ Upload products with AI
☑️ Apply discounts
☑️ Check store performance

… all from inside ChatGPT or Claude.

That represents a major shift in how ecommerce platforms are managed, as assistants are moving beyond customer support and content generation into direct operational workflows across the storefront.

A few things retailers and ecommerce teams should pay attention to:
✅ AI is becoming the new commerce interface: Merchants may stop logging into traditional dashboards altogether.
✅ Shopify is betting on an AI agnostic future: They’re supporting Sidekick, ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Codex, or wherever merchants already work.
✅ The data and governance conversation just got real: Once connected, store data leaves Shopify’s environment and falls under OpenAI or Anthropic policies.
✅ AI mistakes can create downstream marketing problems: Incorrect pricing, catalog edits, or discount changes can flow directly into Meta CAPI, Google feeds, attribution, and optimization systems.
✅ “Human-in-the-loop” is still critical: Especially for brands with large catalogs, paid media spend, or complex inventory workflows.

The competitive advantage will come from how retailers operationalize AI responsibly, balancing automation, oversight, and data governance as these tools become more deeply embedded into commerce workflows.

🔗 Check out more on Shopify's documentation and release, link in comments.

Ecommerce is no longer just about storefronts and online checkout flows. The real transformation is happening through the infrastructure layer shaping how retailers operate, sell and scale 📈

In Israel’s retail tech ecosystem, ecommerce enablement has become one of the fastest growing segments, spanning everything from AI driven shopping experiences and merchandising to pricing optimization, logistics, returns, and global commerce infrastructure.

Here’s what the landscape looks like today:

✅ 226 active companies operating in the category
✅ Nearly 24% of the entire Israeli retail tech ecosystem
✅ More acquisitions than any other retail tech segment, with 32 completed deals

What stands out most is where retailers are placing their bets. The strongest demand is centered around technologies that directly improve profitability and operational performance: increasing conversion, streamlining workflows, improving customer experience, and protecting margins.

The momentum is also reflected in recent funding and acquisition activity across the space:

📈 ZyG secured a $60M Series A led by Accel
📈 Moonshot AI announced a $10M Seed round
📈 Octup raised $12M Seed
📈 Rep AI closed an $8.2M round
📈 ReturnGO was acquired by Global-e
📈 Cymbio agreed to be acquired by PayPal

The ecosystem includes a wide range of standout companies building across ecommerce infrastructure and enablement, including AutoDS, Botika, Cloudinary, Cymbio, Dialogue, echo3D, KanduAI, Kimonix, Loox, Moonshot AI, PrettyDamnQuick, ReturnGO, Shopeaks, SpeedSize, Tangiblee, Triple Whale, Twik, Tymely, VREE Labs, and many others.

More insights and the full report are linked in the comments. 👇

What does the future of ecommerce actually look like right now?

One answer: infrastructure. The biggest momentum in Israeli retail tech is happening in ecommerce enablement, which is the technologies powering pricing, personalization, operations, merchandising, AI sales assistance, returns, and cross-border commerce.

The category now represents:
📈 23.9% of the Israeli retail tech ecosystem
📈 226 active companies
📈 32 acquisitions, the highest of any retail tech category

A clear pattern is emerging across the ecosystem: retailers are prioritizing technologies tied directly to efficiency, margins, conversion, and measurable business impact.

The category also continues producing major funding rounds and exits:
✅ ZyG raised a $60M Series A led by Accel
✅ Moonshot AI announced a $10M Seed round
✅ Octup raised $12M Seed
✅ Rep AI raised $8.2M
✅ ReturnGO was acquired by Global-e
✅ Nayax acquired assets of Syte by Nayax
✅ Cymbio agreed to be acquired by PayPal
+ more1

🔗 Read more on the blog: link in comments.
🔗 Download the full report: link in comments.