Connect with us

Technology

“Search, Not Discounts, Decided Amazon Prime Day 2026’s Beauty Winners: Market Defense Report”

Published

on

SEATTLE, July 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — One in four consumers purchased beauty or cosmetics during Amazon Prime Day 2026, and most of them compared prices with Walmart. Market Defense’s Annual “THE BEAUTY POWER PLAYERS: Amazon Prime Day June 2026 Report” uncovers what drove shoppers to Amazon’s earliest Prime Day in five years, and how strategic deal shopping reshaped how beauty brands competed for the cart.

“Prime Day 2026 had a clear message for the beauty industry: shoppers arrive knowing exactly what they want — and increasingly, what they want is prestige. The Power Players this year rewrote the rules — prestige won big, with Armani Beauty claiming the top fragrance spot and Tarte unseating Maybelline in makeup. K-beauty dominated skin care, with medicube commanding nearly 16% share.  This report gives you the power players, the category shifts, and the moves behind the brands that made Prime Day their biggest moment of the year.” —Vanessa Kuykendall, Chief Engagement Officer, Market Defense

A record event, with a new rhythm

This year, Prime Day ran June 23 to 26, the earliest start in the event’s history and the first June Prime Day since 2021. The numbers tell the story:

The four days surrounding Prime Day 2026 shattered U.S. e-commerce records, reaching $26.4 billion — surpassing the combined Black Friday and Cyber Monday total of $26.05 billion from November 2025.Prime Day posted 9.3% YoY growth in 2026, a significant deceleration from last year’s 30.3% surge — a sign the event is maturing. As more retailers run competing sales events during the same window, Amazon’s dominance is steady but no longer explosive.Beauty ranked 4th in cart share at 26%, up from 25% in 2025.Prime Day drove a +71% surge in beauty search volume during the event week, rising from 102.4M to 174.8M searches.The Beauty shopper was harder to impress this Prime Day. Search was roughly flat YoY (-4%), click rate dropped from 34.7% to 30.4%, and purchase rate fell from 5.0% to 4.5%.Prestige beauty is winning on Amazon. Tarte unseated Maybelline at #1 in makeup brand share of sales for the first time, Armani Beauty claimed #1 in fragrance, and professional brands swept the hair care ranks. Categories that were once dominated by mass brands are now battlegrounds for prestige.

Who shopped? Seasoned consumers showed up with a plan

Prime Day 2026 was a low-ticket, high-volume event, and the shopper had a Walmart tab open.

Suburban high-income women over 45 made up 51% of all buyers, with the 65+ group alone at 31%, up from 29% last year.Deal satisfaction dropped to 59%, down from 68% last year. Shoppers came in with sharper expectations and left with a more critical eye.69% of items sold for under $20, while just 3% were priced above $100.Average spend per item: $23.23, down from $24.59 last year. Average household spend: approximately $143, with the average order at roughly $47.Shoppers came armed with a price comparison. 41% placed 3 or more separate orders, and 53% compared prices at Walmart and Target before buying on Amazon — while 49-50% cross-shopped Walmart throughout the entire event.

Fierce competition fueled the frenzy

Prime Day was not the only game in town. Nearly every major retailer ran a parallel event, creating the most concentrated deal week in recent retail history:

Walmart: the weeklong Walmart Deals event (June 22 to 28) pulled roughly half of Prime Day shoppers (49 to 50%) into cross shopping.Target: Target Circle Deal Days ran head to head with Prime Day (June 23 to 26) and engaged 32% of Prime Day shoppers.TikTok Shop: Deals For You Days stretched June 17 through July 2, its longest summer event yet, with discounts up to 65% on peak days that landed squarely on Prime Day.Ulta Beauty: the Big Summer Beauty Sale ran June 19 through July 11 with up to 40% off across makeup, skin care, hair, and fragrance. The beauty retailer cheekily titled their promo code “PrimeTime.”

Beauty’s winners were built on search

Branded search is gaining ground. One in five estimated beauty purchases on Prime Day 2026 started with a brand name search — up from 17.4% a year earlier. Shoppers increasingly arrive knowing exactly what they want.

For beauty brands, that shift in Search behavior changes everything about how deals are planned, paced, and promoted.

“The single most searched beauty term on Prime Day was the brand name “medicube”. Not sunscreen, not mascara, a brand. For as long as I’ve done this work, generic terms owned the top of search and brands fought for position underneath them. That flipped this year, and I don’t believe it flips back. Put that next to growth cooling from 30% to 9% and the message is uncomfortable but clear: Amazon is done growing your business for you. The meaningful growth is now share you take from a competitor, by name, because the shopper typed yours instead of theirs.” —Dave Karlsven, SVP, Partnerships & Growth at Market Defense.

This Year’s Beauty Power Players:

Medicube held the #1 overall beauty spot for the second consecutive Prime Day, growing share from 9.3% in 2025 to 13.23% in 2026.Medicube is also the #1 branded search term in skincare YTD at 1.99 million monthly searches, up 47.6% from last year.K-beauty is no longer a niche win, it’s a search-wide movement. Korean beauty brands captured 10.5% of all beauty search during Prime Day 2026, up from 6.5% in 2025, and drove nearly 19% of the entire Prime Day beauty search lift.Two ingredient-led skincare brands broke into the overall top 10 best-selling beauty brands for the first time at Prime Day 2026: Anua and The Ordinary.Value beauty found an opening in hair care. Native Coconut & Vanilla Shampoo and Conditioner Set claimed the #1 spot, displacing Olaplex, which held the position last year.Men’s hair health is now a dominant search story. Minoxidil for men was the #1 branded search term in hair care during Prime Day 2026, pulling 1.21 million monthly Amazon searches YTD, up 23.5% from last year.Eyes led makeup this Prime Day. Six of the top 10 best-selling makeup products were eye products, with mascara the #1 non-branded search term and lash clusters the #2, pulling 1.4 million and 1.79 million monthly Amazon searches respectively.Tarte Cosmetics placed two mascaras in the overall beauty top 10 and a concealer in the makeup top 10 — three products across two top 10s in two different formats, the broadest single-brand product presence of any makeup brand this Prime Day.Sol de Janeiro’s Cheirosa 62 claimed the #1 best-selling fragrance on Amazon for the third consecutive Prime Day, placing two products in both the fragrance and overall beauty top 10 simultaneously.Men’s fragrance owned the Prime Day leaderboard. Nautica, Afnan, and RASASI claimed 3 of the top 10 fragrance best sellers, up from just 1 in 2025, a shift that tracks a global category growing nearly 9% annually, with 62% of men aged 25-40 now calling fragrance a daily essential.

Why did some brands win while others watched?

Prime Day 2026 was harvest time, not planting time. The winners planted in the weeks and months before the event, building demand off Amazon and investing in search visibility, then harvested on day one when traffic peaked.

Bidding wars got brutal: some category cost per click rates hit $60 during the event.AI-referred traffic jumped 89% YoY and converted 40% better than email or paid search.Brands that waited for traffic to come to them watched it go somewhere else.

“Prime Day 2026 reinforced that the cost of growth on Amazon continues to rise. With U.S. e-commerce sales surpassing $26 billion during the event, brands faced higher advertising costs, greater promotional intensity, and increased pressure on margins. The opportunity for the rest of 2026 isn’t simply to spend more, it’s to spend smarter, allocating capital toward highest-return products and operating Amazon as an integrated business rather than a collection of disconnected functions. Efficiency has become one of the most durable competitive advantages in today’s marketplace.” —Karan Raturi, Chief Operating Officer at Market Defense

Some brands already found that balance during Prime Day 2026.

“A big takeaway from this Prime Day was that momentum compounds — brands that came into June having built consistent growth through Spring translated that baseline into something remarkable: doubling or even tripling their pre-event growth rate.  That kind of amplification doesn’t happen by accident.  What separated the winning brands was how they prioritized the event, focused discounts on hero skus at the same depth or deeper than last year — at a minimum of 25% off — and leveraged an omni-channel approach prior and during the event.  At Market Defense, we worked with our brands on TikTok shop, influencer and affiliate marketing programs that delivered 7-10X ROAS, email, social and PR tactics that drive discovery and demand in the run up to and during Prime Day.  60% of our entire portfolio activated some form of off-Amazon marketing for the event.  Building the right omni-channel strategy is the right foundation for our ads team to build upon – delivering a boost in ad sales, more efficiently, without overbidding and keeping TACOS in check on par with last year.” — Amy Rudgard, SVP, Client Strategy at Market Defense

The full findings, category by category, are available now in Market Defense’s complete “THE BEAUTY POWER PLAYERS: Amazon Prime Day June 2026 Report”: Amazon Prime Day June 2026 Report“

About Market Defense

Market Defense is a leading digital commerce platform and commerce media agency, helping the world’s most ambitious consumer brands accelerate growth across today’s most important marketplaces and digital commerce channels. As a strategic growth partner, the company delivers seamlessly connected marketplace operations, retail media, paid media, social commerce, influencer marketing, and full-funnel growth solutions across Amazon, TikTok Shop, Walmart, Google, Meta, and other leading commerce platforms. With a global operating model spanning every major commerce region, Market Defense enables brands to launch, scale, and optimize their marketplace businesses through a single, integrated partner.

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Seattle, Market Defense and its subsidiaries partner with over 100 of the industry’s most recognized and fastest-growing brands, including SLIP, Guthy-Renker, Davines, Lattafa, Phlur, Neal’s Yard Remedies, Donnamax, Warner Bros., Grown Alchemist, and Viking Culinary. By combining deep marketplace expertise, proprietary technology, and data-driven execution, Market Defense enables brands to unlock sustainable, profitable growth while delivering a seamless consumer experience across every stage of the digital commerce journey.

Commerce, seamlessly connected.

For more information about Market Defense and its suite of services, visit https://marketdefense.com/

Media Contact: Kayla Clayton
Director, Enterprise Marketing
Kayla.Clayton@marketdefense.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/search-not-discounts-decided-amazon-prime-day-2026s-beauty-winners-market-defense-report-302821416.html

SOURCE Market Defense LLC

Continue Reading

Technology

Knowledge Grid Study Shows the Same AI Model Goes From Wrong to Right When Data Becomes Knowledge

Published

on

By

Findings point to a missing layer in the agentic AI stack: durable knowledge of the environment, built once and kept for every model and agent to use.

SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Knowledge Grid, the company defining the Cognitive Data Layer for AI, today announced a study showing an AI model’s verdict can flip from wrong to right without changing the model.

Enterprises are handing AI agents decisions people once made. Most reason over data with no memory of what is normal, so the agent or model fills the gap with confident but unverified assumptions.

In one example, the study gave the same AI models the same incident and data twice: through a conventional cyber analysis pipeline (SIEM stack) and through the Knowledge Grid Cognitive Data Platform, which contains knowledge of each user’s normal behavior.

On the conventional pipeline, the models misinterpreted a user’s routine work as suspicious; and another model confidently called it potential insider threat activity. In the Knowledge Grid stack, the same models correctly interpreted the user behavior and did not flag it as suspicious. Results held for both frontier and smaller open-weight models.

This knowledge is too valuable to rebuild for every investigation or question. Agents rebuilding it from raw data start from zero. Using Knowledge Grid’s Durable Knowledge Layer, it keeps that knowledge current, so every model and agent starts from what is already known.

“The most dangerous AI answer is the one that sounds right, but isn’t,” said Peter Bybee, founder and CEO of Knowledge Grid. “The same model got the same incident wrong, then right. The difference was the knowledge underneath it, and that knowledge should outlast any one question.”

Knowledge Grid is sharing the methodology and results with analysts and customers and will demonstrate it at VentureBeat’s Agentic Infrastructure Stack Summit on Oct. 28.

About Knowledge Grid

Knowledge Grid builds the Cognitive Data Layer: knowledge infrastructure that turns high-volume temporal data into Persistent Environmental Knowledge that AI, analytics and automation can reason over without reconstructing the environment each time. The KG Cognitive Data Platform is built on Rough Set mathematics developed by the company’s research team in Warsaw, Poland, and is protected by seven issued U.S. patents, with two pending. Knowledge Grid is headquartered in Salt Lake City. Learn more at knowledgegrid.com.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/knowledge-grid-study-shows-the-same-ai-model-goes-from-wrong-to-right-when-data-becomes-knowledge-302921077.html

SOURCE Knowledge Grid

Continue Reading

Technology

Greenlane Renewables Announces Renewal of Service Agreements with Major International Energy Company

Published

on

By

~Renewals reinforce strength of Greenlane’s long-standing customer relationship and aftermarket parts and service business~

VANCOUVER, BC, Oct. 28, 2026 /CNW/ — Greenlane Renewables Inc. (“Greenlane” or the “Company”) (TSX: GRN) (FSE: 52G) today announced the renewal of service agreements with a major international energy company for three of its renewable natural gas (“RNG”) producing facilities at dairy farms in the United States. The renewals reinforce the strength of Greenlane’s long-standing relationship with this customer and aftermarket parts and service business.

“The renewed service agreements reflect continued confidence in Greenlane’s products, technical expertise and service capabilities to support the reliable and efficient operation of our customer’s RNG production facilities,” said Brad Douville, CEO of Greenlane. “It is a strong endorsement of the value we continue to deliver to our customers. Our ability to maintain and expand relationships with established customers is an important part of our growth strategy and demonstrates the confidence they place in Greenlane to support their operations over the long term. As our installed base of systems continues to grow, we see meaningful opportunities to further expand our aftermarket parts and service business, generate recurring revenue and strengthen the long-term relationships that underpin our business.”

Greenlane’s aftermarket parts and service business is an important component of the Company’s strategy to expand recurring revenue opportunities and deepen relationships with existing customers. With more than 500 systems sold across 32 countries over its more than 35-year history, Greenlane has an extensive installed base that provides opportunities for ongoing maintenance, replacement parts, technical support and system optimization services.

Greenlane offers maintenance packages designed to meet the varying service requirements of its customers and their biogas upgrading systems. The Company’s service capabilities include preventative maintenance, technical support, troubleshooting and plant performance optimization, helping customers support the reliability, efficiency and long-term performance of their installed systems.

Greenlane’s service offerings include:

24/7 Expert Support: Immediate assistance through our dedicated helpline and remote access capabilities.Proactive Maintenance: Preventative measures, corrective actions, and scheduled site inspections to ensure optimal performance.Media Change-Outs: Provide turnkey H₂S media change-outs to plant locations, saving time and reducing costs. Our experienced team safely and efficiently executes the work to minimize downtime and lower our customers’ operating costs.Spare Parts & Logistics: Priority supply of critical spare parts to minimize downtime.Training & Performance Optimization: Operator training, real-time monitoring, and detailed performance analysis to keep sites running efficiently.

Click HERE for more information on Greenlane services.

About Greenlane Renewables
At Greenlane, we are relentless innovators solving the toughest challenges. At a time when new solutions are urgently needed, we are accelerating the energy transition to a net-zero emissions economy. As a pioneer and leading global specialist in biogas desulfurization and upgrading, we have been actively contributing to the decarbonization of our planet for over 35 years with more than 500 systems sold into 32 countries. The systems we supply transform biogas generated from organic waste into high-value, low-carbon renewable natural gas (“RNG”) for gas networks, transportation and industry from a wide range of sources such as landfills, sugar mills, dairy farms, wastewater, and food waste. Greenlane is transforming energy production through new technology without adding new technology risk, making RNG more accessible and scalable for our customers – all while dramatically reducing carbon emissions. Partner with us, let’s accelerate the energy transition together. For further information, please visit www.greenlanerenewables.com

FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION – This news release contains “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements contained herein that are not historical in nature contain forward-looking information. Forward-looking information can be identified by words or phrases such as “may”, “is expected”, “likely”, “should”, “would”, “plan”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “potential”, “proposed”, “estimate”, “believe” or the negative of these terms, or other similar words, expressions and grammatical variations thereof, or statements that certain events or conditions “can”, “may” or “will” happen. In particular, this news release contains forward looking information relating to expectations regarding the ongoing operations, reliability, efficiency, and long-term performance of the biogas upgrading systems; the expected scope, support, and benefits under the service agreements with an international energy company; the Company’s ability to support customer facilities throughout their operating lives and build or extend long-term customer relationships beyond initial system delivery and commissioning; the ability of Greenlane’s growing installed base to drive future opportunities, expand its aftermarket service business, and develop recurring revenue streams; and the Company’s service capabilities to minimize downtime and lower operating costs for customers. The forward-looking information contained herein is made as of the date of this press release and is based on assumptions management believed to be reasonable at the time such statements were made, including market demand for renewable natural gas solutions, continued customer adoption of Greenlane’s parts and service offerings, the continued demand for renewable natural gas solutions and aftermarket support services; the successful ongoing operation and maintenance of the installed biogas upgrading systems; Greenlane’s ability to fulfill its contractual obligations under the service agreements; the Company’s ability to leverage its growing installed base to generate recurring aftermarket revenue and expand customer relationships; and the Company’s ability to execute its aftermarket service strategy. While management considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to management, there is no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. By their nature, forward-looking information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. A variety of factors, including known and unknown risks, many of which are beyond the Company’s control, could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information in this press release. Additional risk factors can also be found in the Company’s Management Discussion and Analysis, and its Annual Information Form, all of which have been filed under the Company’s SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.com. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

SOURCE Greenlane Renewables Inc.

Continue Reading

Technology

Pixelworks to Announce Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results on November 11

Published

on

By

PORTLAND, Ore., Oct. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Pixelworks, Inc. (NASDAQ: PXLW), a provider of innovative cinematic and enhanced visualization solutions, will release its third quarter 2026 financial results on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, after market close. Todd DeBonis, Chairman and CEO, and Haley Aman, CFO, will host a conference call at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time to discuss the Company’s quarterly results.

Analysts and investors are invited to join the Company’s conference call using the following information:

Third Quarter 2026 Conference Call
Date: Wednesday, November 11
Time: 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time (5:00 p.m. Eastern Time)
Live Webcast Link: Click Here
Dial-in Participation Registration Link: Click Here

Advanced registration is required for dial-in participants. Please complete the linked registration form above to receive a dial-in number and dedicated PIN for accessing the conference call by phone. A live and archived audio webcast of the conference call will also be accessible via the Investor Relations section of Pixelworks’ website.

About Pixelworks, Inc.

Pixelworks (NASDAQ: PXLW) is a technology licensing company specializing in cinematic visualization solutions, including industry-leading content creation, delivery and display processing solutions that enable highly authentic viewing experiences with superior visual quality. Pixelworks has more than 20 years of delivering image processing innovation to leading providers of consumer electronics, professional displays and video streaming services.

About TrueCut Motion

TrueCut Motion® is a powerful video platform from Pixelworks that provides filmmakers with a new palette for motion. It enables shot-by-shot motion grading, allowing creators to manage judder, motion blur, and frame rates to achieve a consistent, cinematic look across all screens. For more information on TrueCut Motion, visit: www.truecutmotion.com

Note: Pixelworks, the Pixelworks logo, TrueCut Motion and TrueCut are registered trademarks of Pixelworks, Inc.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pixelworks-to-announce-third-quarter-2026-financial-results-on-november-11-302921437.html

SOURCE Pixelworks, Inc.

Continue Reading

Trending