Dollar store consumers, especially lower-income households, are facing financial difficulties, relying on credit cards to cover necessities. Retailers like Dollar General and Dollar Tree are focusing on pricing and promotions to keep customers shopping, but there has been a decline in discretionary spending from middle- and high-income consumers, who may be turning to mass retailers like Walmart.

Amazon Fresh doubles down on affordability as shoppers focus on cost: The retailer will roll out Prime-exclusive discounts on over 3,000 products and a new private label as it tries to narrow the gap with Walmart.

On today’s podcast episode of The Banking & Payments Show, we discuss financial media networks, identifying what they are and why financial institutions are creating them.

The number of streaming services with at least $1 billion in US connected TV (CTV) ad revenue is set to quadruple from 2020 to 2026, per our March 2024 forecast. The boom isn’t without its growing pains, though. Advertisers still need to face confusion with fragmentation, unreachable audiences who pay for ad-free streaming, and problems with campaign measurement. We delve into these three challenges and provide solutions.

Generative AI search engine Perplexity said it will launch ads in Q4, but the platform will need to win over advertisers and convince them their search ad spend will go further than it does on Google.

Digital commerce platforms will process $375.57 billion in customer payments in 2024.

Two in three advertisers don’t plan to invest in new retail media networks (RMNs) in the next couple of years, according to Association of National Advertisers (ANA) data. “The majority of dollars used to fund investments in retail media are being borrowed from existing budgets within advertisers’ organizations,” said our analyst Sarah Marzano.