Historically, apparel and accessories and computer and consumer electronics were the most dominate categories in ecommerce sales. They will remain significant sales drivers, but in the future, ecommerce will be more evenly spread among categories.
Slowing but persistent inflation continues to strain US consumers’ buying power: Real wages fell in February as prices for groceries, recreation, and airfare continued to rise.
There’s lessons to be learned from Discord’s AI missteps: The messaging app is launching OpenAI-fueled AI tools that have users loudly concerned about privacy.
“We’re showing 20.5% growth for retail media ad spending this year, and 22.9% actually accelerating into next year,” said senior forecaster Ethan Cramer-Flood at our recent “Attention! Seizing the Retail Media Opportunity” summit. That stat assumes inflation will cool some in the second half of this year, which our forecasters currently predict it will.
The firm’s narrow escape from collapse shows startups versed in much-hyped banking tech aren’t guaranteed success.
It’s working with homegrown wallet Lynk so customers can receive remittances, which will aid its digital push.
Wider-than-expected losses in 2022 drive Allbirds to revamp its growth strategy: The footwear retailer plans to focus on its core products and clientele, and slow brick-and-mortar expansion in favor of wholesale.
Ocado partners with The Trade Desk to capitalize on retail media demand: The move lets marketers apply insights from the grocer’s first-party data to improve targeting and attribution.
More wealthy shoppers are signing up for Walmart+: The retailer has more than doubled its penetration among affluent households, but Amazon still has a resounding lead.
Wing has big ambitions for drone delivery: The Alphabet-owned company aims to handle millions of orders within the next 12 months as it expands how the technology is used.
Stitch Fix and Etsy feel the heat from SVB’s meltdown: While Etsy’s exposure is minimal, Stitch Fix’s loss of a $40 million credit line could hurt its turnaround strategy.
Yet another rapid grocery startup bites the dust: Food Rocket shut down less than a year after raising $25 million from Alimentation Couche-Tard.
The lipstick effect powers Ulta Beauty past $10 billion in revenues: Despite trade-downs elsewhere, consumers’ appetite for premium beauty brands continues to grow. (This article was written with the assistance of ChatGPT.)
It took a £10 million stake in Yoti, which markets customer-friendly compliance solutions for financial services and other industries.
The digital game storefront market shouldn’t be overlooked: Epic Games is taking shots at industry leader Valve’s loose rules in the standard-setting storefront space.
The labor market is extremely challenging for retailers and restaurants: Quit rates are on the rise, which is making it difficult for companies seeking to improve the customer experience.
This year, we forecast that Walmart’s digital ad revenue growth will outpace Google, Meta, and even Amazon. This success is driven by updates made to Walmart’s retail media platform as well as partnerships to help advertisers activate across channels like social and connected TV. “You know [how they say] crawl, walk, run? We’re getting to that walk/run phase now where our platform is maturing,” said Rich Lehrfeld, senior vice president and general manager at Walmart Connect.