Sent Items #213: Saturday, December 6, 2025

Heading back from a terrific 24 hours in Toronto highlighted by Fulfillment IQ’s State of Logistics Innovation event. It was great seeing many industry friends, and bonus points that it was a small event. I’ve shared my feedback that while I would absolutely love to attend their next one, I’m hoping they don’t host us again in Canada in the winter 😂

Next Wednesday Dec 10 at 12p EST I am hosting my December installment of Matt’s Chats. This time I’m hosting: Izzy Rosenzweig (Founder & CEO of Portless), Mo Afshar (CEO & Co-Founder of Pipe17), and Madeline Heartt (Sr. Director of Sales Operations at ILIA Beauty).

You can register to join live here (link) as well as be notified when the recording is posted on YouTube. This will be a great one as we’ll be discussing how to prepare your operations for 2026 and the uncertainty ahead.

Here’s an unboxing featuring Dan-O’s Seasoning (…’tis the season):

Now onto some headlines…

Amazon May Drop USPS as Contract Talks Stall Amazon is preparing contingency plans to end its decades-long partnership with the U.S. Postal Service after negotiations for a new contract hit a wall, according to a report by The Washington Post. The current deal expires in October 2026, and while Amazon sought a standard four-year extension, the USPS reportedly pushed for a "reverse auction" model to sell capacity to the highest bidder. With Amazon contributing roughly $6 billion annually (7.5% of USPS revenue), a split would be a massive financial blow to the agency while accelerating Amazon's shift toward a fully self-reliant delivery network.

Shopify Merchants Shatter Records with $14.6B BFCM Shopify merchants generated a record-breaking $14.6 billion in sales over the BFCM weekend, up 27% from last year, according to Shopify News. The platform saw over 81 million customers worldwide, with 15,800 entrepreneurs making their first sale and nearly 95,000 merchants recording their best sales day ever. Top categories included Cosmetics, Clothing, and Activewear, while cross-border orders accounted for 16% of the total global volume.

Cyber Monday 2025 Breaks Records: First $1B+ BNPL Day Cyber Monday 2025 became the first day on record that U.S. consumers made more than $1 billion in "Buy Now, Pay Later" purchases online, according to Digital Commerce 360. BNPL spending hit $1.03 billion (up 4.2% YoY), while the full Cyber 5 period generated $44.2 billion in sales with 7.7% growth. Notably, 79.4% of that Cyber Monday BNPL activity happened on mobile devices, highlighting the convergence of mobile commerce and alternative payment methods during the peak shopping season.

Amazon Tests 30-Minute Delivery in Seattle and Philadelphia Amazon announced it is testing an ultra-fast delivery offering, bringing thousands of household essentials and groceries to customers' doorsteps in about 30 minutes or less in parts of Seattle and Philadelphia, as reported by Talking Logistics (via Amazon's official announcement). Prime members get discounted delivery fees starting at $3.99 per order (compared to $13.99 for non-Prime), with a small order fee of $1.99 for carts under $15. The company is utilizing specialized smaller facilities strategically placed close to where customers live and work to achieve these speeds.

Holiday Shopping Reaches 202.9M People During Thanksgiving Weekend Holiday shopping turnout jumped to 202.9 million people during Thanksgiving weekend, according to the NRF and reported by [suspicious link removed]. Mobile's share of orders passed 60% for the first time on Thanksgiving Day, hitting 61.6%, while social media drove 15% of retailers' web traffic in the U.S. on Cyber Monday—up from 12% in 2024. This signals a fundamental shift in how consumers are discovering products and making purchases.

AI Chip Shortage Creates New Supply Chain Strains Inventory levels for traditional memory chips have collapsed from healthy double-digit-week stockpiles in late 2024 to just a few weeks' supply across much of 2025, according to Inbound Logistics. As production lines pivot to feed AI's appetite for high-bandwidth memory, the market is seeing higher prices, longer lead times, and outright rationing—Japanese electronics retailers are already limiting memory-heavy device purchases. The shortage could delay data center projects and associated freight through 2027.

Have a great weekend!

- Matt

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