Retail & Ecommerce

“In 2022, retail media hit the first of many milestones when it became the fastest US ad channel to eclipse $30 billion in spending—nearly twice as quickly as it took social media,” our analyst Max Willens said on a recent Meet the Analyst webinar. “That was just the start.”

Last week, retail marketplaces Thrive Market and Faire joined the growing number of retail media.

Western companies lose confidence in China as consumer spending softens: Weaker-than-expected August retail sales are just the latest data point to push retailers to reevaluate their investments.

In Q2 2024, worldwide clickthrough rates (CTRs) for search was 1.63%, more than double that of social (0.66%) and quadruple that of retail media (0.39%), according to a July 2024 report by Skai.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss whether Facebook actually has a young person problem, what will be the most popular kinds of interactive ads, if Amazon’s ‘Just Walk Out’ cashierless technology has found a new home, can a ‘Spotify for news’ like service work, where Americans are moving too in the country, and more. Tune into the discussion with analysts Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf and Max Willens, and vice president of Briefings Stephanie Taglianetti.

Major retailers like IKEA, Walmart, and ThredUp are launching peer-to-peer resale marketplaces, aiming to capture a slice of the booming secondhand market. This trend comes as US marketplace ecommerce sales are projected to surpass $500 billion next year, according to our forecast.

The digital wallet’s rollout has been slow, but we expect strong uptake in 2025 thanks to its innovative features and bank integrations

This should help boost volume for both the booking platform and for the card-linked installment offering, given BNPL’s popularity in the travel category and an overall spike in popularity for card-linked BNPL

Both Mastercard and Visa are spending big on fraud protection as threats pile up

It isn’t just Shein and Temu that exploit the de minimis loophole: The Biden administration’s crackdown on the trade provision could significantly reduce the number of parcels entering under the exemption.

Ahold Delhaize sees big retail media opportunities in its stores: There’s good reason for that outlook since we expect 87% of grocery sales to occur offline this year.

Nearly 1 in 4 grocery dollars will go to private labels by 2030: Store brands are gaining popularity as shoppers seek value and CPGs cut back on innovation.

Amazon, Flipkart violated India’s antitrust laws, regulators say: The two allegedly gave select sellers preferential treatment and used discounts to undercut smaller merchants.

Inclusive brands, exclusive growth: Beauty companies that champion inclusion unlock new customer segments and drive higher sales, a Circana and SeeMee Index study shows.

Gen Z (55%) and millennials (62%) have made more travel purchases on their smartphones, compared with their older Gen X (44%) and baby boomer (28%) counterparts, according to March 2024 data by Hopper.

“If you’re a marketer looking to reach Gen Z, you need to be everywhere,” our analyst Blake Droesch said. Although Gen Z is known to spend a significant amount of time on social media, tapped into newer buying behavior such as social commerce, they also rely on physical stores. Here are three ways Gen Z’s path to purchase stands out.

A look at the psychology behind payments: A Mastercard-sponsored study took a behavioral science approach to understanding the reasons—conscious and unconscious—that influence consumer payment choices and help payment providers guide their behaviors.

Conference panelists discussed changes in the maturing industry as it ripples across the payments space

Users can now add their US passports and more transit cards to their wallets, and Google is getting more companies to accept these passes