Following “voluminous” feedback from banks, regulators will reconsider their controversial proposal.

Though on-site search and display remain retail media’s bread and butter, off-site advertising—placing ads in channels outside of a retail media network’s (RMN’s) own properties—will lead the next evolution due to its ability to expand advertisers’ reach and achieve upper-funnel goals like increasing brand awareness.

“The beauty of a clean room is that it's a privacy-centric way for CVS to share data from its 74 million Extra Care members and for us to share the data from our 498 million users, and end up with a repository of powerful, completely anonymized first-party data,” said Carrie Sweeney, VP of retail at Pinterest. “Then we can connect our users with targeted ads without sharing any of their personal data, just as CVS can on its website.”

The majority (83.7%) of US retail sales take place in physical stores, per our forecast. The retailers that can infuse digitally forward strategies into their in-store experiences are more likely to win over consumer dollars. Here are five charts on why the in-store experience is so key to retailers’ success and how they can use technology to create a more seamless, engaging shopping experience.

Uber, Lyft, and Instacart fine-tune their ad strategies: The platforms are leaning into personalization and experimenting with formats as they try to boost revenues without alienating users.

B2B is the largest segment of overall US payment volume, holding roughly five times that of consumer payments. It has been slower to digitize than the consumer sector, but finally passed the tipping point during the pandemic. Even now, almost a third of the market is up for grabs.

Retailers need to take note—not having a customer’s preferred payment method can increase cart abandonment

The rise of OTT streaming and short video on social media has propelled a rapid increase in video advertising for most industries. Retail lagged far behind the average in video ad spending, but it has started to close the gap over the past five years.

Consumers care about sustainability, but often aren’t willing to buy environmentally friendly products if they’re deemed lower quality, especially if it costs more. One solution for retailers and consumers is resale, an industry worth $108.64 billion in 2024, per our December 2023 forecast. Not all environmental initiatives have to be at the consumer level, though.

Customer stories reveal why credit unions and community banks are outpacing their larger counterparts in key growth areas.

Brands put a lot of thought into how to get consumers to discover and buy their products, but not as much into what happens after a purchase is made. However, data suggests that the post-purchase experience, which includes everything from shipping to customer feedback surveys, may have more of an impact than retailers think.

Following performance measurement is the most important factor in allocating budget to retail media, according to 56% of US consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers, per a December 2023 survey from Skai and Path to Purchase Institute.

Last year, Kroger found success embracing omnichannel shoppers and personalizing digital promotions, which helped it grow its identical sales (without fuel) 0.9% YoY. Looking ahead, the retailer is counting on its digitally engaged customers to fuel its retail media network, which Kroger expects to grow 20% next year.

Value is top of mind for grocery-shopping consumers: Aldi, Dollar General, Grocery Outlet, and Walmart will open more stores to attract cost-conscious shoppers.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss what the hell happened—and is happening—to online ads, whether the video streaming boom is officially over, the next big wearable category, what happens when the First Amendment collides with social media, what the world would look like if there were only 100 people, and more. Tune in to the discussion with our forecasting writer Ethan Cramer-Flood and analysts Ross Benes and Blake Droesch.

All eyes are on streaming. Last year, non-pay TV viewers surpassed traditional pay TV viewers in the US, per our forecast. Years of streaming platform proliferation are over, yielding to consolidation and fragmented ad measurement. Bundles between streaming platforms and partnerships with retail media platforms are forming, leaving media buyers with a headache over how to strategize.

Apple's 13 Oscar nominations for 'Killers' and 'Napoleon' underscore its $700 million film investment: The strategy enriches its Hollywood presence and streaming allure.

Google’s new core update focuses on decluttering spam from search, targeting sites that employ generative AI to mass produce low-quality content with minimal oversight. Marketers can still use ChatGPT to draft content, but using the raw output of these tools is a bad idea, according to Lily Ray, vice president of SEO strategy and research at Amsive.

GenAI for marketing is gaining momentum: IBM is the latest organization to tout its ability to transform marketing outcomes.