Happy Monday! Here is your quick hit of industry news from the last week.  Sources are in the hyperlinked text after the headline.

Brands and Retailers

• Alphabet reports strong Q2, tainted somewhat by massive EU fine.  Fast Company
• How Best Buy is thriving in the age of Amazon.  Bloomberg
• WeWork opens a retail operation, highlighting products made by its members.  Entrepreneur
• How Nordstrom changed its merchandising strategy for the DTC brand era.  Glossy
• ‘Fast beauty’ company Be For Beauty wants to be the ASOS of the cosmetics industry.  Fashionista
• What the fashion industry can learn from North Face and Vans parent company VF Corp.  Forbes
• Walmart, Microsoft in partnership to use cloud tech.  Reuters
• Petco tries to ‘Amazon-proof’ its business with a new store.  CNBC
• Why a former pro soccer player and his co-founder decided to make Allbirds all about simplicity.  Inc
• Comcast lets Disney win the 21st Century Fox bidding war. Fast Company
• Target uses Prime Day to its advantage, logging its biggest online shopping day so far this year.  CNBC
• Sonos to raise up to $264M in IPO.  Bloomberg
• Gap CEO looking for acquisitions.  Fortune

Marketing and Social Media

• Now for sale: the empty space insider retailers’ packages.  The Wall Street Journal
• Are influencer brands the key to bringing millennials to department stores?  Fashionista
• Equinox and SoulCycle are launching a talent agency for fitness influencers.  Fast Company
• How brands are making pop-up shops more interactive and Instagrammable than ever.  AdWeek
• Snapchat is shutting down Snapcash.  Fast Company
• AMC teams with Facebook for movie ticket purchases.  Variety
• Why Club Monaco is stealing tricks from scrappy startups.  Fast Company
• Amazon advertising is working directly with brands now, cutting out ad agencies.  Digiday
• Facebook pulls Walmart and P&G’s ads for lacking ‘political’ labeling.  AdAge
• Retailers are getting into the media and advertising businesses.  Axios
• Snapchat beefs up ad targeting deal with Nielsen.  AdAge
• Inside the mating rituals of brands and online stars. The New York Times
• Snapchat partners with 4 news discovery platforms to help push content beyond the app.  MarketingLand
• YouTube is testing its own ‘Explore’ tab on iPhone.  TechCrunch

Startup + Emerging Tech + Acquisitions

• P&G reportedly bought First Aid Beauty for $250M.  Allure
• Will virtual shopping malls save retailers? Forbes
• Marks & Spencer, Founders Factory form JV to support retail startups.  WWD
• Why online marketplaces fell out of favor and why VCs should love them again.  Forbes
• Rocket Internet turns to US with new fund.  Bloomberg
• Robot truck upstart Embark hauls in $30M to take on Waymo and Uber.  Forbes
• Eventbrite is reportedly going public in the second half of this year.  TechCrunch
• Facebook confirms its working on a new internet satellite.  Wired
• HoneyLove looks to reinvent shapewear.  TechCrunch
• How voice is changing everything.  AdAge
• Uber partners with Cargo to enable commerce in your next Uber ride.  Fortune

International

• Google fined a record $5B by the EU for abusing the dominance of Android.  Business Insider
• Report: Amazon temporarily killed all international traffic to deal with Prime Day outage.  Fast Company
• Alibaba and Tencent in talks over stake in WPP’s Chinese unit.  Reuters