Tourists flew in for the World Cup and went viral filming trips to Buc-ee's and Waffle House. Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky unpack what that attention is actually worth, then move to two bigger bets.

The Watson Weekly Weekend episode is sponsored by Avalara. Its Agentic Tax and Compliance automates behind-the-scenes work for ecommerce brands, enabling accurate checkout tax calculation, clearer tariff and duty visibility, and fewer customer surprises. Avalara integrates with platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce. Learn more at avalara.watsonweekly.com

OpenAI is selling ChatGPT as an ad platform, with claims of 900 million weekly users and a target of a $100 billion ad business by 2030. The pitch is conversational intent. The problem is everything the older platforms already learned the hard way about guardrails, minors, and regulated categories.

Then Shopify Editions Spring 2026, where the catalog is suddenly the whole strategy. Shopify wants to be the feed AI shopping agents read from, and Shop Pay is now available on any platform, anywhere. Rick makes the case that this is Shopify finally aiming at Amazon

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