Thursday 25th September | #37 | Join Free
Hello and welcome to your Thursday Beyond the Basket brief. The EU's planning to ditch cookie banners for browser-based consent, which sounds great until you realise what it means for your tracking setup. Instagram's hit 3 billion users by going all-in on Reels (RIP photo posts), while OpenAI's quietly building its own marketing team to better leverage it’s 700M weekly users. Add in Stitch Fix's AI styling breakthrough and Co-op's £80M cyber attack lesson, there's plenty to unpack. Let's jump in. ⬇️
In today’s beyond the basket:
🍪 EU Plans Cookie Reform, Banners May Go
🎞️ Instagram Hits 3B Users, Redesigns Around Reels & DMs
🤖 OpenAI Builds In-House Ad Tech
👔 Stitch Fix Leans on AI for Styling Precision
🔐 Co-op Swallows £80M Loss After Cyber Attack
+plus three deep reads to help you stay connected in the changing ecommerce, retail and marketing landscape.
🍪 EU Plans Cookie Reform, Banners May Go LINK
TL;DR: The European Commission is considering removing cookie banners, replacing them with centralised browser-based consent settings, and exempting statistical cookies from consent rules.
Why It Matters: If passed, this reform could reshape digital marketing and analytics across the EU. On the plus side, it may reduce friction in customer journeys and improve UX. But for ecommerce and marketing teams, it raises fresh uncertainty: less reliance on cookie banners could mean tighter scrutiny of tracking, attribution, and retargeting. Privacy advocates warn the changes don’t go far enough, leaving risks of stricter regulation ahead.
Your Move: Start stress-testing your first-party data strategy, don’t wait for regulatory shifts to make third-party tracking less reliable. Building stronger customer consent flows and direct data relationships will future-proof acquisition.
🎞️ Instagram Hits 3B Users, Redesigns Around Reels & DMs LINK
TL;DR: Instagram has crossed 3 billion monthly active users, joining Facebook and WhatsApp, and is overhauling its app to prioritise Reels, DMs, and recommendations.
Why It Matters: Meta’s growth playbook is clear, lean into short-form video and private messaging as the new engagement engines. The dedicated post button is being dropped from the bottom nav, Reels moves to the second tab, and DMs take center stage. This evolution cements Instagram’s pivot from a photo-first platform to one chasing TikTok-style engagement, despite ongoing user pushback (remember the Kardashian/Jenner “Make Instagram Instagram again” protests).
Your Move: Shift resources into Reels-first creative and DM-driven community building, static feed posts will only lose ground from here.
🤖 OpenAI Builds In-House Ad Tech LINK
TL;DR: OpenAI is hiring for a Growth Paid Marketing Platform Engineer and senior ad roles, potentially signalling plans to create its own campaign management and attribution systems.
Why It Matters: By owning its ad stack, OpenAI reduces reliance on agencies, gains tighter control of performance data, and positions ChatGPT as not just a product but a full-scale platform brand. With 700M weekly users, even small optimizations in acquisition and attribution could shift the economics of growth at scale. Fidji Simo’s leadership (ex-Facebook, Instacart) suggests this won’t just be about efficiency, it’s about building a new monetisation engine.
Your Move: Watch how platform-owned ad infrastructure evolves, if OpenAI succeeds, expect more tech firms (and even big DTCs) to pull campaign data and optimisation in-house.
👔 Stitch Fix Leans on AI for Styling Precision LINK
TL;DR: Stitch Fix rolled out an AI Style Assistant that helps clients describe outfits, visualise looks with generative imagery, and collaborate with stylists through a new Stylist Connect platform.
Why It Matters: Personalisation remains Stitch Fix’s competitive edge. By blending AI-powered guidance with human stylists, the company is tackling a common friction point, customers not knowing how to explain their style needs. With revenue up 4.4% YoY, these tools appear to be lifting both order values and retention, signaling AI is becoming a revenue driver, not just a novelty. Competitors without this hybrid model risk being left behind as customer expectations for tailored digital shopping experiences rise.
Your Move: Audit your customer journey, where could AI assist in clarifying intent, reducing friction, or boosting personalisation without removing the human touch?
🔐 Co-op Swallows £80M Loss After Cyber Attack LINK
TL;DR: UK retailer Co-op reported an whopping £80m profit hit and a temporary sales decline after an April cyber attack disrupted supply chains, payments, and exposed customer data.
Why It Matters: This is a textbook case of how identity-based attacks can cripple retail operations. Beyond empty shelves and stalled payments, the reputational cost is harder to measure. For ecommerce operators, the lesson is clear: cyber resilience is no longer optional. With added cost pressures like National Insurance hikes and sustainability compliance fees, a major breach compounds margin stress.
Your Move: Double down on network security and employee training, the weakest link is often compromised credentials. Audit security arrangements and make cyber defence a standing, ongoing investment, not a one-off fix.
📚 The Reading List
Curated deep dives, longer reads and analysis shaping the future of retail and ecommerce.
Grocers Face Online Delivery Pricing Debate
RetailWire (6 min read) Read Here ›
Rising costs spark fresh discussion on how supermarkets should set online vs. in-store pricing.
Microsoft Adds Claude to AI Suite
Inc. (5 min read) Read Here ›
Anthropic’s Claude joins Microsoft’s AI tools, promising faster integration for business use cases.
Agencies Need Tech Rethink, Not Duct Tape
The Drum (7 min read) Read Here ›
Why marketing agencies must overhaul their tech stacks to win bigger clients.
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