Instacart's ad biz heats up: The company is beefing up its retail ad network with new investments and hires, which could help it become one of the biggest retail media networks behind Amazon and Walmart.
A direct-to-consumer (D2C) strategy wasn’t top-of-mind when soda brand Olipop launched in 2017. In fact, during its first year of business, the brand didn’t even have a website—primarily relying on retail brick-and-mortar partnerships to drive sales. But last year, everything changed.
On today's episode, we discuss data’s role in customer experience (CX), how the pandemic changed the way companies approach customers, and how to measure CX ROI. We then talk about the best loyalty programs in the US, shifting to contactless payments, and whether Gen Z will recover from the pandemic-induced recession. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Jeremy Goldman.
Target's ecommerce boom: Target posted strong growth in Q4 with the company emerging as the fastest-growing retailer by ecommerce sales in 2020.
Walmart's new partnerships: The company is adding three new partners to support the development of Walmart Media Group in a bid for the budgets of small and medium-sized advertisers.
Why retailers may want to double-check customers’ debit cards
The worldwide ecommerce boom of 2020, driven by social distancing measures made necessary during the pandemic, has helped Shopify become the most valuable company in Canada—and by a wide margin. It first achieved this milestone in May 2020, surpassing the Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s biggest bank. The ecommerce software company’s market cap reached a peak of more than $180 billion just ahead of reporting Q4 2020 earnings in mid-February this year.
Brand advertising can offer higher ROI for some verticals: According to new research from Facebook, ecommerce and retail verticals may find upper-funnel ads more cost-effective than direct-response advertising—so, some marketers may need to reevaluate their strategies.
Etsy more than doubles sales in 2020: Overall ecommerce sales skyrocketed during the pandemic, but that's not the whole story—much of Etsy's success comes from its focus on small businesses, which will help it keep growing strongly even after the pandemic.