50% of US smartphone owners said they’re not willing to pay extra for AI features on their phones, up from 45% in September 2024, according to a May CNET survey.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss the unofficial list of the most interesting retailers for the month of July. Each month, our analysts Arielle Feger, Becky Schilling, and Vice President of Content and guest host, Suzy Davidkhanian (aka The Committee) put together a very unofficial list of the top eight retailers they're watching based on which are making the most interesting moves: Who's launching new initiatives? Which partnerships are moving the needle? Which standout marketing campaigns are being created? In this month's episode, Committee members Arielle Feger and Suzy Davidkhanian will defend their list against Senior Analyst Blake Droesch, and Principal Analyst Sky Canaves, who will dispute the power rankings by attempting to move retailers up, down, on, or off the list.
Cost of living is the top concern for global Gen Zers (39%) and millennials (42%), according to December 2024 data from Deloitte.
OpenAI is preparing to launch GPT-5 in early August. The newest and most powerful model combines traditional GPT capabilities with o3-series reasoning—marking a major leap in performance and model simplification. The consolidation play with GPT-5 could further cement OpenAI’s dominance if competitors are slow to respond.
The triopoly looks stronger, but it's digital that's getting bigger. Amazon, Google, and Meta now command 58.8% of total US ad dollars, up from 47.1% in 2020. But that's not an indication that the triopoly's control of the digital ad market is growing.
The news: Persistently high mortgage rates have forced many US consumers—especially younger, first-time homebuyers—to postpone their dream of owning a home. But adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) are making a comeback: Their share of all US mortgages has nearly doubled since 2017, reaching 30% in 2025. This could drive a boost in mortgage sales among these hopeful owners. Our take: Financial institutions (FIs) should proactively engage with prospective homebuyers, especially younger demographics, by leveraging digital-first educational content to demystify ARMs. Banks must clearly outline the potential for initial savings and the associated risks of fluctuating rates with interactive tools and accessible FAQ. To build trust and encourage engagement, FIs should offer online consultations with mortgage advisors to explain ARM structures (e.g., introductory periods, caps) in plain language. This in turn helps consumers understand if an ARM aligns with their short- to medium-term financial goals.
The news: Google’s new Manage Subscriptions tool is starting to appear in Gmail on web, iOS, and Android, per MarTech. It lets users batch-unsubscribe from promotional emails—now sorted by frequency and sender name. Brands that over-email or deliver low-value content will feel the fallout. Even loyal subscribers may churn if their needs aren’t being met. Our take: Marketers already using segmentation—or dividing large email subscriber lists into smaller, more targeted groups based on shared characteristics—won’t see much fallout. The unsubscribe spike will primarily hit brands with poor targeting and those that are over-mailing. Gmail just turned inboxes into intent filters. Every send must earn its keep.
The challenges: UPS’ turnaround remains in the early innings due to structural inefficiencies, operational missteps, and mounting macroeconomic headwinds. Our take: UPS faces a difficult road ahead. The company is actively trying to streamline operations—planning to shutter up to 10% of its buildings, downsize its fleet, and reduce its US workforce to better align with leaner volumes. It’s also trimming low-margin business, notably cutting back on Amazon deliveries, which made up as much as 11.8% of its total revenues last year, in an effort to prioritize more profitable shipments. Still, with demand under pressure and cost headwinds mounting, stabilizing performance will be an uphill climb.
The findings: Top performers innovate and grow more quickly than midtier credit unions because of key behaviors, per PYMNTS. Our take: Midtier credit unions are often caught in a reactive cycle, innovating simply to keep pace with competitors. The core takeaway is that top performers innovate to profoundly understand and meet their members' evolving needs—not to keep up with competitors. This shift frees top credit unions from the slow and costly process of building every solution in-house—or foregoing innovation altogether. Instead, they are able to strategically embrace partnerships to rapidly deploy solutions their members truly value, like robust digital features and seamless experiences.
The findings: Deloitte’s July 2025 ConsumerSignals report gives us a glimpse into US banking customers’ current stressors and banks’ upcoming challenges. We saw that: deposits are about to drop, housing prices stress every generation, consumers are curbing their splurging, and they’re more worried than they were last year. Our take: Though US banking customers are facing a number of stressors, they’re demonstrating resilience and savvy that has helped them pull through. That resilience could be informed by advice from financial experts they trust, including at their FIs.
Data startup Astronomer turned an unlikely scandal into a viral branding win by embracing humor, celebrity power, and swift accountability. Following a Coldplay concert kiss-cam incident involving top execs, the company leaned in with a satirical ad starring Gwyneth Paltrow and backed by Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort. The campaign’s charm came from its cultural timing, humor, and clear separation from product quality. Astronomer followed with decisive leadership changes and transparency, using the spotlight to explain its core offering. The result: a case study in how tone, timing, and authenticity can turn public mishaps into brand momentum.
Snacks maker Mars said it plans to invest an additional $2 billion in US manufacturing through next year to build new facilities and upgrade existing ones in wake of the Trump administration’s tariffs. Tariffs are leading some businesses to boost their US footprint, and we may see more investment announcements. But a key consideration is whether these expansion announcements will represent substantive, job-creating initiatives, or if they are largely symbolic moves designed to support the US government’s current messaging around American manufacturing.
The news: D2C brand Quince is now valued at $4.5 billion following a $200 million funding round, per Bloomberg. That’s more than double its valuation from earlier this year and marks its second successful fundraising attempt in six months. Quince’s meteoric rise reflects the normalization of dupe culture. Shoppers are no longer making decisions solely on brand name and are gravitating toward companies that offer a compelling combination of affordability and quality.
The news: Citigroup unveiled the Citi Strata Elite Card, its new premium card, per a press release. However, its rewards package lacks some of the flexibility that its peer card, Sapphire Reserve, holds in travel booking. While Reserve cardholders are more handsomely rewarded when booking through Chase travel platforms, members still receive points for booking travel directly—Strata Elite members lack that privilege.
The news: Cash App launched “pools”—a feature to make group payments frictionless—to a limited number of US-based users with plans for a later wider rollout, per a press release. Our take: Cash App wants to cement itself among Gen Z users, households making up to $150,000 annually, and the populations traditionally overlooked by legacy financial institutions.
The news: PayPal will enable Pay with Crypto in an attempt to streamline cross-border payments for US merchants through its intricate network of digital wallet and cryptocurrency integrations in the coming weeks. In the meantime, US consumers will have to break age-old payment habits: Only 8% of crypto owners who use cryptocurrency to purchase goods and services do so daily; most only use it up to four times a year. Building these consumer payment preferences will take time, so PayPal should remain patient.
The news: Consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers plan to hop on the AI train and scale up their retail, social, and connected TV (CTV) ad spending, but challenges around audience and data fragmentation remain. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of CPG marketers expect to increase their retail media spending in the second half of 2025, per MediaOcean’s 2025 H2 Market Report, compared with 59% for social platforms and 55% for CTV. Our take: Using creative AI tools like one recently added to YouTube Shorts to resize and retarget content for different social platforms can maximize campaign reach. CPGs are huge advertisers, and when they pivot, they can influence the entire market. Broader marketers should follow their lead not only in spending but by immediately testing AI tools in high-impact internal areas like CTV creative or retail copy optimization.
Procter & Gamble is hedging its bets as it grapples with higher costs related to tariffs and “stressed” consumers. The CPG company expects organic growth between 0% and 4% this year—a notably wider range than it usually forecasts, underscoring the uncertainty it (along with the rest of the CPG and retail industries) faces. Uncertainty is the byword for this year. While consumer sentiment is recovering, financial pressures, particularly on low-income households, remain—and are likely to intensify as tariffs boost inflation and the “Big Beautiful Bill” curbs buying power. Regardless of which way sentiment is headed, there is no question that tariffs are reshaping consumers’ purchasing decisions.
The situation: Despite logging a sixth consecutive quarter of negative comps in FY Q3, CEO Brian Niccol—who famously steered Chipotle out of its food‑safety crisis—said Starbucks’ turnaround is running ahead of schedule. Our take: While it’s encouraging to see Starbucks take some small steps in a positive direction, the road is still steep. Consumers remain price‑sensitive, agile rivals in the US and China are taking multiple paths to steal share (both value‑led and trend‑driven), and commodity costs are rising. To break out of its sales slump, Starbucks must execute on four fronts: Make service faster and better. The chain needs to speed up service without sacrificing the high-touch hospitality that Niccol is seeking. Find ways to differentiate. It’s easy to roll out new offerings, but it's hard to develop unique beverages that consumers will clamor for rather than recoil at (who can forget Starbucks’ Oleato line of olive oil-infused drinks?). Lean on technology. Refreshing Starbucks’ Rewards program and revamping its app are proven tools to drive occasional customers back into its stores. Stabilize China. Price cuts may lift traffic, but Starbucks needs to balance volume gains against margin erosion and fend off lower‑priced competitors such as Luckin. Nailing these pillars—speed, product innovation, tech‑powered engagement, and a calibrated China play—will determine whether early green shoots turn into sustained growth.