"Walmart's e-commerce division surpassed $100 billion in annualized GMV earlier this year, driven by rapid adoption of AI-enhanced search, improved last-mile logistics, and deeper marketplace expansion. With a new CEO stepping in early 2026, Walmart has signaled that AI-enabled retail will define its next phase of growth. Costco, meanwhile, has modernized its digital marketplace and expanded its online assortment. Together, these incumbents show how dramatically consumer expectations are shifting."
"Onton's co-founder and CEO Zach Hudson has spent more than a decade in e-commerce. His path began in South Carolina before a friend pushed him to move to San Francisco, where he met co-founder Alex Gunnarson. After more than 300 investor meetings, they secured a $1.8 million pre-seed round, and within the span of one year Onton grew from 50,000 to over 1 million monthly active users with a team of 4."
"Hudson argues that the opportunity is not simply scale; it is a foundational shift in how consumers want to search. Though hard to believe, the modern e-commerce experience has barely evolved in 30 years. Category pages and SKU-level product pages still dominate. Large language models promised a new foundation for discovery, but paradoxically, decision time has increased. Consumers now must toggle across retailers, chatbots, and visual platforms like Pinterest."
Onton announced a $7.5 million seed round led by Footwork with participation from Liquid 2 and others. Onton aims to become a foundational AI-powered commerce layer that guides e-commerce decisions rather than functioning as a simple chatbot. Co-founder and CEO Zach Hudson has over a decade in e-commerce; Onton grew from 50,000 to over 1 million monthly active users within a year. Major retailers like Walmart and Costco are deploying AI-enhanced search, logistics improvements, and marketplace expansion, reshaping consumer expectations. Modern e-commerce interfaces remain dominated by category and SKU pages, and LLMs have paradoxically increased decision time.
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