Retail & Ecommerce

Walmart ends 2023 on a high note: The retailer is firing on all cylinders, as its strong value proposition drives healthy growth across its grocery, ecommerce, and advertising businesses.

AI complicates the legal battlefield for Big Tech companies: Regulatory scrutiny intensifies over monopolistic practices, content moderation, and the complexities of emerging generative AI technologies.

Amazon’s 2023 highs and lows: The retailer’s ad business and supply chain optimization helped rejuvenate growth, but physical retail, groceries, and the FTC are proving to be more challenging to conquer.

Which retailers and brands will win (or lose) in 2024? With consumer confidence still under strain, retailers will have to once again prove their value—either in terms of price or convenience—in order to win shoppers over.

Media union activity picks up: Contract wins and membership gains show labor’s strength, but industry turbulence remains.

Gen Zers and millennials are more likely than older generations to do their holiday shopping in-person at the mall, whereas Gen Xers and baby boomers are more likely to shop online via retailer websites, per The Harris Poll.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss whether this is the beginning of Amazon's decline, if the Internet is becoming more ad-free, whether shopping pairs well with streaming, where brands will shift their ad dollars during the Super Bowl as they lean away from X (formerly Twitter), ChatGPT creator OpenAI's deal with publishing giant Axel Springer, the most visited tourist attractions in the world, and more. Tune in to the discussion with our analyst Blake Droesch and vice presidents of content Suzy Davidkhanian and Paul Verna.

Traveling for the holidays? Here are four episodes of our ‘Reimagining Retail’ podcast for your listening pleasure while you’re on the road.

Consumer spending diverged in 2023: Shoppers splurged on lower-priced indulgences such as health and beauty items, but pulled back on big-ticket items such as TVs and couches.

They centered on regulation, late fees, and winning over Gen Zers

Another multimillion-dollar campaign against swipe fee legislation didn’t materialize, and A2A payments need more incentives to take off

Earlier this month, Pinterest hosted its Pinterest Predicts pop-up event, a showcase in New York City combining trends, predictions, photo ops, and shoppable displays. The pop-up offered insights into what experiential social commerce can be, and how brands can offer retail experiences without needing to stock products.

In January, the Retail Daily newsletter editors made four retail predictions for 2023. Some we got right (like the proliferation of Amazon Prime Day-type events) while some we missed the mark on a bit (it was not the year of AR).

Walmart’s grocery business is booming: The retail giant has benefited from consumers’ growing focus on cost and convenience.

More than half of Gen Zs choose where to shop based on private label selection: And they’re not alone in preferring store brands—90% of consumers will likely stick with private labels even amid easing inflation and grocery prices.