Disney looks to emulate Amazon with membership offering: The entertainment giant could also advance its flywheel by introducing in-app commerce for Disney+ and improving cross-selling opportunities.

Nearly $2 billion in US out-of-home (OOH) ad spend went to billboards in Q2, accounting for about three-fourths of OOH. That said, billboards’ share decreased by 9 percentage points with that money going to transit as commuters return to buses and trains.

Shopify warns merchants against using Amazon’s ‘Buy with Prime’ service: The move is a sign that Shopify is growing concerned about its ability to combat the retail giant.

Overall digital ad spending in the US is set to grow by 17.8% in 2022, a steep deceleration from 2021’s 38.3% boom but still ahead of 2020’s pandemic-skewed slowdown. Industry-level digital ad spending has mirrored these extreme swings in recent years—with individual highs and lows often spread far apart from the median. Starting this year, however, most industries will settle into more steady spending patterns closer to the national average.

Starbucks faces off against workers on TikTok, and the latter is winning: That’s a problem for any brand with a substantial group of Gen Z consumers.

This week, our Reimagining Retail podcast crew gave their predictions on what will drive the next phase of ecommerce growth, ranked from least “spicy” to four-alarm fire.

On today's episode, we discuss what brand new forecasts the forecasting team cooked up in Q2, including influencer marketing spend by platform and tier, luxury ecommerce, and US prescription drug sales. "In Other News," we talk about Apple Pay's meteoric rise and what DoorDash's Q2 performance says about the future of the food delivery space. Tune in to the discussion with our senior forecasting analyst Iwona Drapala and director of forecasting Peter Newman.

As restaurant delivery slows, Uber and DoorDash focus on groceries: The pivot is working as we expect both companies to gain a larger share of the grocery intermediary market.

Virtual Incision’s plans for a robotic space visit highlight the need to make digital surgery devices much smaller.

UK regulators worry Microsoft could game the system: Controlling a trove of gaming assets puts the onus on Microsoft to silence regulators’ fears that it could monopolize various gaming segments.

US-China conflict over chips intensifies: AMD and Nvidia stocks plunge on reports of new government sales restrictions of chips to China and Russia. US chipmakers could be forced to abandon potential sales.

Higher toy prices eat into demand: Price increases drove higher toy sales in the first half of 2022, but fewer households are buying.

Labor shortage or skills shortage? US robotics sales soar as a dearth of workers leaves businesses in a bind. But behind it lurks a worsening skills deficit, risking higher unemployment.