ECOMMERCE: Birchbox, founded in 2010 by Harvard classmates Katia Beauchamp and Hayley Barna, essentially sparked the subscription beauty trend. At a time when beauty shoppers got their samples and testers from department store counters staffed by representatives of major brands, Birchbox seized on the chance to connect with customers online, devising the idea of a monthly shipment of sample collections.

ECOMMERCE: Farfetch appears to be expanding from its role as an online marketplace to also provide retailers with a lot of the technology capabilities we have come to associate with omnichannel transitions, including improved, more flexible fulfillment, analytics and integrated in-store, online and mobile experiences. It sounds a bit like Farfetch is marking out the same territory as Yoox Net-a-Porter

BRICKS: There’s no denying that e-commerce is taking a growing slice of the sales of products such as clothes and footwear, as a recent presentation from research firm Euromonitor made plain. (Check out the green wedge on the chart below.) And companies are realizing that, with more transactions happening digitally, their real-life spaces should do more than just house products and cash registers.

UNLOCKED: Amazon has made it clear in recent quarters that it’s investing in things like new warehouses and more original video content, as well as geographic expansion. Also last month, Amazon bought the Middle East e-commerce site Souq.com for an estimated price tag of $650 million, making it its third largest acquisition in history.

ECOMMERCE: Brands like Stitch Fix and Bonobos offer curated selections based on people’s preferences, while companies like thredUP capitalize on shoppers’ increasing willingness to buy secondhand items from mall brands like J. Crew, Anthropologie and Athleta at big discounts. 

BRAND: The beleaguered company will refocus its e-commerce operation and cut an unspecified number of jobs. It’s the latest humbling moment for Lauren, who spent decades creating his personal mythology of American aristocracy. Only two months ago, the company announced the departure of its chief executive, Stefan Larsson, leaving the founder to navigate an increasingly perilous retail landscape.

MEDIA: The problem is that nearly all the power in the online advertising relationship lies with Google. Not only do we compete for adverts with other media in the same market; we compete with all the shady advert-laden webpages in the world, irrespective of whether they contain fake news, porn, or other attention-grabbers. With AdSense or Ad Exchange, Google’s two mechanisms for delivering ads, we have very little say in what adverts appear, and we are paid very little.

ECOMMERCE: At PSFK 2016, Casper’s Co-Founder and COO Neil Parikh will discussed how his mattress startup is looking to change that. We caught up with Parikh ahead of the conference to learn how he is shaking up the world of sleep, and you can watch the full conference appearance here:

MEDIA: Starting this month, GQ, Wired and Self will begin publishing weekly editions to Discover, the section of the app where 20-something publishers crank out mobile content. Time Inc. and Hearst also run multiple channels alongside content from big-name publishers like The Washington Post and The New York Times that reach millions of people every day.